I found a tutorial for a 3 color quarter square triangle block while reading the Love of Quilting magazine. I decided to try it for my Bay Area Modern Block of the Month for March blocks.
The tutorial includes a 1.5 minute video with jaunty music.
I made two first just to see what I thought of the technique. I thought it was fine and something different, so I cut some squares and went to work. I went a little crazy and made quite a few QSTs!
BAM BOM March QSTs
As I was laying them out I realized that I could make pinwheels since I used the lime green in all of the blocks. I don’t know that I’ll do that in the final layout of the quilt, but it was kind of fun to see what such a layout would look like.
I just got a Technique Sheet from Studio 180 Designs for the Split Recs Ruler**. I love that ruler and may make some Elongated Hourglass units. Stay tuned.
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I have been working a bit at a time on more Mosaic blocks.
I think I need to sew some of them together, so I can figure out how many more I need and where.
I have added some more fabrics to vary the contrast and make each block stand out. A two color (ish) color palette can be tricky.
I have been working on making a ton of smaller (2.5 inch) blocks. Lorraine said we would need a lot of them. The size of the blocks I made after I got home from the workshop kept creeping up. I suddenly realized that I wouldn’t be able to put the thing together without more small blocks, so that is my current focus.
Friend Julie wrote a really good post about the workshop. She got some great photos that I neglected to take.
Joelle brought the January Creative Play packet to Saturday’s workshop to exchange with someone else.
Some interesting Flying Geese and Sawtooth border have been added since the last time I saw it. The orange has really taken off as a color. It is so fun to see what people do with a little piecing.
I spent Saturday with the guild and with Lorraine Woodruff-Long. The guild arranged for her to teach her 1-2-3 Mosaic workshop. I have to admit that I wasn’t excited, but I am pleased to report that I loved it. I created a lot of little jewels, which makes me very happy.
The photo, left, shows the blocks I made during the workshop.
After the workshop you end up with enough blocks (or almost) to make a 20 inch or 24 inch cushion cover. DDH has warned me off anymore throw pillows for our living room, but he has not said anything about table runners. As a result, I went into the workshop with the idea of making a spring/start of summer table runner for my buffet. Our buffet is probably our nicest piece of furniture and the top is still pristine. Anyway, I started out with the idea of making a tablerunner, which I will actually use.
As an aside, I am going to have to do a table runner inventory and see what I ‘need’. Thanksgiving and Christmas are well covered, but I could go for all the holidays and have an easy way to change the decor.
Lorraine teaching with her quilts
Lorraine did a nice job teaching.
She has clearly thought through the process and was clear about how to do it. I was super excited about the organization of the pieces to make the blocks. It is a game changer for chain piecing, no question. You really need to take this class!
1-2-3 Mosaic mistake
Lorraine said there were no mistakes, because the blocks could always be enlarged. I found a way to have to use a seam ripper. LOL!
I actually just cut the fabric after I sewed the correct piece on the correct side. I didn’t use a seam ripper all day, though I could have.
All the 1-2-3 blocks
I sewed a third batch of blocks at the very end of the day, but didn’t press them until I got home.
This is about the width I will use for the table runner, but I have to make it about three times as long.
I might sew blocks I like together into chunks so I can move them around more easily. We’ll see.
MaryC shared her scraps
MaryC brought a huge pile of ‘scraps’ (some were half yards!!) to share. I pulled some blues and pinks from that pile, so right now the piece is made up mostly of solids and tone-on-tones. I have a couple of fussy cut motifs in the center of blocks, but I think I need to break up the solids and tone-on-tones with some prints on the outside of a few of the blocks.
Gerre’s Jewels
Lynette’s gem
First batch of blocks
Lorraine with more examples
Above are a few of the blocks other people created as well as the first blocks that I made. Lorraine made an awesome video of all of us in her workshop. Check it and see how fun the guild is. You should join us. 😉
Copyright is only claimed on the photos. Permission is NOT granted to take any photos from this page and use them without permission. Designs of quilts and blocks are copyrighted by the creator.
This piece is a little different from #1 and #2, because of the red. I have been feeling like I have a lot of red fabric I am not using. I decided just to put some red sashing on this quilt and see what happened. It is not a favorite of the series, but it isn’t ugly either. Next time, I’ll stick with the monochromatic look.
I like making these strip quilts, as I have said, as they use up scrap and make great leaders and enders. The problem with the white is that I have A LOT of white scraps and I can’t seem to use them up quickly enough. I am pleased that I didn’t use any white background fabric in Lupine. It loaded up my black scrap drawer, but stayed away from the white.
A week ago was the Community Sew Day at the Guild. After doing some pre-sewing, I also sewed another quilt using the same pattern at Sew Day. SueG sat next to me and followed my lead on sewing blocks my way.
Sue used her own materials, which was a lot better for precision. We sewed quite a few blocks, but Lee Ann took them all to sew together before I could take a picture.
I tried to keep the packs I chose in the same color family as Sue’s blocks, but I was really distracted and am not sure I succeeded. when I get a photo from Lee Ann, I’ll share it.
My preference at Community Sew Days is to bring a top (+back, etc) ready to be quilted and work on my own projects. Since I am now guild president, I decided I needed to be a good citizen and work on the project with everyone else. Still, I worked ahead to make some blocks.
I used 3 mini-charm packs and what’s left of my white fabric to make the blocks for the quilt top. I thought they would be incorporated with everyone else’s blocks, but I made the wrong pattern, so Sue and I put the rest of the blocks needed for a quilt together using this pattern.
