Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
This block is related to #28. I am still intrigued by series of squares.
This block could be made with a group of scrappy squares, monochromatic squares or two different fabrics, like I have done in the example.
Directions for Table Squares #49.
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 has been a great couple of months for donation blocks. I made a few more the past few days in between sewing for the Renewed Jelly Roll Race. I am unreasonably pleased with these blocks. I find them so fun to make. I am not sure why. The only thing I can think of is that there is an opportunity to play with a bit of color.
Tother thing is that they go together so quickly using Bonnie K. Hunter‘s Leaders and Enders method. My only stumbling block right at the moment is I am out of the kits the Charity Coordinators made, so I am cutting my own patches from scraps and I seem to be constantly short of the right color or background. I used some various black on white prints for the blue block above and hope that will be ok and not ruin the look the Charity Coordinators are going for. I am about to get out my Accuquilt Go! 2.5″ square die and cut a bunch of backgrounds for future use.
This block has a weird background, because I took the photo on my bathroom rug. As hideous as the carpet is in my workroom, it does make a fairly inoffensive background for my photos. We had a fairly dramatic shower of sparks which heralded the demise of the overhead light in my workroom. I have some task lighting, but the floor was just too dark for photos. The bathroom floor is small black and white tile, which, I thought, would have been too busy.
Yes, it is a brown block. The boys need quilts, too, and brown works for them. Green and blue, too, I imagine. This fabric is from the scraps of the back of FOTY 2011. I tried to get some of the words for these squares, because I like words on quilts. Letters (as in the snailmail kind) are even better.
These greens are, mostly, more boyish also, if boys can be pigeon-holed into liking certain colors.The Young Man adores red, not the greyed or browned down reds, but scarlet-type reds.
The blue blocks are definitely the ones I will make the most of, but it is nice to make some other blocks in different colors as well.
The one yellow-green (with the x-es) looks quite out of place in this block. I am glad there is another slightly yellow-green square in it (upper left hand corner) so that it is looks a bit like it goes. I am not ripping it out.
You will see some of the same fabrics in this second blue block as you saw int he first one. I hope that the Charity Coordinators will receive enough blue blocks with different fabrics to mix my blocks into different quilts.
I did fussy cut a bit on this one, in order to get that cherry and whipped cream into the patch rather than in the seam allowance. I thought it would be fun.
I have a small stack of squares waiting to be sorted into color groups. I try not to duplicate a fabric in the same block unless all or most of the fabrics are the same. I also have lots of scraps to be cut. I am trying to decide if I should cut larger scraps into 2.5″ squares so I have more patches to use or if I should continue to cut one or two squares out of scraps and leave the rest of the scrap for another project?
I had an incorrectly cut hexagon from the Flower Sugar Hexagon quilt, so I measured and found it would yield one 2.5″ patch. I needed a green patch, so I cut it. Nice to have fabrics from a variety of projects show up in these blocks.
I think I have made 11 donation blocks so far in the past two months. I have one more close to being finished and I have at least another week before the meeting. I think that could be a whole quilt. If I had a wish, it would be that people did not need to be comforted by the quilts I am helping to make.
If you put this block in a quilt with the same blocks, you could get some really interesting cross patterns.
This block is suitable for about 5 fabrics. If you did not use the same fabrics in the corners, then you could use more fabrics.
Directions for Corner Squares #48.
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 am still on the four patch / squares and rectangles kick. This block is related to the last few blocks.
The the directions for the 4 Patch Rectangle #47 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 will be wrapping up the Block-a-Long pretty soon.
This is related to last week’s block and would also make a great quilt by turning some of the blocks horizontally.
The maker could also line all the blocks up vertically and have long columns of squares and rectangles.
There are a number of options for laying this block out in a quilt with similar blocks.
The squares included in this design would be a good use for scraps and also for the Leaders and Enders technique.
The directions for this 2 Square Columns block are included.
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 am going to wrap up this Block-a-Long pretty soon.
As I have said many times, there are almost an infinite number of variations that can be created from one block. This is similar to last week’s block.
Again, you probably really only need the sizes to cut to make this block, but I am posting the 2 Columns 2 Split Columns Rectangle directions for your ease.
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.
These are the latest blocks I made from the BAMQG kits the Charity Co-Coordinators put together. I wasn’t able to get kits of all the same colors, but I think these look nice.
I also cut some 2.5″ squares from scraps of my own as I worked on some other projects. I am trying to cut 2.5″ squares from scraps and fabrics I am working with, so that I can contribute more to the donation effort at BAMQG.
I was able to make 2 blocks from my own scraps. I like the blue.
As I mentioned, there is no BAMQG meeting for March. We still have blocks to make. I made K, which you know, and L in now done. M and N are April blocks and I will get going on those soon.
In looking at all of the A-B-C challenge blocks on my design wall, I also decided that I needed another block with the same on point symmetry as the Basement Window block.
I don’t know why this block is called Lincoln, but I chose it for my L block, because of the on point symmetry. I, now, only have two of these kinds of blocks and need at least three, so I’ll have to find another one.
I chose the colors, because in looking at the whole group of blocks, I thought that I needed to use more of that light green-y yellow.
There are 33 pieces in this block, in case you were wondering.
I know people were having fits with last week’s block. I heard about it. Did you make it?
I am cutting you some slack this week. 2 Columns-2 Split Columns is another easy block. It would be really effective in a quilt if you made a bunch of them and turned some vertically and some horizontally, Rail Fence fashion. I am really loving rectangles right now, so look for more.
You probably really only need the sizes to cut to make this block, but I am posting the 2 Columns 2 Split Columns directions anyway.
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.
There is no BAMQG meeting for March. We still have blocks to make. K and L are March blocks and M and N are April blocks. I have the K block made and am working on L.
I have all the blocks for the A-B-C challenge on the wall and in looking at them, I decided that I needed a block with another strong diagonal line. I want an uneven number (3 is good) for various elements in the blocks – colors, fabrics, different block elements.
I chose King’s Crown for my K block, because of the strong diagonal line. I am pretty pleased with the colors.
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.