Project 3 - Alternate - Fence Post Blocks with Panel Print (Carrie's Cowboy Corral)

I decided I wanted to make the alternate version of the first project - using panels instead of solid blocks.

Carrie's Cowboy Corral

Next time I popped into my fav quilt shop in Hobart The Quilted Crow I asked about a panel print.  They didn't have any, but Leonie came up with this as an alternative.

I liked the fabrics we put together and happily started on the project.  I had to tea-dye the red fabric as it was a little too bright, and it ended up ok.

Hmmmm - the panels were not actually square but rectangular, nor were they large enough for the Fence Post Blocks to surround them.  With the aid of my mathmatically minded husband - we figured out how large to cut the strips (2 3/8ths on the sides, 2 5/8 top and bottom).  Okay, it already didn't look anything like the project in the book.  I had to add 'posts' to the top of the 'sashings' making the top and bottom Fence Posts five pieces long instead of 3.  The size of the blocks had grown from 4 1/2 inches square to 10 1/2 inches square.  I ended up with this block.

After putting all the blocks together on the table to see the effect,  I decided I wanted to alternate the red & blue squares, just to add a bit of interest.  I unpicked all the alternate blocks and re-sewed them (after buying a bit more of the blue fabric (hey nothing wrong with a bit of extra practice).  Now that I had extra red squares and more of the blue fabric, I sewed up 4 extra blocks.  Again, I laid it all out and pondered a suggestion Leonie from Quilted Crow had made.  I added sashing to the outside of the blocks.  Now they looked like this....

Hmmm - not a lot like the project sample!

I tried chain stitching the blocks together - sewing the horizontal rows was fine, but when it come to sewing the vertical rows, I struck a problem.  Harriet advises that while pressing the seams between rows, to just let the rest of the quilt dangle over the edges of the ironing board.  Probably because of the size of the blocks and the weight of them, by doing this, the sashings stretched where they had been chained together - and I mean stretched badly.  I nipped all the chained rows apart but the damage was done.  I cheated and did what Harriet says not to do - and trimmed those stretched borders back into line.  You can see some of the stretching here (and that's after it had been trimmed back into shape). What a shame!

About half way through this project, I made up the Project 1 quilt as per instructions in the book.  After this effort, it seemed easy enought and was pretty quick to put together.

The final quilt top looks like this - it's huge - check it out draped over the couch.

I suppose this design has a name, but I don't have a clue what it is.