It's Good to Have Something to Show

Some weeks or months it seems that I don't get as much accomplished as I wish I could. Many distractions and such have kept me from doing what I want to do so it was nice this and last week to get a couple of things to show. LOL
First are six more of the Civil War Love Letter blocks.
Since it is my turn to hostess the group I had to have my 6 ready with hints or tips to share yesterday. I was glad to see them finished and this time there weren't any that were "bears" to complete. the one on the lower right looked like it would be but it really wasn't.
I have been complaining to my friends that even though the foundations measured perfectly before sewing many of the blocks didn't square up to be six inches no matter how perfectly I sewed. It was really bothering me a lot! My friend CM gave it some thought and we have come to the conclusion that it just might be that will all the many seams with their bulk and threads the blocks are sort of shrinking as I sewed them and maybe adding a tiny bit to the foundation by enlarging the copy to over 100% I could compensate. So....I tried it with that bottom right block and....

yep, it was larger but it was too large LOL I went for 105% but probably could have gone for 102% and it might have worked. I am glad I tried it though and as soon as I have one with a bunch of seams and pieces I will try again.
My favorite of these it probably the upper middle with the wonderful red print and black to bring it out!

This little project was an example for New Friends Quilt Circle's monthly meeting. The board did a presentation to the group on the Log Cabin block...Old Block Pattern, New Designs. Our year long focus has been Everything Old is New Again and I had the idea for the Log Cabin presentation so I was in charge of researching and starting the presentation. I found this beautiful example of a quilt combining the Courthouse Steps version of the log cabin and a sawtooth/variable star and just loved it and wanted to use it to show a new idea with an old block. My friend CM helped me create the pattern with Electric Quilt but I wanted to show an example too so between all the stuff I had to do late Sunday evening and Monday night I cut and sewed a small example. The blocks are 9 inches finished and I used leftovers from my Debbie Mumm sampler. I love how it turned out but need to figure out a border since I used scraps LOL