Thursday, October 26, 2017

The Main Reason I Bought The Book

I love Sunflowers. 

I fell in love with a vintage Russian Sunflower quilt I saw a long time ago and I've always wanted to make one. I feared I would never have the skills necessary to do so. Off and on over the years I've looked around on line to see if I could find instructions to make one.  Quilt Index had a newspaper page with the templates. I downloaded it but...Yikes! 


When I saw that a Sunflower quilt was included in Treasury of Quilts I had to have the book. I already had and used the authors' previous book History Repeated.  I bought the book mainly for the Sunflower but  I got sidetracked and made a 42-Cent Forever quilt like you see in the middle front cover. It is awaiting some hand quilting. 

Anyway...a few days ago I figured there was no time like the present to try to make just one Sunflower block just to see if I could.   As you can see...I COULD!!!  I made paper templates and just cut pieces by hand because I'm dangerous with a rotary cutter unless I'm cutting a straight line. (Even then I'm sometimes dangerous). The instructions in the book  for piecing were easy to follow. I machine pieced it all except for the center appliqued circle.


And then I cut more.

I THINK I can. I THINK I can. 

14 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I have been tempted to get that book and haven't - I buy books and then never get around to using them, I have so many that after the initial thrill they go on the shelf and I never open them again - I'm trying hard to not buy more as I keep getting so much inspiration on line in stead.

Deb from Frugal Little Bungalow said...

beautiful! :)

gayle said...

I know you can! I know you can!
Since you just lured me off onto a pickled squirrel chase, I'm going to try to hang on and not start one of these, too. At least not today...
(I bought that book for the same reason you did, but I think I'm going to have to make at least one of every quilt in it! So much temptation!)

Libby in TN said...

Great job. And apparently a very good pattern. You go, Girl!

Julierose said...

Love your fabric choices for this sunflower--I have this book and keep on looking through it --but I am not a precise piecer and hesitate to try them...hugs, Juolierose

Ellen said...

You did some very precise piecing and your sunflower turned out very nice. :)
Looks like really good book - I really like the quilts on the cover.

Nann said...

Wow! I am impressed! Motivation and determination win out!

Ann said...

Good for you. I'm trying to get away from always using the rotary cutter. There are so many other designs that have been sidelined since that convenience came out. Looks good so far.

Sue SA said...

I love this block too, but looks tricky, so very impressed with your first block.

Janie said...

Great sunflower block, of course you can do it! I've seen your amazing piecing
There's no doubt you'll succeed.
I like using scissors too.

mangozz said...

Your block came out really good. I don't think I would attempt something like that. I'm glad you are finally getting to make your sunflower quilt.

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

Wonderful sunflower block!

Cathy said...

Amazing. I’m not sure there’s anything left in the quilting world that you can’t do!

Linda said...

WOW is all I can say! Never done paper piecing and all those small bits look daunting. Well done for not only trying to make the block but also for succeeding magnificently.