Grandmother's Choice top finished

I got the borders on today - wish I had a better place to take pictures - this is just about 100" square. Pieced the backing with leftover fabrics - so now just need to decide on quilting.

Grandmother's Choice - Center complete

The last block of Grandmother's Choice was released Saturday morning, and my center is complete quite a few hours later. Next up, the border.

Grandmother's Choice BOW 47 - Heroine

Another applique block - so I drew it up in EQ to enlarge it. Getting slightly better at drawing, very slightly. I used the freezer paper underneath, starch method, so once it was prepped I took it along on my mini-vacation to Mendocino. Very restful place. Just two blocks left to go! And lots of sashing.

Grandmother's Choice BOWs 45 & 46

BOW45 was Aunt Mary's Favorite

BOW 46 is Barrister's Block to represent women as lawyers and their legal battles. I opted to go with the simpler version to keep the block in the same scale as most of the others.

BOW 44 - Star of Hope

This week's Grandmother's Choice BOW is Star of Hope celebrating the French Suffrage movement. One of the other ladies doing this quilt used a French flag in the center, I copied as best I could (I have no red in this quilt!) See my version here

Grandmother's Choice BOW 43

Keeping up, but running out of several fabrics. Last bits of a couple more.

Grandmother's Choice - BOW42

This week's BOW was Cat and Mice. I've made this several times for various samplers. The first one I had to unstitch because my QSTs were rotated, now I am much more careful!

Grandmother's Choice BOW 40 and 41

BOW 40 is Art Square - Women as artists have been perceived as not as important as male artists, take for example, art quilts. Because they have been made by women, not art, but craft. When done by a man, ground breaking. Just my perception.

BOW 41 is Contrary Wife - wives should put up and shut up - not as much as times past, in some places, but we still have a ways to go.

Grandmother's Choice BOWs 38 and 39

BOW 38 is Nonsense, and BOW 39 is Endless Stairs.

Grandmother's Choice BOW 36 and 37

BOW 36 is the Sunbonnet Baby. My little bit of rebellion is the bird tattoo on her shoulder.

BOW 37 is the Nameless Star, one of my favorite blocks, or at least one I have made more than any other. I usually call it the sawtooth star.

Grandmother's Choice

Ah I remember the woman should make the coffee scenario well. A couple of big scenes in "9 to 5" as well.

BOW 35 I'm an Anti - for those women against Suffrage, reminds me of the women who thought a woman's place was in the home (and only the home) not so long ago, and now as well.

Grandmother's Choice BOW 24 -33

Been remiss in getting my BOWs done and posted, but all caught up now.
BOW 24 True blue

BOW 25 Carrie Nation

BOW26 Ladies Wreath - Mourning for Mother

BOW27 Grandmother's Dream

BOW 28 Ocean Wave

BOW29 Seven Pointed Star for Australia

BOW30 Broad Arrow

BOW31 Tinted Chains

BOW32 Mr. Roosevelt's Necktie

BOW33 Contrary Husband

Grandmother's Choice - BOW 21-23

BOW 21 Parasols and P.R. had me stymied for a bit. I followed Becky's example on Barbara's blog for construction, but the hard part was the fabrics. Instead of tracing a lot, I printed the umbrella templates on freezer paper so I could easily iron to the fabric. I traced around the template with pencil, just in case things came unstuck. This is what I came up with:

BOW 22-Jack's Delight was a delight to make, even if the reference is gloomy: Ridicule as humor.

BOW 23 Girl's Joy was made using templates from EQ7. While making it I noticed how several of my fabrics are getting in short supply, and still half this quilt to go.

Grandmother's Choice BOWs 19 & 20

Old's Maids Ramble is a fussy block, I pressed seams open a lot to get it to lie flat, and it does! This was BOW 19 in Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice BOW.

then we had a nice easy one for BOW 20, Memory Wreath. I think I subconciously picked black fabrics for this one, see Barbara's post.

Grandmother's Choice - BOWs 17 & 18

I got a little behind this last week, Christmas and youngest daughter at home had something to do with it. All caught up now. This first BOW is Mother's Delight, symbolizing Christabel Pankhurst. Printed the templates from EQ7.

BOW 18 is Cheyenne:Wyoming firsts, mostly rotary cut, but used EQ templates for the diagonal square and the triangles.

Grandmother's Choice BOW

Almost a third of the way done! 16 of 49 blocks are complete. Let's just ignore the sashing (which I currently plan on piecing). Here are the first 16 blocks on the design wall.

BOW 15 is Centennial to celebrate the New Zealand women's right to vote.

BOW 16 is Capital T - for the Temperance movement.

Grandmother's Choice catch-up

After a couple of hectic weeks, it was time to get caught up with the Grandmother's Choice BOWs.
BOW 12 was Little Boy's Breeches and symbolizes dress reform. I was reminded of Amelia Peabody, Elizabeth Peters' intrepid Egyptologist and sleuth. Amelia was an avid advocate of rational dress, but until now I really wasn't sure what it looked like. Now I know thanks to Barbara Brackman.

Grandmother's Choice BOW 11

This weekend was quilting, actually quilting, not piecing, so the BOW this week took a back seat. Tonight I got it done, not exactly a Little Red Schoolhouse, more a Vine Covered Cottage.

Grandmother's Choice BOW 10 - New York

How appropriate that the block this week is New York, although it was not picked because of Sandy, but rather to commemorate Susan B. Anthony voting in New York on the first Tuesday in November in New York in 1872. It was also the last time she would vote, not living to see the 19th amendment passed into law.

Still using "Morris and Company", tricky to get flag colors. The corner star was fussy cut using the large floral, white flowers for the star, a blue background for the field.

Grandmother's Choice BOW 8 & 9

BOW #8 was revealed while we were in NYC, so it had to wait a bit. I ended up using some of the scraps from earlier blocks to piece the striped portion of the block.

This block was easy to cut and piece using Marti Michell templates (blue squares and smaller outer triangles). I drafted it in EQ7 and used paper templates for the large triangle and the rectangles. All caught up.