BARBARA BRACKMAN!!! Do you see my fist???? I am shaking it at you !!
When I found the Civil War Block website, I should have just stuck to reading the wonderful history and pictures you provided.
But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I had to start making the blocks. What's one little old block a week?? I looked at this as an opportunity to improve my piecing and well, I am a sucker for CW repro fabric. Well, at first, I was nervous but after a couple of weeks, I was staying on schedule and I had not had any real problems.
I had NO trouble with Kansas Troubles. Though I expected it with all these little pieces and the others went together fairly easily.
BUT TEXAS TEARS!!! I had met my match. I have learned over the last 6 weeks to wait til a couple of the other gals participating have done the block and then I go check to see if there are any pitfalls to avoid. There are soo many awesome piecers out there that I figure I'd leave it to the experts ( like Lillian) to iron out the kinks, so to speak.
So I started Texas Tears last Sunday. By the time I was done with the first block I was tearing up. I had cut the inner block down to 5 1/2 as suggested but when I was done the block measured 8" instead of 8 1/2'. Hmmmm...
But not to be deterred, I recut the block and started Round two.
Really Barbara , 1 7/16ths !!
On the second round, I cut the strip 1 1/2" and did not cut the block down but squared it up and used a scant 1/4 inch. When I was done, I was ready to tear out MY scant 1/4 inch of hair! (BTW, yep, my hair is growing back!!) Although this time it measured 8 1/2, I realized I was going to lose my points all around once I put the blocks together. But I decided that two shots was all this northern girl was gonna take at Texas Tears.
So here it is Texas Tears ala Annie.
After that tearful adventure, I was happy to move on to the Log Cabin. Thank you Abe! I needed an easy block after Texas.
6 comments:
There are no laws that state all quilt blocks must have perfect points. Yeah to you for taking it on and making it your own . . . . all while cracking me up *s*
I don't think Sam Houston would shed a tear over a few points...
The log cabin is so much easier (if you follow the directions) and this week's looks reasonable too...phew!
Your hilarious post was worth all the aggravation with Texas Tears (to me at least).
Just for the record, I'm not an expert at all, just a great-grandmother with empathy for new quilters trying to wade through some of these blocks. The last two have been much better.
Keep piecing and especially writing.
Lillian
At first I thought you were talking about the Richmond block. That is the one that gave me the most problems, and from looking at the Flickr group, many other women too. A lot of the 4-patches had their points cut off! I'm not too fond of 7/16" either!!!!!
7/16! Oh, my. I'm thinking about what some one asked me in a guild workshop once: "Is 3/8 before or after 1/2?" Imagine this poor person trying to find 7/16!
I enjoyed your post, Annie, and the block looks fine. I've always liked Kansas Troubles too. Glad to know it's not that bad.
That is so funny :) .... I don't think of myself as a quilter, but the more I see and hear of quilts and the personality in them, the more I am endeared to this Art!
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