Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I warned you this one would be hard and I wasn’t kidding you. You won’t rip your hair out because of this block. You can do it. I know you can. Think how cool it would be to have said you made this block.
Diagonal Split Nine Patch #43 directions are posted.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
I couldn’t resist Camille Roskelley‘s Swoon block. I tried, I really did. There is a Swoon-a-long going on Flickr, organized by Imagingermonkey. I kept hearing about it and finally gave in.
The original blocks are 24″. I didn’t want to make blocks that large. I resized the pattern down to 16″. Thank you, EQ7. The size is actually good for me. The patches are reasonably sized. I can make 2 blocks from the half yard fabrics I have selected.
This block is similar to Rolling Star and Star of Bethlehem, according to EQ7.
I didn’t have a lot of time to work on the block, but it was on my design wall so I kept thinking about it. I decided to make more than one block and just see what evolved.
I think these blocks have 90 pieces if made the way I cut it the first time. It was easier, because I used the Triangle Technique for all of the triangle squares (half square triangles). The sewing is probably the same with that technique, but I don’t have to handle as many pieces.
Friday, I had some time. Good thing, because I was about to lose my mind. I just sewed on and off while I listened to an audiobook in between errands and other obligations. I finished the first block and, then, finished a second! One thing I realized was how hard it is to match up the pieces of actual fabric with my block picture.
I printed out a life size version of the block so I could use it to measure the half square triangles. I wanted to use my triangle technique and various speed cutting rulers. EQ does not calculate for specialized cutting techniques. I thought the life sized version would help. It does, actually.
My two finished blocks look similar, because I cut some of the half square triangles wrong. See above on the life sized version.
They weren’t failures, but I couldn’t use them in the first block, thus the second. I am going to try some of the other fabrics next time. You probably knew that. 😉 I do plan to use other fabrics. I think I may have enough to mix these 3 in with other fabrics, so there is some continuity.
I have a group of fabrics that will be sherbety and fun. I bought them during the summer. This will be a good project for them.
I also think I will try different ways of putting the blocks together. In Block #1, I made all half square triangles (using my Triangle Technique). On the next one, I will make Flying Geese instead of half square triangles. That will give me the opportunity to try out Deb Tucker’s Flying Geese ruler, which has been sitting on my desk for months!
I decided I would try cutting a big square for the top center portion (see the pink polka dots on Block #1). On Block #2, I used the technique where you sew a square diagonally across the corner to another square on Block 2. This cut down on a few pieces. With 90-93 pieces, the fewer seams the better. It will be a good exercise to try and figure out the best way to make these blocks.
Fun Swoon blocks:
Search for swoon quilt block and you will see a wide variety of wonderful renditions of the Swoon block.
Yes, this block is very similar to the Split Rectangle 9 Patch. Both are very easy blocks. I am playing with simple lines to make well known blocks a little different and to show you how easy it is to design your own blocks.
I seem to be on a 9 patch jag these days. I have a few more 9 patch blocks up my sleeve. Gear up, because they will get a bit harder.
Rotary cutting directions for Horizontal Split 9 Patch are posted.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
This is similar to a nine patch, but split with rectangles in four of the blocks. You must use two different fabrics in the split patches and they two fabrics should have a lot of contrast.
Rotary cutting directions for the Split Rectangle Nine Patch are posted.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
This block could be interesting with as little as four fabrics and as many as eight fabrics.
Rotary cutting directions for Rectangle Nine Patch #40 are posted.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
The next block is similar to last week’s block, but with rectangles.
It looks good with five fabrics and I encourage you to select your own fabrics. I would love to see this in some of the new modern fabrics.
Rotary cutting directions for Rectangle Top #39 are posted.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
Yes, squares on top. You can cut squares, I guarantee it. And, of course, more rectangles. I think rectangles are definitely underrated in Quiltlandia.
This blocks calls for 5 fabrics, but you could put the same fabric on the two outer bottom rectangles.
Rotary Cutting Directions for Square Top #38
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
What will you make today?
The BAMQG meeting was yesterday. I was lazy and didn’t blog as much for them over the holidays as I should have. I blame the cold I had. I am having a hard time getting back into the swing.
