Vintage Churn Dash Blocks

Many of you know

the simple pleasure I get from

taking a vintage quilt top or blocks,

dissembling it,

and then hand stitching it back together again.

Some how,

 some where, I acquired a set of

22 vintage pink and white striped churn dash blocks.

They have pleasantly sat in my sewing room 

for years,

patiently, waiting for my attention.

Finally....

My first thoughts were that the blocks

were in perfect shape.👍

Some of the fabrics are brittle,

but no holes or worn areas.

I would set the blocks together with

a simple sashing. 👍

My original thought had been with

a sweet double pink repro.

I would be able to sew them together quickly

because they were close enough in size. 👎

They looked close, but after careful measuring,

not close enough or straight enough.

I wasn't going to have to take these blocks apart. 👎

Guess what?

I began taking the blocks apart.

****

A churn dash is really a simple nine patch block.

So I left the pieced segments together

and redrew the sewing line 

on the 9 individual segments.

You can see the original stitching lines

 and now

my new stitching lines.

Just enough to make it all off.

It would be very difficult to resew these on the machine

with the uneven seam allowances.

This is a center section put back together.

Look how uneven it appears on the front,

but on the back the sewing lines line up.

It really didn't take too long

to hand stitch the blocks back together.

20 blocks all the same size!

It was then that I realized 

that the original idea of a

sweet double pink repro for the sashing 

wouldn't even be close to working.

With only the black and white shirtings

and the pink and white stripes, 

my color options seem a bit limited.

I finally settled on this gray print

designed by Jeanne Horton

from her "Farmhouse Living" line.

It went along with the style of the vintage blocks

and was the perfect color to surround 

those happy striped blocks . 

 I had another stripe that fit in

for the corner stones

and a wonderful piece of

Di Ford fabric for the outer border.

I love the idea that the original quilt maker

wanted to make a fun pink and white striped quilt.

Look at the variation of

fabrics she used.

Why were the blocks left undone?

Missed sized blocks?

Sashing choice?

Her attention was diverted?

Reasons then and reasons now.

Whatever the reasons,

the quilt top is finally together.

Aren't those blocks wild?!?

I left the block combos just as they

had originally been placed. 

It's a delicious 

Christmas candy cane assortment.

Anyone want to take a guess on

dating these fabrics?

The shirtings, I think, 

are late 1800's - early 1900's?

Not sure about the stripes.

What do you think?

When winter finally settles in,

I'll hand quilt this lovely.

Until next time-

Kyle