Gettysburg Remembrance Quilt in Progress

The completion of my Wuthering Heights Double Sawtooth Star quilt saw me with some fabrics from the WH line still in my stash, others used down to the tiniest scraps or completely gone.
My cupboard contained some untouched Chocolat yardage by the same designers [3 Sisters for Moda] in patterns and colorways which blend. [Designers tend to produce a number of related 'collections' ] A determined web-search didn't turn up more of the WH or Chocolat line in stock, but Double Chocolat is still to be found.

Rather than ordering or buying frugally with fabric I really admire, my tendancy  well-established habit is to purchase several yards--thus the stash never quite diminishes!
Yesterday was a dark and rainy day.
We hurried to set out the 25 strawberry plants which had arrived at 7 on the previous evening
via the Fed Ex truck.
Rain began as we tucked the plants into the newly turned earth.
By the time we finished and I had brought in some wood for my downstairs fire, the back of my sweatshirt was uncomfortably sodden.
I haven't made a fire downstairs in several weeks as there has been no time to sew.
I cleaned out ashes, trudging back out in the wet to dump them, laid in wads of crumpled paper and began the ritual of arranging the twigs I use for kindling.
When I tidied my herb garden during a sunny afternoon earlier in the month, I saved  clippings of thyme, sage and lavender and put them in a basket by the wood stove.
I added a handful of these to my carefully laid fire and watched as the tiny flame grew and licked at the larger sticks of aromatic cedar, saved from J.'s creation of cedar boards last autumn.
By the time we had eaten our mid-morning meal and  I had tidied the kitchen, my downstairs sewing room was cozy.
I brought out my fabric, spread it on the work table and stood gloating.
It became rather apparent that there is more than one quilt top in that array of fabric!

The quilt I'm creating is featured in the current [May/June 2013] issue of McCalls, sub-titled The Best of American Quilting.
The designer named the quilt 'Conceived in Liberty' a phrase from
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
[The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg  in 1863 will be noted July 1-3.]

The quilt layout requires 20 Ohio Star blocks and 44 Log Cabin blocks which finish at 9 inches.
Since my time of working at Wyoming Quilts has prepared me for turning out Log Cabin patchwork at a fairly speedy clip, I decided to make the more time-consuming Ohio Star blocks first.

This is again a quilt where the star components have to be planned and cut for each different star.
I made 8 blocks during the afternoon and evening while listening to two audio books [Rosamunde Pilcher--perfect for a cold and rainy day.]
There were a few breaks along the way--to admire grandson D.'s latest vehicle swap, to check Face Book [sigh] to make tea, warm leftovers for a scrappy sort of meal.
I'm insprired to get on with this project, but other tasks call today.
 Blue skies, green grass, trees exploding into leaf, bright sunshine lure me outside, but
it is too wet to work in the gardens and the air at 60F is a bit nippy.
I've pegged out a wash, moved plants around on the front porch.
I have devoted an hour to the intricasies of camera software, making some progress, but still not able to manage photos in the usual ways.
I've created a 'Library' where the photos from the Fuji now land, but can only access them through Picassa. [They are there in "My Pictures" --somewhere--lurking!]
Trying to upload to Face Book from the 'library' results in an error code.
Work-arounds will have to do until I have more time to devote to experimentation.
Meanwhile, I have a bag of potting soil and a variety of containers waiting on the porch, a pile of
seed packets on the table.
Quilting later--maybe!