Month: June 2016

Angie’s Album Quilt

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I’ve been waiting for this little beauty to be finished so I could photograph it. The blocks were done, but Angie was waiting to find just the right shade of fabric for the large outer border. I think the deep mauve she eventually decided upon is perfect. It really brings out the soft muted colours of the centre pieced blocks.

The quilt is the Album Quilt, and is a lap quilt taken from a pattern in Kathleen Tracy’s book, The Civil War Sewing Circle. Quilts evoking this period of American history are Angie’s absolute favourite to do.

Since the blocks are the stars of the show, she’s sewed a minimal amount of echo quilting so as not to detract from them. I have to say I simply love it, and it’s definitely a pattern I must get around to trying for myself.

Angie – Album Quilt
Angie – Album Quilt
Angie – Album Quilt
Angie – Album Quilt
Angie – Album Quilt (and Button)

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Westering Women BoM 2016 II

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I think it’s fair to say that Barbara Brackman’s Westering Women BoM Block 3 has been the cause of major headaches for our little sewing group! The block is called Sweet Gum Leaf and, oh joy, it calls for a whole lot of inset, or ‘Y’ seams.

I tried and tried to get good matching points, but I guess this is where my inexperience shows as I couldn’t come up with a block that really satisfied me. Practice is supposed to make perfect I know, but my best effort remained my first try, the others were all downhill from there.

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Sandra – WW Block 3

At our Friday night get-together I was relieved to find it wasn’t just me that was having problems. So, we put our heads together and came up with an alternate design using only HSTs. It’s not quite as elegant as the original but it’s manageable, achievable and it gets the job done.

Angie – WW Block 3
Tracy – WW Block 3
Sandra – WW Block 3 Version 2
Button – our supervisor!

Button was being her adorable self and insisted on getting in on the act too – she’s a stern supervisor. (You might notice that Angie and Tracy haven’t quite got round to appliquéing the stems onto their blocks yet, so I had to use a piece of stand-in fabric for the photos!)

A few days later I felt in a more relaxed frame of mind to tackle those dreaded inset seams, so I chose a whole new colour scheme and spent an afternoon carefully cutting, marking and sewing pieces to make the original Sweet Gum Leaf block. I was so pleased with the outcome, until…..

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Sandra – WW Block 3 Version 3

…..I compared it with my previous blocks and discovered that I’d cut my six leaf pieces without the addition of the quarter inch seam allowance. So although the block worked, it was a miniature version of what it should be. Talk about frustration!

It was another week before I could bring myself to have yet another crack at it. Thankfully, this time everything went well and I have a passable block, but it’s going to be a long time before I approach inset seams without thinking about sweet gum leaves.

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Sandra – WW Block 3 Version 4

In the meantime, Blocks 4 and 5 in the Westering Women series have been published so there’s quite a bit of catching up to do.

…link to previous Westering Women BoM 2016 post.

 

Stars ‘n Stripes II

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I’m pleased as punch at the way my Stars ’n Stripes quilt has turned out. I made it as a lap quilt, but as it’s to go in the cab of an old Chevy truck, I sewed some fabric triangles into the top two corners, so it can be hung up for display if wanted. One things for sure, I’ve had plenty of practice at HST’s now.

I finally found a starred fabric on the internet with the right depth of blue, and the fabulous backing fabric was a lucky find at one of the shows we’ve been to recently. I think it fits in well with the whole flag theme.

It’s only 50” by 35” but it’s the biggest quilt I’ve completed so far. Anyhow, now it goes into a cupboard to keep hidden until my other half’s birthday at the end of July. I do hope he likes it.

Sandra – Stars n Stripes
Sandra – Stars n Stripes
Sandra – Stars n Stripes
Sandra – Stars n Stripes

Link to previous Stars n Stripes post

Tracy’s Chevron Quilt

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Tracy completed her beautiful Chevron Quilt just in time for our Friday night reveal this week.  I think the bold chevrons and sherbet candy colour prints give it real zing. The finishing touches she’s added to the corners are so cute, especially the little appliqué heart.

I’ve only ever done stitch-in-the-ditch myself, but I think that the echo quilting lines Tracy’s used alongside the seam edges are very effective and make the chevrons stand out well so it’s something I’ll definitely have to try for myself.

The flange binding is another technique I like since it not only adds a pretty raised detail, but also saves having to do any hand sewing because it’s attached to the back of the quilt first then folded to the front and machine sewn again .  What’s not to like about that!

Tracy – Chevron Quilt
Tracy – Chevron Quilt
Tracy – Chevron Quilt
Tracy – Chevron Quilt

 

Almost and Nearly There!

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With the summer months upon us, Angie is wont to spend more of her free time at her hideaway home in beautiful Wales, so there are less opportunities for our Friday night sewing group to get together.

Of course, that doesn’t mean our patchwork activities are at a standstill. At the moment though, some of us seem to be just a stones throw away from finishing our projects.

I’m currently hand sewing the binding strip to finish off my Stars and Stripes quilt. I love the way this has turned out – It’s just simple HSTs but it seems to work fine.  And, I found some darling fabric in just the right shade of blue with white stars to represent the top left corner.

Meanwhile, Angie is close to completing the blocks she needs for her Starry Checkerboard quilt. Plus, she’s in the closing stages of making the Album quilt. A pattern taken from Kathleen Tracy’s excellent book, Civil War Sewing Circle.

Tracy, our Tracy that is, has a few sections of quilting yet to complete on her lovely summery bed quilt. The colours really pop and it just goes to show that the most simple of blocks can be put together to make a very effective design.

Give us a few more days, and we’ll be showing off our finished work at our next Friday night sewing session.

Angie
Tracy
Sandra