Clarissa

Clarissa

It's a new flimsy!

86 x 86 

I started making blocks back in July 2016 after I saw a blog post at Kathy's Quilts about a c. 1886-1890 quilt made by Clarissa White Alford.   You know I just love to make my own version of vintage quilts that inspire me! 

There are 1296 QSTs (Quarter Square Triangles) in 36 twelve inch (finished) blocks. 

I've had all of the blocks finished for awhile now but I just could not decide on a fabric for the sashing. Then a few weeks ago I received a surprise package of WOWs (white on whites) from a friend and in the box was the perfect sashing - a muslin like fabric lightly printed with what looked like Queen Anne's lace or maybe Yarrow.  And after I figured out how much fabric I needed for the sashings I was pleasantly surprised to find there was just enough. So I immediately set about sashing my blocks before I forgot what I was going to use for the sashing and used it with some other quilt. 

This will now go into the hand quilting pile so you may not see Clarissa again for awhile. 

 My January OMG (One Monthly Goal) was to assemble at least one top from the large box of complete block sets.  This is top #3.   The first to be assembled was Dakota Farmer (Stars).  Quilt top #2 was Blue Economy Blocks. 

OMG at Elm Street Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Guess What!

Guess what! 

(No, not chicken butt)

I've finished my current 20 minute challenge. I challenge myself to work at least 20 minutes a day on a UFO that has blocks that are rather boring or tedious to make.  That UFO has been Clarissa which has been inspired by a quilt made by Clarissa White Alford that I saw back in 2016 at Kathy's Quilts. 

I now have 36 twelve inch blocks that consist of 36 two inch hourglasses. That's a total of 1296 hourglasses and a total of 5184 pieces. 

I've been looking around in my stash for something to use for sashing. I don't have a lot of pieces of yardage of any length but I did figure I could use this rose themed fabric since it has some blues and pinks in it just like the blocks. I usually don't dither a lot and just go with the first thing I find in the stash but after all the work of making all those hourglasses 20 minutes each day I didn't want them to get lost in the quilt. The roses are too busy I think. 

I have a lot of pieces of Kona Snow that I  have on hand as background fabric for my 30s reproduction prints. I think I will use that for the sashing. 

Now I need to do some sashing through the snow.

That Slowly Moving Clarissa

My OMG  (One Monthly Goal) for April was to complete 8 more Clarissa blocks.  I've completed 11 blocks this month and I now have 24 blocks toward my total goal of 36 blocks.  Inspired by a vintage quilt each block consists of 36 hourglasses (144 pieces cut from 1.5 inch strips).  I work on these for at least 20 minutes each day. Continuing with 20 minutes per day maybe by the end of next month I will have all the blocks I need to start assembly.  Hmmm...maybe I should decide on what I'm going to use for a sashing. Or maybe first I should decide how much yardage I will need for sashing. Let's see...2 inch finished sashing cut at 2.5 x 12.5...

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Playing with Clarissa

 I've been working on my Clarissa blocks for at least 20 minutes each day.  My March OMG (One Monthly Goal) was to complete at least five blocks.  I've completed eight. 

And now I have a total of 13 blocks toward my goal of 36. 

Inspired by a vintage quilt each block consists of 36 hourglasses (144 pieces cut from 1.5 inch strips). 

This will be an ongoing 20 minute a day project until I reach my goal of 36 blocks.  The 20 minutes includes cutting, trimming, ironing, and sewing. And although not always perfect ( I decided to be brave and show a photo of the back of a block) it includes twisting of the seams. 

Playing and twisting with Clarissa daily! 

So this is my March OMG finish post

and

my April OMG will be to complete 8 more blocks. 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

UFO Attack

 It's time to evaluate another UFO. 

These Hourglass blocks are inspired by a c 1860 - 1890 vintage quilt  made by Clarissa White Alford that I first read about at Kathy's Quilts blog in July 2016. 

In July 2016 I made one twelve inch block. 

Almost exactly a year later in July 2017 I made another block. (Hey, each block has 144 pieces cut from 1.5 inch width strips!)

By December 2017 I had five blocks. 

 Fast forward to 2020 and I still have five blocks and a baggie with parts for another one. 

Time to evaluate this UFO. 

Do I still want to continue? Yes.

How many blocks do I need for a quilt? 36 blocks. I will set them 6 x 6 with a 2 inch (finished) sashing for an 86 x 86 quilt. 

Ok, so...let's get on with it. 

 I've found that making blocks like these get tedious if I work on them for too long. And I've found that I do well to work on blocks like these for just 15-20 minutes each day. That includes time for cutting pieces, sewing, ironing and trimming. 

