Civil War Chronicles Feb. BOM con't.

A beginning quilter's attempts....

I decided to have all the dark brown directional print facing due North.  There are tiny little triangles that give the print a direction.  Since I am quite new to quilting, I am going to experiment with the direction of the fabric by attempting to position all the dark brown print "north".  I'm not sure why I chose that direction...perhaps because I'm from "North Dakota!"

By carefully looking at the finished block, I chose to piece eight blue 2 1/2" squares (on the left) with eight dark brown north directional print 2 1/2" squares (on the right).

If I had continued the same way, then the triangles would be facing south, so....

I flipped the next eight blue/dark brown 2 1/2" squares around the other direction to make them into dark brown north/blue.  My notes really help keep my thoughts straight.  Each time I finish a step, I mark with red so I'll know where to start next time.

 Sorry this is laying sideways...here the next step is laid out....blue on the left and light on the right.  These half square triangles were cut out using the 2 1/2" HST on the Go! Baby Accuquilt combination die.  They are wonderfully accurate - I could never have cut these so acurately with a scissors or rotary cutter and certainly never in just a couple of minutes like with the Go!

 Here I want to point out the notches on each end, making these a cinch to fit together.  Remember, I'm brand new to quilting and this is the only technique I have been introduced to thus far, so I am very much looking forward to Harriet & Carrie Hargrave's Quilting Academy Junior Year which deals with triangles...

QUILTER'S ACADEMY JUNIOR YEAR AVAILABLE MARCH 10, 2011

 Here it has taken just seven minutes to chain stitch the HST together...I'm using the Prescencia 60/3 cotton thread Harriet suggests in the Quilter's Academy Freshman Year.  Carrie has done her master's on threads, so these gals are definitely the experts!  This large 108"x108" finished quilt will last a long time with the strength of this 3 ply thread.  Harriet warns against quilting with 2 ply...bed quilts that receive washings will fall apart over time.  If you are "Heirloom Quilting", then you want your work to last a lifetime and for future generations plus you want to document the making of the quilt, even adding a small pocket with not only name, date, etc. but also with photos and leftover scraps for future generations...perhaps two hundred years down the road!

Here are two informative links on "Heirloom Quilting", which I am attempting to learn through the Quilter's Academy series by Harriet and Carrie Hargrave.

HOW TO DOCUMENT YOUR QUILT

http://www.harriethargrave.com/Books/Heirloom-Machine-Quilting-4th-Edition-p79.html

 Here you can see the accuracy I've been able to achieve using the AccuQuilt cutting system.  I can tell you (even before I measured to make sure), that all of these are already square - you do not need to take the time to painstakingly square everything!  Perfect for we gals who work or have children at home keeping us busy!

 According to my quilting teacher, "always press to the dark", so I hope I won't have to re-press all 32 of these...putting the blocks together at the end, we'll see...I wish I knew of a way to tell now instead of then, but I don't know about one yet...any suggestions for me, as I just started quilting in August 2010.

 Looking darn good I think!

Yes, it is an exact 2 1/2" (albeit a little "hairy" around the edges!)

Here are my 32 blue/light triangles.  The next step will be 32 dark brown north directional fabric/light, but will have to wait until tomorrow.

Thank you for posting any comments or suggestions!