Announcing some new blogs

I want to announce three new blogs. Two I contribute to and one is from the always wonderful Barbara Brackman.

Barbara has decided to blog once a month about the War of 1812, since next year will be the 200 year anniversary of the event and many quilters are asking her advice while making commemorative quilts of the era. Barbara has named her new blog Quilt 1812: War and Piecing. Since one of my favorite books is War and Peace (about Napoleon's war with Russia from 1805-1815)I love the name of this blog. You can find it in my blog roll. She promised her first post today.

The other two blogs are part of a research project on quilts and health. For those of you who don't subscribe to the Quilt History List, her is the post researcher (and my boss) Marsha MacDowell wrote about it:
 

A multi-disciplinary cluster of individuals representing the Great Lakes Quilt Center (Michigan State University Museum), the MSU College of Human Medicine, and other university partners have begun to examine the intersection of quilts and quiltmaking and health. Although we have done literature searches, we have uncovered precious few academic or general articles related to quilts and health. We would greatly appreciate input from list members about any published -- or unpublished - research related to this topic. We are aware of the recent article by Jacqueline Atkinson in The Quilter (issue 127, summer 2011) and a few that relate to the NAMES Project quilt.  Given the thousands and thousands of quilts that have been made, historically and currently, that are tied to individual well-being, health, patient advocacy, fundraising, education, and memorializing or honoring loved ones, we thought there would be a stronger body of scientific literature from humanistic, social science, educational, and medical perspectives BUT we are not finding much. We welcome any assistance in identifying related research.

I'd like to invite everyone to subscribe to the blogs. The above description is a bit academic, but I know there are 10,000s of quilters across the world who make quilts to donate to children's hospitals, raffle or commemorate a loved one. We'd love to hear your stories and welcome your participation. 

The blogs are Quilts and Health and Native Healing Quilts. You can also find the blogs in my blog roll.

And now for a picture of a quilt, just to keep the post pretty!

This is an antique from my personal collection. I purchased
it on eBay. What attracted me was the huge baskets that even
though they were very large, there was no room for the fruit!
The fruit was embroidered outside the handles.

Till next time......Happy Quilting!