Half-square Triangle quilt

I bought the fabric to make this half-square triangle quilt back in 2014.  The quilt shoppe had gotten in some charm packs of "Fancy" (by Lily Ashbury for Moda fabrics) and I bought one.  She was anticipating getting some yardage that never came, so I ordered some yardage of the blue bandana-looking fabric for the border and some polka-dot fabric ("My Sunshine" by Zoe Pearn for Riley Blake fabric) to be the background fabric from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make, but for some reason I would never get around to making it, but now I have.  I actually finished the top on April 13, but I just haven't been inspired to set down and document things. 

I had originally planned to quilt this myself and use the polka dot fabric that is used in the half-square triangles as the backing fabric.  I'm not 100% sure that I'm still going to go that route.  If I have it long-arm quilted I'll definitely need more fabric.  I might need more either way.  I think it is pretty touch-and-go in that area.  Once the quilt shoppe is open for in-person shopping I may have to see if they have something that will work for alternate backing. But for now I'm happy that it is a completed quilt top instead of a box full of fabric.

The pattern is available here for free.  Enjoy.

Little Boy Baby Quilt

This little quilt top went from idea to finished quilt top today.  This morning I bought some fabric to go with some older fabric from my stash.  Because the older fabric had been washed, I washed the new fabric, too (after lunch).  Once it was all washed, dried, and ironed, I cut out the pieces and got to work sewing.  It's obviously a very simple pattern, and it sewed together very quickly and easily.

The center focal fabric of the quilt was a 14-1/2 x 20-1/2 inch scrap, but it could easily be cut from a fat quarter.  In fact, my idea for the pattern, in general, is to use it to showcase a fat quarter.  I think it is a good way to use larger scale novelty print fabric.

My plan for this quilt top is to quilt it myself in a cross-hatch pattern.  Once it is all finished up, I plan to donate it to the Methodist Church as part of my guild's on-going support of their tradition to give a quilt to all babies baptized there.

The pattern is available here for free.  Enjoy!

Cotton Rose Block

My quilt guild, The Cotton Rose Quilters, decided to have a contest among the members to design a "cotton rose" block.  It could really be anything we wanted it to be, but the idea was to somehow make it representative of the guild.  I chose to combine a carpenters wheel block with a friendship star block, using the colors of an actual cotton rose bloom. 

I've always felt like the outer part of the carpenters wheel block mimics a flower.  I thought changing the inner star from the original to a friendship star would represent the friendships that we develop through the guild, and mimic the yellow center of the cotton rose bloom. 

I'm pleased with how it turned out, but there are soooo many half square triangles that making just one block is time consuming.  If I made it again, I might change my method and make some units as flying geese instead of HSTs.

Here are some pictures of actual cotton rose blooms.  They can be single (top) or double (bottom) blooms, and they change from white to pink as the blooms age.

The pattern for the block is available here for free.  Enjoy!

Charm Square Star baby quilt

This is a quilt design that I came up with to use the rest of my charm squares from the Checkerboard and Diamonds baby quilt.  It is a very simple star-in-a-star design using half square triangles (made from charm squares) and from charm squares trimmed down to 4-1/2 inch squares.  I think it will make a nice baby quilt for a little girl.  My cat, Dusty, is photo-bombing the picture.

The pattern is available here for free.  Enjoy.