Wensleydale Update

I've been home from retreat for over a week now and just as I suspected, the output of Wensleydale blocks as significantly diminished. Too many distractions here in my own home keep me from settling into the quilting room for long, productive sewing sessions.

Alas, I am still making progress! Tuesday, Sharon was here to sew, and that made for a very productive day. I left retreat with 31 completed blocks (shown above) and my current total is 45. Only 15 more to go!

I carried this neat stack of blocks into the bedroom to lay out all 45 for a visual of my progress. This is a lot of blocks, and 15 more will be quite large!

Most pictures I see of finished Wensleydale quilts show the blocks in a horizontal setting. I have always preferred the vertical setting, so that is how I've laid these blocks out. I might try it the other way, just for comparison's sake. Who knows, perhaps I will prefer that. 

Here are a couple more looks at the layout at this point.

 

This is going to be a great-looking quilt, I just know it. I love each block as it comes together. I have two or three cut and ready to sew; that helps me to be ready to sit down and sew in random snippets of time. 

If you want to make this quilt, I will provide some links here for easy access. I believe these have helped me greatly, especially the YouTube about cutting. This video from The Quilted Chicken absolutely moved me to action on this quilt. She provides easy-to-understand cutting instructions that keep fabric waste to a minimum. Waste was one of my biggest concerns, so this really assured me that I could minimize it. 

If you'd just like to look at the orginal book in which this pattern appeared, take a look at this video from now-defunct Martingale Press. Quilt Recipes has been out for a few years, so it might be hard to find; this will give you a sampling of both the book and the quilt. 

And of course, you must visit designer Jen Kingwell's webpage. It's a veritable feast of colors and designs. Wensleydale can be made using paper piecing, which I am doing, or templates. I'd like to see how the templates compare to the foundation papers. The website lists other products available to assist in making her quilts. Since she's in Australia, you'll likely want to buy from your local quilt shop, as I did when I bought my foundation papers in Columbus.

 I hope I can keep myself focused on the last 15 blocks. My desire is to finish it, so I anticipate that I will do it as quickly as possible. I have quite a few distractions in coming days and weeks, but always, I will return to the Wensleydale blocks 46-60.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne