Finished!! Burgoyne Surrounded Top!

Man, oh man, if you had told me I would make this quilt and get the top done in a month's time, I would have certainly thought you were crazy. Yet I have done it, and I couldn't be happier with my finish!

I've gone back to see when I started this madness, and it appears I cut out and sewed the first block on Saturday, January 11. I wrote about it here. That makes one month and two days to the finished quilt top. For me, that is an accomplishment. I tend to get about 3/4ths done on something and then begin something else.

My interest was piqued after I saw several of my favorite bloggers all working on different versions of the same quilt. After just a bit of investigating, I discovered that it was a quilt along sponsored by American Patchwork and Quilting magazine called Tone It Down, in the February 2014 issue. The idea was to make a quilt with gazillions of different fabrics; from a distance it all would look uniform, while up close, the scrappiness would be evident.

The block is called Burgoyne Surrounded, and while I knew that it was a block with some history attached to it, I had to look it up for particulars. John Burgoyne was a British general who led an attack on Saratoga, New York, in the American Revolutionary War. He surrendered to American troops after being surrounded. It is said that this victory for the Americans was the turning point of the war.

When I was planning my version of the quilt, I decided on using a patriotic theme, as the block was historical in nature. I had no idea that it represented such a pivotal battle in the fight for freedom, so that makes me really glad that I did go with red, white and blue.

In my pictures I see more contrast than I want to see in my background fabrics. In real life, it is not nearly as pronounced. This makes me think that I might consider giving it a tea-bath. I think it might look more uniform if the lighter backgrounds had that darker tone. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I would be very interested to hear them.

Do you think you would be interested in seeing some of the other quilts? You can search the blogs of the following quilters for an incredibly wide variety of "takes" on the Burgoyne Surrounded quilt. I have to say, these ladies probably worked like the dickens to get their quilts completed. But to anyone reading their blogs, it was like they started one day and were nearing the finish the next! It was intimidating! I think I worked about as steadily as I could, and it took me a month. Maybe those gals have elves that come in at night to work on their quilts, like that old cobbler in the fairy tale. Hmmm, wonder how I get myself an elf?

Here's the list of quilters/bloggers who participated for the magazine:
Amy's Creative Side
Bunny Hill Designs
Thimble Blossoms
Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.
Quilt Jane
All People Quilt/Jennifer Keltner
Jolly Jabber at Fat Quarter Shop
Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings
Moda Lissa
A Quilting Life

 If you Instagram, the hashtag is #apqquiltalong.

Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

9-Patch Update

Doing 30 9-patches was a walk in the park compared to constructing 20 Burgoyne Surrounded blocks. And if it weren't for my blogging about this project, I would quit right now. Yes, I have reached the point of being tired of this project and I'm ready to start the next. I have always been this way. That's why I have so many starts and so few finishes. But I digress...

These 9-patch blocks, as I said, were easy and fast to finish. I am now taking a deep breath and getting myself ready for putting it all together.

I did the prep work just after breakfast. These stacks are ready to be connected. We have 60 in the top pile and 30 in the bottom pile. Easy-peasy.

After lunch, I headed back upstairs to finish them off, and in an hour I had them constructed, pressed and photographed for your blogging pleasure. *grin*

Looking pretty spiffy, aren't they? I have the sashing strip already cut, so the quilt top will soon be taking shape!

All quilters face housekeeping duties, so this is nothing new to you, but I wanted to show you how much gunk gets into my machine after just a day of sewing. I dust it out about every other day, and just look at all the bits of thread and dirt. Gracious! Quilts like this one with lots of parts sure puts the sewing machine through the works.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Twenty Blocks Done

Phew! If it weren't for all this snow and ice, I wouldn't be able to say this, but I've finally finished my 20th Burgoyne Surrounded block!! Whoo-hoo! That is truly worth a little celebration. Those are some intensely tedious blocks to make, as I've alluded to in prior posts. Yesterday, I cancelled my classes at OUC due to all the ice and snow we got on Tuesday night. This gave me a whole day to devote to making the final four blocks.

 The picture above shows the subunits needed for the final four blocks. Pretty, aren't they? I grumbled a lot while making them, but I am thrilled with how the colors work together.

This is my stack of 20 pretty blocks. Thankfully they are big ones, measuring out at 15.5". That will give me a nice big quilt, too, as these will be sashed with 3.5" strips.

Speaking of sashing, I need to make a plan for the 30 little blue and light 9-patches needed for the cornerstones. That might just happen today. Then it will only be a matter of putting it all together. Can you say "homestretch?" 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Fixing Boo-boos

These daggone Burgoyne Surrounded blocks are so easy to goof up. I have spent more time than I care to admit ripping out those blended 9-patch blocks that I showed you a couple days ago. Click here to read about constructing them.

The mistake in the above 4 finished blocks is in the first one. The lower left blended 9-patch is turned the wrong way. The navy diagonal is not doing its job of keeping the larger navy diagonal going through the block.

 

It has happened 3 times and let me tell  you, they are not fun to fix! I have laid the blocks out with everything going the right direction, but somehow I get this block turned without even realizing it until it is all sewn in.

Other that that, these blocks have been a lot of fun to make. I have 13 blocks completed, and have just 7 more to make. I try to get a good bunch of sub-units made ahead, and that makes finishing blocks a lot faster. Fun, too. *grin*  I am getting close enough to 20 blocks to begin thinking ahead to the sashing and cornerstone blocks that I will need to make.

So back to the sewing machine for me!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Constructing the Burgoyne Block

I have been a bit absent from blogging for a few days, but trust me when I say I am working diligently on the Burgoyne Surrounded blocks. I seem to have found a rhythm to it, and truly, I am enjoying the process.

The trick is to have enough cutting done so that you can get nice scrappy combinations of the three colors - red, blue and background. At first I thought I'd try to have each block use the same red and blue throughout, but it required too much stopping and starting - I'd get almost done only to find that I needed one more 1.5" square. Do you know how hard it is to make yourself go cut more fabric for a 1.5" square??? It didn't take me long to decide that mixing up my reds and blues would be okay.

So let's take a look at the construction of the subunits. Broken down into these steps makes the formation of the entire block seem so much simpler.

To be most efficient, the instructions say to sew many 1.5" neutral strips to 1.5" red strips and cut them down to 1.5" pieces and 2.5" pieces. Then when sewn together in the design shown above, you will have the subunit that will eventually help to form the circular pattern in the block.

You need 4 of these subunits, and they go together very quickly once all the cutting is done.

Next, let's look at the center block. Of course, only one of these is needed.

Select a nice scrappy combination of background neutrals to go with the blues, and construct a 9-patch block. Easy-peasy.

The most involved subunit is the OTHER 9-patch block - I will refer to it as the blended 9-patch - where the diagonal navy line intersects with the red circle.

 I see that I have the "parts" placed incorrectly in the photo above. but the units are correct. (Just envision the 4-patch  turned a quarter turn so that blue is in the center, not white.) The little blue and white 4-patch is needed in each corner of each Burgoyne Surrounded block, so a lot of them are being constructed. We also need 4 4-patches to make 4 of these blended 9-patch bocks, and here is how it looks when constructed properly. (I should go take another picture with these parts arranged correctly, but I will trust that you'll see how to construct it by looking at the finished block.)

See how the blue runs diagonally through the block? This is important as it creates the larger design of the diagonal through the entire quilt. The reds are placed in such a way as to help create the circle in each block. Four of these 9-patch units are needed.

Above are the subunits needed to make one block. In addition to these, there are a number of plain background pieces in various dimensions that must be used, as well. Here's the tally sheet:

4 blended 9-patch blocks
4 blue 4-patch blocks
4 red narrow rectangular blocks
1 center 9-patch
Additional plain background pieces

This illustrates very clearly why it takes so doggone long to get one Burgoyne Surrounded block constructed, doesn't it? Here is a rerun of a picture that illustrates what I am talking about when I refer to the red circle in each block and the diagonal blue line that runs both through the blocks and also, eventually, through the entire quilt. Can you pick out the subunits?

AACK! I see a mistake!! I have a blended block going all wonky! Can you find it? I guess this illustrates just how very careful you have to be when constructing these blocks. Dangit!

My total currently is 7 blocks completed. By day's end, I'd like to be at 10 or 11. I worked yesterday to get plenty of cutting done and subunits prepped.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

More Burgoyne Surrounded Blocks

I have already showed you what the girls were working on Friday at Terry's, but I did not show you what I was doing. I really had hoped that I would be able to get 4 blocks made that day, but I seriously hampered my progress by forgetting the cord and foot pedal for my sewing machine. I only live about 6 miles from Terry, but still that took about 30 minutes out of my morning to return home, grab the cords, and zip back. Grrr.

It may have slowed me down, but it didn't deter my goal of getting 4 blocks completed. At Terry's I did one entirely, and back here at home, the next day, I finished the other two. So now I have a grand total of 4 Burgoyne Surrounded blocks, with just 16 more to make!

At the risk of repeating myself, I will tell you that these are some tedious, time-consuming blocks! There are so many sub-units to make before you can even begin sewing together the block.  But, I will say, that this is just such an appealing quilt design - classic and traditional - that I must make myself keep going on it. I will be so happy after it's done. The satisfaction of making and completing it will far outweigh the time spent on tedium.

Remember, it's the process we love, right?

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Burgoyne Surrounded

Did you ever think you'd be a glutton for punishment? I certainly never did. But, doggone it, that Tone It Down quilt along sponsored by American Patchwork and Quilting magazine just kept calling to me. Knowing that each block has a ga-zillion tiny pieces meant that I would definitely be voluntarily signing on for some tedious work.

I just couldn't stop thinking about it, though! A few days ago I decided that if I did this quilt along, mine would be patriotic. I put together a nice collection of fabrics, just in case I actually did go ahead with participating.

I finally took the plunge on Saturday. Ultimately I decided that the diagonal lines would be blue, while the circular designs would be red. As far as backgrounds go, I decided that I would aim for a very scrappy combination of neutrals - everything from light to tea-stained would be jumbled all together in each block.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon cutting out fabrics for one block, but I intentionally cut more than I knew I would need so that I could get a good mix of backgrounds.

I made sure that I kept my pieces as organized as possible. With so many pieces to keep track of, I knew that being diligent would be beneficial. I'd read some of the blogs, too, explaining the necessity of being organized with this quilt. That was advice I was willing to take!

Another thing I did to help myself was to study these instructions till I practically had them memorized. I knew that I'd get all mixed up with colors so I wrote myself notes to keep my reds and blues where they belong. It really did help.

And here's my first block. There are 89 pieces in it. Yeah, that's a lot. And I may well be a glutton for punishment for doing this, but I think I will be so thrilled with it once it's done that it will be totally worth it. It's the type of quilt that made me fall in love with quilts so many years ago. Traditional designs. Traditional fabrics. Traditional colors. Even though I have evolved into appreciating more modern fabrics and colors, my original preferences were always traditional. I hope this quilt looks old and antique-y when it's finished. 

I have a full day of sewing at Terry's coming up on Friday. I would like to have much cutting done so that I can concentrate on sewing more of these blocks then. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!