Back To The CW Blocks

It was a beautiful afternoon here, and I was able to totally enjoy it by sewing away in my Summer Palace. I have been working hard on "The Monster" so I felt like I deserved a break and treated myself to a session in the Palace. It has been quite a while since I worked on blocks for my Civil War Diary quilt. I have one row completed and you can see the post about it here. Since there are so many blocks in this quilt I decided to sew the rows together as I went along. I thought it would help with the fabric selections for the blocks. In other words, I will be able to tell if I have two or three blue blocks next to each other, or if I need balance out the colors I have used. The block you see on the table is actually the second block in the second row. I decided that for the first block I wanted to use cheddar and blue fabrics. Well, the cheddar I want to use is one of the newer pieces I have purchased recently and it isn't prewashed yet. Did I want to take time out from sewing in the Palace to wash, dry and iron it? No way! So, on to block number two. I was able to work on the third block today too, but that picture didn't get taken. Guess you will just have to wait on that one. It was nice to work on this project again today, especially since I was able to sew in my favorite place.

Anxieties Do-Over

In my previous post about the first block on the left, Oh No! I shared my frustration with the Anxieties block from the Civil War Diary book. I had used the wrong fabric in the center square and only realized it after the block was completed. Since I used the paper foundation paper piecing method ripping it out to fix it was going to be very difficult if not impossible. I received many great ideas on what to do with this block and gave them a lot of thought. As you can see by the second block I decided to make another block to replace the first one. The main reason was that I felt the fabric choice for the arrow looking sections wasn't the best choice. I picked a more solid looking fabric for second block. It really is burgundy in color, even if the photo doesn't show the true color. I am happy with the block now! A quilting friend of mine said I should use the first block as a label on the back of the quilt. I just may do that! I have made some progress on the CWD blocks. I have completed 11 in all now, the first row of the quilt. I will be showing photos of them together soon as I have decided to pieces the blocks with the sashing as I finish each row. I think this will encourage me to keep this quilt going and not let it fall into the UFO pile!

Today I cut the fabric for the laptop case pattern that I have had for a little while. While this is great, I read through the directions more thoroughly tonight. Ugh! I have made quite a few bags and quilts in my time and have thought some directions were hard to understand. The directions to to bag could be much better! There are very few diagrams to show what the pattern designer is talking about in the different steps of construction. That usually isn't a problem for me, but I think it will with this one! Yikes! I believe I will be doing my own thing with some of the construction of this bag and cross my fingers that it will turn out well in the end. The green stuff under the fabric is upholstery foam that will go between the main fabric on the outside and the lining fabric. I haven't done anything like this before. I will keep you posted on my progress or lack there of! *G*

Oh No!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh no!!!!!!!! That is what I cried as I opened up the block to admire it after the last seam was sewn. This Civil War block is called Anxieties, and that is a great name for it! I had spent at least 3 hours on this block today(there are 67 pieces to this little 6" block!)only to see that I had made a bad mistake on it! The center square of the block was to be the floral fabric, not the red. As I was piecing I kept thinking it looked weird, but I would look at the book and decide that I was making it the correct way. Not! Live and learn I guess. I used the foundation paper piecing method which makes it much more difficult to take apart and resew. While I was making it I was also questioning my choice of fabrics. I still like the floral, but I think I would like a more solid looking red or maybe even blue that would show the pointed arrow looking patches a little better. If I liked the block even with it's color mess up I might just say "Oh I meant to do that!" and put it in the quilt anyway, but I don't. I won't be throwing this in the garbage, but it may get cut in half some day and used for another project.

I have two more Civil War blocks to show you though that turned out nice. The acid green and chrome yellow block is called Conscript Law and the red, white and blue one is called the Oath of Allegiance. I have a whopping four out of 121 block made so far. I hope I don't end up remaking more of these little beauties like I will with the Anxieties block!

Civil War Diary Quilt

I love reproduction fabric from the Civil War era. I have a large collection of it. When I saw that a group of fellow bloggers were going to make the quilt fr om this book I decided to join them. If you want to check out what the fellow members are doing you can check out the link to the blog ring Sew Many Quilts on the right side. I ordered the book/CD today, so it should arrive some time next week. Please Mr. Postman hurry!

I have been working on "The Monster" and have worked down to the opposite end of the quilt, so I will be able to turn the quilt down more on the frame soon. Yeah!