Block Project - Block 12 - Nelson's Victory

I finally was able to get to the sewing today.  Wednesday was crazy busy and yesterday I was suffering from a case of the blahs.  But today I made it back to work on the blocks.

I have been thinking a lot about how just one block doesn't really show the versatility of a block.  You can't tell if there are secondary patterns, etc.  So I have been kicking around the idea of making multiple blocks of each to see if any secondary pattern emerges when they are put together.  I had intended to do so on today's block, but I got distracted by another issue.

Today made me really appreciate the value of doing a test block.  I had picked out the colors for the block and thought I'd like them, but when the block is put together I can see that my 'medium' is really too light and kind of washed out.  I think for this block to shine there really needs to be a bit more contrast.

I really enjoy making the blocks because I feel like I'm learning so much as I move along.

Without further musing on my part, today's block is Nelson's Victory which is block number 6 on page 57 of Jinny Beyer's The quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns.  This block is 4 inch finished.

I did the half square triangles by using the method where you cut two squares, draw a line and sew on either side of it and cut them apart so the first picture has the half square triangles already made.

Block Project - Block 11 - Lights and Shadows

I'm back on the block project now that I'm mostly healed up.  I did a couple of blocks before my surgery and didn't post them because the pictures were not very good.  As an aside, the baking pictures are all taken by my husband...you can tell who is the photographer in the family.  :)

I may post those at some point, but for now I'm going to start fresh.

The block is Lights and Shadows block number 5 on page 57 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns.  The block is 4 inch finished.

Block Project - Block 10 - Slanted Diamonds

Today's block is block 10 on page 57 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns.  Slanted Diamonds is the name of the block.

When I took the shots, I had miscut the diamond pieces.  So you will find that on this first picture the size of the patches is wrong.

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Here I've cut them down to the correct size.  I had to 'reverse sew' after I noticed the problem with the size.

Block Project - Block 9 - Goose Chase

Today's block is the last block on page 56 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns.Block 9 is listed as Goose Chase.

Here's the piecing sequence:

I really don't understand why Blogger is jacking with some of my images.  For some reason it rotates some of them when I upload them.

Block Project - Block 8 - Sailboat

I had a much easier time today with the block. I think yesterday was just a difficult day all the way around. This is block 8 on page 56 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns.

I'm still using my hand dyed fabric and today's block is 6 inch finished.

Here is the block piecing sequence:

Block Project - Block 7 - Duck's Foot

Today's block gave me fits.  I am sure it was just me having a rough day.  I want to redo the block again at another time.

The block is listed as block number 7 on page 56 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns.  In addition to having some issues with the block I also had some issues with the camera.

Here's the block piecing sequence:

Block Project - Block 6 - Birds in the Air

The block for today is block number 6 on page page 56 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns. The block name is Birds in the Air and I'm still using my hand dyed fabric.

Per usual, here is the block just cut out and laid in position to piece it:

Okay so Blogger is misbehaving and no matter what I do this image comes out in the wrong orientation.  As you will see from all the other photos, which it does not mess with!

Here's the block after the square in the upper right hand corner is pieced:

Here we have the triangles added first the right side:

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Then the left:

And finally here is the block all sewn together:

Block Project - Block 5 - Hidden Square

Today's block is called Hidden Square and you can find it on page 56 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns She has it listed as block number 5.

I'm still using my hand dyed fabric for these blocks.

Here is the block pieces cut and laid out:

Here's the first piece sewn:

Here's the second piece sewn:

And here's the completed block:

Block Project - Block 4 - Washington's Puzzle

Since I've been following along in Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns, some of you may have wondered what happened to block number 2.  Today's block is block number 2 on page 56 and it isn't quite as straight forward as the other blocks I've posted.

I'm easily able to use templates to create a block, but I was curious if I could come up with a method of cutting this block without using templates.  I knew that because of the odd shapes I couldn't just add the regular 1/4 inch for the seam allowance.  I had once seen an episode of Fon's and Porter where they pieced a star by cutting two fabric squares stacked which makes two blocks at once.  So I thought I'd try my hand at that.

First I stacked two squares of fabric and cut them apart in the block design:

I then went about piecing the blocks until I had two finished blocks:

At a glance, the blocks look right, but when you compare the block to the original drawing, the sizing is not correct.  I tried various sizes of squares and none of them worked out correctly.  Though one bonus of doing these blocks was finding out the pattern made by the two opposite colored blocks when places side by side:

So, since this didn't work as expected, I knew I had to go back to templates.  Although I could easily have machine pieced the block, I am also a fan of hand piecing.  I chose to do my templates on freezer paper and here is the block cut out using the freezer paper templates:

Since I was hand piecing, I didn't really care about being exact on the seam allowance.  Here's the block with each row finished:

Here is the block after joining the rows:

Here's the completed block before I squared up the seam allowance:

And here's the completed and squared up block:

Block Project - Block 3 - Homeward Bound

Today's pictures prove I'm not a photographer. :)

Hopefully I'll improve in time. I have a lot of blocks to go! Speaking of which, this year I'm all about not being in a hurry. I could post multiple blocks a day and I even considered that... but at this time, I just want to go at a leisurely pace. The emphasis for me is enjoying the process and not worrying about the end.

The block I picked for today is called Homeward Bound and this is the second time I've made one. The first time I realized that I pieced the block wrong and so the pictures were wrong. This time I managed to do it right.

Again, with the hand dyed fabric...

You can find the block on page 56 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns
It is block number 4.

Although I'm going along kind of in order I'm not necessarily going to keep to that and I may use other sources for blocks as well.

Now on to the less than stellar pictures!

Here's the block pieces:











Here is the block with the half square triangles sewn:











Here I have joined the bottom two pieces and the top two pieces:











And now we have the final block completed:

Block Project - Block 2 - Cotton Reels

Today's block is Cotton Reels which is block number 3 on page 56 of Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns.

Again, I'm using my hand dyed fabric, and since the book illustrates only the finished pattern with no piecing instructions, I'm using my own method. :) For this block I chose an 8 inch finished size and drafted it on paper first. I easily could have used Electric Quilt, but for some reason I'm finding it very satisfying to do this on paper.

Here's the block laid out after cutting:











Here's the block with the half square triangles sewn:












And now with the finished half square triangle pieces sewn to the adjoining squares:












And here is the finished square: