I made this 20.5 inch (finished) Castle Wall quilt block back in December 2014. I thought it was a good block for a little collection of Valentine fabrics. There's a lot of Y seams in it and I found it difficult to make but thought I'd challenge myself to make 12 blocks. Well, I didn't make any more blocks until
...February 2018. Then I made two more blocks and...
...I have not made any more since. This month the theme in my sewing space is Hearts and Flowers so I thought I would get these blocks out and decide once and for all what to do with them and move this UFO forward.
The link to the free tutorial I used in 2014 is now broken but I did print off the directions and templates way back when it was working. I reviewed the directions again and decided that I still would love to have a Valentine Castle Wall quilt BUT I don't want to make any more of these blocks with all those Y seams BUT I do want to use my little cache of Valentine fabrics.
So, I searched for a similar and easier to make block and found a Dutch Rose (aka Swoon) block. And I found several different ways to make it without Y seams.
Yesterday I tried the tutorial at Double Nickel Quilts for a 16 inch finished Dutch Rose block. I like it well enough but not with my Valentine fabrics because a lot of them are directional and larger prints so they don't look quite right in this block. I am going to try the Dutch Rose with my garden rose prints instead.
So now I guess the plan is:
1. Make a simple quilt of 9 inch squares alternating with 9 inch Nine Patches in order to use some of the directional and big prints.
2. Use the Castle Wall and that Dutch Rose block as the centers for some lap or wheelchair quilts. I did consider making a table runner but I do already have a Valentine table runner and placemats. I also considered using one as a cushion cover and that still might happen.
And sew on...
7 comments:
Gosh, all those blocks look so complicated to me! However, I know you’ll use your magical powers to turn them into a delightful flimsy. Good luck!,
I only made one Castle Wall block way back when Jinny Beyer's books were new and I knew that was enough for me. I think it was 12" and it went into a sampler quilt. Dutch Rose is so much more fun.
Years ago, I learned in an Alex Anderson class an essential thing for Y-seams. Place a pencil dot at the seamline, and sew only to that dot, or even one stitch SHORT of the dot, and backstitch. If there's a tiny little bit unstitched at the Y-corner, it won't matter.
When I think about tricky-but-common techniques I remember back to my early years of garment sewing (junior high and high school). Zippers were hard until I'd sewn a few of them. Set-in sleeves were hard until I'd set in a few of them...... And I'm sure that Y-seams can become the same thing.
All that said, I never jumped on the Swoon bandwagon. (I'll bet that was close to 10 years ago and Swoon was everywhere.) But I'd opt for the Swoon version of Castle Wall -- heart-y or not!
Oh, yes, those y-seams... Though after sewing all those Glitter blocks, they're not quite as scary as they were. But still...
I believe the only time I've made a Castle Wall block was in a hand-piecing class. It's a good way to do set-in seams, but too slow for me. I can't wait to see what you make from that collection of fabrics!
I actually like the Swoon block better than the original. You have lovely Valentine fabric.
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