Another challenge…

The next project that I need to work on is the MQG (Modern Quilt Guild) Fabric Challenge. I have shown you these fabrics before……

….and I was really excited about using them in a quilt.

I knew that I wouldn’t have much time to work on this quilt before the entry deadline of October 31st, so I decided to keep it reasonably small.

As I looked at the colors, I kept thinking about Seminole patchwork, so I immediately grabbed my book…..

I once made men’s ties for Christmas gifts and used a Seminole strip at an angle across each one. I sure wish that I had photos of those!!!!

I also called my friend Phyllis and asked for her resources. She had lived in Florida (where the Seminole Indians lived) for many years and she KNEW her Seminole Patchwork. She showed up with a slew of other resources……

….. and I happily started looking for designs.

Of course, now I can’t find the block that inspired this design…..I know that it is in one of those books, but this is what I started playing with……

And yes, I took photos of the fabric and scanned them into Electric Quilt 8 so that I could get a better idea of how it would look.

I put it on point and added another block with some strips and came up with this quilt……

Ignore the color gradation in the background blocks. That was from the photo that I used!!

I knew that I didn’t want to make THAT many blocks so I needed another way to test my design.

Come back tomorrow and I will show you my super-quick, no-sew drafting idea.

If you enjoy this blog, please share it with your friends!!!

Thank you…….

Cat’s Cradle Blocks

Several years ago I bought this ruler from Creative Grids…..

I was CERTAIN that I could make tons of quilts using it.

But, then I couldn’t find a pattern that I liked…. and then some things got stacked on top of the ruler…… and then it got stored in a drawer…….

AND FORGOTTEN!!

Today I was looking through some patterns I have collected over the years and came across one page with all of these patterns……

…..and look at this one……

Now I could have fun using some of THESE designs….especially using some of the copious drawers of scraps that I have!!!

So I have the tool……I have the pattern……

Now I need the time…..

Have you made a quilt using these blocks? If so, I would love to see them!!

If you enjoy this blog, please share it with your friends!!!

Thank you…….

A cute crumb quilt….

Have you ever made a crumb quilt?

I have made one!!

“Crumbs for the Geese” was so much fun to make and there is even a pattern available for it!!!

While at the gym last week, I saw a video about making a different type of “crumb quilt” and I thought that it was a great idea.

The Reboot quilt…..

Yesterday I wrote about needing to reboot my creativity and pulled a quilt that I had started at a retreat a while back.

My thought was to lay out the blocks in a diagonal set with large navy sashing between them…..

So I headed to the machine and started piecing the sets together…..

Then it was time to press…..and that is where the rot set in…..

As I looked at these gorgeous fabrics and colors, I started wondering if they would lose some of their impact by setting them on a diagonal.

I spread them out like a brick wall would be…..

….and decided that I really liked it!!

But what if I added “grout” to the top and bottom….

….and maybe turned it vertical…..

OKAY….now there are TOO many options!!!

I started making long strips and attaching them together…..

But this is going to be boring if that is ALL that I do.

So, what if I added the diagonal pieces to both sides?

I hopped onto Procreate and sketched out this idea…..

I kind of like it!!

I laid it up on the wall to see what I thought…..

…and that is when I realized that I won’t have enough of the Navy fabric!!

So now I am waiting for fabric to be delivered and honestly, have lost interest in the project again!!

It will go back in the box and re-emerge some other day.

BUT it did the job that was intended…..

Stay tuned for more!!

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Challenge piecing….

On Thursday I told you about the start of my “two for the price of one” challenge!!

When I left you, I had cut and pieced the first set of duet strips for the background squares…..

But, I wasn’t happy with them.

I wanted the blocks to have lots of strips in them to add interest….

…and these were simply TOO wide!!

So, I started cutting the strips down and re-sewing them together again.

I knew that this would use even more fabric so at this point…..

Please tell me that you do this too!!

I kept adding strips one at a time…..

….until I had a strip set that was the width that I needed.

Now it was time to cut the squares and this took a bit more planning…..

The unfinished squares need to be 5.5 inches and I am going to piece a curve in the corner. Since I know that I may lose a bit of size with piecing the curve, I wanted the squares to be a bit bigger than needed.

BUT, since I am working with fat-quarters and still want to make the best use of the fabric, I needed to know the maximum number of squares that I could get from my strip set.

That number was 3 squares out of the “almost 18-inch” strip.

Since the strip wasn’t quite 18-inches, I settled on 5-7/8’s inch squares.

Yes, that is getting a bit picky, but the sizes need to be exact to produce the needed 20-inch quilt!!

And it got even crazier after that as I started adding the curves…..

Come back next week for more!!

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If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

Tag: Pieced quilts