Thanks for your Service
The 2011 Officers did a great job. I kind of nudged people to get some gifts together. People really ran with the idea, which was great.
A few people made bags and everyone else added little bibs and bobs to create nice gift bags. It was nice not to make all the bags and I enjoyed seeing the different patterns and fabrics that the bag makers used.
I made the purple bag which ended up with Kathleen. The bits and pieces were nice to look at. Rhonda had put together the parts that we solicited from other members.
Some of the things in the bags were pins, fat quarters, needle cases, the Joen Wolfrom Design ratio tool, disappearing pen, grip dots, scarves, machine sewing needles, Invisigrip and many other fun things.
Ruth and Adrianne were really busy and I wasn’t able to get photos of their gift bags. Check the BAMQG blog and perhaps I will be able to post some photos there.
A-B-C Challenge
We have five participants who brought blocks for the A-B-C Challenge this time. Angela was too busy to make her Hawaiian versions, but I am sure she will bring some next time. 😉
Some people brought both G and H, others brought G, some of us brought all of our blocks. Kathleen and I have done a number of the same blocks and it is fun to see how different they look in the different sizes and fabrics.
This is my G block for the A-B-C Challenge. It is called Glacier Bay and is from Around the Block Again by Judy Hopkins (pg.68). It is also a 6″ block and I cut nearly every piece a little bigger and then trimmed. It still came out a bit wonky, but I like the general effect. I think it would make a really cool secondary pattern if I put many of them together.
I don’t remember ever seeing this block before. Lynette has the 501 Rotary Cutting Blocks version of Around the Block, which I thought had ALL the blocks from the three books, but Glacier Bay was not in it.
I am really like this challenge as it allows me to make one block rather than a whole something every month. Kathleen wants to speed the challenge up a bit, so we will be doing two letters each month for the rest of the year. Next month are I and J.
I am resolved to make the blocks sharpish rather than waiting. I have even thought of making the rest of the alphabet all at once and being done with it. I have a sashing idea that I got from Pam. I am thinking about starting adding the sashing as I go along so that I won’t have to do all the cutting at once. We’ll see.
Question of the Month
Rhonda creates the QotM and this month it was: “What are your quilt resolutions?” Most were normal resolutions about finishing and curbing buying, but some were really interesting. I wrote them out as people said. These aren’t my resolutions, necessarily.
Charity Quilts
Art Gallery Fabrics offers a bag of scraps free for people who will be using the scraps to make charity/donation quilts. Contact Pat Bravo for details. I don’t have her email address, but Art Gallery has a page on FB so, perhaps, you can inquire there.
Deborah made a version of Elizabeth Hartman’s Mod Mosaic quilt with scraps (quite large scraps, actually) from Pat Bravo. What a nice idea.
Two quilts were finished. A very large number of the postage stamp kits from the December meeting were turned into blocks and returned. I only took one kit last time, but took several during this meeting.
Schnibbles for Cat Beds
Sadly, Amanda has too many scraps and will hold off taking any more until she has made more cat beds. She said that her garage is being overrun. She really needs help making the actual cat beds.
Angela and I were able to spend a few minutes chatting. I spent a lot of the sewing time chatting and looking at what other people were doing. I couldn’t be bothered putting up a table to work on my own projects, an action I will regret later.
Happy New Year! I hope one of your resolutions was to participate int he Block-a-Long!
This is the first block of the New Year! Another simple block with rectangles. Yes, I am definitely continuing my rectangle love.
It looks good with four fabrics and I encourage you to select your own fabrics and not try and match mine.
Rotary cutting directions for Big Stack & Square Line #37 are posted.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
I find it fascinating how many blocks can be designed using squares and rectangles. This is another block that uses squares and rectangles and five great fabrics.
The Stacks & Line #36 rotary cutting directions are straightforward.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
I couldn’t think of a good name for this, but Floorplan came to mind and it kind of fits. This has more pieces, but is still pretty straightforward and I am providing the Floorplan rotary cutting directions.
This block would look good with five fabrics, but you could also use four.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
I think that this would be a great corner block. I think it would frame or point to other blocks very well.
