Progress on the process of creating the Civil War quilt
As I've taken the 'Process Pledge' promising to discuss more throughly my process in creating a quilt or piece of art, I thought I should post about the progress I'm making on the Civil War quilt.
Though this particular project is a year long one and I don't know what patterns will be posted as the 52 weeks pass, I've decided to do a quilt-as-you-go quilt. I've decided on this for a few reasons. One, I'd like to have it completed at the end of the year instead of as 52 individual blocks left collecting dust in the corner of my sewing room with good intentions to completed it, but don't. And two, since it's a reproduction style quilt I'd like to hand quilt it. Hand quilting a large quilt can take AGES. I know, I've done it. Doing this one as a quilt-as-you-go will ease the burden of lots of quilting at once and spread it out over the whole year and make it a very managable project to take with me and work on. So, now that you know my reasoning, heres my progress.
First, I squared off the 8 1/2 inch block so all the blocks are exactly the same size. I then decided to add a 1 1/2 inch boarder around the outside of each block. This boarder is the same fabric for every block for continunity purposes. I added this because I need fabric to connect everything together once they're quilted and the 8 1/2 inch block just didn't give me enough to play with.
I then drew a quilt motif on the block. This motif will be the same for all the blocks - again for continunity.
I then sandwiched the back, batting and top block together and basted. I decided to use a natural, off-white back and 100% wool battering in keeping with the antique look of the quilt.
I've quilted and completed one block so far and I'm happy with the outcome. The real 'proof of the pudding' will be when all 52 blocks are completed and I have to put it all together. But I won't have to worry about that until the end of the year.
Though this particular project is a year long one and I don't know what patterns will be posted as the 52 weeks pass, I've decided to do a quilt-as-you-go quilt. I've decided on this for a few reasons. One, I'd like to have it completed at the end of the year instead of as 52 individual blocks left collecting dust in the corner of my sewing room with good intentions to completed it, but don't. And two, since it's a reproduction style quilt I'd like to hand quilt it. Hand quilting a large quilt can take AGES. I know, I've done it. Doing this one as a quilt-as-you-go will ease the burden of lots of quilting at once and spread it out over the whole year and make it a very managable project to take with me and work on. So, now that you know my reasoning, heres my progress.
First, I squared off the 8 1/2 inch block so all the blocks are exactly the same size. I then decided to add a 1 1/2 inch boarder around the outside of each block. This boarder is the same fabric for every block for continunity purposes. I added this because I need fabric to connect everything together once they're quilted and the 8 1/2 inch block just didn't give me enough to play with.
I then sandwiched the back, batting and top block together and basted. I decided to use a natural, off-white back and 100% wool battering in keeping with the antique look of the quilt.
I've quilted and completed one block so far and I'm happy with the outcome. The real 'proof of the pudding' will be when all 52 blocks are completed and I have to put it all together. But I won't have to worry about that until the end of the year.
Comments
Post a Comment