Week 51 New York

For the block today Barbara Brackman suggested that it might be one to consider using in the corners of the quilt. So with that in mind I decided to make three versions.

Even if I do not repeat the use of this block in the corners it will be good to have some choices of colorways to help with layout of the blocks. The blue fabric I used for the stripe above is one that I have had all along but not used. Other fabrics that came from the same collection have appeared from time to time I think but not this one.

Here I went with fabrics with just a touch of red in them which has appeared in a few blocks this year.

Of course again it was a challenge for me today to create what is essentially an American flag block when the very necessary red is not a fabric choice I have to select from. And supposing I have some idle moments I might have a try at making the block that this is based on which uses a pieced star in the top left. BB decided that was a difficult one to turn into an 8" block (good thinking!) but with foundation piecing as an option I'd like to see if I could make it work. The fabrics I have with stars on for the top left position give quite a heavy feel to the block that I'm not sure I am happy with.

In the meantime, I think my favorite is the first block I show. That wavy line of stars looks good even if the blue it uses is a difficult one to work with. What's your favorite?

Week 50 Grapes of Wrath

The block this week is one of those that really is better set on point - so kindly twist your head a little could you?

There were several liberties I needed to take with this weeks block with the color being the most obvious. That said, I notice on the flickr site that some people have commented that concord grapes are blue so that is a little solace. I decided to add in a few extra seams to eliminate piecing on the bias. And this fabric has been sitting quietly waiting to be used and I thought the woven appearance of it was well suited for the basket portion.

Another blue block to put up on the wall while I wait for the last two blocks so I can make my final decision on the setting colors to use.

Week 49 Yankee Puzzle

For this week I felt like a brighter block with some pretty fabrics was needed. And it's another Union block so the blue pile was the place to find what I wanted.

There were a few perplexing minutes when I wondered if I was going to have to recut two of the four striped triangles as I could not seem to get the stripes to all run the right way but then suddenly all was clear and correct.

Only four more Saturdays to be presented with a new block. Will there be another applique block to do?

For the layout I have chosen to do I will need an additional three blocks as well as the setting blocks. The weekly blocks are now pinned up on the design wall so I can keep an eye on them while I work out what those additional blocks should be; it's likely I will make three more the same as the one that I choose for appeal so all four corners can have the same block. Or maybe not.

Week 48 West Virginia

Now, you must agree that this block does not look all that difficult. But once I read what was on the flickr site on Saturday I thought "uh oh". In the days following there has been mention of having to starch/press/pull the block into submission. On Monday I cut out two diamonds and went to pin the first seam and discovered my diamond was too small so I abandoned the effort.

This morning, I drafted the block myself (the old fashioned way with paper, pencil and ruler as I do not have EQ/blockbase) and made templates for the diamonds. This was necessary as I wanted to fussy cut and use that wavy stripe fabric. On Saturday I had found the central motif in a fabric in the project pile and I thought it would be a good choice as West Virginia changed sides so often during the war. And finally, the block is done.

A week or two ago I posted a couple of sample setting blocks. Here is an update to that. I know the photo itself is not a good one but it does show the idea of what the setting blocks might look like if I go with this idea. You can see three rough sample blocks: one (too small but for the purpose it'll do) with the inch wide tan colored X, one with a half inch wide blue X and then one with a three quarter inch wide blue X altho I have folded over a small piece of red and stuck it in there too. This was because I was reading an article about color in one of the latest quilt magazines and it suggested that if the majority of your quilt is in "cool" colors then the addition of a small amount of a "warm" color will make it sparkle and visa versa. So if I leave all this up on my design wall and watch it for a few days maybe I'll come up with the answer as to what I might choose to do.

I also wanted to show you a gadget that I like to use. Compared to certain quiltie friends I am not a big gadget person but I do find myself using this tool, the Perfect Piecer, whenever I have a block with diamonds in it and for certain other blocks as well. It is designed by Jinny Beyer who is famous for her hand piecing; all the pin holes you see allow you to make a mark on a shape to aid in correctly hand piecing it to the adjoining shape. Well, I don't hand piece, but I do find that having that mark on the fabric helps me to line up odd shapes and pin them correctly before carefully sewing them on my sewing machine. It certainly helped me with this block and all those Y seams. Come to think of it I did not have to redo any of those seams - they all came out fine the first time.

