Clarissa Block Formations

Clarissa is my new leader-ender hourglass project initiated by Bonnie Hunter's annual challenge. 
First of all, blog reader Vicki told me that you can buy a real pattern for this quilt over at Hoopla. I don't know what the measurements actually are for this pattern, and I am making up my own based on my math (which we all know is seriously flawed, but in a really creative way!)
When I saw the Clarissa quilt, I only took 4 close up shots of the blocks.  Why I didn't take a photo of every single block, I don't know. I'm sure it had something to do with not wanting people to think I am crazy. Which I am!

This week I really studied my photos and the block formations in order to learn what is was that I liked about her block designs. This is what I see:

-each block is made up of 36 hourglass units. 

Clarissa Quilt Block #1

-at the centre of every block is a four patch unit, and some of the centre blocks have a very pronounced pinwheel which is made by altering the value of the fabrics in the hourglass units.


-every once and a while she pops in a high contrast wild fabric, like this polka dot navy fabric.

Clarissa Quilt Block #2

-some of the blocks have definite colour rounds. Here you can see a blue round and a pink round. Also she randomly throws in a different colour, like a white triangle where a pink should be.

Clarissa Quilt Block #3

-the position of the hourglass blocks is usually alternated every other block on every round. You can see it clearly on the middle round where every other block has the dark fabric up/down or left/right. 

-when using a patterned directional fabric (like the striped fabric) she made sure that it went every which way.

Clarissa Quilt Block #4

-she sometimes used similar colours/value and yet made it totally scrappy. Look at the outside round and how many different fabrics there are!

Are you sewing a Clarissa block and/or quilt? Many people commented and emailed that they would like to experiment with this block/quilt design. You will have to either purchase the pattern or make up your own, since due to possible copyright infringement it would not be wise of me to post instructions on how to make this quilt.
If there are enough people making this pattern, I will host an occasional link up so we can see the progress and encourage each other. Let me know!

Clarissa Update

Agnes Gru

I cannot believe it is Friday!
I haven't written a blog post all week, which is most unusual for me. No blogging usually means not much quilting time, which means I feel quite miserable and depleted by Friday. 
But today is the first Friday Night Sew In of 2017 and I have quilting friends coming over, so very soon I will start to feel much better! You can click here to sign up, or you can just join in wherever you are and make some progress on your sewing projects. 

Block #6 Clarissa

I did finish the 6th block for "Clarissa was a Superstar" quilt. This is my leader ender project for Bonnie Hunter's challenge this year (you can read more about the challenge here). The Clarissa quilt is inspired by a quilt from the 1800s which you can read about here. 
I used the light triangles as the centre pinwheel for this block. I like it and think I'll do more block centres like this one has.
It's funny that whenever I post another Clarissa block that people think I am making HST (half square triangle) blocks. These are not HST blocks, they really are QST (quarter square triangles) which are more commonly called hourglass blocks. They are cut and sewn differently using the Companion Angle ruler, or you could use Bonnie Hunter's new ruler.
Here is how I cut the 1.5" strips to get the 144 quarter square triangles I need for each 12" block. I cut two or four strips together and place the pieces ready to sew by the machine. I have learned that I have to put two pieces through the machine with the dark fabric on top and oriented in this way or else the block just doesn't work out.

This is my machine set up, showing that I am piecing a block for the En Provence mystery quilt. And my Clarissa triangles are sitting on the right side of the machine bed waiting to be a leader/ender between sewing sections of the mystery. I love that it doesn't waste any thread! And I love that I am making progress on 2 quilts at once.
I can't show you all the Clarissa blocks together because En Provence pieces are on the design wall. I can't wait to see all the blocks together and find out if I like the addition of the dark red colour in this block. 

