"Many Blessings" Quilt Pattern From Darlene Zimmerman a/k/a FeedSack Lady

Darlene Zimmerman has created a series of new quilt patterns called "Amalie's Story: Quilts & Letters From The Civil War complete with a look into Amalie's life. Each pattern comes with multiple quilt sizes as well as Amalie's life story and letters from the time of her life when she made the quilt". I have always had a very soft spot in my heart for traditional quilts & I like sleeping under them the best! When I saw this pattern advertised in a magazine I fell in love with it and contacted Darlene immediately. She had not even had the patterns listed on her web-site yet. I have a very large stash of reproduction prints that I have saved and I culled many of the the pinks & browns to use for this quilt. My friend Janet picked up off white on off white background fabric for me in her jaunt to the mainland this week. I was going to just use lights from my stash but decided that a unified background was important to this design.

It must be the cooler nights that are already settling in (yes, I do sleep well in this weather)! that have made me yearn to make bed quilts right now. A friend and I are also planning to make a log cabin over this coming winter - that's always been a favorite pattern of mine because it is so amazingly versatile. My other favorite is nine patch quilts & all of their many great variations. I am also still plotting out my next art quilt and doing experiments to get the right technique/techniques that I want to use - makes my pens and inks real handy for drawing it out too!

I am still in shock that September is so close at hand. How did the full heat of summer go by so fast? This time warping speed causes me some tears and frustrations at times - so much that I want to do and I feel like time is closing in. Fibro holds me back at times that I want to be speeding forward. I want more time dang it! Don't you think that retirement should start at 30??? I sure as heck do - though when I was 30 I am sure that retirement was far from mind as I climbed that foolish career ladder! Odd that when I achieved what I wanted I realized that it felt hollow - art and color were where all of my time should have been spent. Then again, being a starving artist held/holds very little appeal! So - I better get to work now cutting up some of my lovely reproduction fabrics. Ahhhhh -- the hum of my machine is soothing!