Lady of the Lake, remembering Sir Walter Scott

Block #31 is called Lady of the Lake. This is the title of a poem by Sir Walter Scott who was a contemporary of Jane Austen. Read the story of their interactions here.

The block bears some similarity with a couple of previous blocks but is a degree more difficult. Lots and lots of points to match. This is the block I spoke about in the previous blog. I had difficulty with a couple of the fabrics growing when I pressed them. I took at least half of the seams apart, repressed and resewed before coming up with this:







Even though it was frustrating and has taken a really long time to complete I can't say I'm not pleased in general with the final product.

If you're keeping track of the block numbers you will see that I got slightly out of sequence. I think I am back on track now. On to #32 Ladies Wreath.

Caroline's Choice for Queen Caroline

Caroline was the second wife of George IV of England. This union was rife with scandal from the beginning and ended with her death just three weeks after the coronation. For more information about this part of British history, please visit Barbara Brackman's Blog, Austen Family Album here.

The construction of this block was fairly simple compared to some in this series and comprises four squares. Two are simple pinwheels and the other two I call hourglass blocks, though they may have another name I'm not familiar with.

The guidance for construction of the block suggested that the two colors of the hourglass should be of a light medium and a medium light value. My choice of fabrics (growing smaller all the time!) led me to this combination. I think more contrast would have been better. The photograph, despite my fiddling with it, wants to further blend the colors. The points are passably matched, so I've decided it's okay.

This is block #30, so six more to go!

Breaking the Log Jam

If I'm honest, I have to say I am well tired of this Austen Family Album Quilt project. If you have been following this blog, you will know that I have had my difficulties here and there with patchwork techniques I'd not been familiar with and with color choice and placement. I had finally managed to get to block #27 King's Crown for George III. There were difficulties with the measurements given on the blog, which our erstwhile blogger, Barbara Brackman did correct in a day or so. I had of course attempted the cut before I saw the correction, so had to re cut one piece. If you look at the examples in her blog, you will see that in my version I added another jewel to the crown.  As always if you are interested in finding out how the reign of George III affected the life and times of the Austens, please look here.


Next came Crossroads which tells the tale of Jane's acceptance at age 27 of a proposal of marriage from a 21 year-old Harris Bigg-Whither and what happened next. This blog entry describes much of the difficulty of finding a mate in this time in history.

This block as you can see involves the motif known as "Flying Geese." I've always liked the look if them but had never tried them. After getting this block cut I started the construction. That's when the log jam occurred. I sewed the triangles together in 12 little birds and then sewed one set of three together. Major Jam. It was quite uneven and crooked. I hated it and it sat in the sewing room for at least three weeks. More likely, a month. I kept thinking, if only this had been a paper piecing pattern. I knew I could have rocked it. Last week I gave drafting a paper pattern a try, but I already had the pieces cut. Theoretically I should have been able to make it work.

Today, after letting my brain work on the problem for quite a while I decided to mark where the seams should be after carefully measuring. It's not perfect, none of my blocks are, but I think it's a decent effort.

So, two more blocks down and there should be eight more to go. As my math is notoriously bad, I will consider this a good estimate and soldier on. Almost there really, considering where I've been. I have the next block cut and ready to sew. I have seen the blocks up to and including the one in yesterday's post (#36). Lots of triangles, the mention of an inset seam which I think is likely the dreaded Y-seam, renamed to sound less ominous. So a bit to go, but I must finish now that I've gotten this far, I think.

Four At Once

Oh my, I hope to never do that again. The dreaded getting behind a week turns into a month all too quickly! I have, however redeemed myself and gotten all caught up once again. Whew.

It was one block in particular that gave me trouble and my drive to get three blocks cut out last week stalled over it for a few days till I got the colors properly sorted out. That, however turned out to be just the beginning with that block. You see, the corners are made of squares and half square triangles. You start by cutting the squares at 2 inches. So, a lot of pieces and a lot of matching of seams to get it looking right. I worked on the sewing for quite a while. Every once in a while I had to take a break because my head would no longer cope with figuring it out. The block is called, "Best Friend for Martha Lloyd." Martha was Jane's friend.

