Sewing

Yes, I've been sewing.  That is no surprise.  However, "Sewing" is the name of the last block in row 3 of Civil War Diary.

3-11:  Sewing

I took a second picture so you could see how small the half square triangles are.  They measure between 5/8" and 3/4", but bigger than 11/16".  Just a thread or two under 3/4".  No way to sew those accurately except for paper piecing.  (I suppose one could use templates, but just trying to hold onto pieces that small would be a big challenge.)

I'm happy to report that I did NOT have to stand on my ironing table to put this row on the design wall.  Kneel, yes, but not stand. I could keep my head straight up without bumping into the ceiling.  I think I'll be able to pin the fourth row from the stool itself.  Much better!

3 rows - click on picture to see details

Now I'm putting this away until next month at the earliest.  I'll shoot for finishing another row in July.  Four of the eleven blocks needed for the next row are finished.

Now for the big question - what do I work on next?  I'm taking hand quilting to quilt group tonight, but what is the next project for the machine.  I'm thinking the June Schnibbles.  My fabrics are so far from what I normally use, but I really love them!

It is simply amazing!

A foundation block goes together so easily when one cuts all the pieces large enough!  Since I will never use my stash in my lifetime, I need to stop worrying about conserving 1/4" cuts of fabric when they make all the difference in ease of construction.

3-9:  Beginning of War

This definitely needed blocking to flatten out all those little seams and stretch to equal a 6 1/2" block.

Remembrances

3-7: Remembrances

This block drove me nuts!

I looks like a simple enough block.  Squares and triangles except for the one long green piece that occurs 4 times, once in each quarter of the block.  I figured "no sweat - I'll just cut a rectangle, then fold back the paper foundation to cut the angle of the attached triangle.  Figured I could do this in less than two hours - no problem, right?

3-4:  Robbers

Wrong!  Two things are happening here that tend to give me fits.  Primarily, it is not a symmetrical block.  Trying to reverse it in my brain so it looks like the foundations is something I've never been able to do well.  See that large brown triangle?  Took me at least 3 tries before being convinced that the hypotenuse didn't go in either of the places I was trying to put it while sewing on this triangle.

Secondly, it involves fairly large half-square and quarter-square triangles.  I know my triangle math - add 7/8" for half square triangles and 1 1/4" for quarter square triangles when figuring the cutting sizes.  I figured adding an extra quarter-inch more on each leg was enough.  Wrong!  I needed to add at least 1/2" in order for the triangles to be big enough in all directions.  Especially on quarter-square triangles.  So all but the smallest triangles were barely big enough, and had to be placed perfectly to give adequate seam allowance on all edges.  Needless to say, placing them perfectly was almost impossible.  I did so much ripping that my poor paper foundations were falling apart.  I didn't want to waste fabric by cutting bigger pieces, so instead I wasted several hours.  I did recut several pieces towards the end - I just wanted it to be over.

And now that it is over, I did some investigating in Electric Quilt.  Low and behold - it is possible to make a mirror image when printing foundation papers.  It would have helped so much on a few of the blocks I've already finished.  At least I know it now for all the rest of them!

I figured I could finish this second row easily today, but now I'm not sure.  I really want to, so I can move on to another of this month's goals.

Design wall Monday - Part 1

Two full rows of Civil War Diary, plus 7 of 11 blocks of the third row, are currently on my design wall.

As soon as I press the shoo fly blocks I made yesterday I will add them to the design wall.  That's why this is part 1.  I'll post part 2 this afternoon.

3-3:  Bad Box

This block went together quickly, as the only parts I paper pieced were the corners.

Death Penalty

3-1:  Death Penalty

Another very interesting block.  I've gotten much faster at piecing these, because I'm cutting out all the pieces before I start sewing.  This one took awhile but wasn't difficult, until I got to the last seams.  There is a great deal of bulk at those four points where the striped triangles touch each other.  Between lots of steam and a good blocking I've managed to conquer that bulk at last.

I made five blocks from this row in 2008, and this makes six, so I have only five more blocks to make before finishing row three.  They will have to wait until tomorrow evening, because I'm focusing on shoo fly blocks tomorrow for Scrap Basket Sunday.

Two rows

Top two rows

I changed some settings on my camera and this picture seems much better than those I've posted lately.  If you click to enlarge this you can really see the details. 

Edited to add:

I just discovered that this is my 1000th post.  Wow!  I've always been chatty, so I guess that shouldn't surprise me.  I don't have a give away to go with this milestone - I'll come up with another reason for a give away later in the year.

