The Austen Family Album Quilt is Alive and Well

Never fear gentle readers, despite the lack of recent posts, work on the Austen Family Album Quilt continues apace!


The block called Village Square was included for Jane's brother James who became a pastor and spent his career in two villages. The block is similar to the one completed previously for James and Jane's father, also a churchman. This block does not have the central cross, however, and ideas were given for completing the square in the center. I opted for the more involved pattern and used two fabrics with the stripes hoping to remind the viewer of rows of plants that might be planted in the Village Square. I chose a plaid fabric for the corner squares also thinking of small plots of flowers, planted in a regular pattern.


The block for last week was chosen to commemorate the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. His rise to power, and the conflicts engendered affected the life of the Austen family in many ways. Read the blog post at:  http://austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com/2014/05/block-6-empire-star-for-napoleon.html for more information.

The block is named Empire Star. I thought it was a good opportunity to introduce some purple shades. As

you can see, in addition to triangles, this block contains 4 trapezoids. There were times when the geometry threatened to overwhelm my bitty brain. I was happy with the finished block. I followed the pattern and did not change the positions of the dark, light and medium values. I think it's a really interesting block to make and to look at.

I was thinking recently that this project appeals to me because every block is different and allows for a variety of fabric choices.  I think I would go mad trying to make an entire quilt with the Empire Star. Actually I think that I have not made many actual quilts in the past because there is no charm for me in making a batch of blocks over and over, especially if the prints and colors remain the same throughout. Here, however, the one fabric of plain taupe remains consistent and the fabrics are all Japanese homespun type cottons. Other than that I have freedom and a weekly challenge of a new block.

This week's block, which was published in yesterday's blog post from Barbara Brackman is named for an Austen  family member I can relate to somewhat; Jane's Aunt Phila was a bit more of a free spirit, something I am accused of being from time to time.

Just Under the Wire!

I am writing this post to let everyone know that even though I had an overnight guest this week and also a medical test that took out another day I am not behind in the Austin Family Album blocks I started several weeks ago. I started out this week being behind, but have now caught up and am ready for tomorrow's new block.

I did run into a problem with this Cross Within a Cross block. I admit that the number of triangles in the block intimidated me just a bit, and when I put the first part together there was something obviously wrong. The funny thing is that I was able to look for other reasons for the "wrongness" besides the obvious one that I had made a mistake. Here's the center section with the mistake:

As you can see, the two points, upper left and lower right are missing. The pieces for this block have measurements in eighths and I messed up on those. So I "unsewed" recut and resewed and came up with the correct dimensions as you can see below.




















And, here is the finished block. I had a lot of difficulty finding the fabrics I wanted for this one. I'm still not all that pleased with the values of the different fabric colors. But it's finished.

This block is the one that was scheduled for this week.  All squares! It was a breeze and I went into the box and pulled out indigos for it.

This square is called Thrifty and is to remember Jane's mother, Cassandra Leigh Austen.






If you would like to get the full story on this collection of blocks and the stories about the different family members check out Barbara Brackman's blog at: http://austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com/

Have you ever joined in on a project like this one? Would you do it again?

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!
                                                                                            

And a Finish!

I wrote the other day about working on the Austen Family Album. Today I'd like to show you a finished project. Like most sewists I get requests from all sorts of people for help on different kinds of projects. I try to really limit my acceptances to really close friends for things that I know a little bit about. You may know that I recently moved to an apartment. It so happens that two friends moved from houses to condos near me at about the same time.  I benefited from extra furniture and the use of larger vehicles to mention just two things. So when one of these friends asked if I could re-cover the seats on dining room chairs I answered in the affirmative. We shopped for fabric last week and today was set as the day we'd start the project.

I'm happy to report that the project is completed and it's only mid-afternoon!  All of us are really pleased with the finished projects. Here are some photos:

These were originally covered in a brown tweed fabric. The grey really seems to "go with" the black metal of the chair frames.

The "fire" is a modern device using water vapor and lights. No heat; great for Florida.

