Monday, January 16, 2012

Catching up on Civil War

Now that I have finished Birdie Stitches I've tried to focus a bit on my Civil War blocks.  I'm not working through them in order any more, just working on them as I work out fabric, and then putting some aside half done because I've cut something wrong and have to go cut more fabric.

Here is what I've done recently:

45 - Port and Starboard
Fabrics for this block are from hexagons and a solid from my Terrain quilt

42 - H is for Hospital
Fabrics here are the backing from my TV Squares quilt and the fabrics I used for my Halloween Mug Rug (that's how far back this block dates!!)

46 - Apple Tree
All the prints in this block are left overs from my Terrain charm pack, which I used for my as-yet-unfinished Terrain quilt.  The white fabric was used for my husband's waistcoat and the brown/blue pieces were just from my stash since I needed a brown for the trunk.  It was supposed to be an apple tree but the Terrain fabric range doesn't have red really so I made a cherry tree instead.

44 - Union
These fabrics are all solids from my Terrain quilt, as that week I had been trying to match solids to the prints for my quilt.

39 - Hovering Hawks
And these fabrics all came from the second Clucky that I made
The rest of the outstanding blocks have become a bit of a challenge for me.  The idea of this quilt was to make each weekly block out of fabric from the project(s) I was working on that week.  During November and December I would sometimes go a whole week without entering the sewing room.   This means that I don't have any fabric to use for that week.

I'm thinking I'm now going to lay out all the blocks that I have and see what other colours I might need to make it look 'whole'.  I might need more light colours or more dark etc, and then select fabrics which I have used any time this year to complete them.  It then still fits in with the idea of being an album quilt for the year.

I also have to start thinking about setting.  There are 53 blocks for the year, which doesn't make a nice even layout on it's own.  The two obvious options are to leave out 4 blocks and do a 7x7 grid, or as suggested by Barbara, select your favourite block, make three more of it, use these as corner blocks and then you have 56 blocks to do a 7x8 grid.  I want to put sashings between the blocks, so some of the decision will come down to finished size, and finished size will really depend on what I want to use the quilt for, which I haven't decided yet.


4 comments:

  1. How fun! I worked on my civil war quilt this weeked, too. Your Union block with all the solids is particularly nice.

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  2. Your blocks are awesome! I love that you're using fabrics you've used in other projects through the year, what a great way to remember what you've made!

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  3. The precision, patience and creativity required in quilting just blows my mind every time. I love that 'Union' block the most. So much colour and movement.

    And 'Awesome' is an awesome word and if anyone can make it happen, you can!

    x

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  4. This is a perfect way to keep the fabric build up down. Not sure if I would keep up the momentum haha, but I truly do admire those blocks, just beautifully done.

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