Block Talk

Happy Halloween! And happy last day of October! And happy "fall back" day! There's so much to be happy about today! For instance, I can look out my office window and see this tree in its fall foliage:

and that makes me happy! 

So let's just talk about this quilt block, shall we? I was ready to decide on the final layout for the 12 Appalachian Memories blocks, and I was gnashing my teeth over the math. This first part was easy. Fussy cut a little quilt block from the larger fabric. I'll need 20 of these are there is lots of variation in the fabric. I'll be able to use a different one in each cornerstone.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'd found a tutorial that gave me all the measurements I'd need to finish with a 8-1/2 inch cornerstone. And I'll say that sounded large to me from the get-go, but that's how it was going to work out if I followed the directions that came with the pattern. Right away, I realized I had a problem because my center square was only 2-1/2 inches. There was no way to make it larger without cutting into the blocks surrounding the one I wanted. No problem, I said. I just added a 1-1/2 inch border around the quilt block and went from there.

Fortunately, I have about a quarter yard left of the background fabric from the embroidered blocks, and so I'm using that. Unless I messed up, this should equal the desired 4-1/2 inches...

and it does. So far, so good. 

So then, I moved onto step 2, which was to cut two 4-inch squares from the desired fabric, and cut them in half on the diagonal, giving me the four corners of the square-in-a square block. When that was finished, it was 6-1/2 inches.

So that got me thinking. I like the little quilt blocks set on point. I'd lose that if I added another four corners around what I already had. That caused me to reconsider the size of the sashings. If I made them from three strips instead of four, I figured they'd come to 6-1/2 inches...

and they did. Yay! Quilter's math, you cannot defeat my brains of steel! As it turns out, this was the only way I could do this because I didn't have enough of that barbed wire fabric in the middle if I tried to make them wider.

Smitty was my support cat during this figuring process. While I was sewing, he was looking through the embroidered blocks.

When he came to this one with the cardinal...

he thought it looked delicious.

Red meat is my favorite!

Okay, so I continued on. I needed four of these cornerstones for the first block. Here's the second one.

When I had four cornerstones, I sewed them to the block along with their sashings, and voila! The setting was decided.

So, today I'll just keep going with this. The first block will be the most labor-intensive since I had to make all four sides. As I add blocks to the quilt, not all of them will require four cornerstones since they'll butt up against the block beside them. I'll get to work on this today, and just keep going until I'm finished, or until time runs out. Sewing these blocks into a finished flimsy will be my November

so I'll link up there when the party starts tomorrow.

There's nothing else going on today. I have a list of minor housekeeping chores. I'll do those as I finish each block, and so I'll be sewing and housekeeping throughout the day. Maybe I'll snuggle with some cats for a while. 

We're not expecting any trick-or-treaters, since we've never had a single one in the previous 18 years of Halloween. I'll leave you with this quilt of Halloween past: The Grim Ripper.

It's the scariest thing in my sewing room, for sure. Thanks to my new friend, "abelian," for pointing me in the direction of the new link to this free pattern.