Autumn Splendor

I finally finished my row swap quilt from last year's guild project.  I got it back from the long-armer last month, I finished sewing the binding on Tuesday, and I made and attached the label last night.  It is made for a twin size bed, but it is shown here on a queen size bed.  You can see the whole quilt better on the queen sized bed because almost none of it hangs off.

Even though all the rows were made by different people, it really blends together very well.  I really enjoyed working on the row swap project.  And, it is nice to have a quilt that was made by the combined efforts of so many friends.  It is a good memory to cherish.

From Row Swap to Quilt Top

Here are some pictures of my row swap rows sewn into a completed quilt top.  Unfortunately, my design wall isn't big enough to hold the completed top, so I took the pictures with it lying on a twin bed.  The finished top is 66-1/2 inches by 86 inches.

I used all the rows in my quilt top.  Seven of them make up the center of the quilt top.  They are sewn together straight without any sashings.  I then added a dark 3 inch border.  Then I added a light colored 9 inch border.  I took one of the rows apart and used the squares as corners in the border.  (You can't really see them in the picture. You can see a little bit of one of them in the top picture.)  Then I added another 3 inch border of the same dark leaf fabric.  I plan to use the same dark leaf fabric for the binding if I have enough of it.  If not, I'm going to use a different harvest fabric which has a black background.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  All the rows work together so nicely.  And it goes well with the wall color in the room too.  Now I just need to decide how I'm going to quilt it...

The final row!

This is my final row in our guild row swap. For this quilt there wasn't exactly a theme.  Her focus fabric was the floral fabric that is in between the Ohio Star blocks in my row and the colors in the fabric were the only theme.  Since most people had done traditional blocks, I decided to stick with that idea.  My row is four Ohio Star blocks alternating with the focus fabric, fussy cut to have the same motif in each piece.  The centers of the Ohio Stars are also fussy cut from the focus fabric, but obviously from a different area of the fabric.

In the picture below, you can see all of the rows for this quilt.  The one at the top is the original row (made by the quilt's owner) and mine is at the bottom.

She said that she wanted the red in the quilt to pop, but since there was already so much red in the quilt, I decided to use only the red that was in the focus fabric itself.  She did the same in her original row, so I thought it would give the quilt a nice balance to have another row with minimal red.  I hope she enjoys her quilt.  I know I'm looking forward to getting my rows back and figuring how to put them all together.

Tradition With A Twist

My most recent row swap row is called "tradition with a twist".  The idea is to make traditional blocks using brightly colored fabrics.  My row is the row on the bottom.  It is a Greek Cross block. 

My first attempt was this Day and Night block, which would have been very striking in green and solid black.  But, because the focus fabric (the black multicolored fabric) has so many colors in it, the pattern gets a little lost.  Eleanor Burns specifically warns against using a multicolor as the night fabric, but I wasn't thinking about that when I tried it. 

When that didn't work, I decided to go with a little simpler block instead.  I'm happy with how my finished row turned out.  We only have one more month left in the swap.  I'm really interested in seeing how all the quilts turn out.

Mom's Apple Pie block

 I finally decided that the best representation of food and home was Mom's apple pie, not that my actually mom made apple pie, but you know.  I adapted the pie slice from a pattern in the July 2004 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts called "Pie in the Sky".  I set the slice down flat and put it on a plate to match the tea cup.  The tea cup (or coffee cup, whichever you please) came from "Java Jitters" published in the May/June 2002 issue of Quiltmaker.  The fabric across the bottom is supposed to be a table cloth.

 Here is the finished row.  The three blocks are set together with 1.25 inch strips in between them.

Here is the row at the bottom of all the other rows for this quilt so far.  I think it fits in pretty well with the others.

There's No Place Like Home

The theme for the row swap quilt that I got at last week's guild meeting was "There's No Place Like Home".  The idea is to do a building and things that remind you of home.  I really feel like this is the hardest one that I've worked on so far.  I went around and around in my head for a week before I even got started on it.  So far, there has been a lot of applique in the rows, but I'm not that great at applique.  Most of the rows were somewhat scenic, but I couldn't come up with a scene that I felt like I could do.  Finally I decided to ditch the scenic idea, and following more in line with the middle row pictured above, do individual blocks with a home theme.

