The February block for Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches BOM was Virginia Cockscomb. The inspiration for the block was Robertson Hospital in Richmond, Virginia and its matron, Sally Louisa Tompkins.
The cockscomb pattern has been on my appliqué bucket list for some time. I'd still like to make an appliqué quilt with several cockscomb blocks - Anita Shackelford's Cockscomb Variations (scroll down to view the book) has been calling my name for several years.
My fabric choices didn't work out as well as I thought they would - the white background fabric in the circles gets kind of lost against the light blue cockscomb fabric. It's a learning experience!
All the convex (outie) curves in this block almost did me in! I was struggling to get even curves on the light blue frond - too many pointy edges instead of smooth curves. I was ready to give up on freezer paper prep for machine appliqué and resort to hand appliqué for this block. As I contemplated switching techniques, I did some online research on hand appliqué and discovered I should not be clipping the outside curves. Instead, the curves should be trimmed close to the seam line and the fabric smoothed around the outer curve. I tried that technique on my freezer paper templates, and was able to get much smoother curves. Like I said - a learning process!
Now that I look at my finished block, I think it looks a little bare. Some quilters added additional items to their cockscomb blocks - birds being the most popular addition. I may have to go back and add a bird to my block, too!
