Still working and moving on...

I got the bird done for the lower right bottom and I also have everything cut out for the small Oak leaf block. Once that gets done, the whole bottom section will be pieced together.

At the top, I'm going ahead with making the top border. I got the side border pieces done shown below and I also have all the pieces cut for the Sweet Land of Liberty words, basket, and eagle...as well as getting the side America and redbirds done. I'll be using my own fabrics so I can just keep the pieces that I get later with the packages from HH. This is Cheri's top section.
First thing I'll do today is to take the right border of sq in a sq blocks and add the long strip of fabric to the side. This gives me all the space I need to sew down the "america" and the 2 red birds. It's always easier to handle small pieces with applique rather than having to scrunch up the entire top in my hand to get to the side for turning and sewing down. I wish the top border was that easy but, no such luck. I'll be back with pictures of my progress.

america and red birds...check!

I'm still moving along...getting the strips sewn on the side sq. in a sq. blocks so I could add the redbirds and the word "america" to the panel. Now, when you make the 5 square in a square blocks, Cheri mentions adding a small piece to the bottom. Nowhere does it say how much so I added a big chunk. Now I'm thinking it might not have been so big. Might need more but no biggie. I've already got one seam peeking because I forgot about adding the extra the first time. Be generous...you can always trim later.

This is the way it looks added into it's rightful place.


I also was able to finish the Oak leaves block and get the lower right corner finished and assembled. I made mine from 100% wool felt and this makes turning all those dips and curves non-existent. This completes all the blocks for the quilt...leaving out any of the borders, but remember the borders on this quilt are extensive. The sides are plainer, but the top and bottom borders are full of paper pieced stars and houses, as well as the title block for the quilt!

Now I know Kathie is working on Cheri's Christmas Sampler quilt and also prep-ing the blocks for this quilt. Maybe I can entice her to post a tiny bit of her prepped blocks so everyone can see them...just one or two maybe??

so we're making border stars...

Like I previously said, since the BOM is 2 months behind, I'm moving along without them. I did the rest of the lower blocks I showed before and started on the top border. The top and bottom borders are really more like little mini quilts, and rather elaborate.... but not complicated.

The stars in the side sections can be tricky though. As with any pattern that's been copied over and over, it gets distorted as you copy and copy a copy. SO be careful that your block measures 6 1/2" tall...cutting size WITH seam allowance which you have to add on Cheri's templates. Mine did not. I had to add almost a 1/4". Now this sounds weird but I have no clue what the width is supposed to be. I got 2 different numbers from my two patterns and figured I'd settle on a number and make up the slack with the background for the title. Mine are came out at 4 .5" plus 1/16th, before sewing. I know, sounds absurd, but chopping off the extra just didn't make sense and it messed up my seam allowance so, I left it. That number isn't set in stone like the height. It must be cut at 6 1/2 to match your background piece.

Essentially you have two way to do these blocks. One, you can cut the star apart into sections and then iron each down to the top piece of a stack of fabric, then using a ruler cut out the piece adding the 1/4" seam allowance. I marked the cutting lines for reference. You don't have to use my order but you do need to cut the sections apart before cutting the sub-sections.

Then I used these to get 2 layers of fabrics for backgrounds. I'll do the same thing for the larger bottom border stars too!

The second way to sew them is my standard Freezer Paper Piecing. I won't show it again, but I broke the pattern into 3 sections for sewing. You can chose any way to do this...I wondered for 15 minutes before I picked these and could have gone another few ways too. MAKE sure you reverse the pattern if you use this method!! Here's my start!

And the 3 sections all sewn and ready to join together!
I joined the right and center sections first making sure to do the pin trick so they lined up perfectly, but hey it's not tragic if they don't!
Once that was sewn I had to remove the paper from the right side...too stiff at the seam. Then I joined the last section. The only good place to pin was the far left sewing line next to the seam allowance edge. Sew, press and leave both or at least one paper section to guide you in cutting.

At this point I used the ruler to measure exactly 6.5" x the width...4.5" + 1/16th..don't ask! Cut two sides, then turn and cut the last two.
Pull off the paper carefully and press good!

The top calls for 4 stars, but there is another small star at the bottom so I made that before stopping. Remember the bottom starts are larger, so stop at 5 stars.

Hope that helps with making the stars. I'll be back with a finished top border early this week!

top section complete...

**UPDATE - This is going to be helpful to anyone making the top so I added it in after the post. Here is the "map" for laying out the top section. it didn't arrive with my bom package, but I got it from another person and I think it's in the original pattern, so it's likely to come next time. However since it goes with this post, it needs to be here.

These are the measurements for the top section with the strips you need to add to make the blocks all fit together. Hope this will help when piecing your top section together. ***

I got my top section completed and all done!! I know the top is ragged, but I'm leaving it until the whole quilt top is done...it will make trimming easier with no miss cuts.

I got all the embroidery done on the sections and I already put all the button eyes on the quilt. I know most say never do it before quilting, but I'm very careful when I quilt and I also plan to quilt in the ditch anyway with hand quilting added for some of the appliqued blocks. There's no problem of buttons appearing in the seams!

Close-up of the left side....

and the right side.

I hope that some of you do start this quilt soon. It's a wonderful quilt and I know that some people get overwhelmed when seeing the whole quilt and get scared. Don't think about the whole quilt at once. Just pick one block, read the directions and start slow. I know the instructions are a bit crude to some who are used to being lead by the hand with most patterns, but these patterns are this way so you can add your own personality to the design. As long as YOU like the way it looks...it's perfect!

