A new Block of The Month project

At my little quilt shop I am awaiting the arrival of the new Patriots in Petticoats block of the month fabrics from Windham Fabrics. I'm very excited about this beautiful new quilt project for
2011. They sent me a kit to make the sample quilt so I have been having a great time sewing up the first blocks. This is the best part of my job as a shop owner - I get to work with the newest fabrics on the newest projects!! So, here are the first two sample blocks that will go out as a kit in January.



They were fun to make since the patterns are well written and illustrated. All easy going - I can hardly wait to have time to get to the next ones. Here are the fabrics that will be used in the first six blocks. They are just wonderful 1840's reproductions.

Did you know you can click on the photos and you'll get a larger view? Pretty cool! I just love
this blogging opportunity. There's a lot going on in my sewing room and at the shop that I
want to share here in the months to come. Uh oh - might be a New Year's resolution to sew and blog. I can live with that!

Using Wonderful Early Reproduction Prints

For many years I have been intrigued by the hexagon and mosaic quilts from the early 19th century. The first ones to catch my eye were in the wonderful book 'Calico and Chintz' from the Smithsonian exhibition. While beautiful, they looked intimidating to construct. I checked into how to make Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts and found the whole hexagon idea a bit too time consuming. English Paper Piecing was very interesting, just not the method for me. But luckily I recently discovered an excellent hexagon template made from a durable, reusable plastic that was very easy to use. Yes, I finally found Quilt Patis! Now they're in the shop!

So at last I could use the most amazing collection of historic prints to re-create an early hexagon quilt! In 2002 Timeless Treasures produced a collection of fabrics reproduced from one of the honeycomb style quilts in the Smithsonian collection. I happened to discover it and ordered it for my quilt shop. I have kept a little of the fabric all this time in the hopes that one day I could make that quilt. As it grows, I'll post . It sure makes a wonderful hand work project for evening.

Below is another project from a wonderful reproduction collection of the 1820's. The fabrics came out from Windham a couple of years ago. This pattern is from Betty Neff's little pattern company, Pennsylvania Quilter, and really shows off the amazing border stripe print. I'm having a great time making this sample of the pattern, and have enough fabric to put together a couple of kits for the shop.


First I used the paper foundation piecing pattern for the corners of the star blocks, choosing colors from the border print fabric. It took a while since I had to make 15 star blocks. The next step was to make the quarter-square triangle patches for the points of the star - my technique is better but still needs work to get them to come out right every time.

Next step was choosing the gold setting triangles for each star block. Can hardly wait to get these together and set with the horizontal sashing stripe - it is really beautiful.

So I'm back in blogging mode with high hopes to stay with it. Next up is the Jack's Chain project with historical notes and step by step construction details. What a fun 30's quilt!