Friday, January 21, 2011

Inspiration

Inspiration come from everywhere. I'm searching through my quilt books right now to find blocks that scale to 8" to make a new sampler quilt. It started out as a block a week project.

One of the members of Quiltville Chat mentioned the Civil War Quilts blog by Barbara Brackman which is showcasing a block a week for a year to make a sampler quilt. I was interested and decided to participate. But you know me - impatient! One block a week? Not fast enough!

Also this week's block was applique, and I really wanted a pieced sampler. So, I started looking through all my books for a substitute block. I found many, many possibilities. And I started sewing.

I have 22 blocks so far.

Yeah, I know - obsessive much?

But aren't they cute?


An 8 inch block is perfect - large enough not to make you crazy piecing it but small enough to complete quickly. And you can include a lot of 8" blocks in a sampler quilt. One of the best sources for these blocks - surprise! - is the book "The Civil War Diary Quilt" by Rosemary Youngs. I'm so glad I had it. It has a bunch of block designs but no patterns so you have to draft them yourself. Not a problem for me, but I was really expecting patterns and cutting directions, or a CD with the book containing the templates like in "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt". This book just tells you to trace templates from the drawings. How chintzy.

3 comments:

*karendianne. said...

Wow! Check you out. These are amazing. Truly, exciting and impressive. :) Something fun to take in over coffee that's for sure.

Linda said...

Great job! I love them all. I just found out about this and printed off the 4 patterns. I'll work on these this week. Yours look great. I have that book and have done 7 rows of the quilt. There is a CD available for sale by the author and there is also a Yahoo group that follows her. Interested? Type in Civil War Diary Quilt under groups through Yahoo and you can get there. You have to sign up for Yahoo if you are not already a Yahoo member but there is no charge for that or the group. Have fun and I'll play catch up this week. I'm working on a UFO right now that I can't stop thinking about. Hugs, Linda

Kathryn said...

Um, yes, just a bit obsessive, but in a nice way. Those 8" blocks are a nice size - not too big. I like those more muted colours too - the pattern does the work so you're not being bamboozled by the colour as well.