TOM 3 New Garden Star for Catherine White Coffin

Here we are with the March block for the Threads of Memory Project.

 I have taken the photo full on although you might recall I intend to set my blocks on point so that is why the bird looks a little unsure of itself here - I cut the fabric so the bird will look correct when the block is turned on point.

I'm not sure if it is the power of suggestion or not but two of my friends who are doing this spoke of having difficulty selecting their fabrics. I auditioned quite a few before my technical advisor and I could find a combination we agreed on.

Pleasant but nothing exciting about that quite plain spiky point.

 Too many stripes perhaps?

My technical adviser just did not like that grey and white stripe - it looks like pyjamas he said!

So I had another dig through the project bin and found this very satisfying fabric which gives me a feathered feeling to compliment the bird in the center.

I was at first held up by needing to redraft the block pattern. I was out at a quilt show yesterday and when I came home I noticed many people (on the discussion page for Threads of Memory) had been having difficulty with the pattern as provided. My decision was made to hand draft it and draw it up for paper foundation piecing - this did add to my completion time but I was rewarded with a very accurately sized block that I only had to stitch one time with no need for the seam ripper to make an appearance.

 The title for the block this month is New Garden Star and it is named after the town of New Garden, North Carolina that Catherine White Coffin and her husband Levi along with their baby son Jesse left behind to relocate to Newport, Indiana. There they established a Quaker Meeting House that they named New Garden and from which they assisted many runaway slaves on their way to a new and free life.

I will be in need of a new garden very soon as the moles have taken over mine by digging their own version of an underground railway. Grand Central Station is to the right of the tree with the Green Man. To add to the woes in my garden we have had unrelenting sleet most all day long despite having passed into Spring ten days ago.

This is a more pleasant New Garden scene with 33% of my indoor garden (I have very few potplants because this house is not really very suitable for them. However, this African Violet is growing very enthusiastically).

The project so far has given us intriguing new stars and I look forward to seeing all twelve together.