New Orleans House Project

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Hospital Sketches: Periwinkle Wreath

So...Barbara Brackman is doing another BOM on her Civil War Quilts blog.  

The theme for this BOM is Hospital Sketches - looking at the roles of women in Civil War hospitals.  

I knew I would be participating, because - historical appliqué patterns AND a hospital setting!  


I don't think I've really talked about my profession on the blog.  Yup, I'm a nurse, and I originally trained at an old-fashioned hospital-based nursing school about 100 years ago.  That's my graduation picture - we had finally given up wearing starched white pinafores and graduated to more modern nurses' uniforms.

While I waited for the first BOM block to be published, I debated over what type of fabrics to use.  My love for blue and white quilts was my final inspiration, because I've never done a blue and white appliqué quilt.
I assembled a basket full of potential fabrics, some of which were leftovers from other projects and some new and uncut fat quarters.  I also decided to keep my background fabric fairly simple and purchased yardage in a cross-weave type off-white fabric.

The first block, Periwinkle Wreath, was a tribute to Louisa May Alcott, who served in a Union hospital during the war.  I won't give away her story, because you should hop over and read it!

As much as I'd like to be doing hand-stitched appliqué, I knew I'd NEVER finish the blocks in a timely fashion.  I used freezer paper and starch to prep the shapes, and machine appliqué using invisible thread to stitch them in place.  Yippee for finishing!

FYI, if you have a Facebook account, there is a Facebook group for the BOM if you want to see all the different blocks.


Sunday, February 17, 2019

Meanwhile: Red Schoolhouses

The last time I wrote about my red schoolhouse quilt blocks, they looked like this:

Shortly after posting that picture, I went ahead and added white sashing between all the blocks, creating a small quilt top with six schoolhouse blocks.

Then I was stuck.  I auditioned several red fabric borders, but didn't like the look.  I also tried some red and white HST configurations, but I didn't like those, either.

I sat back and pondered my original idea for the quilt: it was meant to be a wallhanging for my sister.  She has several of my quilts already, but says she doesn't have the wall space to hang them for display (forget the fact they are all bed-sized quilts and should be used on a bed - she wants to hang them, instead).

The schoolhouse wallhanging is already well over 40 inches wide, and any added borders are just going to make it bigger and more difficult to hang on a wall.  What if I (gulp!) cut off two of the schoolhouse blocks and made a four block quilt?

It only took a matter of minutes to rip out a few seams, stitch up a few injured seams, and press everything into shape.

Now the red border looks fine, and the quilt is a manageable wallhanging size.  

Since my inspiration quilt was hand-quilted, I decided this one should be hand-quilted as well.

After visiting one of my favorite quilting resources (Quilting with Style by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham), I designed a simple cable design to fit in all the sashed areas.  I also worked out a fan design for the borders.  Everything else will be outline quilted, with maybe some improv quilting here and there.

Now to get the quilt marked and basted.  Should I start quilting it immediately or put it in the queue behind some finished quilts that need binding?  Thoughts to ponder...






Saturday, February 9, 2019

Taking a Dip in the Yellow Scraps

It's a new month and a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This time we'll be using up some yellow scraps, but it appears my stash of yellow scraps and chunks is pretty slim.  I've completed my planned blocks for the month, so I'll just be fishing around for a few additional yellows to make the remaining Tiny Tuesday blocks for the month.

I already have enough Burgoyne Surrounded blocks featuring yellow fabrics, so I won't be making any of those this month.

I needed two additional Sugar Bowl blocks for my planned quilt. 

They joined up with the previous yellow Sugar Bowls.  Only six more rainbow colors to go before I'll have all the blocks I need.

Two-inch strips and squares teamed up to make some 4-patch blocks.

They'll go in the stash of 4-patch blocks from previous RSC stitching.  There are no actual plans for these yet, but eventually inspiration will strike.

I'm still keeping up with the Tiny Tuesday blocks - it's kinda fun to look forward to stitching a new block every Tuesday evening!  Since I had used up a bunch of two inch scraps on 4-patch blocks, I had to dig into the gold scraps for one of my TT blocks.  

I may be low on yellow scraps, but plenty of other RSC quilters will have scrappy yellows to share.  Check them out at our weekly RSC link-up!