Saturday, February 8, 2014

WWI Block of the Month from Kansas City Star Quilts

The Kansas City Star is publishing a new Block of the Month series that started in January called "Where Poppies Grow" that commemorates the service of one of the designers' grandfathers. The quilt can be seen on the publisher's quilting blog here - Pickle Dish blog

Dorry and I exhanged an email or two about this project - did we really need to make another quilt from a series of blocks? But my WWI education is lacking, and this block series is very different from those I've done recently.  The combination of piecing and appliqué was appealing so, I have taken the plunge.


I decided to stick with the original patriotic color scheme, but went in a new direction from my other historial-reference block series quilts.  I featured hand-dyed fabrics with a few commercial prints for supporting roles.  My friend Diane dyed the bright blues - the circle under the star is a darker version of the one in the pieced area. (Both are more of a Cadet blue, not turquoise as they appear in my photo.) I'm not certain of the origin of the red. The three shades of green leaves and the gold star were my custom William and Mary fabrics from Vicki Welsh for the Grandmother's Choice" quilt.

I did the 34 leaves, circle and star with raw edge appliqué finished with a tiny machine buttonhole stitch in matching silk thread.  Hand-appliqué takes a toll on my hands and wrists and I'm very comfortable and happier doing it by machine

I don't have a direct ancestor who served in WWI, but there are at least three great-uncles who did. After I do just a little more research, I'll post information about their service.

1 comment:

Dorry said...

You've made a great start. I'm still fabric shopping for backgrounds. This topic has a lot of meaning to me although of course not exactly from an American military point of view. But I'll enjoy the stories you find to post.