My ‘Background’ Plan

So back to my story…I think I had made 5 or 6 blocks with my 1 background I had bought before I read on The List that the 5 yards listed was really not enough.  Panic!  We go to Oklahoma quite often as that is where my in-laws live.  Probably the first weekend  in February, we probably went to the McAlester, Oklahoma area and I shopped.  There were lots of little shops around the area 10 years ago.  Most are closed now.

Anyway, I bought 1  3/4 to 2 yards of 3 more background pieces.  One piece I bought all they had which was the 1 3/4 yard piece.  So now with a total of 4 background fabrics, 6 yards I started with and adding 5 3/4 more, I now had 11  3/4 yards to work with for my quilt.  I just needed to come up with that plan.  (That weekend I also spent plenty of money on red and green fat quarters.  If they looked old, I bought them.  I am sure they were not all reproductions.)

So I sat down one morning and I came up with my plan.  The logical thing to me was, since I was making a 2 color  quilt, was to assign 2 backgrounds to red blocks, which I numbered 1 and 2 and 2 backgrounds to green blocks, which I assigned letters A and B.  I did that and glued them on an index card and also wrote the designation on a swatch and put them on my design wall/bulletin board as I knew my swatch card would soon get lost.

Since I had 2 fabrics that actually went red to me, I put one for each block color to divide them up.  The original 6 yard piece I bought to me went green so I put with the red blocks also.  The remaining piece was actually like grass on a white ground so I assigned it to the green blocks.

My plan was simply this – I copied the Diagram of Blocks out of the DJ book on page 12 and I started in the center with one set of fabrics, say the green, and alternated rows of my background-A, B, A, B, A, B, A, B etc., going like Jane did in her Trip Around the World setting or a Log Cabin Barn Raising design.  Then I did the same thing with the red backgrounds and alternated them also, except I started with A-1 and went in a Straight Furrows pattern, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, etc.  These could be turned around around as my plan is covered up by my fabric swatches and my quilt is not here to check out which I used.  Note I only did this for the blocks, the fabric I had 6 yards of was used for all my background for my pieced triangles.  And all pieced triangles are red with plain triangles green.  My sashing is a different fabric too, so it is not included this total.

I was very lucky with the blocks I had already made.  Only 1 block was made with the wrong background after my new plan was made.  That was J-2, Picture Perfect.  The only background used in the block was the window sashing and I was not going to redo that block for those few 1/4” wide pieces.  It just was not worth it.  No one knows it but me and now you all.  Most people just think I used one background, including one appraiser, actually writing it on the appraisal form, cream Roclon muslin.

J-2 was my 3rd block.  After hand piecing my first two blocks, I wanted to see if I could tackle those narrow 1/4” bands, since I had noticed this quilt seems to have a lot of narrow bands.  You all know how you presser foot can ride on a seam and get your seam allowance off.  My J-2 is not perfect, but I think I mastered those narrow bands or sashing, however you want to think of them.  And I did that by pressing toward the band and trimming.

Next time I will write about how I chose the blocks I did and why.  And get a little deeper into my process -if I have one.  I really wonder about that one.

Sew Having Fun,

Sarah