Monday, May 13, 2019

Sunday's Squirrel - 5/12/19 -


Was inspired by a post that I saw on Barbara's blog - Stringing Buttons -

A Little Bit of Vintage Quilt History - HERE -

With an additional post -

The Last Vintage Quilt Chapter - HERE -

Telling the story of a lovely antique quilt she bought from the daughter of
Lillie Mae Duck -

Who made the quilt with her mother - Lula Belle Duck -
Both of Glencoe, North Carolina -

Lula Belle Duck - seller's grandmother
Lillie Mae Duck - seller's mother
Glencoe, North Carolina

I fell in love with the quilt immediately and saw a SQUIRREL!! -

Knowing that Sunday was coming and that I could PLAY all day - ;))

I absolutely LOVE how the colors go every which way -

Some of the center "squares" are white/neutral and some are all different colors -

Some of the "bar rails" are white/neutral and some are different colors -

And these ladies didn't seem to care if the white/neutrals were next to each other -

Which I think is AWESOME -

NO Quilt Police were anywhere NEAR this quilt - LOL - ;))

A pencil and some graph paper works just as well as EQ7 - to me. Sometimes, if I see an interesting quilt/block - I just sketch it out on paper - but with this one -

At first I saw the "block" as a 4-patch of "Square-in-a-Square" units with them also as cornerstones - and 3-rail bar blocks as sashing - and I even drew it up that way in EQ7 -

UNTIL I saw a simple 9-patch and had a DUH!! moment - LOL - ;))

When I saw the 9-patch with two "units" to the block - I was in a hurry to play some more - so I used EQ7 to make another block and then colored it and repeated it for a whole quilt - to see it if looked like Barbara's quilt -

It came pretty close - and looks like it would be a great scrap-buster -

I think it could go either way - you could use ALL colors - "everything but the kitchen sink" - so to speak -

Or a "controlled" scrappy look in a limited color palette -

My "sample" block so far is of the "everything" variety - ;))

I used a die to cut the Square-in-a-Square -
And the corresponding HST die for the corners -


The HST didn't look like it would fit right -


But the 1/4" seam is exactly where it should be -


Pressed it open -


Stitched another one to the other side - and pressed it open -


And the third corner fit like a glove - the flat ends of the HST lined up perfectly -



After adding the fourth corner - I checked the size -

And it needs a slight trim on the left side -

But other than that - it comes out to a perfect 3-1/2" unit -


For those of you who don't have the die -

You could cut a center square at 2-5/8" -

And use HST that FINISH at 1-1/2" for the corners -

Or you can draw a Foundation Paper Piecing guide using graph paper -

Start with a 3-1/2" square - and find the mid-points of each side -

But DON'T be tempted to draw the inside square from those points -


You want to make your POINTS 1/4" IN from the edge -

And draw a line from mid-point to mid-point -

Then AFTER you have your center square -

Add 1/4" to the OUTSIDE of the square you just drew -


THAT square - with seam allowances -

Is the same size as the center square cut with the die -


My sample block looks like this - so far -

A simple 9-patch with Square-in-a-Square units in the center and corners -

And a 3-rail unit in the "middles" -

The 3-rail units are 1-1/2" strips sewn together in sets of three -
And sub-cut into 3-1/2" segments -

The Square-in-a-Square unit in the top left corner looks too big -
But it isn't sewn together yet - it'll shrink later - LOL -


The units all measure 3-1/2" square and will finish at 3" -

So a 3 x 3 setting will come out to a 9" finished block -

The 3-rail unit makes the logical finished block size a multiple of 3 -

So I went with 1" finished "rails" - and 3" finished units -


And the 9-patch block is the whole quilt -

Set block-to-block with no sashing -

A 7 x 7 setting would come out to 63" square - without borders -

How easy is that?


I think I'll use the die to cut the Square-in-a-Square centers -
Because I hate cutting anything with 1/8" measurements -
And I can cut 6 at a time with the die - LOL -

And go through my strip bins and pull out the 1-1/2" and 2" strips -

Then use my LEFT-EZE Rule™ and the 2" strips to make the HST corners -

And the 1-1/2" strips for the 3-rail units -

Maybe then I can make a dent in those bins - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



4 comments:

Linda Swanekamp said...

Wow, what a great squirrel. Pretty neat how you figured it all out. It is a flexible pattern for scraps I think.

Barbara said...

Wow, I worked on restoring that quilt for months and never discerned a block! I guess the scrappiness distracted me, it’s one of my favorite things. But then again, I don’t have the analytical mind that you do! Great job!

Katie said...

Awesome! I can easily see, though, how you could miss the 9-patch-ness of ot just looking at all the different fabrics. It's going to be beautiful...and busy...but will definitely keep you busy when you should be doing other things!

Gene Black said...

Ha ha... the first thing I did when I saw the original on Barbara's blog was to find the block.
This will make a great scrappy quilt - but then we knew that to start with because we saw the original.
My square in a square block is a different size - so I would have to alter the rail block section somehow.

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