Back to Normal!

Finally!

After a long battle with a cold/cough in Nov and Dec, I had to have some surgery.  I can now finally say "I'm feeling sooo much better".  Although the surgery had nothing to do with the cold/cough, that was just all that crud that was going around and you just can't get rid of it. 


Have you ever known that you were going to be off work for a certain amount of time for a health issue and thought to yourself, "I'm going to be able to get soooo much done!"?  NOT!  I had it in my mind that I would get those 4 quilts bound, some knitting done, some crocheting done, some wool applique done, and some reading in.  The only thing I felt like doing was the crocheting, and that didn't get done completely. 

 

So, now that I feel up to doing something, I have a little treat to show you. 

This is just a small project that finishes at 18" x 18". Emily's Memories, a Civil War Legacies pattern by Carol Hopkins.  She does such nice work.
A good project when you are having problems focusing on any one thing for too long.  I love, love, love the colors in this little quilt.  The fabrics just spoke to me.




These are those gorgeous fabrics.  Some are Jo Morton prints, some are Windham, and some are Marcus Bros.  Rich blacks, with that mellow gold, and then we added this khaki green for an inner border. 

 So, this project has you making four patches, but the four patch are made of the same two fabrics, but an assortment of four patches.  I stripped together two fabrics.  Pressed them all towards the darker of the two fabrics. 





Placed one on top of the other matching up the seam.  Opposites colors matching up also.  Oh, and I should mention that I had enough fabric to make 2 of each of the four patches needed for this project, so why not?  I will use them for something, or make another one of these charmers!




Now I am going to sub cut my pieces.  Hint, if the four patch is of 4 equal size squares, your sub cut is cut the same size as your first cut.  Voila, they are ready to sew together. 

 So, here's the back of my four patches.  I am what you would call "Anal" about pressing.  Yup, I'm one of those people.  I really can't help it, but I know of a few others that are worse than I am. 





 So, this is how I do my four patches when it comes to pressing.  I pull that seam open.  Note, I do not cut the fabric, nor do I cut the thread.  I just twist that seam open.  And, I do all my pressing from the front side, with great ease.  I find, for me, that works the best.  I know of a lot of other people that press from the back and it comes out perfect. 



 So, this is what it looks like from the back and the seams lay nice and flat.  The other thing it allows, is for all the four patches to come together really nice.  But, you have to make sure you are sewing all the four patches with the same colored fabric in the same position.  For instance, my gold fabric was always the one at the top when I put it under my presser foot, and the black was always on the bottom.

So, these are all the four patches that are the center of this little quilt.  So sweet!







This is what it looks like with the rows sewn together.  (From the back.)  Now it allows me to do that same little "twisty" thing when joining the four patches.  How great is that?






Here's a close up of those seams.






 Now, here's the center completely pieced together.  So, when I sewed the rows together, I was able to do the same little "twisty" thing with them also. 
So, you ask me what the big deal is?  Well, I suppose for some of you, there's nothing big about this, but for me, I like to quilt these little ones on my domestic machine and they lay so nice and flat.  That makes me very happy.

Here' it is, Emily's Memories done!  Well, that is except for quilting and binding it.  Tomorrow is another day and hopefully, I will get a snow day to finish this wonderful little quilt. 

 

Till next time!  PJR