Civil War Quilt

You may be aware that 2011 was the 150th Anniversary of the start of the American Civil War.

In my Tuesday class we have been making a Civil War Quilt. We have been making blocks from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Blog Each week I have taken 2 blocks and written instructions on how to make them. By February 7th we will have made 38 of the 53 on the blog. I have decided to use 36 of the blocks for my quilt. Each block will finish at 8 inches square.

The fabric is Portobello Market by 3 Sisters for Moda

 This is the layout I have chosen - although it may change

 My design wall is a piece of thick cheap wadding from Dunelm Mill which has been tacked to the wall. Gizmo likes to have a snooze whilst contemplating the layout of the blocks!




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Here are 4 New England blocks made by some of my students a few weeks ago. I took the photo to illustrate how different a block can look depending on the fabric choices.


I am now at the stage of sashings. On Saturday I cut 84 sashing strips out of the fabric I had left, to make scrappy sashings. On Sunday I decided I didn't like it so I cut out some more strips out of a red fabric I had bought for the borders. I stitched this with green cornerstones. This morning I have decided that I don't like the cornerstones, I think the sashing will look better without them! More reverse sewing today! I always change my mind a few times as I am making a quilt!

Wonky Trees

As you may already know I love liberated quilting and improvised piecing in particular.
In November I started a new patchwork and quilting class and decided to do some improvised piecing for the first few weeks just to get everyone loosened up.
A couple of weeks before Christmas we did wonky trees and these little beauties are what they produced!

I've got some really talented ladies in this class!

Christmas!!

I wanted to share the handmade gifts I made for Christmas - but had to wait until after the big day of course, in case they were spotted on my blog.
This year I made blackwork cushions and gift tags.

These were made for friends and my great neices, Freya and Elsie.