I worked with the Community Quilts Team’s materials to start a second quilt and wasn’t as happy. I prefer my own cutting, so I know what problems I might encounter with cutting mistakes. I’ll go back to my original plan if there is another Community Sew Day.
I have had the fleece for a Pet Bed sitting around for a long time. I finally sewed it together last week in order to bring it to Sew Day.
One of the things that spurred me on was the bits of batting I had laying around from the various quilts that I have mostly finished recently. The guild is not using schnibbles for pet beds any more as they don’t make for soft and comfy beds. Also, they are hard to wash. This is sad as I still have a lot of schnibbles. We are working out a plan for their use in another way.
This wasn’t my fabric so I don’t get any credit on my Fabric Used spreadsheet.
Lil Sissy was in town last week for 12 hours on her way to a sun, sand and scuba diving adventure. She called me a few days before and I cut her in on my day’s plans: museum, GF Chinese food lunch. Then we did some things she wanted, namely getting supplies for some jackets she plans to embellish.
Once we were back and my house she saw my BAM BOM blocks and I let her play with them. We used the ‘design floor’ (LOL) since the design wall was full to bursting.
BAM BOM Flying Geese -Lil Sissy arrangement
It is always interesting to have an artist who uses a different medium play around with quilt blocks. I laid them out in a more or less conventional way. She immediately saw diagonals in places I hadn’t noticed.
She wanted me to make a bunch more Flying Geese so I can really lean into the diagonals. I’ll think about that.
BAM BOM HSTs -Lil Sissy arrangement
She also played with the Half Square Triangles (triangle squares) a bit. Again, she leaned into the diagonals. This arrangement has good possibilities even if I do have to make more HSTs. I think it would look cool to weave the diagonals behind the other blocks.
BAM BOM Friendship Star Wreath
Finally, we talked about my big Friendship Star Wreath and whether I should re-make it with a dark background. She said no, but I might still do it. That white shrieks at me.
I wanted to make a second donation top for the year and going through a stack of fabric helped. I found the neutral background and that cemented my resolve.
I used the edges that Colleen cut off of Gelato #2 to start this donation quilt. That back was quite large, so I had long pieces from which to choose.
I shoot for about 40×40 for these quilts so a yard of fabric total works. The neutral I found was a half yard.
Ends n.23 back
Except for the back, I didn’t need to dig into my bins of fabric. I chose some light oranges for the back, then dutifully measured and put together some batting scraps for the batting.
This block (for Month 3) took me a long time and I had some detours along the way. Finally, I finished it.
I am not 100% happy with it. I would have liked to use the grey Pearl Bracelets, but I didn’t have enough.
Using the white Pearl Bracelets as the background introduces another color of background into the piece and I had hoped to avoid using white for the blocks. Since I have not used white in any of the other blocks I have to figure out how to make it work.
First step: go see if I can find more grey Pearl Bracelets. Doubtful, but you never know.
I have decided to combine donation blocks and quilts into one monthly post. We’ll see how that works this year.
I didn’t make any donation blocks or quilts in January, so here we are in February.
Blocks
Red and stripe donation block
Red donation block
Red with batik donation block
Black dot donation block
Red, white and black donation block
Small diamond donation block
Large diamond+ donation block
Large diamond+ #2 donation block
Sidewalk green solid donation block
Sidewalk green solid #2 donation block
I am collecting black and red donation blocks to make another Quarter Square donation top for the guild donation project similar to QST 16 Patch #4 Blue. I have more green squares after a couple of sessions of scrap processing. I want to make another Sidewalk quilt, but I don’t have enough of the half blocks to make a green one yet. The blocks above are being added to the pile.
Quilts
Blue Improv #2 bound
White Strips #3 with red
I might have posted the *bound* Blue Improv before, but I don’t see it. It was getting folded up to be donated at Sew Day and I took a quick snap of the finished piece. More scraps off to do some good.
I also finished White Strips #3 (with red) and handed it in at the meeting last weekend. It looks different than the other white strips quilts, but I like it.
I started a project at the guild called Creative Play. This was loosely based on a concept I had during COVID that kind of petered out. It was also inspired by a quote I read in Libs Elliott’s newsletter. The quote is “I have made a promise to myself that I will make time for creative play in 2026. Because, when work gets overwhelming, I find joy in taking even just a bit of time for myself to experiment and try something different without an end goal in mind.”
I am determined to have it take off this time and so far, so good.
I started out by handing out the rectangles in the center. Cyndi took it and added the orange border. That is an amazing choice. I don’t think I would have thought of it, but I love it. The orange has an interesting texture as well.
I handed the piece to Sue next and she added the half square triangles. I am really pleased with the work so far.
The next block in the series, which was announced yesterday is the Sawtooth Star. It is one of my favorite blocks, because it is incredibly versatile.
I am kind of just going with the flow when I make these blocks. I am using fabrics as the mood strikes. I’d love to use that grey Pearl Bracelets as my background, but I don’t have enough of it. I’ll have to do something about that as that is an old fabric and there is little chance I will find more. I’ll look in my fabric closet and see if I can find some. The yardage I have with my project materials came from Rhonda’s stash.
Without putting the blocks on the wall, I added sashing to my white strips blocks. I don’t have any design wall space and just had to go for it. I have a few donation quilts I need to make and this one will help me free up some design wall space.
As you can see, not having the design hampers my process. Somehow I missed adding top sashing to 6 blocks.
Yes, I used red. Dangerous, I know, but all my fabric is washed.