I tried to think about the things that seemed special about home.  Finally I hit on the idea of thinking about what you miss most about home when you are away on a trip.  I thought about it for myself, and I asked my husband and kids about it.  The number one response was "sleeping in my own bed".  The next most common answer was, "a home cooked meal".  So I'm trying to translate those ideas into blocks.

So far I've made two 10 inch blocks. The one on the left is, of course, the house block.  The pattern for this block came from the "Home is Where the Heart Is" pattern in the Jan/Feb 2004 issue of Quiltmaker magazine.  The main fabric of the house front is the focus fabric for this quilt.  The other block is my adaptation of a block I found online at Le Borse di Gaya.  I did actually download the pattern on this one, but I had to adapt it, because the original block was for Halloween and had a pair of creepy eyes and a claw hand under the bed. . .not my idea of home.  The fabric for the bed frame is the other focus fabric she is using in the quilt - her border fabric.

I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do for my last 10 inch block.  I have a pattern for a slice of pie, but it is a 7 inch block.  I could blow it up to be 10 inches, or I could shrink it down to 5 inches and put a tea/coffee cup next to it.  I'm just not sure yet.  Once I get the last block done, I'm going to join the blocks together with 1.5 inch (finished) strips and add 1.5 inch (finished) strips to both sides to make the row 36 inches (finished).

My finished row (Harvest Home)

These are my last three blocks.  I finished them last night.  From left to right they are: Rail Fence, fall leaf, and Road to Oklahoma.  Obviously I decided against including an applique square.  I felt like the fall leaf was detailed enough to give a similar look as an appliqued piece.

Here are all the rows for this quilt so far.  My completed row is the row on the bottom.  This is just the order that I happened to have them on my design wall.  The rows will ultimately be sewn together in the order that the owner likes.  If it were up to me, I'd probably move my row up and place it above the row with the squirrel.

Last Week's Blocks

These are the rows for the row swap quilt I have to work on this month.  The theme for this one is "Harvest Home".  The black harvest print fabric is the focus fabric, and she asked that we include a house block as well.  She says that when she finishes it she plans to donate it to the veteran's hospital in Tuskegee, so she wants us to keep the blocks/row masculine.  I worked on the quilt last week, but I guess I forgot to post any pictures.  So here they are, better late than never.

These are the ones I've made so far.  I figured I would start the prerequisites.  I've got my house block, a block that uses the focus fabric (the Old Maid's Puzzle block), and of course, a pumpkin block.  As you can see, the pumpkin block uses the same pattern as one from my pumpkin patch quilt, but with a few different fabrics thrown in.  Now I have to decide which other blocks I'm going to make.  So far, no two blocks in the quilt use the same pattern, so I'm planning to maintain that pattern (or should I say non-pattern).  I'm thinking I will do a leaf block, and at least one more traditional patchwork block.  All the other rows have an applique block, so I sort of feel like I should do one, but I don't really enjoy doing applique that much, so I'm not sure yet about that.

I'm planning to working on more blocks today, so hopefully I'll have some more pictures up soon. 

Dutchman's Puzzle Row

Here is a picture of my latest row swap row, with the other rows from the quilt.  Mine is the Dutchman's Puzzle row that is second from the bottom.  I finished it last night. I did decide to change the design slightly from what I had said in the previous post.  When I laid it out with all four fabrics in one block I thought it looked a little too busy.  Instead of going with light and dark pairs, I decided to go with the dark as a center pin wheel.  I like the alternation of color between the two blocks.  I think it looks nice.

Because it doesn't use the French General fabric, it stands out from the other rows, but I think that the colors work.  I think there are still 4 more rows to be made for the quilt, so if other people will branch out and use other fabrics too, I think it will look fine.  I hope she likes it.

