Project 2- Fence Post Blocks (Harriet's Woodland Winter)

This project is a small quilt 84 cms square (33 inches) without the border.  It uses 3 fabrics plus 2 borders.

The quilt is made from strip sets and solid blocks - not hard to do but excellent practice for making accurate blocks.  I had a bit of trouble with the strips distorting from pressing.  I found the steam on my iron was set too high and adjusting this made some difference, but there is still a problem in the pressing stage with distortion. 

I originally intended to make the alternative version of this - using a panel print - but that is another story!  Part way though making the alternative (which veered a lot from the original exercise) I thought I should stick with the program and make the one from the book.  I popped down to Spotlight and selected a couple of fabrics which were on sale ($8 - $10 per metre) and put together the quilt top pictured below.

You can see some of the distortion caused from too much steam when pressing (click on the pics for a larger, more detailed look).  Making this top was the first time I tried chain piercing - Harriet has a method to keep everything in order, and it worked pretty well - as in I managed not to mess up the pattern!  I still have some way to go on butting seams, but the more I do it, the better it gets - so practice, hopefully will eventually make perfect.

Borders are not added to this quilt top yet (by order of Harriet) but I have chosen the fabrics and put them aside.  I bought enough of the zebra print to use as the backing.

The finished top will have a small tan border - another a bit wider in red then a 5 inch border in the feather print.  I call this quilt top Beasts & Birds.