Just so you know I've been sewing...

I'll put a few things on to prove it. I had been making these with a few other ladies recently and sharing. It works great so we each get a great quilt and lots of different patterns and colors with no duplications. It's really an easy block to make and a lot of fun to find the color combinations for each block. It's called the Paducah 9 Patch in case you didn't know and it's very fun to see all the light X's form when you lay them out on the wall. 44 down...too many to go. What do I need? Maybe 100's of these for a queen size quilt?
Secondly I ripped off the quilt that Libby made a few months back. Let's be honest. I ripped it off. I had tons of scraps and loved the quick nature of doing one of Lori Smith's 16x20 designs so off I went drawing up the pattern and making one for ME!! Sometimes you don't want to finish a quilt...you want something new to make! I also signed up with Homestead Hearth for a 9 month BOM where they send you the FQ's and you make one each month from Lori's new package of 9 little quilts. I chose the Pink/Brown combo coloration but I don't plan to make that many pink and browns....I'll use my FQ's and switch out the color combo's on some of the others. The quilt is on the hoop right now being quilted.
Lastly, I can't express how sweet you all are to keep Mom in your prayers and thoughts. Tomorrow is the lung specialist and that should get the ball rolling with a biopsy and other things. Cross your fingers it's a harmless blob. That would be super.

PS: like the blue? I'm painting the house too and thought a little summer color would be nice around the blog for a while. *G*

The beginning...

Addendum: In reality today is August 14, 2008. Since I've been making this quilt with some fabulous ladies, I realized that Beth might not want to maintain the Sweet Land of Liberty blog once we are done with the quilt, but that there might be some people who could benefit from the tips and seeing the blocks progress. SO I decided to copy my posts onto my blog and backdate them all for April 2007 into my own blog so that I can retain them for anyone who needs or wants the help in the future. I'll put them on the sidebar so anyone can find them easily.

Thanks Beth for starting the blog.

Here's the packet I received. It will be interesting to see if Dixie and I receive the exact same fabrics. The only thing I plan to change is the colors of the USA fabrics. They sent mostly grays and I really want mine blue and red. This should be a lot of fun to do together. One thing to remember is any size that she gives for blocks: ie... block size, already includes the seam allowance, but template pieces DO NOT. That seems to be the most important thing to make sure of. It's helped a lot with doing the Christmas Sampler. Hopefully next time I'll have something started to show!

USA done!! Part One...the "U":

I got the USA blocks done so far and thought I would take the time to show how the faux paper piecing method works and how I did my letters. It's long and if I have to break up the posts I will, but I'll keep the pictures tiny. It took some thinking but they turned out pretty good. I only goofed once!

I copied each letter with a light box making them backwards as you normally do in paper piecing and then creased at every line to make the fold. Even though this is the A, I did them all the same, starting with the U. Take some of the stickiness off by ironing them once or twice on your board.
First iron the piece big enough to cover the center making sure to have enough all around for a quarter inch seam. Don't iron on the sticky side. Hold it and lay it down, ironing on the paper side.Fold back at the center seam to add the background section and trim with an Add a Quarter ruler if you have one.

You get a nice quarter inch ready to sew.

Cut the background piece large enough to cover all the area and match the seams...right sides together. Lay a strip of paper on the paper so it doesn't bind and sew right NEXT to the paper. Press the seam and then press on the paper side to stick the new section to the freezer paper.

Moving to one side of the U, do the same thing as before. Fold at the line, trim to quarter inch, line up a piece for the side large enough to cover the area and the outer seam allowance and sew. Press open and stick to paper. Above shows just one side left to do!

Last side done, an untrimmed U!

Use the paper side to trim adding a quarter inch to all sides of the outer lines. Remember: the pattern does not add the seam allowance to the template pieces!

A nice trimmed U!I'll add the other letters separately.

Part 2: making the "S"...

The S was a bit trickier since I had 2 sections that involved more than one part. I had to decide which to do and remove, before doing the second multiple section. I decided to do the small two piece section first. You'll notice if you look at mine and Cheri's pattern that ours are different from the gal who made the example. On purpose, or by accident she made the bottom section on the left much wider by making the lower background section a part of the letter and not the background.

Here's the S pattern above, all ready with fold lines. I did forget to pre-fold the one small line in the bottom section. Again make sure to do your template backwards and draw a quarter inch line around the edge for seam allowance.

