Seminole wind

I finished another UFO. It was a mystery by mail kit from Glad Creations Quilt Shop in Minnesota (now closed).

The sashing in the original pattern was substituted. I decided to try a technique I’d want to do for quite a while. It’s called “Seminole Patchwork”.

The batik fabrics are a light airy colors. The combination of breezy colors and the Seminole patchwork sashing prompted me to name this one Seminole Wind. 

It reminds me of my favorite John Anderson song. I used to blast it through my speakers and sing my heart out every time it came on the radio.   And, if you’re into trivia, here’s a little known fact:  The Florida Seminoles are the only American Indian tribe never to have signed a formal peace treaty with the United States.

Back to the quilt details… I had to take two of the finished blocks apart in order to have just enough of the off-white batik.  The purple was intended to be binding fabric in the original kit.

The outer border and setting stones are a little darker than I would have preferred but, I was determined to use fabrics I already own. My husband looked over my shoulder and watched the video while I was writing about the quilt. Out of nowhere is asked “does the border make you think of the campfire in the video?”. Ummmm… yep! That’s exactly the reason I chose it. <wink, wink>.

The backing, also from stash, is a purple & dark teal batik.  It finishes at 58″ x 68″.

I followed the excellent tutorial for making Seminole Patchwork from Geta’s Quilting Studio.  My blocks finished at an odd 11 1/2″ unfinished size so I won’t bore you with a lot of measurements you’ll never use but, I did take a few photos during the piecing.

Sew 3 squares together, light – dark – light.

Stitch the units together staggering the pieces as shown.

Add an additional square to both the top left and bottom right corners.
This allows you to trim the piece into a rectangle shape in the next step.

Important!
Make sure to trim 1/4″ away from the center (purple) square to leave a seam allowance.

Trim each end 1/4″ away from the center (purple) square.

I needed to add to each end of my patchwork unit to bring it up to the 11 1/2″ block size. I sub-cut them so the were the same width as my Seminole patchwork unit.

This photo shows the Seminole piecing rectangle, and one with the strip sets added to each end. I then added cornerstone squares cut the same measurement as the width of the rectangle. (I think mine ended up an odd 2 7/8″.)

Here’s another look at one of the blocks.  I still don’t LOVE this quilt but I was happy to have a chance to try the Seminole Patchwork. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while and also, it’s great to strike another UFO striked off the list!

Here’s what the quilt pattern looked like (in a different colorway) once it was revealed.   I chose the batik colorway.  The fabrics just all blended into each other (in my opinion).  No only did I change the setting but I also made the quilt quite a bit smaller than originally designed.  I’ll use the left over fabrics in another quilt someday as I’m sure there is enough for a second quilt.  As you can imagine, lots of unused cut pieces intended for that original mystery outer border. Had I seen the photo of the quilt first, I’d have never cut all these fabric pieces! Lesson learned. No more mystery quilts for me.