Hooray!

After some hard work, I have finished the blocks for my Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilt! Barbara hasn't finished giving instructions yet - there are 53 blocks in total, one for each week - but I've made enough for what I want to do.

The blocks were fun to do, although lots of them were quite challenging. She gives clear cutting instructions, but I would have liked 'finish at' measurements for some of the block components. It would definitely have helped my accuracy! It's lucky I'm a past master at fudging and easing, as I think the blocks have gone together well enough. I still struggle with 'Y' seams - yes I know how, pivot etc, but they still turn out puckered and pleated.

This poor cake stand block is a case in point - or no point, if you look at the base of the purple diamonds! So when it came to this star, I chickened out and paper pieced it. Much easier! (In fact, I wish I'd done the block in darker colours, but too bad.)The last block I did was this one, and I decided to give Y seams one more try. Practice makes perfect, and I was amazed that (with a little bit of attention with the iron!) this has turned out well. My method was to sew up to the V of the Y then take it off the machine. I pulled the next part of the seam together and manipulated it by hand to make all the fabric lie completely flat. Then back onto the machine and sew the other half of the V. It worked for me!