This block would be great with three fabrics. I have the Sashed Squares rotary cutting directions.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
This is my ‘F’ block for the A-B-C challenge. There were a number of blocks with names beginning with F that were appealing, so it was hard to choose. I might do another one.
I really like that blue. It comes out a little darker on my screen than in real life, but is a very calming color.
Kathleen did the same block, but in black and white. It it always fun for me to see the same blocks done in different colors and sizes. As I have said many, many times, that is one of my joys in making blocks.
I saw Kathleen’s Electric Fan at the last meeting. Even though ‘E’ blocks were due last month, I really liked this block, so I decided to make one. It gave me the opportunity to try and figure out how to use the triangle technique for a block from Around the Block. I didn’t make the Flower Pot that I posted, but am seriously tempted. You can just have one basket block in a sampler quilt!
I like to use fabrics at least three times in a quilt and preferably in odd numbers, if I use them more than three times. I looked at the total fabrics I had used in the previous blocks and used some I hadn’t yet used as much. I used the Empire Gold in another project so it was out, so I used that. I also had only used the yellow-green in the Basement Window block.
Heirloom Challenge
These are the log cabin blocks I made for the Heirloom challenge. I added the Empire yellow solid from the Pat Bravo Art Gallery line. I think it goes well with these fabrics. I think the one flower fabric with the pink and burgundy reminds me of the Flea Market Fancy line.
I meant not to do this challenge as I don’t like making log cabin blocks. They are a bit too…fiddly for me. I am not sure if fiddly is the right term, but not a lot of bang for my buck, I guess. Still, I signed up so I stepped up. I tried using the technique that TFQ uses, which is to cut the strips the width they need to be rather than cutting a longer strip and trimming later. That worked ok.
Zoom in to see the variety of log cabin blocks that people came up with within the log cabin format. Amazing!
There were a few blocks that I particularly liked. The wave one (far left) would look great in a quilt with a variety of its fellows. I wouldn’t make it, but I would admire a quilt made with such blocks quite a lot.
The block on the bottom left has lovely graphic quality. The block ont he right looks like a doorway and I really like the fussy cutting.
December Secret Swap
This is a small detail of one of the ribbons on one of the gifts. I love the idea, but would never make it-at least to put on a package. 😉
Above are the members who participated in the Secret Swap. I just couldn’t commit to the time to make a gift and boy am I glad I didn’t participate, because these ladies are a hard act to follow! Everyone really did their best work. I was impressed and pleased to see such care.
Kathleen received this gorgeous pillow. The thing I like about it was how full it is. No matter how many pillows I make, I feel like they aren’t very full.
Show and Tell
There was a lot to tell and many quilts and projects to show. Sewing Time, despite all the other business was quite productive as well.
Elections
The “new” officers are:
President: Adrianne
VP: Kathleen
Secretary: Amanda
Treasurer: Sara
Thank you very much to Ruth, founder and 2011 Secretary, who will be leaving the board and taking over the challenge coordinator position.
I really like this block. This block, along with last week’s block, are two of my very favorites. I am tempted to make a whole bunch of them. I think I just like the rectangles and the turquoise.
Rotary Cutting Directions for Many Rectangles.
If you have made blocks or a quilt from these patterns, please post a link in the comments section of the relevant block or on the AQ Block-a-Long Flickr group. I would love to see what you have made.
If I put the two blocks together to make a quilt, it would look like the quilt below.
It occurred to me sometime in the distant past that making 6″ LeMoyne Star blocks using stripes was a good idea. I started out using paper piecing. I decided that I don’t much like paper piecing and stopped working on the project. Lately, since I have continued to buy stripes, I have picked the project up again. Creating the tutorial for the LeMoyne Star for my sampler class got me back in the groove as well.
This 5.5″ unfinished red and black cutie is one of the new ones, which I just pieced normally using the method I discussed in the LeMoyne Star tutorial. It is a bit smaller than the blocks I made with paper piecing, so I will add some sashing to it. It is too cute to toss out.
I have some more diamonds cut for other blocks and need to cut the backgrounds and then sew.
So much to sew and not enough time….