Blogger's Quilt Festival

I have been following the Blogger's Quilt Festival for a few seasons now, and I have been amazed by all the beautiful quilts made by the talented quilters out these. When Amy's e-mail arrived earlier this fall I immediately knew I would enter my recent pride and joy: Anne Ida's Loyal Union Sampler - here hung on the attic wall:

I was and still am thrilled to have been able to make this quilt ahead of the Loyal Union Sampler book being published, and honored a picture of my quilt was included in the book.

My quilt consists of  the 121 sampler blocks featured in the pattern book, and 56 Birds in the Air blocks for the border - each block 6" square. The quilt itself measures 90" square.

The few bits of applique in this quilt is done by hand, but most of blocks are machine pieced and the quilting is done on my Bernina Activa 135 - also known as Bernie :-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

LUS BOW: Beacon Lights

I didn't get around to making last week's LUS BOW, but I probably won't make all 120 blocks this time around, and have plenty of time to decide if I'll play catch-up on that block, or if I'll just skip it. For now I have enjoyed making this week's BOW: A-7 Beacon Lights:

Not really sure what's going on, but I feel these LUS blocks came together so much smoother when I did the brown/pink/gold version. Might be the background fabrics I used - the white-on-white is fairly stiff, so it might have helped stabilize the pieces better than the fabrics I'm using now - which is bits and pieces from a layer cake and scraps of beige left over from my Dear Jane adventure... This is the block I made for my brown/pink/gold LUS:

Happy Sunday!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Loyal Union Sampler BOW and a Christmas block

This week's BOW for the Loyal Union Sampler yahoo group is Winged Square - this is my version made in Harvest Home by Blackbirds:Design for Moda. The picture doesn't do it justice - the background is actually a warm brown, not the horrible pink as it looks in the picture:

This is the one I made for the pink/brown/gold LUS quilt that's in the book - the focus fabric is from Jennifer Chiaverini's Joanna's Collection for Red Rooster:

I have also made a tiny progress on my Christmas quilt - one block down, three more to go. This is Pine Tree:

I had a look through my project today bag, and it looks like I have very little red fabrics left, so I' m thinking the last three blocks needs to be mostly green and gold... or I have to come up with something...

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

LUS BOW - Abel's Favorite

Keeping on playing with the fun block of the week over at the Loyal Union Sampler yahoo group. This week's block is A1- Abel's Favorite:

It turned out a bit wonky, not sure what I did wrong since I didn't have any problems with my first one, but it was fun revisiting the pattern for this block. Amazing what difference the choice of fabric makes - this is the block I made for my original LUS quilt:

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Loyal Union Sampler - appliqué blocks

There aren't many appliqué blocks in the LUS, luckily for me who still have a bit of a scare about the A-word. However I love the look of the appliqué that's there:

E-8 Honney Bee:

I-8  Slave Chain:

...and one of my favorites J-3 Tea Leaves:

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Sylvia and the Civil War

Doing the posts on my Loyal Union Sampler and seeing the LUS blocks popping up on blogs and in the yahoo-group I feel my fingers itching to stitch little 6" blocks again. I'm a member of both the yahoo-group for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and The Loyal Union Sampler. Both groups are doing a block-of-the-week program, so I'm gonna join in the fun using a layer cake and some cream fabrics from my stash:

Not sure how far they will take me, but at the moment it's just about having fun with some blocks along with everyone else. Perhaps they someday might turn into a Sylvia and the Civil War quilt?

This week's block at the LUS-BOW group is B-2 Camp Curtain:

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Loyal Union Sampler - Favorite Blocks

I have changed the header for my blog - now including a section of my LUS quilt. And calling this post "favorite blocks" is a bit risky as I know taste it is a very subjective theme. But when doing a sampler there are blocks that speak more to the maker than others. It might be the over-all look of the block, it might be the fabric combination for that particular block, it might be overcoming the challenge of difficult piecing. Here's a selection of some of my favorites from the LUS:

A-2 Abigail's Swing - was a challenge getting the block looking symetrical, the seams kept pulling and it looked very crooked for a while, but I'm very happy with how it turned out: 

A-2 A house Divided - something just so pretty with the simplicity of this block and I would love to use this block in a two-block quilt someday: 

