Civil War Love Letters Quilt

After doing the little blocks for Circa 2016 I got the urge to used some reproduction fabrics again.  Haven't done much with those fabrics for a long while so dug out my Love Letters blocks from years ago.  Had printed out the foundation papers for a lot of blocks and found one half made.....so finished that and then did 2 more.  They do take extra time but  look good.  So I discovered I have 19 blocks now and a couple of strays that could be from Love Letters or could be from Civil War Diaries as I got both books at the same time.  So will make a block now and then and see where I end up.

Designer Mystery Quilt

I just couldn't resist this Designer Mystery quilt from here. Moda fabric is always just so lovely. This is the first block which I just finished. I have block two but haven't even opened the package yet. It looks lovely already!


Last week I received my package of Civil War fabrics from an online swap. Most of the fabrics I don't have, so that was a real bonus. Now I have 30 or more new fabrics for my Civil War era quilts. What a great swap.



I decided to put my Love Letters blocks up on the design wall so I could see it grow. I keep picking out the easy ones to piece. I'll probably curse later that all I have left are too hard!

I'm breaking my neck to do some wholecloth quilts so I bought some pre-printed ones to learn on. My machine is still down and I'm hoping to have the part to repair it tomorrow so I can make a start on this one. Later I'm going to design my own, but not patient enough to do that at this stage.I went to a local quilt show on the weekend and these batiks just jumped off the table into my bag. How could I resist such yummy fabrics.


If you would like a chance at a mystery gift go to Farmyard Crafts and have a look.

Use It Or Lose It

Went to an Applique class yesterday with Dianne Johnston. After I had booked the class I decided I really didn't want to go, but now I'm really pleased I did. I'm not one for doing too much handwork even though I love Cross Stitch. I love the look of Applique but always think it's too slow for me. I'm more fast and furious and just love machine piecing. But hopefully I'll change and do some now. If the class did nothing else at least it motivated me to pick up some Redwork last night (only started it a year ago) and did about 3/4 of a block.

Applique started

Today I decided to do some more Civil War Love Letters blocks. You know, I figured out I have made around 80 quilts since I started quilting but at the moment I feel like a raw beginner. Remember the Tri Recs ruler I lost and then found? Well got that out today to do these blocks and discovered it was the wrong ruler. I needed the Companian Angel. don't I feel like a dill. It seems so long since I have done any sewing that I guess that old saying applies - Use It Or Lose It!!!

Second Term

Numerous Excuses

Infernally Ungrateful

Back Home

Another Battle

Something Old, Something New

Long time since I posted. I had cataracts removed and lenses inserted into my eyes and so haven't done too much in the last month. I did a little sewing, but will write about that later in this post. Mostly sitting around and watching TV. I acutally got around to sorting out my cupboards in the sewing room and found lots of things I didn't even know I owned. So no progress on Dear Jane or Civil War quilts. These three blocks from Love Letters were completed before the op.

Florida Has Seceded

Pretty Long March

My Greatest Trial

I know I promised myself that I was going to get stuck into my UFO's this year, but after I came back from the Sydney Show I just had to start one of the quilts from Rememberances. A friend suggested I could start one new quilt for every two UFO's I did..........well no UFO's done but a new one started. Doesn't it look gorgeous!!! Had to make what felt like thousands of 1/2 square triangles and I followed the method in the book (something I do't often do). There was an error in the instructions and I discovered I had to make twice the number of small units than in the instructions. So I thought I would use my Tri Recs rulers for that, but alas they were nowhere to be found.....until I cleaned out my cupboards. By then it was too late and I cut them out the same way. All the blocks and rows are sewn and just now need to sew the top together. I'm so organised with this one that I have enen got the backing - it arrived today.

Peaceful Time

Now in my clean up I found my Tri Recs rulers - in a box with lots of repo fabrics and lots of 1/2 square triangles and stripped fabric. I remebered that when I got the rulers I stripped lots of fabrics and made these up for future use....and forgot about them.
Also in the box was a heap of triangles and rows sewn for a Thousand Pyramid quilt. I had made one and managed to cut far too many triangles and have enough for two quilts (as you do).


So I decided to sew the 1/2 square triangles up into a Pinwheel Quilt. Now wasn't that a bad decision. In my half blind state I managed to break a couple of needles and 1/4 inch seams? 1/4 inch seams? What 1/4 inch seams! When I pressed the seams they were pretty shabby, but I wasn't unpicking. So gave up in the end and went back to the TV till my eyes got better. But the sage didn't end there - when my eyes had improved a little more I thought I would put the quilt together. So I laid out the quilt and marked the rows. The proceeded to put the quilt together. But I managed to sew row 4 to row 3, instead of row 3 to row 4. and row 7 to row 6, instead of row 6 to row 7. This quilt was never meant to be - again I refused to unpick. So I christened the quilt - My Blind Quilt. The phot below was before I sewed the rows together, so it doesn't show the mess I made of it.

My Blind Quilt

You would have thought that with this many pairs of glasses I could sew a seam wouldn't you??????

And now for my Something Old

Feeling guilt about starting more quilts I decided I had beter get some UFO's out of the way. About 18 months ago I cut wadding and started getting backings done for those quilts that just needed quilting. And they stayed in the cupboard ever since. So this week I decided to do something about them. So dragged this one out and found some backing and today loaded it onto the machine. I took part in an internet group Round Robin about 6? Or 7? Or 8 years ago?

Round Robin

So I started to load the quilt and put on a bobbin to wind - only to find my machine in this condition. Now I'm in a panic. Looks like it's it's going to blow up. So, so much for getting UFO's done.

Civil War Quilts

My Civil War Love Letters and Civil War Diaries books arrived and just had to make a couple of blocks. I drew up a couple for foundation paper piecing in EQ6. I started with some easy blocks and need to catch up with the other girls. I have one customer quilt to do and then I'm free. Have so many quilts I want to finish........and tons more I want to start!! this Patchwork and Quilting sure is an obsession.

13 Enthusiasm

97 Jersey Boys

35 The Fall Of Richmond

31 Pleasant Campaign

53 Hospitals

55 A Beautiful Picture

75 Sickness