Sunflowers #5 and #6

A couple more Sunflowers. 

These are machine pieced.

The pattern is found in 19th Century Patchwork Divas' Treasury of Quilts and is very easy to follow. 

There's a variety of reasons I make a quilt. This one?

1. I saw a vintage Sunflower quilt long ago and always wanted to make one for myself. 

2. I love Sunflowers. When the kids were little I grew them a Sunflower house to play in - Sunflowers planted in a square  (playhouse sized) with a "door" opening.   Then vining flowers like Morning Glories were planted in between to fill in spaces and make a "roof".   Ah, the memories...wish I had a picture.  Later in the year we would harvest and roast sunflower seeds but leave some heads out for the birds. 

3.  The challenge.  There's nothing like the feeling of satisfaction that comes from making a block you weren't quite sure you could. 

Sunflower #4

Sunflower #4 of 18

Moving it Forward Monday

Monday Making

Sunflowers

After yesterdays easy peasy sewing for Cattywampus I felt ready for more difficult piecing which resulted in a couple of Sunflower blocks.  

I saw a vintage Russian Sunflower quilt a long time ago and loved it. I am pretty good at figuring out quilt blocks on a grid but I know circular blocks with points is beyond my figuring capacity. I also thought a Sunflower quilt was above my skill level and that I would never make or have a Sunflower quilt. 

Then I found that Treasury of Quilts by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle had a pattern for a Sunflower quilt. I bought the book!  Now I'm kind of cheap  frugal so if I spend money on a quilting book I have to get my money's worth out of it, love most of the quilts in it and make several of the quilts in it.   This will be my second quilt from the book. (42 Cent Forever Stamp isn't quilted yet).   I was afraid to start right out with Sunflower. Now, about the book...I love the templates because they have the 1/4 inch seam allowance included on them.  A lot of the books I have make you add your own seam allowance. I hate that especially if the template is not square.   I also love the instructions in the book. They are thorough down to the direction to press the pieces and they are easy to understand.  So, even I, who thought I would never have something so complex looking as a Sunflower quilt can now have one.   

Ok...back to the Sunflowers.   I have not yet figured out what to do for the background.  (These will get appliqued to a 14. 5 inch background).   I have a large piece of dark brown I could use like you see above. 

I also have a large piece of tea dyed muslin I can use.   Or I could alternate dark brown and tea dyed backgrounds. 

Or each Sunflower could get it's own busy background.   I'm leaning toward this version but I don't think I have enough 14.5 inch pieces for 16 blocks.  

Decisions, decisions...

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.