Friday, November 15, 2019

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

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

A Little of This and a Little of That

Last week had it's
up and downs.

The weather went from
one extreme to another.
 One day it was 70 degrees,
then the next day it was 8 degrees!

 It started snowing on a Sunday and when it
finally finished there was 8 inches on the ground.
 I didn't go anywhere until Friday.

****
Halloween can be an 
exciting and wild trip
for kids and families.


But here in Colorado
 it usually involves winter coats and boots.


****

Sewing wise....

I was wishing I was at Quilt Festival
along with so many others just
soaking up the inspiration
and doing some retail therapy.

****

Slowly, I
worked on a few things in between
shoveling the driveway.

Why, look, there's a snowblower.

.
But something didn't want to do it's %#@ job!!
Maybe next time I won't have to.

****

I silently joined in with Sharon Knightley's blog
and her new sew along from her book
Autumn Bouquet.


For a long time I've cut leftover small pieces
into different sized squares.
It was the perfect place to find all the pieces for


these cute 3" churn dash blocks.

****

Lastly, I tried to get caught up
watching all the Hallmark movies
I had previously recorded.

Lots of hand stitching opportunity to
get the next Star Upon Star finished.


Still working on it, as you can tell.

Look how different it looks turned around.


Guess it just proves there's nothing right or wrong.
It's just what appeals to you or
works with the other blocks.



As you can tell
there weren't really many downers
during the week.
Just needed to go with the flow
doing a little of this
and a little of that.
Minus the snow shoveling!

Until Next Time-
Kyle