A-4 Anneke's Choice - just love the illusion of curves in this block:

B-4 Castle Wall - this was a tricky block to do, but I'm thrilled with the result. The Castle wall block is an important block in the Elm Creek Quilt novels, starting with the memorial quilt that is made for Sylvia after her husband is killed in WW2, and it's a block that has fascinated me since I first read about it in "The Quilter's Apprentice":

B-6 Charlie Stokey's Star is a block designed for this quilt - Charlie is a character in the novel and there is a passage in "The Union Quilters" describing the star made by his loved one. This is one of the blocks I keep dreaming of making a whole quilt with the one block repeat:

E-2 Granny's Favorite actually looks a bit simpler than it was to piece (I get confused with over sized pieces that needs to be trimmed after the block is sewn), but I love the simple look of it, the four patch more or less floating against a two-colour background. Another great pattern for a one block repeat quilt: 

K-1 Vermont  came together so smoothly, which I never would have guessed looking at the 36 strange looking triangles that are in this block: 

K-8 Wisconsin is just glowing, isn't it? ;-)

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Loyal Union Sampler - Choice of borders

In the description of the sampler quilt in the novel "The Union Quilters" Jennifer Chiaverini paints a picture of an appliqué border with a floral swag. Those who know me and/or have read my blog for a while will know applique isn't my strong point. So when it came time to figure out what kind of border I would do for my LUS it was either a one fabric border or a pieced border.

Remember these pictures from March 2011?

The birds in the air block plays a prominent role in the novels set in the 1800s; stories of slaves escaping to the north. So in honor of Joanna's Birds in the air quilt from "The Runaway Quilt" I chose a border pieced together of 6" Birds in the air blocks.

The smaller triangles are made up of the scraps from all of the fabrics I used in the blocks while the larger ones are all made with the Apple Orchard dark-fabric from The WInding Ways Quilt collection

Still thinking of one day making a Birds in the Air quilt with this layout:

The border blocks are the only sneak-peeks of the LUS I gave on my blog while making the quilt, but I don't think anyone - except Annelies, my quilting buddy who was working on her own version of the quilt - had any idea what the blocks were going to be used for.

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

Loyal Union Sampler and Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

Elin posted a question on my previous post about the Loyal Union Sampler wondering if there were some of the same blocks in this sampler as there are in Jennifer Chiaverini's last big sampler quilt, the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

With the pattern for 140 blocks in one book and 121 blocks in the other you might think there are some doubles, but no there aren't any of the same blocks. The theme for the two quilts are very different. The SBS being a wedding quilt with blocks symbolizing love, marriage, everyday life and friendship. The love and friendship you also find in the LUS, but the dominant theme is the American Civil war.

However there are blocks that look similar at first glance, and there are some blocks that have the same construction but the colour placement makes them different.

In the SBS there is a classic two colour Ohio Star (M-5):

In the LUS there's a three colour block that is a combination of the star and a cross making the Happy Home (E-4):

There are also variations of this star with different piecing in the corners than the simple squares in the two above. One example SBS B-7: Swamp patch

The pieces for the LUS block Oregon (H-6)...:

...is made up of the same pieces as the LUS block Nevada (G-11), however the corner units of the block are turned the opposite  direction:

In the SBS the Sister's Choice block (C-4) has the same over all look as the Oregon block, but the constructuon is different:

You will also find there are examples of blocks within the same quilt where the piecing is the same and the colour placement is what makes the difference:

LUS Kansas Star (F-5)

LUS Chambersburgh (B-5):

SBS Boy's Nonsense (D-10):

SBS Gentleman's Fancy (K-6):

 There are also some blocks that are very similar in construction and can look rather similar, but still there are a bit of a difference:

LUS New York State (H3):

SBS Key West Beauty (M-10): 

LUS Indiana (F-1):

LUS Gettysburg (D-10):

And, as it should be (in my opinion), several variations of a sawtooth star:

LUS Abel's favorite (A-1):

LUS Diamond Star (C-8):

LUS Missouri Star (G-10):

LUS Pinwheel star  (H-10):

LUS Union Star ((J-11):

LUS Spurs (I-10) has the look of a sawtooth star, but is constructed differently:

SBS Sarah's Choice (H-3):

SBS  Sawtooth Star (J-1):

Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida