Grandmother's Choice

I played a little catch-up recently on my Grandmother's Choice blocks....

I'm still making them at 4" and converting some of the blocks to this size without Blockbase is a bugger but I am learning more EQ in the process.

I am currently working on converting another three blocks to 4" and hope to share them next week.



Yup - those are 3/4" diamonds to make the star. Fun to include hexies but they were tiny...



Grandmothers Choice #3 Union Square

Two weeks ago, when I posted GC#1, I commented that I was hoping to find a ruler with 1/16 markings since the 4" blocks were a pain to make with all the crazy sizes I would need to cut. Lillian spoke up immediately to tell me about a ruler she had bought in the garment section of Joanne's. Our closest Joanne's is 50 miles away so I waited until my trip to the ADK last week and made a wide detour to the store on the way to the Thruway.

 I actually found 3 different rulers in the garment and quilting departments that would have worked. Two of them were thin and bendable and the last I found was thicker - and also the cheapest. Go Figure! Anyway, it was much easier to make this week's block with the new ruler. I think now the hardest part of the project will be finding a similar block in EQ7 (or drafting it so I can get the right sizes) since I don't have Blockbase yet. *Yet* being the key term...

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Grandmothers Choice block #2 - Amethyst - 4" 

Grandmothers Choice #1

Have you all seen the new Grandmother's Choice blog? Barbara Brackman is doing another block of the week that will share the history of US women seeking the right to vote. Blocks will be posted each Saturday and there will be 49 blocks total.

I've decided to do mine in batiks, given the recent stash enhancement! The black I am using is also a batik - it has a little blue in it but it's so small I don't think it will show up much. The blog shows 3 different color ways for each block and I'll be doing mine as if it's a 2 color quilt but each block will have a different batik.

The first block was posted on Saturday, 9/1/12 and I completed mine almost on schedule :)

There were 2 problems with making my block, however.

1.

I decided to do the 4" block size. Have y'all tried cutting pieces that are 1 3/16"? I would appreciate suggestions for a good acrylic ruler that has 16ths on it. For now we'll ignore that my block isn't perfect - and we can because it will all be hidden in the seam allowance.

2.

My iron was banished to the front sidewalk. As you may recall from this post back in April, the iron wasn't yet 6 months old and leaking. This weekend it was making some extra noises and then I smelled something awful. Burning plastic! The thing was smoking up a storm and smelled horrid for hours. I unplugged the cord immediately and fought to get it unwound from my table so that I could deposit it outside. Harumph. My GC block and several others were finished with a "wooden iron" but it's just not the same. Mom and Dad think I should take the iron back to Walmart and demand a refund...