Friday, April 23, 2010

The Third Block


Cotton Boll - a block to recall the slave economy. Level of difficulty: Beginner.

Well this block came together a little easier, I took my time and measured each seam. I am not totally in love with the fabrics, but I am happy of the way it turned out.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Second Block

Lost Ship - a block to recall the ocean voyage. Level of difficulty: beginner.
Well I finally finished block number two and it only took me two tries. The first time I sewed it, I tried to use some shortcuts, that didn't work, I also did not cut the squares to the correct sizes of the pattern. After 4 days - I am happy with the result, level of difficulty beginner, HA obviously not for me. Two down, eighteen to go.






Monday, April 19, 2010

Bidri Quilt




This is another one of my finished projects. It is done in black and white. I am drawn to black and white patterns - I like the stark contrast of the opposites. The quilt is titled Two Horses because in order the have enough embroidery blocks I had to repeat a design and I chose the horse mostly because Philip and I are both horses in Chinese astrology.




Gavin's Quilt




Since I did not get the block quite finished this weekend, I decided to post some of my finished projects. This is a quilt I did for my niece's 2nd son. As you can see from the date on the label he was born last August.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

The First Block


Chained Star - a block to recall capture in Africa.
Well, here's the first block. Level of difficulty is "skilled" I'm not too thrilled about the outcome, the points of my star are not well. . . pointed. It's a little puffy and does not really lay flat. Perhaps after I do all twenty blocks I will be "skilled" enough to do it better. One down nineteen more to go!

Friday, April 16, 2010

New Project

I initially started this blog so that my friends and family could see what I was working on. I was quite proud of my dollhouse although it took me years to get around to starting it and awhile to finally finish it. I am quite proud of the outcome. And as seems to be my habit once I finished the project it was time to move on to other things. Even though I have tons of stuff related to miniatures - so if any of you have picked up the hobby call me, perhaps I have some stuff you need.

For the past year or so I have been sewing and quilting. I have finished about six quilts so far, haven't gotten around to posting them yet, two that I am working on that are almost finished, and a couple more in the cutting and planning stage.

But I have a new project - I like to read and am addicted to the Internet as many of you know, if you e-mail me something I am going to "google it." Anyway, I have decided to make a underground railroad quilt. As the story goes, and there is some controversy on this - secret messages in the form of quilt patterns aided slaves escaping the bonds of captivity in the Southern states before and during the American Civil War. Here's a couple of links on the subject. http://www.osblackhistory.com/quilts.php; http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0205_040205_slavequilts.html; http://www.amazon.com/Facts-Fabrications-Unraveling-Projects-First-Person/dp/1571203648

I couldn't resist, this encompassed three loves, reading, history and sewing - such a deal! I purchased the book "Facts and Fabrication" because it seemed to be one which showed the most blocks with the best instruction on making them. I have decided to make a try and make a quilt of the blocks - the blocks are categoried by level of difficulty so some of them may end of being a mess. My goal is a block a day - or at least a block every two days. Because life sometimes gets in my way, I am giving myself 40 days to piece the blocks (there are 20 blocks). I considered using fabrics from the Civil War period but that was just not me - so I am doing my with ethnic/African fabrics. I started my first block last night, so lets see how this goes.