This is the kitchen set. The seats here were well worn black vinyl.










Great choice of fabric and great cooperation of friends to get the job done.

Current Works in Progress

I have all of my things moved into my new apartment. I continue to shift and re-pack and place things daily. One of my friends, after asking me what I had been doing that day and hearing my reply said something like, "Honestly, how much more can you shove that bed aside to fit another piece of furniture in to the bedroom?"

Some days I take some time to sew something in my sewing room.  It's a pleasant experience to be able to have both machines and the cutting table set up in the same room and to have a closet where the supplies can be kept. I also unpacked my "new" iron. It's actually a refurbished Rowenta that I bought several months ago and decided to keep for the new place.

I follow several blogs written by quilters and sewists. Recently Julie wrote about an excursion with my lovely Japanese Quilting teacher. It made me think I should be continuing to use the things I learned in her studio all of those Wednesdays in Ichikawa. Along came an interesting challenge in the form of a blog about a quilt-block-a-week project. I must confess that I have not been a lifelong fan of Jane Austen but have recently realized that part of my literary education may be lacking.  So, this seemed to be an interesting way to kill two birds with one stone. I have subscribed to http://austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com/ On Sundays (this is the second week, so it's not to late to join in) a blog post is written about some aspect of the Austen Family and also contains directions for a quilt block. The patterns are historical ones the blogger has researched.

The first week was a "Shining Star" for Jane Austen. Great! It was easily translated into a paper piecing
pattern.  I have nearly 3/4 of that block sewn. This week, a tribute to Jane's sister, Cassandara called, "Sister's Choice." Oh dear, it's divided into five rather than four so becomes more difficult when making a 12" square. Looks like I will have to bite the bullet and actually cut and piece that one.





I'm using some Japanese fabrics in traditional woven designs. So far browns, reds blue-grey and taupe. I can see that I will need to be a bit better at finishing each weeks' block in that week, or I will soon be hopelessly behind. Still who could resist such an inviting environment to practice and experiment with this special area of sewing skills?

Exploring My New Neighborhood

This afternoon I took a walk to get some exercise. (Don't want the occasional Twistee Strawberry Sundae to ruin my regimen.) I am just up the street from a large housing area called Timber Oaks. I drive through it quite frequently to get to other places, but this was my first walk.  I was very surprised that very near to an intersection I use often is a Nature Area that includes this little lake. The reason I missed it from the car is that it from the car is that it sits in a large depression in the landscape.  I walked around it in a few minutes.  It is shaped like a doughnut, round with an island in the middle.  There were a few Muscovy Ducks which were no big surprise.  The really big fish I saw was a bit of a surprise.  I think it might have been a catfish, but I'm not sure. There were also some smaller fish of a different kind and some tiny minnow sized ones as well.

I think my friends Laura and Ashley would like the neighborhood.  There is a fenced in area where this fellow sat sunning. There are lots of other visible burrows in the same area.  One wonders if this is where gopher turtles were evacuated to during the construction of Timber Oaks?

Then when I got back home I looked over the railing on the landing of the stairs an saw this fellow (or gal?) strolling across the yard munching on plants as it went.

Long Time, Nothing New to See

I have been busy. I'm now living in an apartment complex about 7 miles north of my previous abode. I wish I could say I'm totally settled in, but alas I can only claim to have 99% of my "stuff" moved and probably 60% of my things are where I'd like them to be.

The apartment is large by the local standard and reasonably priced. I was fortunate that friends who were downsizing have given me lots of furniture. It's been an exciting time and occasionally quite exhausting. I looked at lots of places that are for persons "over 55" and decided that at least for now I'd rather live in a more natural mixture of ages and stages of life.

You might remember this post showing visitors in my old neighborhood. Here are some year round residents that I see several mornings a week:

I see on the Internet that the designation for a group of peacocks is an Ostentation. How appropriate is that?

(Sorry about the piece of lint on the lens.  I thought I had gotten rid of it!)