Welcome to my stop in the
Blocks From the Past Quilt Along! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the button in my sidebar. Basically a bunch of us (click on the button to see who) are sewing our way through this old book of classic blocks to make our own modern sampler quilts. They are all going to turn out so different and unique!
If you've been following (or sewing) along with the quilt-along, you probably know by now that these blocks are kind of intricate, but mostly TINY (finishing at 6")! And the author's method for creating HSTs (which there are a lot of) is to cut two triangles and sew them back together. None of us seems to be a huge fan of this method. So before I show you my blocks, I have a few tips for working with teeny pieces:
First of all, I like to press all my seams open when I'm working with lots of seams in a small block. It just helps cut down on bulk and allows the block to lie flatter.
Secondly, trim OFTEN! Like after every pressing. Try to keep those edges straight, but don't over trim!
Third (and this one probably seems like a no-brainer, but it's something I don't always do) - line up ALL the edges of the two pieces you are sewing together. Usually I just line up the edges I'm sewing together, but if I also make sure the tops/bottoms/other sides are aligned, my blocks will come out more accurate in the end. Hopefully that makes sense...
Fourth, use starch!
And lastly, there is of course the whole HST issue. I make all of my HSTs according to
THIS AWESEOME TUTORIAL at Blossom Heart Quilts. If I'm making 4, I use the alternative method (my favorite). If I'm making 2, I use the traditional method. The wonderful thing about Alyce's tutorial is that she provides all the measurements needed for pretty much any size HST you would like to make. And she leaves room for trimming - which is a super big deal to me. I ALWAYS make my HSTs a little big and then trim them down.
NOW. Let's talk about my blocks. I decided to use a layer cake of "On Our Way" paired with a green solid for background and sashing. The green is a little out of my comfort zone. I'm pretty much a white background kind of girl. But I decided that the point of this quilt-along is to stretch myself and try new things. So here goes.
Also. I made each of my blocks twice. Once according to the instructions in the book, and once again using some kind of alternate method. I guess I have a hard time following the rules all the time.
This week I will be talking about the blocks on pages 29 (Hovering Hawks), 30 (Ocean Waves), and 72 (Swirl).
Hovering Hawks, page 29
I thought you might like to see how my blocks compare to the original versions in the book. Just so you can see how colors and fabric choices can change the look of a quilt dramatically. :)
The original version of this block is the yellow one. I wish I had use fabrics with more contrast, though. It's amazing how much of a print design is lost when you cut it up into teeny tiny pieces...
For the second version (the red one), I made the block entirely out of HSTs, rather than piecing a bunch of triangles together. There were more seams in this block, but I still think I like it the best. This block was also fun because there are lots of alternate ways to arrange the four quadrants and I went with something a little different for my block.
Ocean waves, page 30
Once again, I made the second version of this block entirely out of HSTs, rather than sew two big triangles onto the sides. This time I like the book version better. Although I did cut my triangles a little big and trimmed them down to size as I sewed them on. I was pretty worried about my block coming out too small.
Once again, the second block just doesn't have enough contrast. :s
Swirl, page 72
Alright, so I didn't even make either versions of this block the way the book recommended. The author created ALL of her applique blocks using needle turn applique, which is kind of insane. There are some teeny tiny pieces in this book and I am NOT good at needle turn applique. Although I will admit that I did try it once with another block. I'll show it to you soon.
For my swirl blocks, I used two of my favorite applique methods. For the first block (the red checks) I just traced the block onto my fabric, glued it onto my background with a glue stick, and stitched it on with a 1/4-1/2 inch seam allowance. I'm going to leave the edges raw because I want this block to get a little raggy once it is washed.
For the second block, I used a method I picked up during the Hello Sun quilt-along over at
April Mae's blog. First, I pieced together some randomly sized strips, then fused my "fabric" to some Heat N Bond and traced my design. Then I fused it to my background and created the "sketch" look by stitching around the design three times in black thread. I love this method of applique.
And there you have it! I'm working on a few more blocks from the book and hoping to end up with a babyish size quilt by the time I'm finished.
And because I promised to share it with you, here's my needle turn applique block:
After a frustrating attempt at doing one of the blocks regular size, I finally had to pick a different block (which was difficult to do since most of the blocks have flowers on them and this is supposed to be for a boy quilt...). I went with the Indiana Rose block on page 75. I blew it up about 200 percent or so, but then I could only fit about half of the block onto my 6" square. I think it turned out looking kind of cool and much more little boy appropriate. I used the awesome
Freezer Paper/Starch method from Gigi's Thimble and it really wasn't too bad. I could maybe do it again with simple (and larger) shapes. :)
Anyway. Are you working on any blocks from this quilt along? Link up your progress over at
My Quilt Diet.
