March block for Sandy

Ooh, these are tricky little boogers.

Sandy has the month of March for our little quilting bee, and she picked the cathedral window block. I've made a few of these in the past, but they were all in the traditional way -- completely by hand. She gave us a link to a tutorial that showed how to do them on a machine, so this was a new technique for me to try.

If you don't know anything about cathedral window quilts, they are pretty unique. It's almost like mixing quilting with origami because there is not only sewing, but also folding involved. Another difference is the fact that there is no batting -- there is no "sandwich" made from the quilt top, batting, and backing. Each block (four squares) is complete on its own, so when they are connected to the other blocks, the quilt is done. Sandy had us add small flannel squares under each printed square to give it a little more substance since there is no batting.

The block took me a few hours to make, but there is a whole lot of satisfaction in the end when it looks like it is supposed to! (Not to mention relief. Who wants to screw up on someone else's project? Not me!)

The wild thing for me is thinking about entire quilts made in this fashion. The time involved to make a large cathedral window quilt is crazy! I actually have one in my possession from my grandmother, and every time I use it, I just can't get over the work involved. In my opinion, they are also some of the most stunning quilts out there.

The moral of the story is -- if you ever see one for sale in a flea market, antique shop, on ebay, whatever -- snatch it up! Each cathedral window quilt is a small treasure in itself.

And, because I am ever so humble {ahem}, I am going to give my normally-procrastinating-self a pat on the back for already getting this one done with two and a half weeks still left in the month. Unless you consider the fact that I was procrastinating on all the other things that needed to get done around my house in order to work on this quilt block today. Shoot. Forget the pat on the back...