Periwinkle Vine, at Last!

Finally, a little finish.  In real life, this block makes me smile.  Maybe it's because I love red and green together?  This is Periwinkle Vine, the first block of Hospital Sketches, a sew-along offered by Barbara Brackman at Civil War Quilts. 

I spent a lot of time (maybe too much time) trying to decide colors and fabrics.  At first I thought, How hard can it be to choose two sets of three colors each, one for the periwinkle flowers, one for the trumpets?  Then I realized what a slim selection of reproduction fabrics I have in a limited selection of colors.  (This led me to wonder if I'd make the quilt if I had only three fabrics for the whole quilt.  Probably not.  I like variety too much and get bored with repetition.)



These are two colors/fabrics I considered but decided against.  I liked the color of the coral/pink trumpets but not the solid fabric.  And I didn't think I could make the blue work with any of the other fabrics I had. 

By the time I finished stitching this I noticed how wrinkled the fabric had become as I held it and moved it around to stitch down each applique piece.  I realized that I'd never seen a photo of a block immediately after it was appliqued and before it was pressed for photographs and presentation.  What a difference a wash and press make!  Of course, it's possible that other appliquers don't end up with their pieces being so wrinkled and that's why I've never seen a photo.

It needed a wash to remove the glue I'd used on some of the pieces.  I put it in lukewarm water with a squirt of Dawn dish soap and let it soak for an hour or so.  When I removed it from the water I squeezed it, then filled the basin with clear water to rinse it and let it soak again.  When I removed it I let it drip a while and when it was nearly dry I pressed it with a hot iron.  I was sad to notice that the blue fabric bled a little on all the fabrics, but a bit more on the muslin fabric.  I don't know what that's about, whether the muslin accepts dye better than the other printed fabrics or what.  It's so light I'm not going to worry about it.  After the blocks are layered and quilted I may try to get it out -- or not.

Most of my applique has been primitive-style so this was an interesting change and a fun challenge.  This more formal style seemed to ask for more precision, especially in the placement of the elements.   Barbara Brackman gave suggestions for getting accurate placement, including pressing the fabric in half in four directions.  I also used the pattern to help with placement.

On to Virginia Coxcomb, Block 2 of Hospital Sketches, and also Sweet Land of Liberty.

I'm linking this post to
> BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts
> Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
.

Quilts in Active Progress, Blocks to Finish in April

I often have three quilts on the go at the same time: one for piecing (at home), one to applique (while riding in the car), and a third to hand quilt (while watching TV).  But with sew-along blocks of the month I think I'm up to five quilts in progress.  Here they are.

Little Rubies.  I'm hand quilting this using Baptist Fans and am almost finished with the first row of fans across the bottom.  I hand quilt less than I applique these days.  (No photo but you can see the top here.)

Hospital Sketches.  I'm still working on Block 1 (while most people are already on to Block 3).  I've appliqued the trumpets, the central circle vine, and the large flowers.  I still need to place and applique the 24 leaves.  This is a free block of the month sew-along hosted by Barbara Brackman at Civil War Quilts.  If I want to be in sync with the newly published blocks I'll I'll need to begin the next immediately upon finishing this one.

Sweet Land of Liberty.  There are several blocks and pieces for this month's sew-along that Lori of Humble Quilts is hosting on Cheri's Friendship Group on Facebook.  I'm looking forward to choosing fabrics for a sweet angel, sewing a few stars, and a few flying geese, and maybe some other bits I've forgotten about. 

Cheddarback.  I love this sew-along, offered by Gay Bomers at Sentimental Stitches.  Since I'm trying to reproduce this quilt, it's been fun to try to find fabrics that are similar (in color and/or style) to the original ones used in the quilt.  Mostly, I don't have fabrics like the original quilter's but I can come close with colors.  I already have the fabrics chosen so I can get five blocks sewn this month, right?

And last, Linda Brannock's Flowers.  (This was a sew-along on a Facebook group last year.)

My blocks are finished and this is a collage of the blocks in an approximate arrangement.  Linda Brannock's original uses two sizes of half square triangles (or is it half triangle squares?) as sashing.  The sashing is fun but looks really challenging to me, especially because I want to increase the final dimensions of the quilt.  This seems a good time to work on take on this challenge.  