Shopping

I'm currently working on another row for my guild's row swap.  The theme for the quilt that I am working on right now is traditional quilt blocks in traditional fabrics.  At this point, all three rows in the quilt are made from French General fabrics.  On Tuesday morning, I sat down with the fabrics that I had and the fabrics that were included with the rows.  I had picked out an Ohio Star block for my pattern and had decided which French General fabrics I wanted to buy to complete the design as I had envisioned it.  I drove down to the quilt shop and found that she didn't have any of the fabrics I wanted for my design (apparently she had just a had a big sale and much of her stock of French General had sold out).  Once I got there, I realized that I had left the rows at home too, and the quilt shop is a 35 minute drive from my house.  I looked at the French General that was available, didn't see anything that seemed like it would work with my light and dark Ohio Star design idea, and then just decided to turn around and head home empty handed.  Tuesday was not my day.

That evening after dinner, I went back to the drawing board, literally, and drew out the Ohio Star blocks in a row to see how I liked the design as a simple row of six 6" blocks.  I decided that I wasn't thrilled with that design and dropped back to a different block I had previously considered, the Dutchman's Puzzle block.  After sketching out a row of Dutchman's Puzzle blocks I decided that I liked that design better anyway. 

On Wednesday afternoon, I drove back down to the quilt shop to find fabric in line with my new design idea.  I looked at the French General, but still wasn't feeling it for my design.  I called the person whose quilt I was working on, and asked if it had to be French General, and she said that it didn't.  So, after a lot of searching through the shop and with a great deal of help from Cindy at the shop, I finally decided on these 4 fabrics.  Each fabric will be one pair of flying geese in the block.

This is the focus fabric for the quilt.

 And these are the existing rows for the quilt.

She said she thought it needed some darker fabrics brought in, and she specifically mentioned black and green, so hopefully she will be happy with it.  I'll post pics of the row once I get it done.  Hopefully there will be no more changes to the design going forward.

Butterfly Row

 Here is my completed butterfly row for the guild row swap.  It is a row of pieced butterflies inside a 6 inch snowball block.  The heart fabric is the focus fabric for this quilt.  Below is my row along with the other rows so far.

Butterfly block

The row that I got this month for our guild row swap is butterfly themed.  The heart fabric in the corners of the block is the "must use" fabric.  The block above is the pattern that I have decided to go with.  I've only made the one block so far, but I actually have until the January meeting to finish this time because of the holidays.

The block below was my first attempt at a butterfly block.  And while it is legitimately a butterfly pattern, and traditional at that, the other members of my household didn't think it looked enough like a butterfly.  In fact, one of my kids suggested that it looked like a couture vampire.  LOL!  So we decided to go with the above pattern instead of the one below.

Apple Row

This is my finished row for the apple quilt in our guild row swap. It is 6 blocks that finish 6 inches each. The block is a King's Crown block with apple fabric in the center and in the corners. The green fabric is the "must use" fabric for this quilt. I thought that the red fabric was a good compliment to the green and a good match to the red in the center apple fabric. I hope she likes it. Below is a picture of my row with the original row.

Tree of Life Row

I finally got my row for the row swap finished.  As you can see, it is 3 Tree of Life blocks set on point using setting triangles in a fall leaf fabric.  It technically measures a little wider than 36 1/2 inches, because I am not super consistent with my 1/4 seam, but it should be fine.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

I hope it doesn't take me as long to do the rows for other people's quilts as it did for me to do mine.  Anyway, it should be fun and I'm really looking forward to seeing what everybody's rows look like on Tuesday.

Tree of Life block

My guild is starting a row swap next month and I chose "fall" for my theme.  Today I worked on the first step of my row for my row swap quilt.  I really went around and around in my head on what to do for my row.  I thought about leaves, and I thought about pumpkins, but I finally decided to go with trees.  This is my first tree, which has green and yellow leaves on the tree.  I will need to make 2 more tree blocks to complete my row.  The plan is to make one tree that has yellow and orange "leaves" and one that has orange and red "leaves".  To set the trees on point I plan to put fall leaf fabric in corners to square it up.  I haven't decided if I'm going to use the same fabric to square up all three blocks or if I'm going to mix and match.  But at least I have a start.

The tree block itself finishes 8 inches, but once I put the corners on to set it on point it will finish out at 12 inches square.  Three of them will make a 36 inch row, which is what the row is supposed to be.