Gardening April-June 1861



Strawberries from my garden this year....

It seems funny to be posting a picture of my strawberries in November when the chill of winter is right around the corner, but, todays Civil War block is called 'Gardening'.  In the diary entries between April and June, Hannah writes about her garden.  She planted beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelons and talks about picking strawberries.  Not so different than the garden I plant each year.  Although living in Minnesota I have no luck with watermelons.  I also have a love of gardening and like Hannah I write in a diary.  Hannah wrote in her diary about her daily life.  I keep a garden journal from year to year to record when I plant seeds, first frosts, planting dates and locations of perennials in my flower gardens.  Hannah probably also used her diary to look back on garden dates from year to year too. 

Here is how I completed 'Gardening' from the Civil War Diary Quilt Book....

Using some of my favorite colors from my Civil War stash I picked out these fabrics to do the block with...

I find it easier to write the fabric colors onto the foundation paper so that I can keep track of what I am doing.  I also like to pre-cut my fabric into strips so that it is easier to work with while paper piecing.  It seems like a lot of waste at times when trimming, but I find it to work best for me.

The center of this block is tiny.... you can tell by the picture.  I was 'scared' to do this block at first because of the teenie tiny center but paper piecing makes it so easy!

Here's what the back looks like.... you can see how I sew a 1/4" past each seam line on the block.

'Gardening' was broken up into three sections, this shows the 'center' section.

'Gardening'
This is a favorite of mine!

Remember to post your progress on the Civil War Diary Quilt Group on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1547598@N25/

As we say goodbye to Hannah we will move onto the next chapter of the book next week.  Isabella Buchanan Edmondson, she was a Confederate spy!  I will be working on the block called 'Thousands of Diamonds'.

Happy quilting!

Rosemary Youngs has a new book coming out in May 2012.  I can't wait!

Check out Rosemary's website.  Her books and CD's can be ordered there too!