I decided to do the smaller lower section first. Just as I did with the U, cut a larger piece, trim with the ruler, align right side together, sew and press open. Then I removed this section so I could do the center section and it's 3 parts. No way to do them while these pieces were still attached.

Do everything exactly the same way and you'll end up with this! This is looking at the paper side in front of the light. You can see the edges cover all the area needed!

I folded back the lower paper section and laid out the section I removed previously and lined it up where I wanted to the be, flipped it over right sides together, lined it up and sewed!

Press open, press to the freezer paper and done. It's not perfect, but I like it. Now add the top and bottom letter sections just like stated before and trim...making sure to add that quarter inch around the template pattern.

The U & S...now on to the A!

Part 3: the "A" and a finish!

The A would have been trickier, but I simplified the template pattern a bit so I wouldn't have to do 2 different sections again. Again I started with the pattern all ready to go with lines folded. I decided that rather than having the background divided into 2 section on either outside, I'd do the center, then add the top chunk and put on the outer background on in one piece.

I did the middle section in three piece just like before.

Above I added both blue section for the sides of the A, then I trimmed across the top and added the upper chunk. I noticed again that the maker of the example decided to simplify even more and make a simple pointed A, but I like the chunkier feel. After sewing on the top, just add the background to each side after trimming!

The only goof I made was yesterday, when I got ahead of myself and added the left side background after adding the left blue, then adding the right blue section followed by the background...forgetting to stop and add the top chunk! SO once I ripped it out I had used the background pieces and had to find other pieces. I like the scrappy look so it doesn't bother me at all.

The finished A, trimmed to add a quarter inch!

Carefully remove the freezer paper and sew together! The pattern calls for a strip to be sewn to the bottom but didn't say how large. Since I have the whole pattern, I looked ahead and saw that it's cut at 1 1/2". I think I'll make mine a bit larger so I can trim it even once the basket is done. I've already made the basket template and folded all the lines to get ready for sewing. I won't show the detail of that one..never fear. I just wanted to make sure you got this technique in case you wanted to use it.

Second Month arrived!

Yummy fabrics and the stuff is so well marked. I finished the basket, except for sewing on the star and I was amazed at how much extra fabric they have allowed. I had tons left over. I am starting the house block tonight and will post the whole finished section as soon as I get it done but though I'd give you a peek at the basket!The only tricky part was getting a small hoop on the work to do the lettering. I like some stability when I stitch. But the iron fixed the bumps! Oh I used red wool felt for the bird like Cheri's quilt did, so much easier and now I have the fabric for something else! the star will be wool felt too, but I'm still waiting for another order with the right color.

Back to work!

Month one done!...

Can't believe I finally got the house block done with all those tiny windows and all the needlework stitching for the cross hatching in the windows. I didn't like the stark white so I went with 3 strands of a very dark gold. Then I made all the strips and finally got to the part where I easily sewed it all together...eeeekkk....not so fast!

Slight problem...the USA block is sitting there at 12.5 inches and I measured so I know it's the right size. But the house block according to Cheri's dimensions finished at 11.5 inches. Ah the joy of Cheri's quilt patterns. I don't care about adding strips here and there, I'm fine with that 100%, but I wanted to know if I did something wrong of not. No, by the way, I cut them all the exact sizes given. Then I went to check out Cheri's quilt and saw the issue. She didn't get them to even out EITHER. Notice in this cut from her quilt picture that she has four (4) side strips on the left. Blue, red, plaid and another larger blue one. SO I picked out some left overs and made another strip...which I am fine doing.

IF I had wanted the backing to equal out right I would have had to add 1.25 to the backing. If you'd rather yours not have the strip then figure out your size and make the background wider. I also looked at the sample that came with our pattern to see how theirs worked out. If you check out the right side of the A, you'll notice that they wacked off what I guess to be 1/2 inch from each side to make it fit. Her A is almost gone on the right side.

So, just stay aware and chose which look you like best. OH and it's not listed in this section of the pattern...but rather later...that you need a strip on the bottom of the USA to make it fit with the basket block. I cut mine at 1 3/4" and only had about 1/16th to trim. Lay your blocks beside each other and see what you need.

I have a few other things to get done before I start block section #2. If you have any questions...lob them to me. I'll help in any way!