We've been making progress.......

It's been awhile since I've sat down to document our progress.  I'm just going to do a few blocks tonight, and hopefully a few more tomorrow.

We keep thinking we're on our last blocks, and then we decide we need to change some and take away a few, and add in some more.  :-)  As we're "living with" the blocks on the design wall, we're finding we want to refine it a bit more.  So, on we go.

Since my last post, I've put together the ones I showed in their early stages.  We've decided to keep all four the way they are.  That's becoming a rarity, we're finding!

So, here they are.....

Ohio Star

I really liked being able to showcase the cool print in the center block.

Apple Tree

Red and Golden Apples as we head into

apple season here in the Northwest!

Grapes of Wrath

I was pleased with how the basket came out with fussy-cutting the foulard print.

The print wasn't on-grain, so I had to mess with it a bit.

Christmas Star

This enabled us to use quite a few greens we like,

as well as the fun paisley in the outer pieces.

It's a little washed-out in the picture, but it's beautiful.

And Annie has been busy, as well.  Here are some of hers that she finished in the past couple of weeks.

Tea Leaf

The browns are beautiful.  I really like this one.

Union

Look at the  beautiful points she did!

We find ourselves using this background print a lot.

It's from the General's Wives collection by Nancy Gere from Windham Fabrics.

We happened to ask at a wonderful reproduction fabric shop

as to whether she had any of this fabric, and she said,

"Well, I think I may have some in the back.  I've been hoarding it!"

Voila!  She was willing to sell us some and we're so glad she did.

Railroad Crossing

This one was supposed to use two different fabrics in the four outer squares,

but we wanted to use this cool border print instead. 

We like how it came out.  And the red and brown just look so rich!

So, that's it for now.  More to come!  We are hoping to have all of our blocks finished by the 1st of September, and it's looking pretty good from here!

Auditioning Fabrics for My Last Blocks!

The last time Annie and I got together to work on our quilts we made decisions about our final blocks.  It's taken me awhile, but I've finally gotten my last blocks cut out and I took pictures of the "auditions" for each of them.  This is the point at which I'm really able to see if I think the block is going to work.  I'm pretty pleased with these four.  Here they are......

First is "Ohio Star," taking it's place in one of the

remaining "brown" slots in the block arrangements.

Second is "Apple Tree," also filling a "brown" slot.

Third is "Grapes of Wrath," which is our remaining "primarily blue with some brown" block.

Fourth is "Christmas Star," and it's our final green and gold block.

Getting pretty close here!!

We also went shopping to fill in some of the gaps we had in our lights and darks for the sashing.  Nine-patch and Rails is the theme, and we have some fun pieces to work with from the leftover fabrics of our blocks, as well as a few new ones that coordinate well with the overall feel of the quilt.  More pictures to come!