Dixie Diary Layout and Setting Concept

I decided on my layout a couple of months ago for the Dixie Diary BOM, but I wanted to wait until all of the blocks were completed before finalizing it.  I am use a light cream on cream graphic fabric for the sashing, light and/or embroidered pieces for the corner stones, a darker tan for a small inner border and a piano key border, also incorporating some embroidery pieces. I don't know what I will do yet for the largest outermost cornerstones yet.

Here's the concept laid out on my dining room table:

 

Does this layout work well?

Proposed layout of blocks

Updated option:

Cornerstone, sashing, piano key border concept

Cornerstone, sashing, piano key border concept

The sashing is 2", the inner border will be 1" finished, and the piano key border will finish at 4".

In my desire to try new things, I decided to do this piano key border, something i have never done. Currently I my plan is to alternate "keys" of light and dark. Is that too regular? Should I mix it up more - couple darks, couple lights few dark, etc.?

I think I like this - it will be a wall hanging in my bedroom. Should the piano key border stay or go?

All opinions are welcome!

Celtic Solstice - Slow and Steady Progress

It was a busy weekend for me, so I did not work on this project as much as I did last week.  In addition to this project, I met my Mom for a recital, went to a class to make a bag and a table runner, made the final block of the Dixie Diary BOM, worked on my two Dear Jane quilts, and picked up the last two blocks for another BOM!

For Celtic Solstice, I cut all the pieces I need for the 100 chevron blocks that will finish at 3", and I'd say I'm just over half way through sewing them up.

Here's where I was Sunday morning after the first 20:

I am saving the leftover triangles in the Bell jar - this is not tamped down at all.

And here's where I ended the day yesterday with 40 completely done, and 20 just needing to be pressed open.

The jar is filling up - I have to smash them into it now!.  Can you see the front block on the left?  It has both Christmas fabric and St Patrick's Day fabric in the green stripe!  I am not being very particular about pairing fabrics up, either. This was a happy suprise. I hope I can remember to place it by something made my orange fabric with Halloween candy corns.

Now that I am remembering to press the seams in each pair in the opposite direction, they are coming together. There are more pieces than it seems to me, so it is taking longer than I expected. No doubt that is exacerbated by the fact that I have 5,549 other projects in the work. Oh, and I work full time, too.

I am enjoying the process.

I wonder what Friday will bring?!

Dixie Diary - Month 12 - Turning Yankee

The story last month left us hanging to learn whether Sarah Morgan would swear allegiance to the Yankees in order to help her mother survive the war, and we learn this month that indeed they went to New Orleans. Her mother gave them "the what for", though. Read about it here!

And here is the block for this month:

This was a little challenging to construct because the embroidery is from a dish towel and not so sturdy, even with the muslin with which I always line the embroidery pieces. At the same time, once pressed the seams lay down quite nicely.

This concludes this BOM.  Now on to the setting for the quilt. I have a plan, and I hope I can execute it. It might be a while before I get to it with all the other projects on my plate. I think I will try to make a little portion of the setting every night and perhaps it will proceed more quickly than I think!

This has been a very fun project incorporating my grandmother's embroidery in the blocks. I never really knew her, though I am named for her -- my given name was her nickname. I'm not so sure I look like a "Eugenia" -- "Dena" suits me better! So this has been a therapeutic project, as well as an experiment in use of the embroidery. Success on both areas, so it's been a good year.

Thanks to Barbara Brackman for the journey through the Civil War through the eyes of young Sarah Morgan. Thanks to Dustin for moderating the Civil War Quilts flicker site where we shared our progress.

Dear Jane - Changed My Mind!

I have been a little ambivalent about using the bright colors in both of the Dear Jane quilts I am making. Sooooooo, I'm changing it up for one of them. The quilt using cream and charcoal for the backgrounds will now have shades of pink, fuschia and purples. Six of the blocks I have already done work in the new scheme, so only (!) 17 to redo. Ha!

It will be worth it. Here's the new scheme with some of the "old" blocks:

The striped fabric is my inspiration. I will use the brighter fabrics with the cream background and the more pastel fabrics with the grey background. The blocks will be arrange in concentric circles with the grey in the middle, then radiating out alternating background colors (and thus bright and pastel colors as well).

Grey-cream-grey-cream-grey-cream-grey / pastel-bright-pastel-bright-pastel-bright-pastel

I will keep the pieced border triangles in the grey/cream combinations. The non-pieced border triangles will likely be bright/medium shade or tone since the outermost blocks will be charcoal with pastel colors. Maybe I'll make them all in the medium range.

I went through my stash and I have a nice collection of fabrics to get me started.

This will make it more interesting for me to have two completely different color schemes going at the same time. 

And now I'm happy!

First Six Blocks

 Update:  Here's the first 6 blocks - I need more pastels, so I guess I just have to go shopping!

Quilt-a-Thon Weekend

I had a lovely Thanksgiving with my Mom and some friends on Thursday afternoon. Before I went, and after I got back, I worked on my Dear Jane blocks.  On Friday, Bonnie Hunter released Part 1 for her holiday mystery quilt, this year called Celtic Solstice. This was my project on Friday and Saturday.

 Dear Jane

Here are the first 13 blocks for my quilt with gray and cream backgrounds:

And here are the next 10 from the second installment of the Dear Jane club I'm in.  These are mostly paper pieced, a new skill for me. Tedious, but very precise outcome so it's worth it!

Second Month - 10 of 12 done with Black and White Backgrounds

Second Month - 10 of 12 done with Gray and Cream Backgrounds

I am amusing myself with the b/w versions by using fabric in some of the blocks that go with the name or with current events. For instance, the mustache fabric I used to honor the fact that it was "Movember" when I made it. That's a movement to focus on men's health where men grow a mustache in November, soccer ball fabric for the block called "Chris's Soccer Field", and utensils on fabric for the block called "Adelaine's Apron Strings". A little hidden humor amuses me!

I am including some of my grandmother's embroidery in the gray and cream version -- you can see two blocks in the picture from the first month that include some of the embroidery. I will scatter some in here and there, as the mood hits me.

I find it interesting to see how the blocks look in different color ways, too. The two picture of the second month have the blocks in the same positions. Interesting isn't it?

I still have 2 more center blocks to do, and 3 more border triangles. I know what I want to do with the borders for the gray/cream version, but I'm still deciding for the black and white version. More on that when I get more of them done!

Celtic Solstice

I worked all day Friday and much of Saturday on the Celtic Solstice Step 1.  We used the Tri Recs rulers seen in the first picture and made many units - orange and neutrals in the middle with blue side pieces on all of them. Here's my progress:

All orange fabrics used so far are shown here - 92 units

All neutral fabrics used so far are shown here - 96 units

 Step 1 is completed! Well, except for trimming dog ears. Maybe I'll do that and maybe I won't!

Check out what everyone else is up to here!

All in all, a very productive weekend!

During the next week, I am going to work on the baseball quilt I am designing and making for a friend who is going into the hospital next week for surgery.  I will not have Friday to sew, so I may not make as much progress on the mystery. I am going to try to keep up unless it starts to stress me. This is a FUN project, so I'll do all I can and finish up later if I need to!  Kudos to Bonnie Hunter for providing such a wonderful project for her fans each holiday for free.

Dixie Diary Month 11: Just Hominy

Perhaps corn was on my mind with the hominy, or maybe the bright sunshine, put me in a bright yellow mood for this block.  I think the graphic detail on the star pieces give it a bit of a modern flair.

I also tried some purple combinations -- if I had used purple, the middle would have been moved up and to the right slightly - you can see a bit of the purple flower in the upper portion of the block's middle square. I thought I liked it better until I took pictures and compared them, and settled on the yellow.

I had a little trouble with the Y seams, and I actually think now it is because I miscalculated and made my middle square a tad too small.  (The instructions were originally incorrect - easy typo to miss when you're posting two sizes of blocks.) Anyway - the block finished a bit too small, so I will need to add coping strips to it when setting it.  No big problem there - I've done it before and I suspect I will do it again!

There is just one more month to go for this very fun project. I have an ambitious (for me) setting and border planned so it may take into the New Year I expect before I finish this one.

I have so many projects going at the moment, but that's for another post.

Dear Jane - Month 1

My final scheme for the Dear Jane quilts is to make the blocks with cream and gray backgrounds in a pattern ringing out from the center along with the bright fabrics provided as part of the club I joined through Kelly Ann's Quilting, taught by Doreen Johnson. I will also sporadically insert embroidery work into these blocks.

My background fabrics are on order, so I made some samples to test out the patterns and to work with the small pieces.  Each of these blocks is made at 5 inches, finishing in the quilt at 4.5 inches. I did a couple of "practice" blocks using black and white fabrics as my background and bright fabrics in a variety of colors and hues. Then I did one practice block with some embroidery incorporated.


Well, I then proceeded to make all thirteen of the blocks posted for October in the black/white/bright scheme. I do love how they look.

And I really like this version with the embroidery incorporated.








Here's the black and white blocks placed in the locations where they would appear in the quilt:

You see where this is going, right?  Yes, I am going to proceed with making two versions of the Dear Jane.  I may realize the insanity of it all and stop one of them part way through.  Hey, they're just 4.5" squares, right?

And here's the rest of the blocks with the black and white backgrounds: