Starts and WiPs

I made my first block for Barbara Brackman's new Threads of Memory series.  This year, the blocks are 12" which should make for a nice-sized quilt.  I'm using Civil War repro fabric from a layer cake, so the blocks will be quite busy.  Brackman's monthly stories are incredibly interesting, and this month's was about a runaway slave who hid in Portsmouth, NH.  The block in honor of Ona Judge Staines is called Portsmouth Star.

 

After finishing the applique of a center medallion yesterday, I got out a pizza box full of swap blocks and arranged them.  They look pretty busy, too!  But the navy blue background offers a little unity.  This is going to be a little larger than 72" x 72" with a plain navy blue border and (if I have enough fabric) binding.  It looks like everything's on point, but when I got going, I realized that it will end up being a square.  Those tiny nine patches around the appliqued center were my first attempts at an Oh My Gosh quilt.  That pattern, by Sue Garman uses 180+ 1.5" nine patches made from 1" strips.  After making 20, I decided to make the pattern using slightly larger strips.  The background will be various shirtings, which I love, and I thought I could use up some scraps this way, too.

 

I don't know if I'll get this top put together by the end of the weekend, but putting blocks together always seems to go pretty fast once I figure out what I'm doing.  I'm going to put the top away for a while and finish another top from a round robin before I quilt it.