Once, while abroad, Mark Twain was amused to read of his death in the papers.  His response was famously dry and oft repeated.  “The reports of my death,” he cabled back to the US, “are premature.”

I get how he was feeling, though.  Like Mr. Twain said, reports of my blogging death are premature.  But I know I’ve been MIA for a while – I’ve had the emails to prove it. And for regular readers, I’m afraid the situation isn’t going to get much better for a while yet.  That’s because two weeks ago, I embarked on a long planned for PhD in English Literature.

I am, once again, a full time student.  Other than the fact that I feel old when I walk across campus (that’s old enough to remember what it felt like to be 18 and be vaguely wistful while being simultaneously old enough to know I like my life and the path I’ve taken to get where I am now without regrets), I’m loving my classes and the decision to go back was definitely the right one.

Unfortunately, the workload is intense and leaves little time for crafts and sewing.  I eked out a little time at the end of the summer working on some smocking, but it’s been sent away and I forgot to get any pics.  I’ve anemically pressed ahead with Shiny Brite and have somewhere in the range of 27  6 1/2″ blocks done (only90 some odd to go!).

I dropped off Power of 4 and a Christmas surprise quilt that you haven’t seen (because the recipient is a reader of the blog :)) at Alison’s but because she hurt her wrist over the summer, neither Spring Bouquet or my Carrie Nelson log cabin quilt are ready for binding yet.

In fact, the only thing I’ve been able to do consistently it seems is buy fabric.  Funny how easy that is!  But I fell in love with Kate and Birdie Paper’s Winter’s Lane and decided to fill my already bulging stash with a few more (a lot more) yardage.

On the plus side, I didn’t buy the whole line; I decided instead to skip the poinsettas and keep the focus on the birds and the berries.  For my pattern I chose Oh, My Tangled Stars, from Border Creek Station.  She’s a Canadian quilt designer;  the blues and reds were perfect for the Winter’s Lane prints.

Now, the big question is will I actually get time to sew it up?

Err, sure I will.  Once I’ve finished my readings, my seminars, a couple of essays, my research and some teensy-weensy grant applications, spent some time with the family, deked the producers of ‘How Clean Is Your House?”, who keep begging for an interview, and squeezed in a few paltry hours of sleep, it’s number 74 on my to-do list.  Right after the 1930s quilt that I need to cut out, and Shiny Brite, which I need to finish and a small Kim Diehl lap quilt, and my smocking correspondence course, which I signed up for in June a fit of optimistic madness.

I promise I will do my best to post when I can.  But I am determined to knock this degree out of the park, if it is humanly possible.  And that means my focus until April is necessarily on my books, and not *sob* my sewing machine.

So if I can’t sew, I’d love to know what you’re making.  I will live vicariously through you folks.  All I can say is thank god for Pinterest.  It keeps the withdrawal symptoms to a manageable level of shakes!