TOM 10 Britain's Star for Charlotte Henson

For the October block I had a dilemma - how to include the bird fabric. In the end I have not used it for this month's block and I am pondering how to make that seem like a good idea.

 I was still going with my other, self imposed "rules" and using the splash of the lime green and the solid grey fabric and,additionally, trying to use different fabrics in each block. That stripe is rather bold so I had been trying to wait for a block to incorporate it in a way that was not too strong. I'm hoping it is balanced by the strong solid grey.

If you are also reading along on the Barbara Brackman page for this project, http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/ you will know that the story this week is about Charlotte Henson and her husband, Josiah Henson who escaped slavery and found refuge in Canada. Josiah became an author and visited Britain where he caught the interest of Queen Victoria which gave me the inspiration for my "fun photo" for this month.

Although it was widely thought that Josiah was the real-life model for the main character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" you can see it was not so by reading the history that Ms Brackman has provided for us.

With only two blocks to go I have started work on the setting blocks for my quilt. Over the weekend I was at a retreat with my quilting guild and I put up my sample setting block only to hear "no, that fabric is too dark". Darn it, they agreed with me although they had not been on the four store odyssey with me trying to find a good fabric.

At the beginning of the project I had bought just one yard of that solid grey not knowing how I was going to use it. Realizing I should have bought more I went back to the store a few short weeks later only to find they no longer had it in stock. I prefer to buy my fabrics in person in a quilt shop so I kept hoping I would find either the right solid or a tone on tone that would work well with it. The fabric I had purchased, hoping it could look good, was not the one after all.  Last night I had to admit defeat and resort to online shopping. While I wait I can get busy cutting the other fabrics planned for the setting blocks.

Also to do is wonder how I can get around the dilemma I set up for myself by not using the bird fabric in this block. Some kind member from the flickr site suggested that if I don't include the bird fabric in the next two blocks it will make this one blend in and not look like a rule breaker.

Something to think about.