August/September Raffle Block

 

I made this block for our bi-monthly raffle.  It's a puzzle block called Jigsaw Patch by Amanda Weatherill. For every block you make, you get one chance at winning all the blocks.  Several people made blocks with primary colors, so I decided to, too.  This one is made from scraps of leftover fabric from the train quilt that I made for my grandson last Christmas.

Pink and Purple Scrap Buster Block

 

I decided to keep the block that I originally made for the guild raffle, and make a different block to enter.  I don't feel any great desire to keep this one.  One of the other members made a block that was largely purple fabrics, and I thought that a pink and purple block could work well with that one.  It's hard to imagine that all the blocks together would make a cohesive looking quilt.  I'm not sure what I'd do with them if I won them.

Scrap buster raffle block

 

 

Another new thing with my quilt guild, now that I've started back going, is that they do a quilt block raffle every other month.  My understanding is that every block you make counts as a chance for winning all the blocks (sometimes half the blocks if there are a lot?).  Everyone uses that same pattern, but the fabrics are all individual and therefore different.  

I made this block for next month's raffle.  It is made from left over Kansas Troubles fabrics that I had in my stash.  I tried to focus mostly on red fabrics for the darker patches, and yellowed creams for the lighter patches to make a cohesive looking block.  The block measures 16-1/2 inches square.

The problem is that I really like the block, so I'm not sure I want to enter it in the raffle.  Maybe I want to keep it and make more blocks to go with it.  I could make a really pretty quilt for the back of my loveseat.  Maybe I want to make a block with totally different fabrics, that I don't like as well, to enter in the raffle.  I guess I need to decide.

Block #2 - 20 Years of KTQ

Here is my second "block" of the 20 Years of KTQ sampler quilt.  This block also had some mistakes in the cutting directions, but this time I already had the corrections from the website, so that was good. 

I made a little change in the fabric color from the colors given in the directions.  Since I'm using a gold color for my background, I decided to use brown for the squares that were gold in the directions.  I considered using a gold print where the directions called for a cream print, but decided that I wanted to stick with the cream there.  I like the little sparkle that it adds to the quilt. 

We were assigned blocks 1-3 for today's meeting, but I didn't even get started on block #3.  I had another project that I thought should take priority.  It needed to be pieced so that I can get it to the longarmer.  It needs to be finished completely by May 1, so I felt time was of the essence there, more so than with the block of the month blocks.  I can catch up on them later.

Block #1 - 20 Years of Kansas Trouble Quilting

This year the quilting group that meets at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe in Ozark is doing the 20 Years of Kansas Trouble Quilting quilt.  I'm using Kansas Trouble fabrics for my blocks, but I'm not using the featured fabrics.  In fact, I'm using Bella Solid "Hay" for my background and sashing, which is a much darker fabric than what is featured in the directions, but I thought I wanted something that was a bit darker and richer than the cream.  The darkness and richness of the fabrics is what I really like about Kansas Trouble fabrics, so I wanted to really embrace that in my quilt.

The pattern has some mistakes in it, but luckily they have posted some corrections on the KT Quilting website, so that is nice.  I didn't have the corrections yet when I was sewing these blocks and it was triggering my anxiety a little bit.  Hopefully that will ease off as I go.

Vintage Christmas block for September

After cutting things so close last month, I decided to go ahead and knock out my blocks early this time.  The two blocks that I made from this month's assignment were, from left to right, Vintage Ornament and Under the Tree.  We were also assigned the Twinkle Lights block, which I was going to use as a border, but I decided to wait until I got the top finished to the point of needing the border before I decided or made any of them. 

August Vintage Christmas blocks

This month in our Vintage Christmas block of the month class (aka Moda class) we were assigned 5 blocks, as usual, but I actually needed 3 of them this time.  From left to right, the blocks are: Taffy, Stocking, and Toy Train. 