That should be enough to keep me busy and out of trouble for the month of April, don't you think?

I'm linking this post to
> Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter
> WOW (WIPs on Wednesday) at Esther's Blog
> Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
> Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
.

Imagining You (and Periwinkle Wreath)

This is what I imagine about you, dear readers who are quilters:
   When you decide to make a quilt you choose the colors you want to use, look at your fabric supply, glance over the fabrics, pull the exact ones you want to use, then take them to your cutting table and begin the quilt.  Quick, fast, easy because you're confident in your choices.  This is what I imagine.  Is that how you work when you begin a quilt?  I sometimes wish I had  an intuitive sense of color.  (Of course, if I did, I would miss all the play involved in choosing colors and fabrics for a quilt.  Still, I sometimes envy you because it takes me such a long time to audition fabrics and make a decision.)

Earlier this week I began auditioning fabrics for the first block of Hospital Sketches, Periwinkle Wreath.  I thought red flowers would be great and chose a plain because I have few Civil War reds.  Next I had to decide the star centers.  I wish I could make a decision about fabrics without having to cut the applique pieces first.  But that's what works for me so I do it.  In this case, it will give me several flowers to use for some other quilt.

There are two reds in the above, right flowers:  the top two are the same red, the bottom one is a brighter red.  The darker red won out and I think the fabric in the bottom star will be my choice.

I printed four pattern pieces so I could lay out the circle and imagine the flower and the trumpet colors.  This style of quilt from the mid-1800s was traditionally made in reds and greens so that's where I began.  But the trumpet-shaped pieces between the flowers remind me of trumpet vines, which are orange/coral, so I began to play with those colors.

Hey, maybe a robin's egg blue might look great so I laid pieces of that fabric on the circle.  But I wondered if I had enough variety of fabrics to sustain that color combination.

At some point in this process I remembered that red and green is one of my favorite color combinations and asked myself why I was trying out other colors when I could use a favorite.  I put the blue away.  I don't think it would have worked anyway.

Today I cut and sewed the background fabrics, laid out the vine circle using a compass, and prepared the flowers (except the center circles).  I've been dithering on this for three days so it feels good to finally make decisions.

But I still have to decide fabric for those trumpets.  Possibilities are below, but I'll wait till tomorrow to decide.  My experience has been that when I choose fabric at night I have to choose other fabric in daylight.

These are my greens for leaves, with few Civil War reproductions.  I'll use fabrics on hand for very scrappy leaves.

Now, please don't judge me by the photo below.  Surely I'm not the only one who has let an ironing board cover go just a tad too long before getting a new one?  This is what my ironing board looked like by the time I finished Little Rubies last week.  Ugh!  Awful.  But I couldn't find one I liked at the store and didn't want to take time to make a new one in the midst of sewing that quilt.

As soon as Rubies was finished off came the old cover.  I used it as a pattern and made a new cover from thick upholstery fabric I had on hand.

I like it a lot and think it's a definite improvement but I'm not sure the wisdom of using a light fabric on an ironing board.  I suspect it won't look great for too long.  I remember that my mother used to use an old sheet and pin it in place on the underside of the ironing board.  It worked but I think having a drawstring keeps it in place better.  It's strange to imagine that I probably use my ironing board more that my mother used hers, and she ironed everyone's clothing and pillow cases every week.  I'll immediately begin looking for fabric for the next cover.

This week I've been complaining about Daylight Saving Time.  I keep hearing people say, "I love having an extra hour of daylight."  To myself I say, there's no extra hour of daylight, it's just been moved from the morning to the evening.  I always have trouble adjusting to the change, in either direction, but I particularly don't like making the change in March!  Couldn't we at least wait till May when we're really settled into spring?  But that's just me. 

Did you notice that Martingale is having its 2019 warehouse sale this week, until next Monday, the 18th?  Many books are just $6.00!

I'm linking this post to
> Midweek Makers #166 at Quilt Fabrication
> Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter
> Let's Bee Social # 263 at Sew Fresh Quilts
> WIPS on Wednesday at Esther's Quilt Blog

Thanks for hosting, ladies.

I hope you're having a great week.

--Nancy.
.