Progress Report

I'm humming right along on those Gettysburg Battle Flag Quilt blocks!  Well, not really, but I have made some progress!  Here's what I accomplished by Monday evening:

The first four blocks - using 5 of the battle flags.  There are a total of 19 flags on the panel I cut up, so I put two together in the same block. I'd rather deal with a layout of 18 than 19.  

I still don't have a plan, but over-all, I'm adding in little pieces of traditional quilt blocks that were popular during the Civil War - or I'm centering the battle flags within a block - like in Block 3.  Look down in the lower left-hand corner - the 1st Engineer flag.  I built a Log Cabin block using that flag as the center.  

Yesterday, I made some mini "Flying Geese" to incorporate into one of the blocks; the block is only half-done, but here's a look:

Ummmm... yes!  I decided to use paper foundations.  Oh, I KNOW!  But since I really don't have a game plan, it's making it easier; I'm just adding until I fill the 9" squares.  This was not the best idea I've ever had, but it's not the worst, either.  I mean - it's not going to be a huge quilt... so paper removal won't be a major issue.

This leads me to a great question Trace asked:  "Don't you get little bits of paper stuck in the stitching?"  Yes, you certainly can - and that makes it harder to remove - and harder to remove without damaging your stitches!  When using a paper foundation, it's really important to decrease your stitch length.  That helps prevent the paper from getting stuck - since it's a tiny, tiny space! - and acts almost like perforations, making the paper easier to tear off.   The key is actually remembering to decrease the stitch size.  Ahem.

Thanks for reading!