The first two I did in the featured colors (though not the featured fabric), but with the train, I decided to switch things up a bit.  The original had the train in dark and light blues, but I decided to go with gray and black.  I had dark and light blue (the light blue is in the Taffy block and the dark blue is in the Stocking block), but I thought the gray and black would look better than the specific blue fabrics that I had.  I was afraid there wouldn't be enough contrast between the blues.

I really like the train block, in general, so I'm thinking that I might use the design to make a large block baby quilt.  I've already figured up the cutting directions to enlarge it to a 36 inch block.  I'm not sure when I'll get around to making it, though.

I was really cutting it close getting the blocks done this month. For me it was more important that I get the wedding quilt top finished (featured in the previous post) so I could leave it to be quilted, than to get the blocks done, so I worked on the wedding quilt first.  Once it was finished, then I shifted over to the blocks.  I finished them the night before the meeting.  It all worked out in the end, since I got them all finished in time.

Sparkle block

Today I made my 6-inch Sparkle block for this month's Block of the Month assignment.  It was the only block I needed from the 5 blocks that were assigned this month.  It's going to catch up with me soon, though.  I think I will need to do 3 blocks next month.

I tried to be very careful with my cutting and sewing today.  I measured each unit as I went, and trimmed down anything that wasn't exactly the size given in the measurements.  For some reason, when I'm making the units, my units are always just a little bit bigger than what the directions call for.  I know it's because I use a scant seam allowance when I sew, that's not surprising.  What is surprising is that once I sew the unit together my completed block is usually just a little smaller than it should be.  So why are the units bigger, but the finished block is smaller?  I use the same seam allowance guide on all of them.  It's not a MAJOR difference, usually 1/8 of an inch or less, but still, it's odd.

So I'm still not enjoying making the small blocks.  In fact, I haven't been that enthusiastic about sewing in general lately, and this project doesn't help matters any.  My original plan was to use the twinkle light blocks as a border, but I'd have to make 44 individual light bulb units, and I'm not sure I'm up to that.  We'll see how I'm feeling when I get to that point, but it doesn't look promising.

Little Deer block

The only block that I needed for the June meeting of my Moda group was the Little Deer block.  I actually finished it the day before the meeting.  As it turned out, I didn't actually get to go to the meeting, because my husband and I had to make an unexpected trip to the urologist's office.  (The ups and downs of prostate surgery recovery.  Thankfully nothing too serious, but it's always better to be safe with these sorts of things.)  But at least it was finished on time and I can show it at the next meeting.  I even did the embroidery!  Go me!

Vintage Christmas blocks for April

 

I got them finished in time! I don't know if anyone will notice or not, but decided to make the gingerbread house a little simpler than the directions called for. I really felt like the original design was more intricate than it needed to be. I'm fine with my door not having a window in it and my window not having a frame around it. Oh, and I also omitted the sidewalk. It still looks plenty enough like a gingerbread house to me.

Baby Doll big block

One of the other blocks we were assigned this month was the baby doll block.  I'm not planning to use it in my Christmas quilt, but I decided to make it anyway.  Instead of making it in the 6-inch, or 12-inch size, that was given in the book, I decided to scale it up to a 36-inch block.  No tiny pieces in this one!  Now all I have to do is add some borders and I have a cute baby doll quilt.  Big block baby quilts are fun.

Holly and Ivy block

I only needed one block out the ones that were assigned to us this month.  I'm not super happy about how it turned out, but I'm not a fan of making 6 inch blocks, so I'm not planning to do it over.  It'll do.

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!

More Star Blocks

Today I used some more of my red, white, and blue scrap fabric to make a couple more star blocks for the National Quilters Day Out/Quilts of Valor project.  The one on the left is a Simple Spinning Star block and the one on the right is an equilateral (or 60 degree) triangle star.  Both of them went together really quickly and easily. 

They both turned out really true to size.  The units that make the points in the Spinning Star block were made oversized, so that they could be trimmed down to 4-1/2 inches squares, which made the final piecing easier to keep true to size.  The triangles in the equilateral star block were cut with a 60 degree triangle ruler, so they were very precise too.  The height of the block was actually accurate from just sewing the rows together, and the sides were trimmed down to make it a 12-1/2 inch square.

