Hope Quilt and CW Quilt Plan

This Quilt-in-Progress is a copy of a circa 1830 quilt in the collection of Mark Dunn (owner of Moda) who produced the fabrics in his "Collection for a Cause" series in 2011.  So it's been close to two years that I have been working on this on-and-off.  Am hand-piecing the Stars and assembling the six offset strips of 6-1/2 stars by machine.  The photo is a horizontal shot......the seam is right in the middle of the photo but the fabric is so busy, it is hard to discern!  Have 9 stars left to piece.....hope it is down to 8 by the time this evening is over!!

These are two blocks trimmed and ready to make into the fifth strip.

This is the block I hope to finish tonight.  At some point during the making of these blocks, I was looking for ways to make them go faster (I am a slow sewer!).  I had been marking the seam lines with pencil on all the shapes, but experimented with just marking the seam lines on the diamonds and rotary-cutting the squares and triangles with no seam lines penciled on them.  I figured that by simply using the marked lines on the diamonds and lining the raw edges up just as in machine-piecing, I would spend no time checking to see that both lines were aligned and it worked!  I can make the blocks faster now.........bet others have already figured that little trick out!!  After I sew across the center seam, I can start anywhere setting in the squares and triangles and won't even have to break the thread as I go from one to another.  I do secure the stitching at the beginning and end of each shape but can just sew until I run out of thread!  (usually work with an 18" length).

Since I have so many quilts in my head that I want to make, it is so Hard to Resist just making a block or two!  I have had this book, "Reproduction Quilts from the Civil War Period 1850-1865" by Judie Rothermel for years and would like to make most of the 16 quilts, but know that I will need to choose only a few.  The cover quilt is a bar quilt with a variety of blocks and I believe based on an 1843 New Jersey Friendship quilt in the Smithsonian collection.  Have a photo of the original.

Sooooo, this is my first block.....the top and bottom rows use this Chimney Sweep pattern..........and it is quick to make!  Might progress on this one a little faster.  Sewing machine-piecing is daytime/early evening work and later in the evening, it is hand-piecing (yes, I am a NightOwl!) cuddled on the sofa in the living room.

Below is the book with a little roll of 14 fabrics I put together called "Snippets" for folks who don't already have a bunch of little scraps and want to make Scrappy Quilts.  I spread one roll open so you could see them better........these happen to all be Civil War reproduction fabrics.

Here are two more of the quilts in the book.........the 25-patch has 1" squares with sashing.........I have a few blocks made but of course, I have to be Different!  Mine are scrappy as I did not want to have each block contain only one fabric with the muslin-type fabric!!  And, Of Course, that fact makes them harder to piece because they cannot be strip-pieced as they could if using a single fabric for each block!!!  But, I have sewn a few hundred of little 1-1/2" squares with muslin as my Leaders and Enders so I have a good start on them!!!

Love this Quilt too!  Would look great as a Charm Quilt.......each fabric used only once!!  I have copies of the book for sale if one cannot be found locally.