Civil War or Bust

  No, this is not a political statement of any kind, I'm talking about Civil War Era reproduction fabrics. One of my 2026 goals was to bust my Civil War era fabrics. DD#1 wants a Civil War era quilt, and I just finished cutting it out. Well, it's cut out aside from borders and setting triangles for which I need to buy yardage. I just ordered the fabric for the setting triangles, but we chose a fabric from an upcoming line for the border, so I can't order it yet. It's a sampler quilt so it will take me a while to sew all those different blocks. I did cut out all the blocks and pieced sashing and cornerstones, but each block has the pieces clipped together with a note of the name of the block, and the page number of the directions for sewing it together. 

The reason I bought Civil War prints in the first place was because I wanted to make this Trail Mix quilt. Since it's very scrappy, I only purchased fat eighths and fat quarters, and no yardage at all. Thus me having to buy some yardage for DD#1's quilt. Since the center of hers is a sampler, the fat eighths and fat quarters worked fine. The Trail Mix quilt also uses several different blocks, so again, I'll be clipping and labeling each block. The Trail Mix quilt uses pieces as small as 1.25" square, so I'm using all but the tiniest bits of these fabrics.

This is the plastic cup I use while cutting, it's about the size of a coffee cup. The scraps from these quilts are tiny, because I need such small pieces for several of blocks. 

I am just starting to cut the Trail Mix quilt, and I think I'll have plenty of fabric for it. I picked a third pattern for any fabric left after that, and most of the sizes of strips I need are the same as what I need for the Trail Mix quilt. Looking at how much fabric I have left after cutting the Civil War Sampler quilt, I think I'll have enough fabric left for a third quilt, but what size that quilt will be is a mystery! I do think three quilts will finish off the fabric, with maybe some bits for my scrap user system. I'd like to make DD#1 a few pillow shams as well, so any remaining bits may go towards that end as well. I'm hoping the leftover yardage from her setting triangles and border will be enough fabric for borders and backings on the pillow shams. If not, I'll use something from stash that looks 1800's-ish even if it's not a repro print. 

The advantage to cutting out three quilts at once, is I only have to press all the fabrics once, no having to repress when I get it out to cut another quilt. Also, this gives me leader/enders for likely the rest of the year. I'd like to have DD#1's quilt done for Christmas, but the other two have no deadlines at all, so perfect for leader/enders!