Stonefields Blocks 20 and 21-23: "O is for Oscar"

Good Morning, my lovelies!  I have had extra motivation to finish these quilt blocks and share them with you as quickly as possible -- in order to bump the butt photos of my jeans alteration post off the landing page of my blog.  And also, these blocks are cuties!  Quick disclaimer, this post contains affiliate links.  And now, meet "O is for Oscar," blocks 21-23 of the Stonefields Quilt pattern designed by Susan Smith:

Stonefields "O is for Oscar" Blocks 21, 22 and 23

As usual, (for me, anyway) the most time consuming part was selecting fabrics for each block.  However, that's also the most enjoyable part -- picking out one or two new Tilda acquisitions and then digging out treasures from the scrap bin or a fat quarter from my Deep Stash to coordinate, knowing that even though I'm making the same quilt from the same pattern many others are using, mine will be uniquely mine because of the fabric mix.  And it is so satisfying to step back and look at the finished blocks that you imagined in the beginning and then stitched into being.  

I stitched these blocks like an assembly line, since they were three the same.  I cut out all the pieces and organized them on my design wall, then took the pieces down and lined them up next to my sewing machine for chain piecing all of the blocks at once.  Below, the block backgrounds have been sewn together and pressed and the appliqué circles are ready to be positioned on the block.  I used one of Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circle templates with the starch and press method to get my circles so round and smooth.  Even if I'm needle turning all of the other raw appliqué edges  in a block as I'm stitching, I'll always use a Perfect Circle template to preturn the edges of circles because they turn out so much better for me that way.  Hats off to the quilters of the 19th century who had no choice but to needle turn their circles because heat resistant plastic templates hadn't yet been invented!

Machine Pieced Blocks, Prepared Circle Appliqués Ready to Go

Susan Smith's (very minimal!) instructions for the Stonefields quilt assume that makers will be hand piecing their blocks and needle turning all of their appliqué.  For this block, there was a note about sewing the circles to each of the square patches before piecing the rest of the block together, which made me scratch my head a bit as I couldn't figure out why that would be advantageous.  I felt it would be easier to keep things straight and square and positioned properly if I pieced the block first and added my circles last, so that's what I did.  

As is my new habit with these faint line block patterns, I traced over the pattern with an extra fine point black pen first before popping it on my light box to ensure I would be able to see the lines through my fabric.  However, I still couldn't see the pattern lines through the seam allowances of my pieced blocks, so I drew a 1/4" seam allowance around the entire block pattern and lined the raw edges of my quilt block up with that outer line.

Positioning Appliqué Circles with Light Box

Ever since I began using little dots of Roxanne's Glue Baste It to attach preturned applique shapes to my blocks for stitching, I've struggled with the glue soaking through my fabric and gluing my quilt block to the pattern in random spots, resulting in little bits of ripped paper coming off the pattern when I lift the block off the pattern sheet.  It's annoying, and makes it more difficult to reuse the pattern for multiple blocks.  Using a clear vinyl overlay, as taught in the Piece O Cake tutorials (Becky Goldsmith demonstrates this on YouTube here), might solve that problem (it's great for appliqué with darker background fabrics, too), but I don't remember seeing my roll of clear upholstery vinyl when I unpacked from our recent move and I may have purged it.  

So what I did this time is I positioned my circles using my light box as shown above, but instead of immediately glueing them at the light box I used the pattern sheet like a spatula to transport the quilt block to my Sue Daley Designs 10" rotating cutting mat, where I secured each circle with one pin through the center.  I chose Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Pins for this because they are the thinnest and sharpest that I own, sliding easily through the fabric layers with no resistance that might cause the circles to shift position.  After pinning, I lifted the circles one half at a time to apply little drops of glue just inside the folded edge and pressed down to secure them.  This worked well and I'll try to remember this for future.  It's easy to clean off residual glue from the cutting mat surface and being able to rotate the block without lifting it made it easier to reach everything.

