Civil War Diary Quilt, the beginning

Happy New Year!  2011 will be the year that I begin a Civil War Diary quilt.   I would like to invite you to join me in my journey as I follow along in the book.  Being New Years Day and feeling a little hang-over-ish today it will be a low key, let's get this project slowly started day.  I have set up a flickr group to post progress as we work along...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1547598@N25/

I've gathered my fabrics...

Do not let this project intimidate you!  I will work on breaking these blocks down so they are hopefully easier to do.  Do not feel like you have to gather all of your fabric at one time, you can purchase fat quarters, 1/4 yard pieces as you piece them each week or two.  Dig through your fabric stash, see what you already have on hand.   I am doing my quilt using Civil War reproduction fabric that I have collected over the last several years, but you can choose what-ever fabrics you want.  The book features some lovely quilts done in other fabrics.  Another thing to keep in mind, you don't have to do every single block... the back of the book features smaller projects, table runners, etc.  My personal goal is to finish the full sized quilt featuring all 121 blocks.  But you could do a smaller version picking and choosing your blocks.  Your journey is up to you!  Invite your quilting friends to join us!  All Janiacs are welcome to comment and post their progress too! 

The first section of the book is based on the diary entries from Rachel Young King Anderson.  Some additional diary entries not found in the book can be read here,
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mogenweb/cwdiary.htm
There are 13 blocks in this section.  The first block in the book is called 'Alarming Conditions', well I need time to ponder this one, so we will start with the second block in the book 'Oath of Allegiance' .  It's an easy straight forward block.  A postage stamp using 1 3/4" squares in red, white and blue fabric.  The finished size of all the blocks is 6 1/2" (this includes the 1/4" seam allowance.) 



I'm following the color scheme laid out in the book.


Start out by rotary cutting 1 3/4" squares.
10 navy blue
10 red
5 white/cream

I laid them out as pictured in the book and then 'chain' stitched each row.





1 3/4" squares ready to be sewn together...



Rows are 'chained' sewn... iron seams opposite each other so that they will
 'lock' into place when you sew the rows together. 
This will help you create perfect seams.



Oath of Allegiance