Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Hunting Quilt

 What is this mess?  The trimmings from squaring up 48 half-square triangles.  Next time I'll use my old Omnigrid triangle rulers.  I forgot how much I dislike trimming squares.
Piecing done on my lovely vintage Necchi BU on the treadle from a 1919 Singer 66.  (I do still have the Singer 66, and it works fine, so I should find someone who would like to use it.)


Turned the triangles, 48 two-patch blocks, and 12 solid blocks into 12 Lincoln's Platform blocks.

 I drew diagonal lines across 24 squares.  (They're resting on a sheet of 12" deli paper.  I love that stuff--for sewing and organizing as well as in my kitchen!)
 I placed those squares on opposite sides of an un-pieced square and sewed on the line.




 ....Over and over again....
I love the hunting fabric, a gift from my dear friend Mary.  (It was a JoAnn's Fabric exclusive several years ago, but until this inspiration hit, I couldn't figure out how to use it.)
 Pressed the seams with my favorite itty-bitty steam iron--at least it's my favorite for piece work.
 All pressed.

 Trimmed--I often sew a second seam a scant 1/2-inch to the right of the line before trimming--not sure why I didn't do that before trimming this time.
 Lay out the plan.  Lay out two stacks of blocks.
 Seam, referring to plan.

 Check to be sure seams of blocks align.  The red in the Lincoln's Platform is a Robin Pandolph from several years ago. The little flowered red is a Peter Pan--I'm wondering if it was left over from a shirt I made for my father many years ago.  The beige tiny flower is from the 1980's when it was still hard to find 100% cotton for quiltmaking.
 Build the rows and piece rows together.
 Piece red inner border.
 Layer and baste with a few hundred pins.  (Pin basting because I took it to church to baste at our Victory Quilt meeting, and I didn't feel up to carting along the boards I use when basting with Sharon Schamber's thread basting method.  In hindsight, her method is faster--and is featured on you-tube.)


Pieced back--with some little surprises.

Ready for quilting.  Makes me nostalgic for hunting season on the farm in Illinois--although I usually stayed inside since there were always a few poachers who thought a hunting license entitled them to free game from other people's land and that they didn't even have to ask permission to hunt.  One year those poachers even included the president of one of the El Paso banks!
Guess I'd better get busy quilting and see how many more memories I recover!

Most often our Thanksgiving dinners included pheasant. On one of the little country roads near my work, I've seen a pair of ring-neck pheasants each day for the last several days. I don't even know if there is a pheasant hunting season here in New Mexico.

Hope your Thanksgiving Day is wonderful!

5 comments:

Michelle W said...

Oh Dora, that's beautiful. I love how well those two blocks "play" together. And it was so fun reading about all of your memories!

DragonPoodle said...

That's a beautiful quilt! I like a pieced back like that too. Have a happy thanksgiving!

Miss Hillbilly said...

Very pretty! I've never had pheasant. Don't know of anyone around here hunting it either. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pokey said...

Pheasant is good, I had it while we lived in Nebraska. I like the quilt, and the memories it stirred, thank you for the personal share Dora. I hope you're having a good Thanksgiving break!
:-}pokey

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link to the hand basting video. That looks intriguing. I only hand basted once - in my intro to quilting class. I may have to try that again.

Kristina

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