New Leader-Ender Challenge

Everyone knows I am a huge fan of Bonnie Hunter and her revolutionary leader-ender method of making quilts. My leader-ender project for the last 4 years has been the small Alamo Star block and I keep making a few of those every month. Every year Bonnie announces a leader-ender challenge and twice I joined in on her project.
Here is the list that I can remember:
2015 Tumblers (I made a mini version called Tiny Tumble) 
2014 Lozenges
2013 Split 9 Patch
2012 Spools (I am working on my spool quilt layout)
2011 Cheddar BowTies
Bonnie announced the 2016 leader-ender challenge this week and it's the hourglass block. At first I wasn't tempted because I was thinking that I've made so many of those blocks over the years. 
But then... I remembered the Clarissa quilt. 

Clarissa quilt

On the way to the Vermont Quilt festival in the Spring of 2011, I had the opportunity to see an amazing quilt at the Shelburne Museum which became one of my all time favourite quilts. Here it is! I posted about it here and have always thought I would love to make a variation of this quilt. It looks like now is the time to start my own leader-ender Clarissa hourglass quilt.

This quilt was made by Clarissa White Alford and contains 6,048 pieces of fabric!
It was made by a woman who raised 9 children of her own, plus 6 children from her husband's 1st marriage for a total of 15 children. That makes her a total superstar in my opinion!  Can you even imagine her life back in the 1800's??  It is believed that she made the quilt while living in Quebec when in her 80's. It's amazing not only that she survived all those years, after raising all those children, but that she still managed to create a lasting work of art in her last years.

I looked at that quilt a long time in 2011. I was inspired by the story of it and by the beauty and longevity of the quilt. Here is a close up of one of the 42 blocks all made with hourglass units...and hand quilted!
I don't know how many blocks my Clarissa quilt will be, but I started the first one today.

The first block was pieced on my Singer 301 short bed sewing machine named Ethel. The sound of this 301 machine is soft and lovely... it's such a calming pleasure to sew with her!

But look what happened! First of all, because I don't have a pattern and am making this up based on a photo, my math was off (big surprise!) and my first block turned out to be too small. 
And secondly, how did the bottom right hourglass block not work out as planned?!?
Clarissa made everything in life and in quilting look easy, and it's not. I think I'm calling this quilt "Clarissa was a Superstar"!

A New Clarissa Block

Clarissa #18

Clarissa is my hourglass leader-ender challenge that started with the quiltalong last summer at Quiltville. There is a new leader-ender challenge for this year, but I'm still working on this one. This project is inspired by a quilt from the 1800's made by Clarissa White Alford - see the quilt here. I just finished block #18.

And here are all the blocks on the design wall. There are tons of little scraps in these blocks!  I try to make each block a little different from all the others.
My friend Cathy who blogs over at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting is also making a Clarissa quilt and you can see some of her blocks here.
Hop over to the link up at Oh Scrap!

Hourglass Leader -Ender Update

Clarissa block #4

Clarissa is my primary leader/ender project at the moment. I am making these 12" blocks using hourglass units to reproduce a quilt made by Clarissa White Alford in 1880. You can read more about the original quilt here. 
This is my latest Clarissa block. It has a blue plaid pinwheel in the centre, followed by a butterscotch with white dots round of hourglass blocks, and a light teal with brown circles as the outside round. 

Here are my first 4 Clarissa blocks on the design wall. I like how the value placement is working out but I think I need to add in another colour... maybe a pink or red? I'll keep my eyes open for some fresh scraps to add in!

What's up with Clarissa!?!

There hasn't been a Clarissa sighting on the blog for a long time with the previous post being in December last year! This kind of time delay is usually a sign that there is either a problem/"challenge" with the project, or there is a big decision pending (and not being made!)

With Clarissa, the hold up was the debate about how big to make my version of the quilt. The original quilt was 6 blocks by 7 blocks for a total of 42 blocks. My Clarissa has 19 blocks so far. With adding one more block, it would be a layout of 4 blocks by 5 blocks. I like the rectangular shape for this quilt, so if I were to make mine bigger, that would mean making at least 4 more blocks for a layout of 4 blocks by 6 blocks, or 10 more blocks for a layout of 5 blocks by 6 blocks. 
Realistically, that isn't going to happen. I have loved making these blocks but it's time to move on to new projects and wrap this one up.
So my UFO goal this month is to make the final block, figure out the sashing and borders and get this to quilt top status by the end of May. To see more quilty goals, hop over to the One Monthly Goal link up.

Clarissa Design Wall

Clarissa block #14

I have been away and missed my regular design wall posting yesterday, so here it is today. Clarissa is on the design wall!
This is block #14 and is quite pale compared to most of the others. I think it will provide a some contrast and interest in the overall quilt. The dark brown and the Sweetwater text fabrics were both given to me by my friend Debby. They are from her Aunt's stash of fabric, which she recently inherited. I promised her they would be put to good use and here they are already in a block! 

This is my Clarissa block collection so far.

Total number of pieces in the quilt blocks so far = 2,016

To see more design wall postings this week, hop over to the link up at Small Quilts.

Design Wall Monday - Clarissa

I'm excited to tell you that my very first Clarissa block is finished and is on the design wall today. This is my project choice for Bonnie Hunter's Hourglass Leader-Ender Challenge for this year. You can read more about the original Clarissa quilt here.

There are 144 triangles making up the 36 hourglass units in this 12" block. There are a lot of scraps sewn into this block including a couple of browns from my civil war reproductions, some teals from a Quiltmaker mystery quilt from 5 years ago, and several pieces from last month's UFO project.
I must say this block was quite a challenge especially at some of the seam joins where there are 8 pieces of fabric trying to squeeze under the needle at the same time and hopefully meeting at the same point! I can't wait to start cutting the triangles for the next Clarissa block.
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Clarissa Quilt Top

Clarissa was started in 2016 as a leader-ender challenge by Bonnie Hunter. The challenge was to make a quilt using hourglass blocks. It was the perfect incentive to make a quilt similar to one I had seen at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. The original quilt was made by Clarissa White Alford circa 1880. She raised her own 9 children, plus 6 children from her husband's first marriage, and after surviving that, Clarissa made her famous quilt completely by hand. That's right... no rotary cutter, no rulers and mats, no sewing machine, just scissors, needle and thread!

Almost 140 years later I used all the modern quilting tools to construct my copycat quilt top. Each block has 144 triangles, and my version of the quilt with 20 blocks has a total of 2,880 triangles plus the 48 sashing triangles for a grand total of...2,928 triangles in this quilt!
I did meet my May UFO goal of getting these blocks to quilt top status, but I'm still undecided about a final border. I'm thinking of a white border with the quarter square triangle (QST) cornerstones, then maybe another border of a million more QSTs. I haven't had the time to make a stack of blocks to see if I would like that, but that is the plan of the moment!
To see more Monthly Goals postings, hop over to the link up.

New Clarissa Block

Clarissa block #5

Progress is slowly being made on my "Clarissa was a Superstar" quilt. This is block #5 that was just finished this week. I am sewing these pieces as a leader/ender project between sewing other blocks, so I never really know when I will have enough hourglass units ready to sew into another block. 

Here are all the blocks together on the design wall.

It looks just as wonderful as it did in my mind's eye! I like how the dark/light rounds are working out. But I just noticed that the centre pinwheels are spinning in different directions. I had to go and look at the inspiration quilt by Clarissa White Alford and see that her quilt has all the pinwheels spinning in different directions too... phew! I really didn't want to unpick those centre blocks! I also just noticed that she had some centre blocks where the pinwheel appears to be light surrounded by a darker background, so I'll try to do that in the 6th block.
Hop over to the link up at Sew Fresh Quilts for lots of quilty inspiration.

Clarissa is on the Design Wall

Here is the 12th block for my "Clarissa was a Superstar" quilt. There are 36 hourglass blocks in one 12" Clarissa block. This one is really scrappy and used up a lot of small pieces. Up close the block really is a bit of a scrappy mishmash, but far away, it's fantastic!





Here are all 12 blocks on the design wall. 
Total # of triangles = 1,728!
I wasn't sure how many blocks the quilt would be when I started this leader-ender hourglass challenge. I'm still not certain, but I do know it will be more than 12, because I'm still having fun and want to keep going with this project. The original Clarissa quilt has 42 blocks! That's probably not going to happen, but 20 blocks is looking like a reasonable goal at the moment. 
To see more design wall posts, hop over to Patchwork Times. So sad to read that Judy has discontinued Design Wall Mondays. This has been a part of my routine for a long time. I looked forward to Monday mornings to see what the quilters were designing each week. Thank you Judy for hosting the fun Monday link up for so many years!

