Square Dance

This little quilt was made to enter in the Iron Quilter 2 competition over at the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  It is made from one Lovely (by RJR fabrics) charm pack with the addition of some some off-white " Basic Gray" fabric from Moda.  The quilt is made completely by machine.  The only exception is that I added the label by hand.  It finished 34 inches square.

I really hadn't intended to enter the Iron Quilter competition and didn't even initially purchase the charm pack when it was the Deal of the Day.  However, when I was ordering some other fabric later, I noticed that they still had the charm packs at the discount price, so I ordered one.  I really had no idea what to do with it that would make a quilt and use all the charms so I just set it aside and figured I wouldn't enter. 

But on Friday I got an email reminding people to enter and I had an epiphany.  I could use the same idea used here in this jelly roll quilt, but use half charms instead.  I headed down to the quilt shop that afternoon, and voila, now I have a finished quilt.  I'm sure it won't win anything, but I really enjoyed making it.  I think it will make a pretty wall hanging for the spring.

Christmas Countdown Throw

Today's project is a throw sized quilt made from a Christmas Countdown layer cake.  I didn't actually have a pattern for it.  I used the same technique from a Turning Twenty quilt, but used 10 inch squares instead of fat quarters.  It makes a block that finishes 9 inches. 

From each 10 inch square, I cut off a 3.5 inch wide strip (3.5" x 10").  Then I rotated the remaining piece 90 degrees and cut off another 3.5 inch strip (3.5" x 6.5").  I was then left with a 6.5 inch square.  I mixed up the pieces and sewed them back together, sewing a 3.5 x 6.5 to a 6.5 inch square, then sewing the 3.5 x 10 inch square to the unit that was formed.  I then trimmed off the excess to make a 9.5 inch square.  I then set the squares together in the same layout as a Turning Twenty.  I didn't measure it, but it should be about 54 inches x 63 inches.

It's not the prettiest quilt top I've ever made, but it may be the fastest.  It went from being a layer cake to being a complete quilt top in about 6 hours.  And that includes several interruptions and lunch.  I'm hoping to machine quilt it and have it finished to use this Christmas season.  I still need to buy backing and binding fabric.  I see a trip to the quilt shop in my future.

Rolling in the Deep Wallhanging

Before I start on this week's project, I figured I should post last week's project.  I actually finished it on Saturday, but just now got around to taking a picture of it.  It follows the same pattern as a Jelly Roll Race quilt, but only uses 13 strips in 16 rows.  I wanted to try out the pattern in a smaller scale before I did it with a whole jelly roll.  I was happy with the result, so I bought a couple of jelly rolls to try it full scale.

The quilt finished about 32 inches square.  It was machine pieced and machine quilted.  The quilting is straight line, in the ditch quilting, all the way across the quilt top.  The only hand work on the quilt was turning the binding.  I considered doing the binding on the machine as well, but I enjoy hand binding, so I did it my normal way. 

I named it "Rolling in the Deep", inspired by the Adele song, because it used jelly roll type strips and it reminded me of the ocean.  It has a much more abstract feel than most of my quilts, but I like the change of pace from the graphic style quilts that I normally do.

Christmas Present Block (November block)

This month's block is a Christmas present block.  It is an enlargement of the block used in this quilt.  It was my month to teach the block, so I went with the one I had just finished.  It is made entirely of fabric from the Holiday Accent line.  It is a really easy block to sew, but can be a little confusing getting it laid out correctly.  I always had to consult the diagram to make sure I had those center squares in the right orientation.  Other than getting it oriented correctly, it is just rectangles and squares with a few flippy corners.  The pattern came from Quiltmaker's Nov/Dec 2008 issue.  The pattern was called "Silk Wrappings."

Sunbonnet Angel (October block)

For our current guild project, we are making a Christmas sampler quilt.  Each guild member teachers a block, and we get a new block each month.  Last month's block was a Christmas Sunbonnet Sue, which could be a plain Sunbonnet Sue in Christmas fabrics, a Sunbonnet Cat, or a Sunbonnet Angel.  I decided to go with the Sunbonnet Angel.  She's not finished yet, but here she is, all ready to be appliqued down.  I don't know if you can see the blue line in the photo or not, but the block will be cut down to a 12 1/2 inch square once the applique is finished.  I'm planning to hand applique it, using a blanket stitch in gold thread.

My First Jelly Rolls

Remember that fabric that I said I had ordered from Missouri Star Quilt Company?  Well, it came in the mail today.  The odd thing is that I don't remember getting an email saying that it shipped.  Oh well, better to get it when I wasn't expecting it than to be waiting for it and it not come.

So anyway, what we have here is a First Ladies jelly roll, a He Still Loves Me jelly roll, and a binding tool.  If I had known that it was coming today, I would have waited until I got it to put the binding on the quilt that I bound today.  That's okay, I'll use it next time. . .hopefully soon!

More Fabric!

I've gone a little crazy buying fabric lately, and I just realized that I forgot to document my latest purchases (from late October).  Again, I ordered some pre-cuts and yardage from Missouri Star.  Those pre-cuts really are addictive and I haven't even used any of them yet!

Below I have a Salt Water layer cake, a Lovely charm pack, and some Holiday Accent yardage. 

The yardage was intended for the borders on the Christmas quilt feature in the previous post, but only the white background holly fabric made it into the final quilt.  I'm not sure yet what I'm gonna do with the pre-cuts.

Then my local quilt shop was having a sale, so I bought even more fabric.  Below I have one Christmas Countdown layer cake, a half yard of green fabric, a fat quarter of novelty fabric, and a remnant of brown fabric.

The green yardage (along with an additional yard purchased later and not photographed) ended up as the outer border to the previously mentioned Christmas quilt.  It will also be the binding once I get to that point.  The novelty FQ is tentatively slated for a frog themed baby quilt I have planned.  The layer cake probably is going to turn into another sofa-sized Christmas quilt, this one using a cutting method similar to a Turning Twenty quilt, except using 10 inch blocks instead of FQs.  The brown fabric is completely uncommitted at the moment.

Oh, and I've order more fabric from Missouri Star, but it hasn't shipped yet.  However, I did manage to skip the Veteran's Day sale at the quilt shop yesterday.  It was a temptation, but I managed to resist.

My border solution

Here is the finished quilt top.  The consensus seemed to be that the green fabric was best for the border.  I think it turned out good and the green fabric really pulled it together.  The finished size of the quilt top is 49.5 x 58.5 inches.  The plan is to bind it with the same green fabric as the border.  Not sure yet what the backing fabric will be.