We need to talk about Chester

Sharon from Two Bits Patches, the creator of the Chester Criswell Block of the Month that I started three years ago, has decided to start sending emails once a week to reinvigorate those of us (*cough* like me *cough*) who had fallen by the wayside. It was the gentle kick up the butt I needed. I mean, there's only so much needle turn appliqué a lady can do before she goes stark raving mad! No wonder I'm so slow (I'm intensely insane already).

Chester Criswell is a very traditional signature album quilt - originally made in turkey red and green back in 1852 in Pennsylvania. I'm a traditional kind of quilter, but I'm not one for the traditional colour palettes so I've been doing mine in bright modern fabrics, on a text (or course) low-ish value background.

I've had the nine blocks I thought I'd made so far up on the design wall the last few weeks (and then today I found a tenth!! Oh Reuben Stubbs - you always were trouble) so I thought I'd finally document them and put them up here on the blog for posterity and fact checking (this is how I found the tenth block, actually. He was on the blog a few weeks ago. I knew Reuben wasn't a figment of my imagination!)

1. Jane Wilson

2. Elizabeth Cowan (done using a different technique with "wash out" stabiliser. I hated the technique, and it didn't wash out at all. I would love to do this one again one day.)

3. Priscilla and Joseph Turner (again, done with the dodgy technique described above before I realised the evil stuff wouldn't wash out (and hence why the grey fabric has gone crinkly)).

4. Nancy and James R. Smith

5. James Carlile

6. Reuben Stubbs 

7. William and Harry Clendenon

21. Mary Trayner (this is when I took the blocks back up after more than a year's break and decided to start working backwards. Didn't last long.)

23. Mary Watkins

25. Sarah Stubbs

It's a wet and cool day in Canberra today so I've spent this morning at the pool (naturally) and this afternoon avoiding the mess in the kitchen and prepping block 10 Rachel Dickie. Once I deal with the mess in the kitchen, it'll be leftovers for dinner, a nice gin and tonic, The Flash on DVD and Rachel and me.

I really love holidays!

Anyone interested in a tutorial on how I prepare my freezer paper appliqué? Or are you all down with that already?