If you look at the Austen Family Album blog at: http://austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com/ you will see that there was a block the week before this one that I haven't shown you. It's called "Crosspatch for Mary Lloyd Austen." It's set on the diagonal, but not too difficult. I redid several joins to get them to match better, but that may have been a function of tiredness by that point. The word crosspatch reminds me of books like "The Bobbsey Twins" I read in my childhood. It is quite descriptive of the type of person who is not agreeable and a bit of a troublemaker, but not much used today.



Next I put together the block named: "West Wind for Tom Fowle." Tom was engaged to be married to Jane's sister Cassandra, but a stint as a Navy Chaplain took his life before they could be married. Find the full story on Barbara Brackman's blog.





Since my labors put me past another Sunday, there was one more block to make before I could say I was truly caught up. This block: "Friendship for Anne Brydges LaFroy" is to honor a woman who mentored Jane in her writing, being a published poet herself. This block is a slight variation on a nine-patch and went together quite easily.

So, now I have a little break till next block. I really would prefer to not get left behind again!

Indian Star

This week's block in the series Austen Family Album is named Indian Star. It is to commemorate the family friend, Warren Hastings. His actual role in relation to the family is not well defined, but many situations brought them together. He was Governor General of India when Jane was born. For Barbara Brackman's account of his life please visit her blog here.

Even though this block design appeared in America and commemorated Native Americans it was chosen in this case for it's name. To relate it more to the country of India and thus to Mr. Hastings I went to the Flag of the Nation of India shown at right.

Using the colors of the flag, I constructed the block. It was fairly easy in comparison to some of the others presented more recently and contained some familiar elements. I'm learning to place the pieces a bit more accurately and was reminded by the writer of the blog, La Sewista! that different jobs are best done using specific pins. I remembered the Clover Quilting Pins I got in Japan.They are quite long and quite thin, making them ideal for pinning matching points.

I'm still searching for an appropriate sashing fabric. I haven't gotten all the boxes out of my "Sewing Vault" to see if I have something suitable. I'll keep searching as I'm now on the downhill side of the block piecing.

What's your challenge this week? I'd love to hear about it. Leave me a comment below! 

Two new Austen Family Album blocks finished!

On Monday this week I got the good news that my dear Sensei in Japan had shipped the solid taupe fabric I needed. She said it would take about a week to get here. Both of us were shocked when it showed up here in Florida on Thursday! So I've been busy with the two blocks I needed to make to be caught up when the next block which should be announced tomorrow.

The London Roads block was named for Jane's brother Henry who had at first planned to be come a pastor like his father and brother, however he found a second career in the army and then on return to civilian lifeAusten Family Album Quilt.

became a banker in London. Jane spent a lot of time in London with Henry and his wife. He acted as her agent. You can of course read more detail in the

In this block I used lots of the taupe fabric which lets the street arrows really stand out.




Edward Austen, another of Jane's brothers, led a bit of a charmed life compared to some of the others and the block Good Fortune is for him. please check out this blog entry to get the whole story of the twists and turns in his life.

As you can see, these blocks are simple in comparison to some of the others. they went together fairly easily, with just the usual matching of points and seams to attend to.

Let's see what tomorrow brings with block #11 in this quilt block of the week adventure.



Which is your favorite so far?

Austen Family Album Update

Yesterday, as I discussed in a previous post here, another quilt block in the Austen Family Album "quilt-along " was introduced. This was number three and honors Jane Austen's father, the Reverend George Austen. It's called "Cross Within Cross". You can check it out on this blog.

So, how am I doing? You may well ask. I realized last week when I needed to finish up the first block before starting on figuring out the second, that I could easily and quite quickly fall very far behind!

The first block, "Bright Star for Jane Austen," which I paper pieced, turned out like this:















                                                      The second block was "Sister's Choice for Cassandra E. Austen." I needed to piece it conventionally as I said in last week's blog. Here is a photo of the the un-trimmed block. I finished it this morning. Once I committed to conventional piecing, the color/fabric choices and placement took longer than I imagined.  The center and the dark half squares are a Japanese cotton fabric called kasuri, that my friend Julie blogged about a couple weeks ago in this entry. This piece came from a recycled yukata. I still need to "square up" but am happy that the piecing is completed.

Onward to the Rev. George!