Progress on an earlier project

For this weekend I decided to set aside the red and white project and postpone the piping and binding of The Wedding China and go back to last year's Civil War block of the week.

In 2011 I was following along every week and making the block posted each Saturday morning by Barbara Brackman on her blog. Once the blocks were done they had to be set together. My original intention had been to make them into a quilt for my history loving son's bed. However when another quilt showed up for that bed I hit a pause on the progress.

But I pulled it out again and started sewing. Earlier posts had showed some ideas I was considering and I had made a decision on which one I was going to choose. Now it is "just" a matter of cutting and sewing those 60 setting blocks that are required.

My design wall is not big enough for the full width of the top but I wanted to be able to see how they will look. Here they are just poked up in random order. The top as planned will be 11 blocks wide and not the 7 that show here.

Sometimes when I look all I see is the big dark grey star. But other times I see how all the blocks get to stand alone. This is very much an un-posed work in progress photo. I have postit notes attached here and there to remind me of something about that block.

Maybe I made more progress than I thought. I have 18 blocks finished (well, they need trimming up a little) and another 14 just needing the last center insert strip stitching on.

But the weather was gorgeous and I had lots of work that needed doing in the garden as well as a great antiques/collectibles fair to go to. If it rains tomorrow I might get some more of these blocks done. Or not.

Slow Progress

I've never been a fast project finisher; taking the time to enjoy the process and rework the design as I go is more my style. This red and white project is currently top of my pile and I am making progress on it albeit slow.

Above was my total progress on April 28. As you can see I have been playing with what direction to have the flying geese sashing strips face. And I also have tried swapping out some of the red-on-white cornerstones and replacing them with red. It makes quite a difference. I would not necessarily have the cornerstone fabrics change in each round; if I leave both options up for a while and look at them I'll see which I prefer. Then again, I might decide to alternate them depending on whether the geese are arriving or leaving.

 

Now I have finished 34 of the required 36 star blocks (yes, I am putting off the cutting and sewing of the remaining 73 or so flying geese sashing units - each one has four geese but I try not to do the math as it might prove daunting). In my mind I am trying to have each block use a different fabric combination so that in true scrappy style I am not repeating fabrics. But I am struggling to come up with suitable star fabrics for the outer row of stars. Those two plaid stars I have in the corners may be too dark - I have another couple of small plaid fabrics I could use for the other two corners if I decide they are not too dark. Or my raid on the collections of friends may have to be the way to go. All I need is a 2 1/2" square and a 4" square of red on cream/white (all offers will be gratefully auditioned).

The lighting is not the best for my photos. If it was you might see that I currently have it so that the four center stars are white on white, the next round is cream on cream stars and the final outer round is red-on-white/cream stars.

So that's where I'm at this morning. On today's "to do" list is to take my sewing machine in for service (which will slow down sewing progress for a few days) so I will have no excuse not to be cutting fabrics for the sashing units over the upcoming days.

Your opinions and comments are welcomed.