Churn Dash Swap Finished

Well, the Churn Dash Swap is now finished!! I'm a little sad, it was fun seeing all those new blocks every month but I'm relieved I don't have to face another last minute panic every month to get my blocks done!!

So here are the final two groups:

And here in is the final pile:

And finally, here are ALL of them:

Don't they look pretty!! I think I probably have enough for two quilts here. My plan is to do one on point with shirting as alternating blocks. But I'm open to suggestions!!

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Churn Dash Swap Blocks - 5

Only one more set of swaps to go. I am still loving the blocks I'm getting. Can't wait to make these up. I have pretty much decided to set them on point with shirting in between. The big decision - do I pick one shirting to use for all the alternate blocks or do I use a variety to go for a super scrappy look?? Comments appreciated.

These were my blocks for this month.

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Churn Dash Swap Blocks - 4

Another month done!! Some great combos again this month. I am really loving this swap.

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Churn Dash Swap Blocks - 3

This post is a doozy!! We didn't have a meeting in April, and then the next meeting the person running the swap didn't have time to stay and swap at the meeting, so she took them home. So last meeting, I got three months worth of swaps back, and since I'm doing double, that means I got 60 blocks back in one go!!

Set 3

Here is the swap before last, where I handed in two lots. These are each of the piles of my four sets, plus a pile of the leader and ender blocks I am making at the moment.

Set 4

Set 5

And this is the pile of 100 I have so far.

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Churn Dash Swap Blocks - 2

Another great set of blocks for the swap.

There was one issue though. There were a couple of blocks which had a great dark, but the light (shirting) was just too bright. The pattern was OK but the colours were just wrong for Civil War fabrics. I loved the purples used, so I decided to take them apart and put a new background in. I had a nice green toned one so I went with that for both.

 As you can see the background colours were just too bright. It's a pity, the pattern would've been a perfect shirting pattern.

 And here are the revised blocks. I normally don't mind the blocks being a bit off in piecing or colours etc, that is part of the fun of being in a swap. But these just weren't usable. So I figured better to rescue them rather than not use them at all. And I really did love the purples chosen.

Here are the blocks being sorted at Guild.

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Churn Dash Swap Blocks - 1

Had a great day at Guild on Saturday. Highlight for me was the first swap of our Churn Dash swap group. They were so cute!!

Here are the cute blocks I got back. As I've said previously, I was swapping two lots, so each swap I get 20 gorgeous blocks back!!

Here is our fearless co-ordinator swapping all the blocks!! I can't imagine the organisation to make sure we all swap with each other at least once!

 

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Churn Dash on My Mind!!

This post is Churn Dash themed!! My Guild is running a Civil War Repro's Churn Dash block swap this year. Make 10 blocks and get 10 different ones back each month for 10 months!! The little suckers are 4.5" finished. I had hoped to have them done before this but the first batch weren't up to scratch. So all elements were made oversized and cut down. I am happier with this bunch.

I read Bonnie Hunters blog everyday. Always worth a visit. Recently I saw her method for pressing her chain pieced segments. She leaves them together and cuts them apart AFTER pressing. It was one of those ah ha moments!!

I love this technique. Made pressing much faster and simpler. Especially easy with the HST as there are two lines of sewing which I think adds extra stability.

Here are the elements getting trimmed or cut out.

Continuing with the Churn Dash theme. I was checking out the latest videos from the Missouri Star Quilt Company and noticed one called Disappearing Pinwheel - Churn Dash. Two of my favourite blocks in one! So I watched it and am hooked! I'm normally not a fan of these 'disappearing' variations but this one really works, a shortcut technique rather than variation (although there are plenty of them too!).

And check out Vicki's Fabric Creations for a great visual guide to the different blocks you can make using this one block/technique.

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