January Cheddarback Blocks

One of my daughters suggested we take a trip for a few days this month since she has two weeks off.  Sure, I said.  And then I knew I couldn't put off the Cheddarback blocks and got right to work.  But they took longer than I thought.  Whew!  Some of them were very challenging.  Many thanks to Gay Bomers of Sentimental Stitches for creating this sew-along of an antique quilt.  You can see this month's blocks here.  Block 44 is the only 12" block.  The rest are 5".  Here they are with a few notes/comments about each.

Block 44

This block required foundation paper-piececing, a new technique for me.  This was the second ever that I've pieced using this method (and also the second in this set of blocks).  Though I don't enjoy foundation paper-piecing I'm pleased with the accuracy of the process.

I've you've read recent posts you'll know that I altered the colors of some of the fabrics for the blocks in this set.  The original Cheddarback Block 44 had a striped fabric similar to the one in the center of this block.  The stripes in the fabric I had were a pale grey.  I used a Micron 08 to draw the lines darker.  Also, the original fabric for the large triangles has solid dots so I may fill in the ones in this block.

Block 45

This is the last block I made because I thought it would be easiest, and it was.  I would never in a million years put red and lavender/purple together, but those are the colors in the original block so here they are.  I used to have a fabric similar to the light fabric in the original block but it's gone.  I think I passed in on because it was poor quality.  I doubt people who use my finished quilt will search out the original and compare all the fabrics.  Sometimes the best I can do is a similar color.

Block 46

This is my first-ever foundation paper-pieced block.  It looked like the hardest of the five for this month and I wanted to get it out of the way.  It's probably the most imperfect of all the blocks in the whole quilt but it's DONE!  If you want to read more about that experience click here.  For the briefest of moments I considered trying to find a striped fabric for the gold triangles.  I came to my senses before I wasted my time, realizing that dealing with stripes would be one too many challenges in this already difficult block.

Block 47

Isn't this a sweet Ohio Star?  But again, it's not perfect.  Others mentioned that the block turned out too small.  I was grateful for the heads up and remembered that 5 doesn't divide into thirds evenly and guessed we'd need to sew scant ¼" seams.  I cut the blocks a 16th inch larager and took slightly scant seams and it's still slightly too small on one side.  Not so small that I'll remake it, though.  This is another block in which I altered the color of the fabric so it would be closer to the color in the original quilt.

 Block 48

This 5" block is almost perfect unless you look closely.  (Please don't.)  You'd see valleys that don't exactly match, points that don't exactly meet, and fabric that has waves.  And worst of all, with a tape measure, you'd see that this block that is supposed to measure 5½" measures 5¾".

I knew this would be hard because of the 8 points that meet in the center and the 8 y-seams (but not as hard as the foundation paper-pieced blocks).  I cut out the pattern then stitched the star together, stopping the seam a ¼" from the edge of the fabric on the outer points.  I stitched the points in twos, those into halves, and the halves together.  Then I pressed it.  At that point I looked at Gay Bomers's excellent instructions for sewing y-seams and realized that I'd already made a few mistakes that I couldn't easily undo.  I went ahead with my original plan, to stitch the y-seams by machine.  It turned out better than I expected so even though not perfect, it will go into the quilt.

The background fabric in the original star block is a black/blue thorny print on a light background.  I knew I'd never find anything similar so used a fabric I thought reminded me just slightly of the original.

Several of these blocks were really difficult for me.  When I finished them I breathed a sigh of relief and hoped we were finished with the hard ones for this quilt.  Then I looked at Gay's photo of the quilt and realized there are more challenging ones to come.  Gosh, I'm learning so much.

Finishing these blocks was my One Monthly Goal for January.  I'm linking this post to Patty's One Monthly Goal January Link-up at Elm Street Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Patty.

--Nancy.
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