Southern Album Quilt

Amidst all the chaos that is my life, I began to piece the Southern Album Quilt in January 2010.  The quilt bee I belong to (and have been a devoted member of for nine years) agreed to let this be our particular project for the year.  Usually, we do a sort of a sampler pattern that lasts 12 months.  This quilt is a bit more ambitious and we're going to be working on it through April 2011 (and that's being optimistic....)

The quilt is designed by Kristin C. Steiner and Diane F. Wilson and it's beautiful.  I've long adored Baltimore Album quilts and this one is designed along the same lines, except it celebrates all things southern -- from kudzo to sweet tea.  It is pieced and appliqued...heavy on the applique.  Every block has applique in it and four of the blocks are completely appliqued.  There are women in our group who machine appliqued their pieces and then there's the rest of us who are devout needle-turn applique-ers.  Both techniques are producing some wonderful quilts.

If you want to make this quilt, I would advise you to flip to the very last block, Fortress Star in Southern Vines, and do that first.  This is the medallion block.  The center of the block is a simple pieced star, but it is framed with strips of fabric that are intricately appliqued.  This is the part of the quilt that takes the most time.  If you're working on a schedule, teaching this quilt, or if you're group is doing this as a block-of-the-month club, I'd recommend that everyone start this block first and work on this one while you're still constructing your other blocks.  The framing has 44 small circles that have to be appliqued, so it is labor intensive.

But oh-so-well worth it!  The quilt is beautiful!

The first block the book introduces is Friendship Star with Friendly Berries:

This is a pretty straight-forward block, however, it's a good idea to completely read through the directions on every block of this quilt before beginning to cut your fabric.  Sometimes you gotta read through them twice.  Three times may even be a really good idea.  There are no allowances for half-square triangles or hour-glass triangles, so if you opt to use those techniques, you'll need to purchase extra fabric.  And on the background fabric for the pieced blocks, you may want to purchase two yards instead of only one.  I found myself running short and having to re-order material about three-quarters of the way through this quilt.

The quilt designers love circles, so early on, it's a good idea to decide which method you are most proficient with in circle-making.  Kristin and Diane recommend a tool called Circle-Eze.  I purchased it and was highly satisified with the end results.  I would recommend using a spray starch (not sizing and not Mary Ellen's) for use with the Circle-Eze.  The Niagra brand found at most grocery stores works very well. 

There is also the Perfect Circles method.  This tool is found at most quilt shops.  I had to order the Circle-Eze.  Either method takes some time, so I simply spent a rainy Saturday afternoon making about 50 circles.  I stored them in a plastic box, big enough so they wouldn't get "smushed" and then took them out as I needed them.