Ohio Star block

This year my quilt guild is doing a simple sampler quilt for our monthly project.  In January we were given instructions for making an Ohio Star block - a very traditional block.  I wasn't even planning to make the block, because I wasn't sure that I wanted to make the quilt, which will ultimately consist of nine 12-inch blocks. 

However, a nearby quilt guild is planning a National Quilters Day Out project for making Quilts of Valor, and quilters are asked to come by and make, or make ahead and donate, red, white and blue star blocks.  So I decided to go ahead and make the Ohio Star block, but do it in red, white and blue fabrics so that I could donate it to the Quilt of Valor project.

Vintage Christmas - January Blocks

This year our group that meets at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe is doing Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas blocks.  Some people are doing the Vintage Christmas quilt that is pictured on the cover of the book, which involves making 6-inch squares for all 42 blocks in the book.  Some are doing the Christmas Eve quilt, which uses 25 of the blocks done in the 12-inch size.  Probably some people will do some of the other quilts featured in the book.  I probably won't be alone in doing something completely different with the blocks.  At least one other person mentioned that they were going to do something different.

What I really need, when it comes to Christmas quilts, is a Christmas wall hanging.  Everything featured in the book was either too big, or too small, for what I was wanting.  I decided to use blocks from the book and make up my own wall hanging size quilt.  It will feature a 12-inch block in the center, surrounded by sashing, 6-inch blocks, more sashing, 3-inch blocks (made from an element of one of the 6-inch blocks in the book), and an outer border.

For the class, we were assigned 5 blocks for this month, if we were doing the cover quilt.  Of those blocks, I only wanted to use 2 of them in my quilt, so that's all I made.  On the left is the Christmas Candles blocks and on the right is the Glisten block, both in the 6-inch size.  Lots of tiny pieces here.  That's not my favorite thing to do, but I'm willing to do it for a quilt that I want to have.  Maybe I won't go crazy before the year is over and the project is finished!

Mystery Quilt Blocks 10

At our last guild meeting we got the instructions for the last set of blocks in our mystery quilt.  I sewed these together this afternoon.  Nothing too difficult.  The patches that make up the plus sign in the middle are all rectangles, except in the very center, but that was the only "tricky" thing about it.

I will miss next month's meeting because I will be out of town, but I'll be ready to sew it all together when I get the instructions once I'm back home!

Mystery Quilt blocks 8 and 9

 Blocks 8

Blocks 9

Last month we were given directions for 2 sets of blocks instead of just one.  The original plan was to get directions for a set of blocks each month January thru October, and then get the directions for putting the quilt together in November.  However, the project leader decided that it would be a good idea to finish up a month early, so that maybe we would be finished with it before the holidays.  We will at least have the option to be finished before then, anyways.

I'm pretty happy with how the blocks turned out.  I really like the block 8 with the fussy-cut flower in the center.  Block 8 took more time than block 9, but I'm not exactly sure why.  Probably just more pieces and smaller pieces I'd guess.

One more set of blocks and this one will be ready to sew together.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it all looks in the end.

Jack-o-lantern block

I've been working on designing a Halloween quilt that will use a jelly roll that I've had for several years now.  The plan is to include a jack-o-lantern, a ghost, and a monster/ghoul thing.  I designed this jack-o-lantern block (the one on top) and pieced a sample to try out the design.  I like the way that it turned out, but the piecing is a little tricky to make the points at the bottom of the mouth line up properly. 

In the bottom picture I just covered up the bottom points to see how it would look without them.  I really think it looks fine without them and it would be MUCH easier to piece, so I think I will probably use the bottom design in the actual quilt. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this practice block.  For now it goes in the orphan block pile.

Mystery quilt - Block #7

Here are my latest two blocks for our guild mystery quilt.  I like the block on the left the best, but I like them both.  Originally I had a lighter fabric in the center of the block on the right, but it looked out of place.  I think it looks better this way.