Quilting Update

 I was all excited to have fall arrive.  Anticipation of cooler temperatures and better fishing were on my mind; but as it turns out, mother nature had other plans.  As soon as Labor Day passed the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in.  For the first half of September we just have not had weather conducive to being out on the water.  I did get the chance to walk the beach here in Ocracoke several times, and the waves were impressive.  Here is a picture from one morning below.  You can see the wind catching the tops of the waves as they roll in.

Waves and wind

This was the harbor just the other day with clouds and rain

So with the less than ideal weather, I have been trying to work on some quilting.  Here are several of my most recent projects.  The first one is made with some seahorse fabric I found last fall in New Bern  and just had to have.

Seahorse fabric I fell in love with

Below is the quilt I used the seahorses to make.  It has multiple teal colors and the seahorse fabric is used for the boarders.  The pattern is called a snail's trail.

Another fabric that I fell for has boats, whales and seagulls.  I had enough to make two quilts with these.  The first uses a "storm at sea" quilt block.  This block is one of my favorites.  It has numerous variations, but works up beautifully with any number of the variations.   It is one of many quilt blocks inspired by scripture.  This one from the new testament "..........and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was full."  When Jesus awoke he rebuked the wind, but he also rebuked the men for lacking faith.  Why are we fearful?  Mark 4: 36-41.

Storm At Sea quilt

Close up of the fabric in this quilt

This is the second quilt I made with this fabric.  It is a very simple pattern.

Then there is the brown and white quilt that turned out better than I expected.  This one was made with a brown "jelly roll" I found while visiting family in Pennsylvania.  A jelly roll is a pre-cut package of 42 fabrics all cut into 2 1/2 inch strips.

Jelly roll quilt

I also found a "layer cake" visiting Pennsylvania that worked up nicely.  Layer cakes also have pre-cut fabrics that are all squares measuring 10 by 10 inches.

Layer Cake quilt

I have started a very challenging quilt that has 16 star blocks.  The stars are about half finished.  This is an example of one of the stars.  This quilt will take quite some time to finish as making these stars is a very slow precise process.

The last two quilts I am working on are reproduction quilts.  The first is a Civil War reproduction quilt.  At the start of the Civil War in April 1861, both the North and South were ill prepared to send soldiers to war.  Many communities and women in particular tried to organize gathering supplies such as food, bedding, and clothing to send to soldiers fighting far from home.  In fact, within 2 weeks of the start of the war some 20,000 local aid societies were formed around the country.  Although their intentions were good; it was very disorganized.  

In an attempt to more efficiently and effectively channel resources to soldiers, The United States Sanitary Commission was formed.    The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) was created to provide aid to soldiers on the battlefield, in camps, hospitals, and prisons, and channel donated supplies to the areas of greatest need.  Quilts of course were a popular commodity for volunteers to make.

During the 1860's a type of quilt commonly made for soldiers was the "bound block quilt".  In this type of quilt, each individual quilt block was bound and finished before being assembled into a larger quilt.  Women could make multiple blocks over a period of time while at home.  They would then get together for a day of assembling their finished blocks into several quilts to be shipped off to soldiers.  These bound block quilts are unique to this time period. Although estimates suggest over 250,000 quilts were made during the Civil War; only 15 of these quilts are known to exist today and 11 are of the bound block type.

Here Pengi shows my pile of blocks for the Civil War Reproduction Quilt

A closer view of 4 of the blocks shows that they already have binding on them before being sewn together.

Each block is like a mini quilt into itself.  For this reason this type of quilt has also been called a potholder quilt.  Each individual block is then whip stitched together to make the quilt.  Mine will have 56 blocks when it is done.  The fabrics I used are reproduction fabrics like those that would have been available in the 1860's and the patterns I picked for the blocks are also patterns common during the 1800's.  There is no batting in this quilt either.  Many quilts sent to soldiers were requested to be lightweight since much of the fighting was in the south's warmer climate, therefore batting was not always used.  My blocks are about half finished at this point.  After binding all of them I will also do some inscriptions on some of the blocks as this was also a common practice of the time.  

My final reproduction quilt is an Ocracoke Cracker Quilt.  For many years this type of quilt was thought to be original to Ocracoke.  During the documentation of quilts in North Carolina in the 1970's this cracker pattern was found only on Ocracoke.  Research eventually determined that it is a variation of a colonial pattern that became popular with women on Ocracoke.  Today several local families have this type of quilt in their family.

Pengi showing my Ocracoke Cracker quilt blocks

Ocracoke cracker blocks have a center square made of 4 rectangular strips of fabric.  One of the two center fabrics must be a red (either solid or patterned).  The other 3 fabric strips can be of any color desired.  Four triangular fabrics pieces are added to the center square.  These are either blue, light pink or yellow most commonly.  The triangles are added so the center square is on point once the block is complete.

Close-up view of one block in the cracker quilt

The blocks are then put together for any size quilt desired.  Each block is tilted at opposing angles to add interest to the pattern.   Here are my blocks placed as I think I will sew them together.  I used some of the reproduction fabrics typical of the 1800's for this quilt as well.  I also used several different shades of blue for the outer triangles to give it a really scrappy look.

So even though the weather has not been cooperating, I have tried to keep busy.  As much as I enjoy quilting, I do hope the weather improves.  Fingers crossed that it does so before I run out of fabric or thread.