Churn Dash

 Here are my (slightly blurry) blocks for the second week of the THQA-2012.  Nice and easy and fun!

I may have mentioned that I've not sewn much in several years. These blocks let me really work on my quarter-inch seam as well as all the basics of quilt-making. Although I'm not a beginner, I find it helpful to practice basic skills as I go along.








And here are all the blocks that I've made for this quilt so far.  The blue under the blocks is the fabric that I'll be using for the setting triangles for the zig-zag setting.  I hadn't realized that I'd cut off a "hunk" of this fabric somewhere along the way until I laid it down for this picture.  Silly me!!  I sure hope I don't need this "hunk" when it is time to cut the triangles.


UGH!!!  I also need to learn Blogger!!!  There is no big space between my first picture and the second while I'm writing, but when I preview, it's there, and I don't know how to correct it.  Well, I've got time to learn, and it's all a journey, right?

4-Kansas Sunflower

It's done!!  Woopee!!!

My sunflower has a daisy center.  Ha!!

It seemed to take forever, and I'm happy with it.  And, I don't want to do it again.  It really wasn't difficult, but like the prepping, it was fiddle-ly.  I guess fiddlely is actually a word, but it looks weird, so I'd rather use my weird spelling.

I do enjoy trying all sorts of blocks and making a sampler is a perfect way to do it.  Doing it with the Flickr Group that goes along with the Grandmother's Choice page is very enjoyable.  It is FUN to get almost immediate feedback when I post a block.  I've watched some of these groups before, but this is the first time I participated.  If I would have known how much fun it is, I would have participated before.  Now, I'm off to complete my next blocks for the THQA-2012.

Eve

I have also joined the Women of the Bible group on Yahoo Groups.  And, this is Eve.  The colors are symbolic for me:

Green - the vegetation of the garden
Blue - the water flowing through the garden
Yellow - Sunshine
Pink - God's love for humanity, a mother's love for her children, and the beautiful flowers in the garden.

This study/quilt along is a bit of a stretch for me.  I was  raised as a Christian, and have, at times, been very religious.  However, I've had some very unfortunate experiences in organized religion.  I am also a staunch feminist and liberal. Somewhere in all of that, my faith  and feelings about religion and attending church have suffered.  However, I'm drawn to this study/group/quilt. So, we'll see where this takes me.  I guess I didn't really need to write the above explanation, but it seems more honest for me to write the disclaimer.

I paper-pieced this block.  I purchased the EQ pattern set and printed the "parts" for an 8" block.  I used Carol Doak's paper, which makes tearing it off super easy.  I also used an add-a-quarter ruler to measure and cut the seam allowances.  This is not a necessity but makes the process easier.

I'm happy with Eve and look forward to blocks symbolizing other women of the Bible.

Just Call Me Slowpoke . . . . .

This as far as I got last night on block number 4 for my Suffrage Quilt.  It's called Kansas Sunflower, and I need to hand piece it.  I suppose there are some people who could machine piece it, but I'm not one of those folks.  I base my style of hand piecing from my time on the Dear Jane List.  I printed the pattern from Block Base on to freezer paper.  That makes it very easy to get all of the templates just the right size.  This way of prepping a block for hand piecing is still very fiddle-ly and is not my favorite thing which is probably why my Dear Jane quilt has been stalled at 50 blocks for several years.

However, I had a lot of fun picking the fabrics and prepping JUST ONE block.  :-) Now, on to the sewing.

Three More Blocks

Wow, I'm on a roll.  I've also joined Joanne's QAL-2012 at Thread Head.  She will present a 7" block each week, and the participants will make three of that block.  I've decided that my quilt will be made of blues with white and cream.  Since we are making three of the same block, I decided to do one kind of "normal," one with some kind of color-play if possible, and one where the values are reversed.  It will be fun to play.  This quilt will be completely made from my stash.

WooHoo!!!!  I'm sewing!!!

Suffrage Quilt

It's been ages since I last posted.  So much has happened, but I think I'll just start with now.

I joined a new Block of the Week at Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice - To Recall The Fight for Women's Rights.  I'll be making my blocks with floral fabrics with white and/or cream backgrounds.  I've collected floral fabrics for just about ever.  The thing is though, they don't always play together nicely.  I think together in a scrappy quilt they should work together just fine.  I'll be adding some tone-on-tones and a fair amount of green.  I'm excited to be sewing again.  I've been battling chronic pain again and just can't sew for very long at a time.  I put on a CD when I go into my office/studio, and when the CD is over, I'm done for the day.  That seems to work pretty well especially if I read a couple of chapters in a book after the sewing time.  :-)

I've made 3 blocks so far:

1 - Grandmother's Choice

2 - Amethyst:  Suffragettes

3 - Union Square - Red for Rebellion

I'm especially interested in the stories and history that Barbara is providing.  I was heavily involved in the Women's Movement in the 70's and even started the first Women's Consciousness Raising Group at my college.  Sounds a bit silly to remember that group name now, but believe me, we were dead serious!!  I think that's why I have been so very troubled with some issues in the political arena today.  I thought we'd decided that women have a right to birth control, and that issues of a woman's health are best decided between a woman and her doctor.  If I keep writing, I'm going to have to crawl up on my soapbox, so I'll stop now.  I am excited about this BOW, and I'm especially excited to be sewing again.