Now I'm moving on to get all the rest of the economy blocks done for the right side. We finally got another package from Homestead Hearth that has fabric for all those economy blocks. Since they sent lovely fabric for economy blocks I'm happy to use it.

the joys of folk art quilting...

As Shasta said in her comment. That's exactly it. Now I certainly DO NOT profess to be any sort of expert on these type quilts, or these particular quilts. All I merely wanted to do was have fun making my quilt while sharing my experiences along the way. How I made each block, what worked, what frustrated me, what drove me nuts...and most of all, how I solved all the boo-boo's. I'll also say that I almost did not write this post either because I really didn't want to upset or scare anybody any further by announcing that my pieces weren't fitting together. This is just how mine turned out. Not every ones may do this! Plus...It's going to be solved so that you will never know it ever WAS an issue!

By now you know that I am a serious Cheri fan. I have one of those plastic magazine holders in my craft closet stuffed! with all my little manila brown envelopes, but sometimes the measurements can be a tiny bit iffy. On a small wall hanging I work around any instances of that and none the wiser. But on a big quilt like a sampler that you've already sewn into sections it can get a little hairy. So tip for you...don't! Seriously I might have gone back to having the single blocks if I *could* go back.

Actually truth is I will most assuredly be taking out my trusty graph paper and graphing out the ABC sampler sections just to make sure it all works out. Buggy Barn might do that for me...they did just that for the first section!! We got a lovely drawn out **measured** drawing in the mail from BB of how the top would work out! How cool!

So back to working...one thing that always seems to trip me up are the template sections. As Cheri states...template pieces do not include seam allowance (s/a). Well sometimes they need a s/a around the edge and sometimes they don't. It hasn't turned out consistent for me. The USA did... the basket was perfect... the flag under the eagle needed s/a on the top and bottom, but couldn't have s/a on the sides or it wouldn't have fit for me.

This above is what I saw when I laid out my two halves of the bottom section. First I knew I needed to connect the lower right angel/ oakleaf/bird to the top with the template stars and angel and bird the in vase thingy. It should have lined up perfectly. You'll notice it didn't quite. No biggie, sew on a strip and be happy. Once I sewed that seam, I could turn over and sew the remainder of the flag seam. Second issue came to light. The flag is supposed to be the same length as the right side section. I've measured everything and all the backgrounds and pieces are all the correct size. I suspect again that the culprits are the flying geese in the center, but mostly the star blocks. I wondered when making them, but they matched up to the lower parts and fit together beautifully then so I never gave it a thought. Then I laid out the left section. Problem..too short. In fact the right section in Cheri's quilt has a strip sewn on the bottom to make it the correct size to match up to the left side. Well my left side as you can see is shorter without.

**Now again, You may never face any of these issues, but I did and this is how I plan to solve them and what you have to consider when doing so*** Mostly, how does adding strips effect the size as it pertains to the other sections. Length is no big deal. Width however is a big deal especially since I have the top section totally completed. Before I sewed this I laid it out as you see below and pinned the other two top sections over it to make sure they fit. They do fit luckily.
Rather than having all these strips at the bottom, I'll shift the sections like below.

I plan to make a line of hst's to fill the gap over the snails' trails and put a small section under the flag. I think it will look just fine. I haven't a clue if I did anything different than the pattern or not but it doesn't matter at this point. Notice I did not say "wrong". Nothing in folkart is wrong in my eyes. This makes this quilt mine. I'm happy with it now, so I'll be thrilled when the tops done...extra sections and all.

the bottom section...

Sorry ladies I've been very remiss in getting the last bit of directions and tips for completing this lovely quilt up here for you!I left you last time with me trying to adjust the lower section to fit all the pieces together! I chose to put in a nice row of hst's to make up the small space over the snail's trail blocks and I liked the effect it gave. Once I got all that section done, I assembled the top section with the center and started making economy blocks and flying geese for the borders. These work up according to Cheri's directions quite well. I used the template she provided for the flying geese.

Next up is making the lower border which contains stars and houses! I was very pleased that nothing had to be done sideways to make the sections fit together but if you need something to bridge the gap it's all good. These quilts are never done to an exacting standard.

Bottom borders...

Six large stars, one small star and three houses make up the lower border. Make sure when you are drawing up the paper piecing pattern for the stars that you have them 5" wide and 7" tall before adding the outer seam allowance. These copy machine do all sorts of things to patterns. Remember to make ONE small star too with a section on the bottom to add the required height for the row. You need it because a larger star is too wide!

There's also a 1.5" strip added just above the lower border in cheri's pattern. But watch the placement. it goes under the economy block border on the right....but before you add the flying geese on the left! I just sewed the geese to a point and stopped. Then waited for the last bits to be sewn before adding the rest of the geese to the left side of the quilt.

You can go back to the section on how to make stars my way using Cheri's templates if you'd like to do it that way. The houses are made similar, but you have to cut your pattern into 3 sections and remember to add the seam allowance to each side to sew them back together! The windows and doors are appliqued on after they are sewn together.

My quilt is finishing at 58 1/2" x 81". Definitely NOT the same measurements as Cheri's pattern called for at 63 x 75". But I got curious and started adding up the dimensions of Cheri's quilts by doing block by block addition and hers doesn't add up at that either! Anyone surprised?? Gotta admit I still love her! By my calculations it would measure 57.5 x 79". I came out just about on the nose because I had to add the 2" spacer bar on one side towards the bottom...without it mine would have been 58.5 x 79!! Just one inch wider. I'm very pleased.