Hand Quilted Civil War Nine Patch Finally Completed!

I made the quilt top in early 2019, when I, Astrid, Jane, and Marsha all decided to do a Civil War Nine Patch quilt challenge.  We each made one with a totally different theme than the others.  I started hand quilting it in late June 2019 and I just finished in August of 2020.  I took it with me camping at Lafferty Campground on the Payette National Forest, and worked on it there, as well as Wallowa Lake, Oregon, and on the Boise National Forest at Long Gulch Creek, Rattlesnake Creek, and finally finished at Smith Creek.  I decided, since it is a Civil War Nine Patch and I quilted it in the great outdoors, I should get a photo of it at the O'Farrell Cabin. The O'Farrell Cabin was constructed in 1863.

 

This is me (Kirsten Larsen) posing with my hand-quilted gem of a project. 

This is a bit close, so you can see my hand-stitching. I used red thread because I just could not resist. I think if you hoover your mouse over the photo you can click on it and enlarge it for even closer viewing.

Keeping Our Distance

The girls and I seem to be getting a lot of quilting done, however, we have also been making masks.  It is a good thing that we all have such awesome fabric stashes, to draw on, at times like these.  We are making masks using batik fabrics, as they are a tighter weave of cotton; two layers in each mask.  We have used up all our elastic, but we can make masks with ties.  Kirsten has been doing some slow hand-quilting on her Civil War Nine Patch quilt.  She got three lines done this week!  She and Jane are having a look at it, as shown in the photo, above.  She and Jane are trying to keep their distance, but are wearing their masks just to be extra safe.  Be safe out there, and stay home and quilt, sew, read a book, do your nails, run around in the back yard, plant some seeds, replace light bulbs, refill the bird feeder, tie-dye some fabric, build something from wood scraps, take a nap in the yard, try new recipes, like the coffee cake recipe on the brown sugar bag (but you need sour cream for that .  .).  Keep checking back on our blog!

Red Thread?

Did you see that Kirsten is quilting her quilt with red thread?  It should look very interesting when completed . . .whenever that happens.  She is hand-quilting it. Yikes! 

This is a close-up of Kirsten's hand-stitched red quilting.

 I am using country sort of fabrics in my Civil War Nine Patch; you know, guitars, chickens, bandana fabric.  I thought I had my quilt top finished, then I decided to add some interesting old timey style borders on.  I used dark blue bandana fabrics on the back.  I, too, have decided to quilt mine with red thread, as I and a friend were discussing the matter and she said it was a good idea.  We shall see how the two compare.  I admit, mine may not be as bold as Kirsten's, but that is because I have stitched-in-the-ditch.  I just finished it last night. I used a blanket stitch, that my sewing machine has, to sew down the binding on the front of the quilt.  I love it!

The dark blue paisley binding is sewed down on top with red blanket stitches.

I made the backing a little bigger than the front and pulled the back forward and folded it to make the binding.  I call it a "cheaty binding", but some folks call it something else.

Here is me, holding up my finished Civil War Nine Patch quilt.

 Then, here is some news.  Jane is catching up and is also doing a Civil War Nine Patch quilt.  She won't give us a hint on her theme, though.  Astrid said she has some bright orange fabric, that a friend gave to her.  She serged it, washed it, and got it all pressed, and apparently that is one of the fabrics going into her quilt.  Astrid said it may be from the 1970s!  Well, that will be different.

It seems I am the first to complete my Civil War Nine Patch quilt.

Hand Quilting A Must When Roughing It

I went camping with friends, last Thursday through Sunday.  We stayed at the Lafferty Campground, which is 22 miles northwest of Council, Idaho.  We had a relaxing time.  We went exploring and for walks, and I went wading in the creek.  There was a rabbit in #2 and a rabbit in #3; we were in #8.  There was no one else at the campground, except for chipmunks and Mr. Snake. I had time for napping, reading while napping, and napping while reading. 

I also did some hand quilting.  Marsha, Astrid, and I are doing The Civil War Nine Patch Challenge.  I have my quilt top all pieced and I am hand-quilting it.  I brought it on the camping trip to work on, since we are roughing it and have no electricity.  

I tossed my camping quilt on a nice warm rock, after I asked that nice little garter snake if I could sit on one of his rocks, where I sat and got a good amount of hand-quilting done.  I still have a long way to go, however.

Saturday afternoon we had a thunder and lightening storm with lots of rain, so we stayed in the camper, where I did a little more quilting.  It is starting to look rather rustic, like a Civil War quilt should.

Civil War Nine Patch Challenge

The girls and I found a book with some wonderful period quilts in it.  We have all perused it's pages thoroughly and decided we would each make a Civil War nine patch quilt.  I am using fabrics that are rich in the tone of the Civil War period, while Marsha has chosen to use western type fabrics, and Astrid is using her Asian fabrics, mostly Japanese and Korean.  Jane is still busy quilting all of her January tutorial quilts, but will be surprising us with whatever she decides to do with this challenge.
We all met the other week and got our first block finished (except for Jane), so Jane took our photo with our blocks.  This shows the different style that fabrics play in creating quilts.

L to R: Kirsten, Marsha, Astrid

I have never hand quilted, so I have decided to hand-quilt my Civil War nine patch quilt.  I think this is going to be exciting! Oh, I do realize it will take me longer to finish mine, since it will be hand-quilted.  I better get to work!!