Threads of Memory - October - Britain's Star

This months block was a new variation on the Storm at Sea -

It was a fun and easy block - far fewer pieces than last months.

I have no letters from Eli or Billy from October, 1864. The 82nd Indiana with Sherman's army was sent with others in pursuit of Hood and the rebels who had recently vacated Atlanta.  The job of chasing down Hood's army as they moved to Alabama was left to General Thomas and other corps, while the 14th, of which the 82nd was part, began to prepare for the March to the Sea.

Eli was with the 52nd in Missouri in the chase after the Confederates under Sterling Price. I have not found more detail of the regiment's specific actvities in Missouri, but the history of the raid includes many significant battles beginning on September 27th and continuing through October.  Price's raid has been deemed a failure, and modern historians believe it probably contributed to the reelection of Abraham Lincoln.

WWI - October - Dove in the Window

This month's block came with the story of the death of the great-grandfather whose service inspired the quilt. The block is called Dove in the Window.

This was a technically challenging block with the oblique angles -- and that is after our pattern designers simplified the piecing lines from the version that came with my computer software. 

Vicki Welsh sent me some of her remnant shibori-dyed fabric with my custom order for the borders of this quilt.  Two of the blue pieces wound up in this block. I cut my four corner triangles out of a more solid area on the edge of the darker one and really like the effect - but the intersecting diagonal lines on the center pieces are gorgeous.

Austen Family Album - Week 29 Lend and Borrow

This almost seemed like a block that needed to be repeated like the King's Crown I did last week, but I decided just to let it be a single block.  The traditional setting keeps these all oriented the same way.

 

The little Olympus camera really washed out the color. The Pentax is in the repair shop where it will probably be for another 10 days. I really hope it can be fixed!

Seasons Challenge Series - an Ohio Star block for Fall

Just as the fall season struck, Dorry sent me the block I get to use for the next challenge quilt, an Ohio Star with a really bright solid orange fabric -

Wow. 

Our long ago quilting sister had a little problem with her orange fabric.  It looks like she tore strips and the squares wound up as rectangles. Meanwhile, the quarter square triangles on the two sides are cut with the bias on the outside edge - you can see how they have stretched out of shape and bulge on the sides.

I'm planning to leave the block as she designed and mostly how she made it - though I did take it apart, and a bit of trimming to make the "squares" square so this will fit into a nice flat quilt might have happened before I put it back together. It was not possible to get all the points to stay pointy but the result is something she would recognize if she were able to see the quilt I'm going to make from this block.

I wrote that like I know where I'm going with this challenge.  I have some ideas, but I'm not ready to start cutting and stitching.  The blue-purple of the triangles is related to my Jane Austen blocks, but one of the challenges for this quilt is to include green in the finished quilt.  This block has no relationship to green and what I'm doing for that series has no green either, so I have to stop thinking about that.

Austen Family Album - blocks 27 and 28

I was out of town last weekend for Dana's wedding so I have two blocks to post. This is Crossroads.

 

When I replaced the batteries in our digital SLR camera, it started overexposing the images. I tried taking the picture outside where there was no confusion about flash, and it was still making nearly white photos. The block got crumpled as I ran here and there and consulted the manual and tried again and again.  I gave up and used my phone and there's a wrinkled block. The camera is about 9 years old but still has value - we'll look into getting it repaired.

Today I was less hectic as I used the very small digital Norris bought a few years ago and got a better block photo.  I didn't have it set for the highest resolution, so we get a slightly soft-focus effect.

 The block is actually just 1/4th of this - I made four and put them together for the crown. My four little blocks are just 4.5 inches finished.  Doesn't Vicki Welsh's Shibori frame the crown beautifully?  I just bought more fabric from her to finish the WWI quilt and it is fabulous.