Wounded Warrior Quilt

At a quilt guild meeting in February, a friend gave me a stack of old quilt blocks, all of them churn dash but not all the blocks were the same size.  She asked me to put them into a quilt for our Wounded Warrior Quilt project. My first task was to trim the blocks to usable sizes as most of them had frayed edges due to age, storage and probably lots of handling. Next was to add borders to the smaller blocks to make them the same as the larger ones. My quilt block presentation at guild last month was Job's Troubles. I decided to make these as my alternate block and I decided to use a mariner's compass block in the center of the quilt.  Some of this is perhaps old info for anyone who follows my blog because I wrote about it on February 6 and 7. 

The above photo is the completed quilt which I finished this week. The darker blocks at the bottom of the photo are not dark but show that way due to being in a shadow. This quilt measures 60" x 84". 

My husband and I both like this quilt really well. If I hadn't been given so many of the blocks for a specific purpose and planned this as a donation quilt from the very beginning, I'd probably keep it. Maybe there's an opportunity here to recreate it. Probably not as I have several quilts awaiting quilting and / or finishing. So I'll be happy with a photo and the knowledge that this quilt is going to a good cause and probably to someone who will be encouraged by it and be thankful to have it. I will make it a donation at my next quilt guild meeting. 

Old Quilt Blocks

I've completed 6 of the old churn dash blocks. This isn't the final placement, just the blocks I've done so far. In this photo are both small and large blocks. To the smaller blocks I put 1.5 strips on 2 sides of the block bringing the size to an unfinished size of 8.5", the same as the larger blocks. To all of the blocks, I'm adding 2.5" strips and corner squares which makes the block size 12.5" (12" finished). So far, I'm pleased with the way the blocks are turning out. It'll be fun to arrange them into a quilt layout after all the blocks are done. I've made a decision on what to do for the extra blocks I want to make for this quilt. More on that later. 

Old Quilt Blocks

At quilt guild this week, I was given a stack of quilt blocks with the suggestion that they'd be great in a quilt for wounded warriors. The blocks are all the same pattern but there were 2 sizes and, as is the case with lots of old blocks, the edges are quite frayed and uneven. So ...

What do I do?

After giving it some thought, my plan is to trim the blocks and add borders to make them like sizes. I think I can trim them to 8.5" and 7.5". The trimming will cut off points on these block designs (most of the points go to the edge with no room for seam allowances) but if I don't trim the blocks, the frayed edges will not hold the stitching. 

There are 23 of these blocks so I'm thinking that I can add some more done in blue and white/cream so they'll go well with these. Time to go to my bins of 15 and 2.5 inch strips looking for reds, blues, creams to use for bordering these blocks. 

There's potential here for a nice quilt and I'm willing to tackle this challenge.