So now this is my new 20 minute challenge project. I make these blocks from the center out so decided to make all the remaining block centers I need (31) to get me started.  That let me see what I think is a lot of progress.  (Unfortunately it made me also see that a quilt of Hourglass foursies would be awesome too. New Rainbow Scrap Challenge project? )

My March OMG (One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts) is to work on these blocks 20 minutes a day.  That's not a very specific or measurable goal so I will declare my goal to be at least five finished blocks by month end.  That will double my current block total and I'll be more than a quarter of the way to my goal of 36 blocks. 

 My last 20 minute challenge was Flying Geese Sashing for Blind Man's Fancy Tea in the Rose Garden. I started making the Flying Geese for 20 minutes a day back on January  28 and had a finished top on February 26.  . 

I'm also trying to get better at scrap management. I had several 2 1/8 inch width pieces left after making the Flying Geese sashing. 

I trimmed some pieces to 2 inches and made a few little Ticky Tacky houses for my collection. 

The low volume pieces went into a box for a low volume string quilt I've been working on. 

The rest of the strips were trimmed to 2 inches and I put those into the 2 inch scrap bin.  I had only a couple of 3 3/4 inch pieces left and I trimmed those to 3.5 inches and put the pieces into the 3.5 inch scrap bin.  Those little pieces at the top will be trimmed to 1.5 inch squares to be used in my Plus Postage blocks, a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Clarissa and Kathy Inspired

 Clarissa blocks #4 and #5

Clarissa's quilt inspired Kathy and her blocks then inspired me.   

You know I love vintage quilts!

I'm  slowly (very slowly)  making these blocks. 

I now have 5 of them and have a long way to go.  I'm not in a hurry. 

Kathy (Kathy's Quilts) has a lot of blocks finished and they look awesome! 

Here's four of the five. 

Five don't make for a good picture and these barely fit on my cutting- mat -covered -with- batting -propped -against- the -wall - design-wall. 

Voices

I made another 12 inch Clarissa hourglass block.   With only 3 blocks made so far I'm only 1/14th of the way finished.  I'm making a quilt similar to the one made by Clarissa White Alford c. 1890 .   This block takes 1.5 inch strips to make the hourglass units. When I was finished with the strips I put the scraps into the 1.5 inch scrap bin and then I started hearing VOICES. 

You should try to figure out how to make those OTHER vintage blocks you like. They look like they can be made from 1.5 inch pieces. 

But I was going to use all the 1.5 inch scraps I had at year end to make more spider web blocks. 

You can still do that but make the little hourglass units with wings first. 

Ok, but I should clean off the mountain at the end of that cutting mat.  I can barely cut a 1.5 inch square of fabric. 

That's no fun. 

If you clean off half of it you can reward yourself with a new start. 

Deal!

Gosh.  These are no fun. It's a pain trying to get that red square in the middle of those units to make an octagon.  Then I'm not sure how to sew them together with connecting red squares. Ok. I think I got that block out of my system. 

Wait a minute...what if...

 ...what if I add some red corners.    Then I will have a square block and connecting them will be so much easier.   Hey, that might just work.    But, you know...now that I look at it I see an Ohio Star variation. 

It would be so much easier to construct them like this instead of trying to make those octagons. 

Oh, yes! 

And guess what...since you cut a 1.5 inch HST piece off the beginning of the 1.5 inch scrap before you started cutting hourglass pieces and after you cut hourglass pieces...

...you can make some little 2 inch Broken Dishes blocks.  

You really need to finish cleaning off the end of that cutting mat now. 

Then may I start something else new? 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework. 

Inspired

Now that I've finished my four inch hourglass quilt inspired by an antique quilt (MoROSE Garden) and I have the Type A lady locked out of the sewing room I made another hourglass block half the size (two inches finished) of the MoROSE Garden hourglasses. 

And now I have two twelve inch blocks. 

I made the other one last year after Kathy (Kathy's Quilts) posted about an antique hourglass quilt made by Clarissa White Alford that she saw at the Shelburne Museum.  Clarissa's quilt really spoke to me.  I just love antique quilts.  (And hey... coincidentally I have some White maternal ancestors - ggg grandfather Nathaniel White and gg grandmother Rachel White Smith. No relation to Clarissa, I'm sure. ) 

 Kathy started making blocks for her "Clarissa Quilt" last year and I made that one on the right but decided I had to hone my hourglass skills a little before I proceeded on.  Only forty more to go!  I'll probably make mine similar to Clarissa's (and Kathy's).