Thursday, June 23, 2011

Back to Gettysburg

Or at least to the battle flags!

Block 4.5 that you saw yesterday is now completed and has therefore become Block 5.  Here's a look:

IMG_2745 Gettysburg Battle Flag Quilt

I'm very pleased with how it came out.  My goal is to have it scrappy (check) and to break up most of the blocks into smaller sub-blocks (check).  Very happy with this one!

Trace asked what Flying Geese are - great question!  See the red triangles in Block 5 (above)?  That quilt block is called "Flying Geese" - a very popular pattern that has been around since the 1800s.  You can imagine looking up at the sky and seeing the "V" formation - or does one triangle represent the wings of one goose?  I'm not sure, but I think the block was aptly named.  I've made a note to shoot pix of the Flying Geese quilt I made a few years ago; will share that soon.

Adding fabric around one of the larger battle flags resulted in this:

IMG_2748 Gettysburg Battle Flag Quilt

See the bird by the lowest red stripe? That sort of thing just cracks me up. No, I didn't plan that, but YES I'm leaving it in! I ... have to!


I've been researching the flags as I put this quilt together and hope to have a short synopsis of what unit each flag represents and maybe a little history by the time I'm done.  I love doing that sort of "work"!

Here's what I had as of close of business yesterday:

IMG_2749 Gettysburg Battle Flag Quilt

Blocks 1-7!  This isn't how they'll be arranged for the final wall-hanging; it's just so I can see my progress!  Right now, the plan is to go with 6 blocks across and 3 down.  (That's why I turned 19 battle flags into 18 blocks!)

Thanks so much for reading!

3 comments:

  1. Karen, this is fantastic. What a great idea. I'm going to have to come to Kansas just to tour your quilts.

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  2. That's going to be a wonderful wall hanging especially with the history of the flags! I like the fabrics Dave picked out for you too! :)

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  3. Why do I feel like I am the only one asking questions? I must be the least artistic person here :)

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