Installment 3 of Randy’s “Sow-A-Long” was released this week. I’m a bit pokey getting started on it, mostly because I was out of town, and ---had a gazillion errands to run yesterday, not to mention I was firmly attached to the couch Thursday evening. I didn’t get a chance to even ENTER the basement studio until after all my errands and appointments were done!
But before I go any further, I have to say it was so nice to pull up home on Thursday evening and see my oldest son and my DH riding motorcycles around the acreage ---laughing and having great guy-bonding-time. They’d been to play golf already, both saying that they sucked, but agreed that made it funnier, and they had a good time. To see my sons building deeper relationships with their father as they mature further into adulthood, spending time together by CHOICE, not by compulsion – is a wonderful thing!
Jason stayed until after dinner, and then he took off on his way back to Columbia. Short visit, but worth it!
Okay..so back to my blocks. I’m glad she is doing only 2 installments a month! I don’t think I could keep up any other way. And for those wondering, our direction has changed just a bit.
Due to complications that I won’t go into, ((Or discuss in blog comments or via email, believing our choice is for the best-- )) we are simply making our own sampler quilts with 6” blocks pulled from many public domain and historical block sources. NO. RED. TAPE.
You don’t need a book to follow along. You can do the blocks you want to do, or substitute in another block in the same size if there is one you don’t like. Just come play! For those curious enough to want to know more, you can check THIS POST. Blocks are released over at Randy’s Blog, Barrister’s Block on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month.
Find Randy's post for this week's installment HERE.
Randy will be posting HER cutting directions. I’ll follow along and tell you what I did with mine. You choose what works for you. We may decide to do Linky Parties, or we may not. We are keeping this really casual ---like I said – NO. RED. TAPE!
I've even added a tab to the top of the blog so you can check back for easier reference -- see that up there? MY JUBILEE QUILT! I'm totally undecided still on the name for this quilt, and lately have been leaning toward "Cheddar Jubilee" but we'll see how it goes.
See this pile of fabric?! These are shirt collars, yokes, and sleeves gifted to me for my birthday! Each time blocks are released I’m trying to grab pieces to use, and then tackle the leftovers from those pieces into submission! I pulled several and ironed them, not sure what I would use, or if I would use them all, but ironing helps!
This poor yoke and collar is ALL that is left of a completely filleted shirt!
I proceeded to take the collar band off the top of the yoke, removed the collar from the collar band, tossed the collar band, cut the collar apart on the top stitching, saved the collar pieces for the string bin, trimmed the shoulder seams and the seam at the base of the yoke and separated those two layers --- it’s kind of like de-boning a chicken when you think about it, but you would be amazed how much usable fabric is in just this part! ((And yes, this is still my ugly ironing board cover! I should do something about it, but really, it’s not high on my list of priorities right now….))
Three different shirt parts with a bit of cheddar background went into this Churn Dash!
I used my easy angle ruler and 2.5” strips for the half square triangles. Two 1.5” X 11” rectangles were used for the rail fence portions….that gave me an inch extra for squaring and trimming before cutting into 4 2.5” sections. The center square is 2.5” cut also. It’s fun to see who else is playing along and how their blocks are coming out too – some so different depending on what they choose to go where! I tried to minimize the amount of visible cheddar in this block, knowing that this quilt is going to be swimming in it as it is.
Broken Dishes Block!
Simply made of 16 half square triangle units. I used my easy angle ruler and 2” strips to make the half square triangles for this block. The triangles finish at 1.5” which just happens to be my favorite size in the world ;c) But I bet you knew that already!
UGLY IRONING BOARD!!! AUUGHHH!
Basket Block
I spent some extra time with this one because the original block we were working from didn’t have handles. You can see Randy’s block on her blog. A lot of baskets DON’T have handles, you know? But it just looked kinda nekkid on top….so I got EQ out and re-drafted it, moved some lines around, pieced in a handle, and sectioned the WHOLE THING off for paper piecing. If you want to try it, I’ve uploaded a PDF file HERE.
**Note** I've read from some that it didn't print out at 6" finished on their computers. That's beyond my control how different printers print ---so you may find yourself re-drafting it in the size you need ---but hey, it's free.
Before cutting my sections apart ((The pdf file has sections numbered, this was my first one, I left it un-numbered)) I put a dash of color in each colored spot so I know what goes where. I usually don’t leave seam allowance on my sections ---but they are here on this one. The un-colored sections are background – so for me that means CHEDDAR!
Here are my sections ready to be sewn together.
And here are my 3 little blocks, along with the 5 leader/ender bow-ties that were sewn during the making of the 3 little blocks!
I’m happy to say that I do NOT have to catch a 5:20am flight on Sunday! – I was wrong! My flight isn’t until 12:44pm – which is OH SO MUCH BETTER! The travel goddesses must be watching out for me this trip! Better get packing ---
