Plans for May

It isn't long now til my month off work - I'm trying not to count down too much in case I go nuts, but quietly, I only have 4 shifts to work.

Now that I think about it, a lot of my projects are at Flimsy stage, except for the hexagon quilt (which isn't far off now), and the 4 patch, of which all the 4 patches are done - I just don't have the fabric for the alternate squares yet.

So I plan to start on the Civil War Diary Quilt. I have the book, and have just ordered the CD from the author, which goes into EQ5 and enables you to print out the blocks. I think I will try to do them by the freezer paper template method that Tazzie is using for her Dear Jane (see Dec 2 & 3). I suppose I could put the freezer paper through the printer somehow? Ironed onto a sheet of A4 perhaps? In the meantime there are a few blocks that are easy to do with rotary cutting, so I can get started.

Of course the thought of starting this quilt has made me think about fabric choice. I thought I could use Civil War Era fabrics, and some from the years before, but now that I go through my stash of Reproduction fabric, it is harder than I thought to decide which to use. I have done some internet research on time periods for various ranges of fabric - some of the information is contradictory, and some of the ranges are hard to put into time periods. I have looked in my Barbara Brackman books which has been a little bit of a help, but I am a bit unsure what to do. I wonder if I should approach it from a different perspective and try and rule out anything post 1860s, and before say the 1840s.

OTOH, maybe I shouldn't be so picky, and just try to avoid the really obvious early prints like chintz, and the really late ones. But then I read that some prints like the rainbow prints make a comeback in the late 1800s. Any thoughts anyone?

I am also cursing myself because around the time I was making my last fabric purchase I saw the Civil War Anthem range at a very discounted price "somewhere", and do you think I can find it now? The perils of having about 60 online fabric stores in my Favourites! I need more fabric like a hole in the head, but I do love those purples and creams and blues with the red accent...

The socks continue - I have turned the heel on sock 2, and am just at the stage of picking up the stitches. I keep making mistakes with this sock, whereas the first one was perfect! But I sort of figure that it will be a much different sock to my first one, as I am doing a much tighter and more even job on this one. I will no doubt be wearing them around the house, so I am not worrying about pulling any of the knitting out. I am just fixing up the mistakes as best I can and keep on knitting. I'm not sure that I will be making too many more socks - I am pleased to know that I can do it, and have mastered the double point needles, but I think I would like to try something different for my next knitting project.

I thought I would put up a photo of my poor String quilt Flimsy that I made a few years ago (yikes!) considering the interest in string quilts lately. I made it after I bought Gwen Marstons Liberated String Quilts book. It is pieced from stash and 2 rolls of long plain offcuts that I bought el cheapo. They were the sides cut off the plain backings by a longarm quilter. I pieced the back last year, and really need to get it quilted. This photo was taken at my old house, and I have nearly lived here for 2 years!