Get A Clue!

We are up to clue #4 now for Long May She Wave -- a patriotic mystery quilt by Alycia at Alycia Quilts.  I'm using muslin and civil war reproduction print scraps in blues and reds. 

 

Ready for Sashing! Foothills Blocks 16-25

Mary Elizabeth Kinch Foothills QAL

Inspired by a Vintage Bar and Chain quilt

I might have to call mine Bars and Stars.

All 25 blocks are finished. 

I'm ready for sashing. 

Foothills Quilt Along Blocks 11 - 15

 

Blocks 11 - 15 of 25

Mary Elizabeth Kinch Foothills Quilt Along

Foothills Quilt Along Blocks 2 - 5

Foothills QAL blocks 2 - 5

Mary Elizabeth Kinch Foothills Quilt Along

Inspired by a vintage Bar and Chain quilt

I'm using patriotic fabrics but have a difficult time choosing all the fabrics for each block before I start making it.  (I always have a difficult time choosing fabrics for blocks and that's why I like using scraps - the choosing is done for me!) 

So my method? (Or madness?)  I start with the large HSTs. I choose 2 fabrics and make them.  Then I decide on fabrics for the Flying Geese. I'm not using the cutting instructions given for block instructions on the QAL page but using specialty rulers instead to cut my pieces. The geese use a 2 inch piece of fabric so I first look through some old patriotic scraps I have that are 2 inches to see if any scraps look good with the HSTs I've made. If not I go to the patriotic fabric box and look for something.  Above you can see I have the HSTS paired up with fabrics I chose for the Flying Geese. 

As I mentioned I use special rulers to cut the Flying Geese bodies and wings. 

After I sew together all the Flying Geese I go ahead and sew them to the HSTs and see how it all looks. 

Next I look through my scraps to see if I have something to use for the cross bars and if I don't have scraps that look good I go back to the patriotic fabric box and look for something. After cross bar fabrics are chosen and cut I decide finally on fabrics for hourglass centers.  I cut those from 2 inch strips so, again, I go look through the 2 inch scraps to see if there's anything I could use. 

And that's how I ended up with the blocks that started this post if I made any sense and wasn't rambling on too much. 

One more thing...when I cut the Flying Geese bodies and the hourglass pieces with the Easy Angle Companion ruler I also cut HST pieces before and after the Geese bodies.  That way the leftover fabric scrap stays square and I don't waste the fabric at the beginning because I can make an HST. 

I cut some muslin and made those into twenty eight 2 inch HSTs right away.  And I tucked them into a new project bag.  That darned Gayle (Mangofeet) is a temptress of the worst kind. She sent me a link to a new project that requires 2048 - two inch HSTs and then some.   We are calling it Totally Demented. 

Today

I have so many UFOs I sometimes can't decide which to work on. 

The day decided for me. 

I have 54 patriotic Chunky Churn Dash blocks from a swap and 16 patriotic Twinkler orphan blocks. 

So this morning before the grandkids woke up I started working on 70 patriotic Snowballs. They are awake now so I'll feed them and amuse them for awhile, work in the garden awhile, amuse them awhile and then hopefully get back to making Snowballs before the end of the day. 

I'll alternate the Snowballs with the Chunky Churn Dashes and Twinklers and make a Quilt of Valor quilt to send to my Brother-in-law on Veteran's Day. 

Today I'm remembering those who sacrificed their lives.

 In November, on Veteran's Day,

 I'll honor several family members who served and surprise them with quilts. 

Moving it Forward with Em's Scrapbag