Do I really need to start another quilt project with as many in progress projects as I currently have. Of course the answer is no! But when our guild member in charge of finding speakers for our meetings asked a few years ago if I had any suggestions I replied right away with "Oh, I'd love to have Jo Morton come". Well, it took a while but Jo is finally in town. She will speak at our meeting tomorrow evening. But before then there was a class on Saturday. Of course I had to go to the class!
Rhubarb Crisp is the quilt that Jo was presenting for the class. It is out of her 2008 book "Remembrances" which I have had for a while - I have previously made her quilt "Peppermint Twist" from this book. A big event in the quilt world last year was the Red and White quilt show in New York. Sadly, I was not able to go. But since then I have been thinking about making a red and white quilt and with quite a pile of red fabrics in my fabric collection I decided the time was right to start working on that idea.
Before the class, since I had the book, I decided to try out the block and sash to see how I wanted to arrange my colors. Having made a Jo quilt before I knew that the blocks would not be big and that her instructions are very thorough and include how to press and her "clipping trick" which helps a lot to have your block lay flat and square. I've photographed my sample to give you a feel for the size - my cutting ruler is a 6 1/2" square.
Will I make a red and white combination? Or a white and red one? Will the sashing have the same background as the star block or will it be the reverse? For my sample I sewed four flying geese in the same two fabrics for the sash piece but for the quilt I want to make the sashings have four different fabric combinations in each unit. H'mm, I don't believe it will be a good idea to really count how many combinations I need because I see the instructions say a total of 84 sashing units are needed.
There is a lot of cutting and trimming to make this little quilt. Here is my cutting mat with enough fabric cut to make twelve star blocks. But I need a total of 36 blocks. And I want them all to be different. I better go count the fabrics in that red pile again.
It is now Monday. The class was Saturday. I chose a seat in the back corner of the room and worked steadily. As always in a group there are the turtles and there are the hares. Trust me, I fall into the turtle category. It seems there has been a goodly amount of cutting sewing and trimming going on. And this is all I have to show so far. Oh well, it was not intended as a "quilt in a day" project after all. Because I am undecided yet on how to arrange the blocks and sashings I will be making a whole lot more before I start seaming blocks with sash units. For instance, will I have all the geese flying only down and to the left as the pattern shows? Or shall I alternate them as shown above?
And as well as trying this and trying that with my fabrics I have also to contend with trying this and trying that to get this posting up. Yes, blogger has changed the way a post is created and this old dog needs to learn some new tricks. So, I'm sorry my photos are not quite all lined up as I want them to be but I'd really rather go sew and cut some more in my sewing room than spend more frustrating minutes trying to get this new thing figured out.
If you like precision piecing and admire Jo Morton's quilts I do recommend you grab the opportunity to take a class with her if possible. Jo mostly works on making small quilts using reproduction fabrics and in patterns that are inspired by antique quilts. I too like to be inspired by antique quilts and use traditional patterns but I usually choose to make my projects with more modern fabric styles and colors.
I'd love to hear what you think of my newest project. Thank you Jo, it was a great class.
3 comments:
Your post looks great - except for centering a couple of thumbnails, since that's the usual style. But more importantly, the little quilt to be looks even better! Did Jo have suggestions about quilting these little gems? Did you get to examine hers up close?
By the way, the words they are asking me to type in to prove I'm human are complete nonsense. Hope I get it right!
I have always been in love with red, so that's a "no-brainer" for me. I also love the old, traditional patterns, so this quilt is going to be a keeper, I know! It will be well worth the tedium of cutting and trimming when you are finished.
Thank you to Cheryl and Sherrye for your kind words. And to Geoff who just helped me out so I could have all the photos centered. Well, duh, is all this old dog will say.
Now the trick will be to temper my progress on this exciting new red and white project and balance it with the need/desire to e.g. make the setting squares for the BB civil war quilt, finish Clean Green NZ (aka Pine Burr) to say nothing of my other ongoing series quilts (June Bride and Holiday Greetings Inc).
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