Clarissa is back!

block #19

We haven't seen a new Clarissa block for a long time. I got caught up in the mysteries going on now and had so many pieces to use as leader/enders that I didn't even think about Clarissa. 
But here is the next block that was finished this week. It is block #19. 







And here are all the Clarissa blocks on the design wall. Each block has 144 triangles so there are 2,736 triangles in this project so far!
One more block to go!

Linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts.

Clarissa is on the Design Wall!

Block #16 for the Clarissa quilt is finished. Because this is a leader-ender project, some blocks are made quickly and others take a while depending on how much piecing I'm doing. This block progressed faster once the machine quilting on the Bear quilt was finished. This block has a darker pinwheel centre, with a light teal and white inner border, followed by a darker outside border. I think the outside border has 4 different brown scraps... plus my favourite plaid.
Here are all the blocks on the design wall.
Yummalicious!

























Total number of pieces in this quilt so far = 2,304!!

It is so exciting to have another quiltmaker inspired by the original Clarissa quilt. Cathy who blogs at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting is making these hourglass blocks too - click here to see her blocks.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Small Quilts.

Clarissa #13

Clarissa block #13

This is the next block to join the Clarissa block collection (you can see the other blocks here).

This one has more dark red triangles than the other blocks. The project seemed to need this kind of a block.
I like the unique (inspired by a mistake) corner hourglass blocks with 3 dark triangles and 1 light.

This is how block #13 looks from the back. I have tried many ways to press the seams as I made each block, and have settled on this as the best so far. My favourite thing is spinning the centre seams on the hourglass blocks to make them lay nice and flat.
Total number of pieces in the quilt so far is 1,872!

Clarissa #3

Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender challenge this year is the hourglass block and I have chosen my project to be a reproduction of a quilt from the late 1800s. You can see my photo of the original Clarissa quilt here and learn more about the blocks here.

Here is block #3 fresh off the ironing board. The challenge was issued in mid July and it is now October, and I have just finished three blocks. At the rate of about one block a month, I will be finishing this challenge in 3.5 years! 

I love the quirky centre block with the 4 hourglass units in the middle. See how the letter A pops out? 
Then there is a round of dark turquoise and neutrals, and the outside round is made of dark brown hourglass blocks with neutrals or golds and one with teal. I really enjoy making these block with small 1.5" scrap strips. 

And here are my first three 12" Clarissa blocks. Each block has 144 pieces, for a total of 432 triangles so far!
I like the addition of the gold fabric and plan to look around in the scrap bags for more golds that could be included. I also found a few more scraps I can include that were from a Crossed Canoe mini quilt I made 6 years ago. The scraps are never ending and I am so happy that some are being put to good use in this project.
Are you playing along with the Leader/Ender challenge this year?

Clarissa on the Design Wall

Here it is... drum roll please... the last block has been made for my Clarissa quilt top. It was fun sewing this block knowing that it's the last one. I used up many odd triangles sitting in the project box. This is a classic Clarissa block, with a pinwheel in the centre, surrounded by a dark round of QSTs, and around the outside of the block are light QSTs.
The next step is to finalize a layout (first I have to find the other blocks in storage), cut out the sashings, and sew it all together. 
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Small Quilts. 

Also, today is the start of the Wish Upon a Star blog hop... prepare to be inspired!  I am still working on finishing my quilt... my day to post my star quilt is Thursday. Here is the line up of blogs to visit today...

May 21

Moose Stash Quilting

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Quilt In A Not-Shell

What About Rheema?