And working out well the first time is always something to celebrate!

Week 47 Dixie Tea

It looks as though I am feeling bland this weekend as this is the week 47 block I made. But following on from last Saturday with the tree trunk I cut my leaf stem from the same interesting fabric. It's always good to have some more quiet blocks in a sampler collection and I think this one will come under that heading. And I enjoyed being able to hum along to the Dixie tune while cutting my fabrics.

I have been giving increased thought to the setting of the blocks. After seeing the selection of settings that Barbara Brackman highlighted on her blog a couple of weeks back I am leaning towards using setting blocks rather than sashing. Of course setting blocks require sewing an additional 50 + blocks...h'mm.

Thursday was a very unsatisfactory day so when I got home I thought I would just shut myself away and work on a quilt project. The moral from that day is not to try anything complicated when your mind is fretting elsewhere.


Above is one option. The block would alternate with the weekly blocks so some of the blocks would be framed by the pale grey and some would be framed by the medium grey. This option would give an "on point" look to the blocks without actually setting them on point. I'm wondering if the "x" is too heavy i.e. currently the x is 1" wide and maybe it could do with dropping down a little in size? The tan color was introduced as some of the blue and grey fabrics I have used do have some tan in them and this would provide some variety in color. I could also choose to make the "x" in the dark grey which you'll see in the next option.



This chain style block is a second option. The dark grey could be replaced by the tan fabric. This block will give the same effect as the one above i.e. an "on point" appearance. However, there is more cutting and sewing required to make this block than the first option.

I'll also point out what happens when you sew while stressed. You can see many of the seams in option 2 look wonky. In option 1 the evidence might not seem so easy to see but had I shown these two blocks side by side you would see straight away that the option 1 block came in too small at the odd size of 7 1/4" finished instead of the required 8"; what did happen between making the calculations and cutting the fabric? It is just as well these two are sample blocks.

Linda at the quilt shop and I spent quite a long time happily pulling bolts of fabric on and off the shelves trying to come up with options to try for these setting blocks when I was in there early in the week to pick up my door prize. When we laid down a good number of the blocks we could see that blue blocks well outnumber grey blocks hence the choice to use grey and maybe tan in the setting blocks so the blue is not so overwhelming. Thank you Linda for helping me as well as others who passed by and were equally helpful by pointing out when we were trying too hard to make something work.

Please feel free to make your comments about the options I am considering.

Week 46 Apple Tree

There was another challenge for me with this weeks block because of the colors. The squares were supposed to be green and red to represent an apple tree. Well, that was not going to happen with a blue and grey color scheme now was it!

So I decided to go with a totally scrappy tree and to at last use some pieces of fabric that I have had for ages but not yet used. Yes, I had a piece of fabric with the Jefferson Davis image on it; score 1 for me. And to balance it I had this fabric with the Union flag on it; score 2 for me this week. Then for the tree trunk I used a piece that Cheryl had given me a while back - it was intended for the grey pile but with those brownish tones in it I had not yet used it. But by putting Jefferson Davis in there, with the sepia look to it, that fabric, looking so out of place in the grey pile, worked just fine in this block.

This block was not going to be an elegant looking one at this scale but at least it was an easy one to sew while I ponder the setting dilemma.

Today was day four of our local quilt shop hop. I was in the Jinny Beyer shop and on the wall upstairs was her Moon Glow top. It is pieced with alternating chain style blocks and each star block is different. This is similar to the sampler look we will have going with putting these civil war blocks together and echoes an idea one of the participants has as shown on Barbara Brackman's recent posting about setting ideas.

And for a happy finish to the day I got a phonecall after the shop closed to say my name had been drawn as winning a door prize. So that's my big excitement for today.

Week 45 Port and Starboard

This weeks block did not enthuse me and maybe that is why it has taken until today to get the posting up.

I could not really understand why this block was shown in red, white and blue since the colors for port and starboard lights on a watercraft are red and green. And I was not able to use either color scheme anyway.

We are getting close to the end of this project and I thought perhaps I had better use some more of this fabric with Union written on it as it will have very limited use in other projects. As always though with this fabric it was a struggle to find something that goes with that particular shade of blue.

So here it is, a block to represent a major Union victory at sea in the Civil War.