Civil War Diary - Row 2

 

Foragers

2-11:  Foragers

An interesting block.  Looking at it, you'd think it would be an easy block to make with straight piecing, as it consists of half - and quarter-square triangles and nothing else.  Here's the catch.  The hypotenuse (long side) of each triangle measures 2" finished.  That means the two shorter sides finish at 1.41" - certainly not a measurement we find on our rulers.  That means paper piecing, which means this took a long time.  Eight sections!  That makes it very difficult to press it nice and flat during construction, so this block most definitely needed blocking.  Here you see it pinned inside the 6 1/2" square I've drawn on my ironing surface.  I didn't even try to press his as it is held with so many pins.  I just spritzed it well with water and am letting it dry on its own.

Somehow I managed to reverse the lights and darks compared to how the block looks in the book.  Not sure how that happened, but it is OK as far as I'm concerned.  I'm certainly not doing this one again!

Our grandson has a 5:00 t-ball game so I'll be away from the machine for awhile.  I won't have to worry about dinner - Subway sandwiches go easily to the game.  This evening I'll sew the second row together.  Now it is time I need to make a decision about the cornerstones. 

I love the poison green fabric I used in this block.  I've had this piece a LONG time, and all I've left is a fat 1/8 yard.  I have lots of other greens in my stash, but next to nothing that is this fabulous poison green.  Even fabrics that were called "poison green" when they came out.  I need to start scouting for this color again, as I want to use it a lot more.  In the meantime I've been hoarding this piece, cutting a few pieces from it now and then but no quilt getting more that a little. 

If any of you know of a line currently available that includes one or more prints this color please let me know. 

News

2-10: News

Ten of the eleven blocks in row two are finished.  The last one is a doozy - many, many little triangles - so I'm saving it for tomorrow.  That's OK - I'm satisfied.  All but one block in the row by the end of the month when I didn't think I'd have any.

Finally! Victuals

Victuals

This block would have been finished three hours ago if I hadn't made a couple of horrendous mistakes.  I cut the seam allowance off the side of one basket, and made one basket with a red handle and black bottom.  I guess I must have been rushing more than I realized - I didn't feel like I was rushing.

Two more blocks in this row.

Harassment

2-6:  Harassment

Three down, four to go

I'm hoping to finish the blocks for the second row of Civil War Diary today.  Yesterday and this morning I finished these three blocks.  Since the last four are fairly complicated paper piecing I probably won't finish today, but I'm going to try.

2-3:  Feeding the Rebels

2-4:  Draft Threat (sounds like the 1960's to me!)

2-5:  Southern Notes

Yesterday I did some reading about my "early history" with this quilt (blogs are GREAT for doing that!).  While working on this again, I've been wondering why I'd skipped around the book so much.  And why I'd made blocks from both this book and "Civil War Love Letters" at the same time.  Skipping around is particularly not like me - it goes against my "organizational gene".

The answer was very interesting!  Apparently Kathie suggested we work on these together, and see who else in Blogland would be interested in joining us.  We were going to make one quilt, combining blocks from both books.  Apparently there were several bloggers who joined us - enough that we even created a "blog ring" for the project.  Our goal was a block a day, and those participating took turns choosing the blocks to be done each week.  We did a mix of easy and difficult blocks to start with, but soon started choosing easier blocks so those who were behind could catch up.

The ring is long gone, and the list of participants is gone too.  I wonder if any of them ever finished their quilt?  I wonder if some of them are even quilting and blogging any more?  I know Darlene was participating, but I've no idea if she reads my blog anymore.  (I lost so many readers when I stopped blogging for awhile - my fault!) When I need a break I think I'll go back to the comments left on those old posts and do some sleuthing.  In the meantime, I need to get back to the machine to work on the next block!

It's ba..a..ck!

One-third of the next block of Civil War Diary.

I am so happy!  Maybe I can come close to finishing a row before midnight tomorrow!

I can't believe I've not worked on this project since March!

I got to sew today!

It seems like so long since I sat at the machine to sew.  It felt so good to accomplish something today, other than finishing ironing my fabric purchases, even if it didn't amount to very much.

I cut dozens of 2" x 6 1/2" strips from the Civil War Diary sashing I bought on Friday, and then sewed the first row together.  I love the way it looks spread across the top of the design wall.  ( I should have cropped the picture, but I was eager to get today's post written.)  If you enlarge the picture you can see the blocks much better.

  The close-up shows the first two blocks of the second row.  I need to decide on fabrics for the corner stones next so I can sew the between-rows sashing.  I still have lots of blocks to make, but this makes me feel that a quilt top can't be THAT far away.

After dinner I gave myself permission to start a new project - a small one - as a reward for all the UFO work I did the last 6 weeks.  The quilt I chose is called "Bittersweet Stars", and is from year 9 of Jo Morton's "Little Women's Club".  The quilt finishes at 13 1/4" x 17 1/2".  The tiny blocks, which are set on point with alternate plain squares, finish at 3".  They are lots of fun to do, but make the CWD blocks seem huge by comparison!