Clever Chameleon Quilting

Sunlight in Winter Quilts

Life in the Scrapatch

Sew Many Yarns
Hazel’s Daughter

Slow Sunday Stitching

Sometimes you don't really feel like sewing anything. Winter's coming and it's dark and rainy outside. You're tired and just want to hibernate with the bears until spring. Some days you really just need some inspiration to fan the tiny embers of creative life that are barely burning.
That is where the internet comes in! We are so so lucky to have unlimited inspiration at our fingertips.
Before you start your slow sunday stitching today, grab a cup of tea/coffee and treat yourself to some of my favorites this week:
1) Drop in and see Teresa's truly amazing organizational system for managing tiny pieces of fabric - click here. 
(While you're there, make sure you look at the photo on the right sidebar of her cat snuggled up in her quilting hoop.)
Teresa is a quilter after my own heart I tell you!
Now... don't be thinking to yourself "I am such a slug". 
Say to yourself, "What great ideas to inspire and delight"!

2) Then go to see Sue's incredible post about 30 completely hand made quilts from the French Guild of France Patchwork - click here. 

Did I mention every single stitch taken by hand??!?
Of all the quilts shown on Sue's post, I am 100% drawn to Clarissa. I have loved that quilt since I first met it in Vermont last year - click here to read about it.

Here is a close up photo I took of one of the blocks. 
I am going to make my own Clarissa one of these days. Maybe when my kids move out and I have nothing but time on my hands?
The original Clarissa has over 6,000 pieces of fabric, so I am going to need Teresa to come over and help me get organized if I'm ever going to accomplish that!
I hope you were inspired by these two amazing blog posts today. Now, don't be thinking to yourself "why do I even get up in the morning?" Instead, go and get your sewing out, and enjoy some wonderful, quiet moments of peaceful stitching while you run those amazing quilt images through your creative brain and dream about the quilts you have yet to make.
And don't forget to spend 2 minutes in silence at 11 am to commemorate Remembrance Day while you stitch. 
I will be putting a few stitches in my Journey of a Quilter.
Then blog about what you're stitching and link up your post below so we can be inspired by your creativity.

Leader-Ender Challenge Update

Bonnie Hunter's Leader-Ender Challenge this year is the hourglass block. I chose to make my own version of a quilt inspired by a quilt from the 1800's made by Clarissa White Alford. You can see the original quilt here and learn more about it here.

I have just finished sewing the second block. Each block is made of 36 hourglass blocks, which I am sewing in a leader-ender fashion.
However, when it comes time to sew the block together, it's a concentrated effort. There are a lot of thick seams to match, and lots of points that I don't want to lose in the seams. I sure do love that blue/teal fabric that has sewing machines on it. I don't have much of it left and will sprinkle the remaining scraps in some of the future blocks.

Here are the first two blocks side by side. I like the ways in which they are the same and yet they are different.

Clarissa block #1 and #2

Clarissa was a Superstar

That's the name of my new leader-ender project, but I will probably end up calling it "Clarissa". You can read more about the inspiration here. 
I redid the math on the block pieces since the first block I made was too small. I finally got the four patch hourglass blocks to be the size I wanted. 
The plan is to cut out scraps whenever they appear in my sewing room, and to always have a pile of triangles beside my machines to sew at the beginning or ending of every bit of sewing I am doing on my primary projects. The key to being successful with leader-ender projects is being organized, and having all the pieces ready to sew together without any thinking required.

I experimented with different ways of constructing the hourglass units and decided on using the Companion Angle ruler to cut the triangles. (To read Bonnie Hunter's lesson on how to figure out the math click here.)  This ruler is quick and easy to use and gives me an hourglass block that works with this design.
Now I am ready to roll!
Each block needs 36 hourglass units, which means I need to cut 144 triangles to start!

Clarissa is on the design wall!

This is block #17 made for my version of the Clarissa quilt. I wanted to include more of the dotted butterscotch fabric in the quilt since it does seem to draw attention to itself when all the blocks are together. The key to dealing with "attention seeking" fabrics is to sprinkle more of them around the quilt. 

This block collection has outgrown my design wall, so I just put up a few more blocks to surround this new one. You can see the first 16 blocks here.

I think I'll make 3 more blocks for this quilt for a total of 20, with a layout of 4 across and 5 down.

To see more quilts being designed, hop over to Small Quilts.