New Orleans House Project

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Cassandra's Circle BOM: Block One

I couldn't resist playing along with Barbara Brackman's 2020 Civil War BOM:  Cassandra's Circle.  

The Civil War history focus for this BOM is the diary of South Carolinian Mary Boykin Chestnut.  

The BOM project itself will be a much larger quilt, including a large center medallion, and an appliquéd border.

I decided to stay with reproduction style fabrics for this year's BOM.  Several years ago, I inadvertently purchased two identical fat quarter collections from Penny Rose Fabrics:  Civil War Times.  I decided to put them to use on this project - I should have plenty of fabric!

The January block, called Washington's Plume, is also the center medallion.  After prepping all the pieces with the freezer paper/starch method, I used invisible stitch machine appliqué to attach the pieces.  As much as I have learned to enjoy hand appliqué, I wanted to get the block finished by the end of the month!

The February block, Mulberry Wreath, was published last week.  I have been contemplating how I can represent the leaves on the wreath using just my fat quarter fabrics, i. e. not adding any green fabric.  Luckily, I just learned a new-to-me appliqué tip from @Red_Alfreda (Mary Jenkins) on Instagram.  
Photocopied fabric
Her tip was to photocopy fabric to help plan how to cut shapes for broderie perse appliqué.  I figured the technique would work for auditioning appliqué shapes, too.


Now I can contemplate which fabric layout I like better before I even cut into my fabric!