All the pieces are cut out, and I'm working on the "hourglass" star points.  I had to finish one block, however, so I could see what the quilt will look like.  I think I like it but I'm not sure. Do you think the alternate squares are too dark?  Maybe I need to finish more blocks before decide.  What do you think?  Do you think they are too dark?

It's 11:13 pm - I wish I could sew more blocks instead of going to bed!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
 Gratitudes:

1.  Leftovers for dinner give me more sewing time.
2.  A perfect spring day - warm, blue sky with clouds, and flowers blooming everywhere
3.  Hot cocoa with whipped cream on top.

Happy dancing . . . .

I have an ironing station and design wall again!  Oh happy dancing (cue the pipers and fiddlers).  And I have a clear cutting table again!  There are lots of "pocket areas" that still need attention, but for the most part I'm done.  Hooray!

I need to bring in the stool so I can reach the top of my design wall - I want to arrange the blocks in the order they go in the quilt.  That way I can assure myself that my fabric colors and patterns are spread evenly throughout the quilt. 

I'm still contemplating the sashing - I've found a few pieces in the stash that might work (not sure I have enough yardage), plus seven  yards arrived in the mail that I want to "test" because I think the fabric is perfect.  It was on sale at $7.50 per yard, and will be used to set together another quilt, if not this one, so I allowed myself to buy it.  Major yardage of a single fabric is something I rarely have in my stash.

Remember to comment if you want to be entered into the drawing!

I will draw for the Jan Patek Block-of-the-Month patterns shortly after noon tomorrow.  I want to get those patterns plus the others I've promised into the mail tomorrow.  So if you want to enter, be sure to comment on this post.

Right now there are 10 comments, but only 8 of those are entered because I have no way to contact two of the people who commented.  One chance in 8 is very good odds!



I did manage to do the machine stitching on one binding today - the Friendship Garden quilt.  I'm still madly shifting and reordering things.  I'll be so glad when that is done!

Here is the last Civil War Diary block for February.  This makes a total of 9.  I'm shooting for an average of 10 each month until completion - so I need to get 11 done in March.

I'll leave you with a picture of today's socks.  The sock knitting world calls these "plain vanilla" socks because they are straight stockinette stitch with a short rib at the top.  They are anything but plain, however, because of the wonderfully colorful self-striping yarn.  This isn't the best picture of the colors - they are more muted in actuality.  It's almost 9:30 p.m. here and the only way to get true colors is outside in daylight.  It's yarn like this that drew me back to knitting and to learning to make socks.

Beware if you make this quilt

The foundation for the last block in row 1 is also incorrect.  The block has 5 bars in each quarter-section; the foundation shows 6 bars.  Luckily I noticed shortly after I began sewing this one.  So I measured the book pattern and cut the strips as closely as I could to that measurement.  I'm sure glad I noticed the error!

Greenfield and Stockton

Rachel's Frustration

The first row of blocks is finished!  When I worked on blocks before, I just jumped around the book, at the same time making blocks from Civil War Love Letters.  I want to start sewing it together, so now I'm focusing on finishing each row.  I need that sashing fabric soon!

Did anyone finish this quilt?

While working on the blocks for Civil War Diary, it occurred to me that I'd never seen a picture of this completed quilt in blogland.  Obviously I'm not the only one who is or has made it, so I did a google search.  I found great looking quilts - and new-to-me bloggers.

Scroll down to find this quilt.  What magnificent quilting on the border!  Simple but effective.  Interesting layout for fewer blocks.  Several pictured here - I love the triangle squares used for cornerstones in the second quilt.  I think I'll use that idea also.  These are just a few of the many images I found in my search.

Have any of you seen this quilt in blogland or made one of your own?  Anyone working on the quilt?  Please leave me a comment with a link to appropriate pictures and posts.

In the meantime, I have two more blocks done.  I completed "Battle of Springfield" last night.  I've learned the hard way - when I'm making long, skinny foundation-pieced flying geese parts (like those found in this block) I need to cut my pieces EXTRA large.  Took me three tries cutting pieces in order to finish.  By then my foundation was hardly hanging together I'd ripped out so many times.  All 20 stitches to the inch, which I use to "perforate the paper" for easy removal.  It was worth the effort - I like the block.

Alvin McClure was comparatively easy.  No foundation, easily ruler-cut pieces.  I know you've heard the carpenter's adage "measure twice, cut once" which obviously applies to quilters too.  I don't have trouble with that one, so I made up my own.  "Check the block layout 3 times, and sew it together no more than two times with one frogging.  Check the block layout 4 times and maybe you can sew it together right on the first try."