Saturday, September 09, 2006

Underground Railroad BOM #1

Well, today was the day! I finally got to go to my first BOM presentation for the Underground Railroad (a treat for losing 30 pounds). It was great!

It was only an hour long so we had to spend some time going over all the stuff we were given... we got our book, "Underground Railroad Sampler" by Eleanor Burns. We were given our wonderful reproduction fabric. Instead of reds, we are using pinks, which pleased me a lot as my living room walls are mauve and red would really clash!

And we were given 4 sheets of pre-printed labels to put on each and every piece of fabric we cut before storing them in separate baggies per block. Our homework is to cut ALL of the fabric for the entire quilt (thus the immediate need for the labels and baggies) and to make the Log Cabin block. Ours is to be made with a black center to indicate a "safe" house.

I did learn several interesting facts, some of which I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing publicly or using a voice above a whisper , as they deal with "ladies of the night" and also issues of a hygienic nature. LOL! However, one fact I found interesting is that out of then entire US population, 3% had slaves. I always thought the number was a lot higher than that... though any percentage at all is horrible. And I was always under the impression that the main reason for the war was slavery, when actually it was more about state's rights and that slavery was already on the way to being gone. I do love the thought that women used this wonderful means of quilting to help aid those on the run.

I worked more on the Stairstepper last night and the quilting is half way done. My back is really hurting me today so I'm not sure if I'll get to work more on it tonight or not.

My step-mom and I decided to go to Paducah again next April. Now, we just have to find a place to stay...

2 comments:

ForestJane said...

Glad you enjoyed the presentation! And just think how nice it will be to have all that fabric pre-cut and organized for the blocks... I wish I could be that organized when starting a sampler. :)

quiltpixie said...

sounds like you're really enjoying the BOM. Hope you're still finding the motivation to stay on your wight loss plan having earned such a great reward :-)