Boxcar Buz

While I just managed to get my February blog in under the wire, March has just zipped by with no blog, and here it is, April already. Not that I wasn't busy quilting in March. In fact I was so busy that I didn't have time, (or perhaps, take the time) to update my blog. Two projects occupied my time and space. One is not completed yet, but I'm making progress. The other is finished and you can see it above. Like all quilts it has its own story.

Last fall, a friend showed me the pattern for "Boxcar Buz" as it is called and asked if I could make the wall-hanging for her. Knowing we were going away for several months, I agreed to do it in the new year, if she wasn't in a hurry for it. She smiled at that and said a few more months wouldn't matter as she'd had the pattern for years. Her husband, Gerry, had been a model train enthusiast and one day had come home with the pattern and handing it to his wife said, hopefully, "You can make this, can't you?" Her response was along the lines of "You must be joking." She was not a quilter and realized that this project was not for her. So the pattern got packed away and almost forgotten, until she came upon it years later after her husband had passed away. Gerry had been a good friend of ours, so I was happy to take on the challenge. As I worked, many memories of the fine man he was and the good times we had shared came to mind. When I struggled with a difficult part, or accepted that my work wasn't going to be perfect, I thought if Gerry could see it, his keen eye would see its deficiencies, but, gentleman that he was, he probably wouldn't say anything about it.

Reading the information that came with the pattern from Crystal Clear Designs, I learned that the pattern was created in memory of another railroad buff by his daughter.

With its many small pieces, it was a challenge, but I'm glad to have done it and also glad that it's done.