Circles Pinned First, Then Glue Basted to Pieced Blocks

Once my circles had all been glue basted to the appropriate blocks, it was time to select thread colors for hand stitching.  I like to use YLI 100 wt silk thread for hand appliqué.  It was easy to find a matching thread color for the pale aqua circles in the block above, but this multicolor Tilda print was more challenging.  As I stitch around the perimeter of the circle, I'll be stitching onto dark red, lime green, pink, cornflower blue, or white and I wanted my thread to be as inconspicuous as possible on all of them.  I was kind of surprised that the brown worked better than the beige neutrals.

Auditioning Silk Thread Options for Multicolor Print Appliqué Fabric

The same brown thread was also perfect for the brown Tilda floral on the block below.  By the way, I am delighted to finally be using this Japanese print with the little white cranes.  I have had this in my stash for so many years now and this is the first time I've cut into it.

Same Brown Thread Was the Winner for This One, Too

Quick detour here -- I also finished Stonefields Block 20, the second of two Oscillator blocks, and I never shared a picture of it, so here you go:

Block 20, the Second Oscillator

I sort of regret the fussy cut centering of that paisley in the top pink petal, but OH WELL.  It stays that way now!  The brown and white floral petal came from scraps from the very first quilt I ever made in 2001.  I love that connection.

Alright, let's take a look at my handiwork in the context of my other completed Stonefields blocks.

This isn't meant to be a final layout by any means.  I just like to mix them up a little bit so I can get an idea of whether I like where it's going or I want to start incorporating more of something/less of something else as I pull fabrics for the remaining blocks in the quilt.

I think the Oscar block with the blue dots and the pink chambray center is my favorite of the three, and the Japanese crane print block is a close second.

One of these days I really need to trim down my oversized appliqué blocks to 6 1/2" as rearranging them on the wall is awkward when the blocks are different sizes.  There really is no longer any danger of fraying now that the hand stitching is complete, unless I wanted to hand wash the blocks to remove the starch and glue before trimming and assembling the quilt at the end of the block making stage.  

Before signing off for today, I wanted to show the back of one of my Oscar blocks so anyone who's interested can see how I press to get the blocks so flat without lumps at the seam intersections -- and to prove that yes I DID hand stitch the circles even though you can't see any stitches on the right side of the blocks!  

O is for Oscar, Back of Block

I wish someone had taught me how to pop those seam intersections like that 25 years ago when I was a new quilter.  It makes a huge difference, saves so much frustration later on in the construction of the quilt, and it looks so neat and tidy on the backside.  Makes me smile.  I learned how to do this, and how to create pressing plans for any quilt block to reduce bulk, in Donna Lynn Thomas's book Quiltmaking Essentials 1: Cutting and Piecing Skills.  Reference books like this one are great to have at hand when you're making a quilt like Stonefields that assumes you have more experience and techniques under your belt than you actually do.

Here's that "O is for Oscar" block from the front, measuring 6 1/2" with no "squaring up" needed.

Same O is for Oscar Block, Right Side

And here's a parting peek at my design wall where you can see that a few more hexagon rosettes have been made for my outer border.  I have only removed the paper templates from the centers of my rosettes so far, and I'm tempted to remove the rest of the papers so they will stick to the wall better without falling off.  I would think the thread basting would secure my folded outer edges well enough -- what do you think, those of you out there who have done more English paper piecing than I have?  Can I take out the rest of the papers now, give the rosettes a good press, and maybe start storing them in a project box until needed or will I regret taking the papers out early when I finally reach the end stage?  The rosettes will be appliquéd to a plain border.  And it might take several years before I get to that stage.

Stonefields Sampler Quilt In Progress

Alright, that's it for today!  My sewing plans for the week are to cut some more hexagons as I've none left ready to stitch, and to make a start on prepping the next two blocks for Stonefields.  Maybe, MAYBE, I will open up a pair of jeans and attempt to take darts in the back waist at home without supervision.  Not exciting sewing at all, but I really ought to do a few more pairs of jeans to reinforce what I learned in class before it all seeps out of my brain.  Happy stitching and happy Spring!  I'm linking up with some of my favorite linky parties below:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework