Alison's Guiding Light is a relatively simple block, but at 4.5 inches finished, the pieces are tiny. Some of the pieces have seam allowances that are bigger than the piece you see.
Holly and I both did this block as a template block and then as a paper-pieced block.
Tamplate Method:
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| Templates for Alison's Guiding Light |
Holly and I both used the templates in the picture (we figure if we share the templates through the whole quilt, we could save a small tree!) to cut our fabric for this block. Holly cut her pieces old school. She laid the template piece on top and held it there with no pins while cutting with her trusty scissors. I, on the other hand, took the templates and fabric to my cutting mat and used a rotary to cut out all the pieces. For the last 2 blocks, I cut mine out the old school way and was having trouble with it. I found the rotary to be much easier for me to handle.
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| Pieces cut using templates |
Unfortunately, we both forgot to take any pictures between cutting out the pieces and the finished block. Oops. The best we can do now is tell you how we sewed them together.
We started by sewing 2 of the purple triangles to the white stick (on an angle above) that goes between them. Once we had 4 units like that, we sewed 2 of the small white squares to one of the outer purple sticks as laid out above. You should have 2 of these units. After pressing, we sewed 2 of the units that used the purple triangles to the straight white sticks on either side, yielding 2 units. Next, we sewed the 2 large units to either side of the long white stick in the middle and then the 2 remaining outer purple sticks to opposite sides of the full unit. Last, sew the 2 units of purple sticks and small white squares to the sides you didn't sew the outer purple sticks to. Use a finished block or a diagram as your guide.
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| Mary's finished Template-pieced block |
Hopefully, your block turns out as nice as mine (above) and Holly's block did. :)
Now, for the paper-pieced block...
Paper Pieced Method:
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| Paper-pieced template |
Above is the template we used for our paper-pieced block. Unfortunately, we had to use 3 prints of that for our 2 blocks due to a couple of mistakes. Oops. We also didn't take any pictures as we constructed this block. Oops again! What were we thinking? We will definitely try to do better next time...I promise!
Anyway, to construc the paper-pieced block, the order printed on the pieces works great. Follow carefully and you should be fine. One tip, though...once you start piecing units together, make sure you remove some of the paper bits as you go or they are sewn in there forever. Mine will forever have a few bits of paper inside of it.
Now, for the comparison. I found it harder to get my corners and points to line up with the paper pieced pattern on this one. For this block, for me, the template pieces were definitely better than the paper-piecing.
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| Our finished blocks |
Pictured above are mine and Holly's finished blocks. Paper-piecing on the left and template piecing on the right. Holly's on top and mine on the bottom.
Feel free to link pictures of your blocks up on the right of the blog and share any tips you may have or problems you discovered in the comments.
Mary
Kentucky Bourbon Ale gives off a rich, sweet, yeasty aroma. It has a lovely medium dark amber brown color. I've never had bourbon before (I know. It's probably some kind of tragedy to somebody out there. I apologize.) But, this beer makes me want to try it! I'm guessing it's the bourbon flavor that's coming through. This ale goes feels smooth going down. The first time I ordered this was at a bar in Dublin. Uh, don't get too excited for me. It was Dublin, OH :D Anyway, they served it up in a brandy snifter. It did add way more charm than drinking it out of the bottle, but it's yummy either way! I think it's my new favorite! Fun fact: this ale has an alcohol volume is 8.1% I give it 5 thimbles and it isn't even pink!
I just loved the aroma from this bottle of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. The color was a very nice red clay color. The flavor was unexpected. I expected more beer than bourbon and was surprised to find that the bourbon flavor came soaring through. The beer went down smoothly and I found myself shocked when I went to take another drink and the glass was empty. It was lovely. I give this one 4.5 thimbles!
Dude! It's. PINK. beer. That should be nuff said to make you want to go try some. Ok, it's a pink malt beverage. But we decided that was beer like enough to qualify. Pink Killer has a pleasing perfume like aroma. It tastes like a not so sweet artisan soda...which translates to: I don't really taste alcohol. The "killer" has a nice mellow grapefruit flavor. Yum! I give this 5 thimbles. I was gonna give it 4, but it's pink! So it got a style point. Lol
Loose Cannon has a honey color when poured and not much head. There's definitely a citrusy aroma to it. It has a sour grapefruit taste which I like. This would be really great ice cold on a hot summer day! I give this one 4 thimbles. Me likey :D
Loose Cannon has a nice aroma both in the bottle and in the glass. It is definitely citrusy. I wasn't careful pouring it and ended up with more head on the beer than beer. I had to scoop as much as I could out with a spoon. I know, bad beer drinker. Oh well. I did not like the bitter taste and the after taste was even worse. I couldn't finish this one. I give it 1 thimble.
Oddly, it smelled a bit like skunk. It tasted way better than it smelled. It tasted slightly burnt with a tasty nuttiness flavor and a bitter finish. My apologies to the other beer aficionados that think this is wrong, but I like it better with the addition of butterscotch schnapps...as I do with most beers that are too bitter for me. Try it, it's tasty! :) 2 out of 5 thimbles.
This beer had an oddly familiar smell that I just couldn't put my finger on, except that it smelled like beer. Maybe it reminded me of the smell of a bar or the a bowling alley...not sure which. When poured, there was very little head on it. In the bottle, it was a golden caramel color, but once poured into the glass, it took on a ruby hue. The taste was bitter to the tongue, but left a smooth after taste and went down well. I give it 3 out of 5 thimbles.
Karen said...
