Sharing fabric cuttings with my worldwide friends

Monday, March 4, 2013

Block 27 Grandmother's Dream - The Houghton's

H'mm, be careful what you wish for.  Many people in the flickr community for the Grandmothers choice BOW project had been commenting that the last several weeks we'd had an easy block and that a hard one must be coming soon. If 16 "y" seams counts as hard (yep, I think it does), then this was the block we had all been anxiously expecting.





And to add to the challenge for this block it was suggested that this was a good candidate for fussy cutting. I had been busy most of the weekend with a social event but spent 30 minutes on the floor of the sewing room around midnight on Saturday trying to find a fabric that could be fussy cut for this block. I thought I found one that could be used as the outer frame so I chose a simple stripe for the inner big cross and set the fabrics on the cutting table and gave up for the night.

By Sunday evening I could spend more time on the block. Once I had printed out the templates I discovered that what I hoped to use for the outer border was not going to be easy to use because the print was not exactly regular. So I chose another motif from the same fabric and started cutting. And discovered that in my as yet not used fat quarter there were only two of the motifs that I needed four of. Oh no. I decided to make a start and see if the motif would really work - if it did I could dash out at 10am on Monday and get more fabric as it came from my nearest quilt shop. It was looking good so I proceeded with that plan.

Now, several interruptions later, I have at last finished it. A good final pressing and it is ready for the camera. But wait, maybe I should measure it. What's this?! 8 1/4" on one side and 8 3/8" in the other direction. Too bad. So sad.

I've spent enough time on this one. Maybe at a later time I'll make another block and try one of the methods that eliminate the "y" seam and I'll choose fabrics that look good together without too much tedious seam matching of fussy cuts.

Sorry, no second fun photo of the block today. I am too deflated to compose one.


2 comments:

Cheryl K. said...

Well worth the trouble of the trip to the LQS for more of that fabric. You'll find a use for it again in these blocks I'll wager!! Mine was also a bit shy of the 8.5 inches, about like yours, but it's going to be fine set into the quilt!

Pip said...

Even if it is not quite square it is still a beautiful block, love your fussy cutting.