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.

Never Fear, Dear Readers!

I have not abandoned my endeavors in completing this chronicle of the Austen Family Expressed in fiber art. I have merely fallen behind in my assignments. Again! I have not totally caught up, in fact a new block was posted yesterday, however I thought I would offer you this update just so you know it's still a going concern.

The next block in the series is titled Fanny's Favorite and commemorates the life of Jane's eldest niece, Frances Catherine Knight. If you are at all interested in learning more about the distinctions of "class" in Victorian England please read Barbara Brackman's post here.

The block itself is a bit complicated with lots and lots of little pieces. Here's how mine turned out:

Just the choosing of the colors and then cutting accurately took me a long time and if I had it to do over again... (I really doubt I ever will.)

So this road block has been surmounted. Onward and upward, another color choice conundrum. I've used up a lot of the lighter brighter colors in my collection which is causing some difficulty.

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?

Not So Much To Write Home About

...or to blog about either I guess.  In the past week during the time I've worked on the quilt repair, I have completed replacing the missing patches with the vintage fabric. During the process I relocated the eighth missing patch I had seen originally when I first got the quilt, but had not seen during the thorough search and charting of the places needing work.  I had enough replacement fabric, so no problem, but it goes to show how careful you need to be in examining for areas needing work.  I also came across several more places where seams had come undone.

I have not done any re-quilting yet, but needed a slight change in activity, so I have started to unsew the binding. I think it was commercially made double fold tape and has done a great job in protecting the edge of the quilt. It is really nearly in shreds in places.  The person applying the binding  used an unusual technique in that on the front of the quilt the binding is top-stitched in place by machine. On the back side it has been tacked down by hand in places.  I will also do one line of machine stitching and one of hand stitching, however I will put right sides together when doing the machine stitching and then flip the tape to the back and hand sew it in place.  My machine stitching won't show.

I figured out roughly how much binding I will need. The edge is scalloped so I came up with a figure of about 9 yards. The fabric I ordered has arrived and has been washed and dried. It is a blender fabric and the pattern is called "Sponged" like the painting technique that gives you several shades of the same color.  Here's a photo of the fabric under the edge of the quilt (with the binding removed.)

As you can see, there are quite a few patches in that same color family in the quilt. I think that it will give the quilt a whole new look.

Quilt Repairs Begin

On Friday I began the official Repair Of Bob's Grandmother's Quilt. First I made a diagram of the entire quilt on graph paper. I marked one corner of the quilt with a bright ribbon and designated that as the upper left. Then began examining the quilt top carefully for areas needing attention. Because the quilt is square it was easy to divide it into quarters. I marked the points on the diagram.  This process showed that there are seven patches that need replacing and several places where stitching has become undone.  

So, the first photo shows a very small area at the very edge of the quilt where one patch has begun to ravel.  I think that when I apply new binding this will be covered, but I un-stitched the binding and turned under the ravels and sewed the area down to the batting and the adjacent patch so that it is secured in any case. 

Next there were several areas where the seams had become un-sewn.

Which were fairly easily repaired.

Next time I'll start replacing the disintegrated patches. I'm using The Bottom Line's applique thread in a kind of pale gold color which is really disappearing into the various colors of the patches and the background as well.

Working Women

Most Wednesday mornings at my church, Living Word in New Port Richey, at 8:30 am, you'll find a group of working women. Maybe not such an unusual occurrence, but their energy and industry belies the fact that the great majority are of retirement age and some have been retired for 20 years or more.

They are the Women's Missionary Activities Group and they have been putting together simple patchwork quilts for those they know in Nursing Homes, or confined to their homes due to infirmity and to the missionaries supported by the church (more than 30) and their families. In recent years their products have reached groups of people they've never met in women's shelters, migrant worker camps and those receiving support services in their homes.

The process for putting together these quilts has always fascinated me.  First there is a shallow closet lined with boxes of fabrics already cut into squares, with like colors together. We have several talented people who lay out quilt tops using the squares.  Most often the pattern is "Trip Around the World" but depending on the fabrics available and the whim of the designers, other patterns are sometimes seen.

Once the pattern and colors look right, each row is marked by pinning a number to the top square. The numbers of course are cut from old calendars. The rows of squares are then stacked in order with the numbered square on top. Each row is then pinned together and rolled up.  All the rolls for one quilt top are placed in a clear storage box.

Next a sewist sews each row of patches together, then after pressing, sews the rows together into a quilt top. The day I took pictures none of the tops were made into the usual "sandwich" of quilt top, batting and backing fabric, but that is the next step. Usually backing fabric is chosen so that it can be wrapped around to the front and stitched down.

Next the layers are stitched together at the corners and centers with floss that is knotted securely. The finishing touch is to stamp a message on the back from the group with the date.

All of the workers are volunteers. All of the equipment has been donated, as has the fabric for the squares. Batting and bedsheets for backing along with thread and floss are the only things that need to be purchased, taking advantage of local sales when at all possible.                                           .

 

More than 100 quilts have been finished in each of the past two years. We are planning to give away the last ones in the closet before Christmas so that we can start with a clean slate and storage space in the new year.