Welcome to week 419 of the Free Motion Mavericks linking party. I hope that you are all enjoying what ever February is bringing 😊 We are expecting freezing rain this afternoon, so it's a perfect day for staying indoors and stitching!
HST and Hourglass blocks
I was so focused on making half square triangles (HST) that I was surprised that they didn't end up looking like hourglass blocks! Wow - I really do need to do more traditional piecing!😁 As always, Google to the rescue! I found Missouri Star's Hourglass Quilt Block video and was back in business (see Related links below).
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| Round 3 - Hourglass block |
Since I needed to ensure that my centre block and first border didn't disappear after making the very colourful wonky star row in Round 2, I used more fabric from Round 1. It really does ground the quilt. At first, I only made one row of hourglass to make sure that I liked it. After I saw the results, I make more hourglass blocks and put the rest of the borders together.
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| Round 3 - trying out the hourglass block on one side |
What I learned
- I've been very scattered lately. This is fine for mindful embroidery (which I've been doing tons of!) but not very good for piecing blocks.
- My second batch of hourglass blocks are not quite the same size as my first batch because I trimmed my HSTs and was wondering why they didn't look like hourglass blocks! I even cut through one HST thinking that I could turn it into an hourglass 😒. Turns out that really not how you make an hourglass block!!!
- Thank goodness for Missouri Star videos. Unfortunately she didn't address how to sew these blocks together! It was only as I was finishing up my last row that I figured out that if I had ironed each block in a different direction, that they would have nested up. I really fought with a few of those blocks to get them sewn up!
- Next week is supposed to be a quiet one, so I hope to take more time figuring out Round 4 and get this quilt squared up too!
- I just been reminded of something that I know but didn't think about when I was having a hard time fitting my hourglass blocks into the rows. In her Round 3 post, Quilting Gail suggested that if you're not sure if the blocks will fit, to add a blank block or two to make it fit. That's what I did in Round 2 - I wish I had remembered this option. I'm writing this down here so that I will remember it! Thanks Gail!
- Update: Feb 13 This weekend I was in a more focused and patient mood so I un-did my bottom row and put it back together again with new hourglass blocks. I also fixed my MacGyvered end blocks - it looks much better now. I'm going to post a picture on Instagram but you'll read all about it in my next post.
Related links
- Missouri Star: The Hourglass Quilt Block
- Wonky stars and a hand-made journal, February 04, 2023
- Stay At Home Round Robin, January 28, 2023
Linking party
I'll be linking up to the SAHRR link up for this week with Chris! Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put your foot down, Patchwork and Quilts, Oh Scrap, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2023, Design Wall Monday,
Free Motion Mavericks
Did you get a chance to do some FMQ this week? I didn't, but if you did, I hope that you'll consider linking up! Last week Melva made a Colorado wall hanging. I love how she attached prairie points to make the mountains and then echoed them and added more mountains in the back. Very cool!
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| Melva's Colorado wall hanging |
Sandra has been doing some great work for this year's Project Quilting. For the third challenge, she made a lovely baby quilt using the 54-40 or Fight block pattern. It was really interesting to read about what the block stood for and how the "54-40" line would have changed history had it gone ahead! As usual, Sandra did a wonderful job quilting it with flowers, leaves and loops!
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| Sandra of mmm quilts and her Project Quilting 14.3 baby quilt |
Gail made a lovely batik basket for her “One Gift a Month” 2023 Challenge. Those Island Batik fabric are just so yummy!
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| Gail's lovely batik basket |
It's now your turn to link up!
I like the big splashes of color. Your summary is always so informative too, part of the "learning" of your blog title. I haven't posted mine yet but finished them
ReplyDeleteLeeAnna
Thanks so much LeeAnna. I really love the way that your quilt is going. There is a lot of learning going on because I haven't done regular piecing in a long time. It is coming back to me! Take care.
DeleteWell, in the end your hourglass blocks got done and they look lovely!
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy. I wasn't going to but I re-did my bottom row. No use making a quilt if I'm not happy with it. It's still far from perfect, but that was never my intent :-)
DeleteYour hourglass blocks look fantastic! There's alway something to learn every day, isn't there? And, you figured out the pressing all on your own!! That's so rewarding!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gail. It's great to learn but sometimes it's also fun when it all works out without a hitch :-) Wait till you hear about my flying geese adventure lol!
DeleteIt's been a hot minute since I've made any Hourglass blocks, Andree, so I'll be right there with you looking up how to get them sewn! Bringing the bold floral around the corner made Round 2 make more sense. LOVE that bright pink and green!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you figured out how to incorporate the colors into the new border. Looks great!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. I'm glad that it's working out. It really is because of comments and blogs that I've read during this challenge. Sometime obvious things just aren't so obvious when you're in the middle of it!
DeleteI think you made it work, which is what this is all about. I like that you brought that fabric in from round 1 to add to the cohesiveness. The fun thing is we all learn something each time we make a quilt, don't we?
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathleen. Yes, lots and lots of learning! I really am enjoying the process and most of the results :-)
DeleteYou did a great job of balancing out the colors, I like the bold pink and green hour glass that then fade to your neutral print hour glass blocks. Very fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate - I hadn't thought about it that way. I ended up changing them. I was just so surprised that the fabric with the multi-coloured dots were fading away. Not at all what I expected!
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