Grandmother's Choice, colour change!

About a year ago I bought a 20 fat quarter pack of green batiks...these were on sale for a good price, and I thought I'd use them in a future applique project.  Well, I disocvered I really didn't much like batiks for applique, and more importantly, I didn't much want to cut into this fat quarter bundle because it was beautiful!  and my favourite colour, green!  Every few weeks, I'd take out the bundle and look at it, spread it out, and consider it for a quilt, but didn't want to use it, lol.

Well, I finally decided its time.  I'm using those greens in the Grandmother's Choice series quilt by Barbara Brackman.  I'm going to love this, way more than the purple.  With that bundle of greens, I had put aside some background possibilities that are white with a very light green pattern....just in case!  I think the new blocks are bright and cheery and full of hope.



 

Looking again at the purple blocks I had done originally, I think it was that darn background fabric that dragged them down.  There was no spark!  This background fabric is going somewhere far away, where it might only be used for backing.

Stitch good thoughts!

 

Sunflower Block...geesh!

 

The Grandmother's Choice block this week was one heck of a challenge.  The sunflower block had three main sections...the petals that form a circle, a centre circle, and background that went around the petal section.

I chose to hand-piece the centre petals.  I then thought I would machine sew the surrounding background ...I guess my handpiecing wouldn't win any awards, as I realized that I hadn't quite formed a circle with the centre flower and my background was flopping all over the place in weird folds.  Hmmm...  So I decided to applique the background on top of the petals...I cut a square an inch bigger than the block size, cut out the  circle and carefully laid it on top of the centre so that the points would be pointy!  That worked out okay, and I was able to trim the block to a 8 1/2" square shape!

The centre circle had to be made a bit smaller than on the pattern...if I used the original size, some or most of my inner points would have been cut off.  By making the centre circle smaller, I kept my points but did end up with some points that didn't quite reach the circle.  Better that I think than lopped off points!

 

[caption id="attachment_1201" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sunflower Block, Grandmother's Choice b.o.w.[/caption]

Templates and Set-in Seams!

This weeks Grandmother's Choice block presented me with the one block making technique that I really don't like - set it in seams!

This is the method for preparing templates for this type of block, it's what I've discovered work best for me.

First print the templates onto regular printer paper.  Rough cut and clue on to the paper sided of freezer paper.

Starch or use best press on your fabric.

I can accurately cut four pieces of fabric at once with this method, so I fold the fabric to a layer of four, or stack four rought cut rectangles...be sure to be aware of mirror image pieces to make sure you end up with the right pieces with the right side up!  Press the freezer paper to the fabric stack.



Cut out with a ruler, I line up the 1/4" mark on the ruler with the solid line so that I can double check the 1/4" seam allowance.



Once the fabric pieces have been cut, I use micron pigma pen to mark the seam allowances at all corners...on the wrong side of the fabric.



I used to rely on the 1/4" mark on my presser foot, but I found that I just didn't get good results.  The good line I've drawn tells me exactly where to pin, where to start and stop sewing.

I also use a very very small stitch, 1.2 or so, as I approach or leave those set-in seam corners.  This gives me a good tight seam without having to backstitch (set in seams do require a bit of pushing and pulling on sewed seams, and I don't want anything coming apart!)

 

[caption id="attachment_1156" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Amethyst block, Grandmothers's Choice[/caption]

Weekend sewing...and un-sewing!

Here's a pic of my first Grandmother's Choice block.  I finally settled on purples, with black sashing.  I find its a good idea to sew the sashing on as the blocks are made; makes less work when your ready to set the quilt together!  I'll be using the same background throughout the quilt...its part of the reason I decided to go with the purple colours.  I bought about 5 yards of this background fabric, thinking it was a lovely tone on tone background blender.  But its got this odd grey hue to it, everything I've tried to put with it so far has just not looked right,...but purple and black seem to be the one colour that plays nicely with this background.

[caption id="attachment_1127" align="aligncenter" width="296"] Grandmother's Choice, week one[/caption]

 

The other project I got accomplished this weekend is getting My Whimsical Quilt Garden blocks sorted out.  I got them separated from the batting, and made setting blocks.  I think I'll be calling this quilt Garden Fence.  There'll be a light inner border and a red outer border.

 

[caption id="attachment_1128" align="aligncenter" width="404"] Garden Fence layout, hand-applique blocks from My Whimsical Quilt Garden[/caption]