A little Out of My Norm...

This summer marked our fourth year in our home. It was when we moved from our tiny one bedroom apartment into our own 'expansive' (1050 sq. ft) home that I really got serious about quilting.

 

Since then, my husband has been asking for a quilt. Sure, I made him a quilt while we were still in college together. But my skills have evolved (tremendously) since then. On one of our (okay - MY) trips to the quilt store, he took a liking to the Civil War reproduction fabrics, and has wanted a quilt made from reproduction fabrics since then.

 

So it's been pushed off and pushed off for the last four years... There has been quite a few distractions: other quilts, two babies, and the fact that I am TOTALLY not interested in reproduction fabrics. But, I have collected fat quarters and scraps of civil war fabric and pattern ideas. I may have been completely uninspired, but I wanted to make this quilt for my husband, who does so much for me.

We finally settled on a square-in-a-square block for design.

 

 

I actually had the opportunity this spring to attend a lecture by Jody Barrows at my local quilt shop. She has designed the 'Square-in-a-square" template system that makes your life MUCH easier when attempting the square-in-a-square block:

 

This book and template are fabulous. She gives you the math for an size square you could ever want, she gives you the starting block and strip width and just tells you how to cut. It's wonderful.

I promise you my first attempt at the square-in-a-square would not turn out so nice without this template.

It does get quite tedious, and there is ALOT of trimming:

 

I had a nice little stack of four inch squares,

 

But once they got up on the design wall, those four inch squares did not go far...

 

It's about half as big as I would like it to be... so I guess I need to pound out another 100 squares.

 

Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful evening.