Tag Archives: quilt

Scrappy Monochromatic Blocks

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is making charity quilts this year and members have been asked to donate blocks made with fabrics that are from the same color family. The quilts will then be made with a rainbow of the different color grouped blocks.

I came up with a strategy for my blocks which involved sorting all of my fabric scraps by color and then selecting strips from each pile and sewing them together.

After sorting the strips I trimmed them so they were all about the same length and so that each strip was a uniform width, but the strips are various widths!

Then I sewed them together.

For the blocks that I decided to make I made sure that the pieced strips panel was 38″ long and about 15″ wide. This is enough to make several blocks. You do need a 38″ long strip for the log cabin block featured in this article.

Trim the uneven edge and don’t forget to save your scraps that are too small to sew with. These will be the stuffing for a pillow!

I cut my pieced strips 3 1/2″ wide and some are 2″ wide.

One of the block designs is a log cabin block. This block uses one of the 3 1/2″ wide strips with other fabric scraps. The center is a 3 1/2″ square bordered with 2″ strips.

Sew the strips and then trim them to the correct size. Use a square ruler to make sure your cuts are correct. The center block will be 6 1/2″ square.

Then continue adding the 3 1/2″ wide pieced strips. Sew then trim to the correct size as you go. Once the block was larger than 6 1/2″ I got out my 12 1/2″ ruler to trim the block.

The block will be 12 1/2″ square when completed. These are two of the blocks:

Here are some made with purple and green strips.

Of course I got carried away and will be making a lot of these blocks, so I will make my own quilt with these blocks. Usually I would use all different colors, but I really love the idea of using strips that are in the same color group. The finished blocks are sublimely wonderful.

Poor Neglected Jane

After many moths of neglecting my Jane quilt I finally got some blocks put together for the July meeting.

Here are each of my blocks. The Star block was a bit of a challenge, but the method we used for the center was to fold a little square in half which worked out wonderfully.

I did have a bit of a hard time getting one of the background pieces lined up correctly when paper piecing the star. After ripping out three times I grabbed a 6″ width of fabric strip, placed the paper on top off that and ran it through the machine. Plenty of room and no wasted fabric after I trimmed it … how’s that for a new paper piecing method!

Seven Celestial Sisters

This is the second Tumbling Block, Hexi-Star quilt that I put together with Fabric Foundation. When I made the first one I was thinking I could piece one to emphasize seven of the stars for a Seven Sisters Quilt. I have a secret desire to make a traditional seven sisters quilt, but it will probably be awhile before I take that on. For now I have this little quilt. It is about 39″ x 35″ and the fabric gives this a genuine celestial look just like the Pleiades Constellation that the pattern is named for.

I do have a seven sisters quilt top that I quilted. The top is a vintage top purchased on eBay so I don’t have any idea who made it and where it was made, but the fabrics look like 1940s to me.

Hmmmm, looks like I need to find time to put a binding on that quilt!

a Very Bright Quilt

This is about the cheeriest quilt I have ever made. I think the very cold, very long winter inspired this quilt. Makes me long to sit on the beach and soak up some sun! This quilt is made with Melissa White Fairlyte Garden fabrics. The quilt is 98″ x 67″ which works well for an extra-long twin bed. The pattern is from All People Quilt.

Autumn Splendor

Well, the splendor of autumn has past, and now we are faced with bare trees until Spring. I really did enjoy the change of the season this year and was inspired by all of the bright autumn colors in the trees. Also, one of my Block of the Month projects fit right in, because I chose the Harvest Road color scheme for my BOM that I am doing at Quilter’s Common.

So, for one last bit of autumn inspiration in my quilting I put this table runner together for my friends who were kind enough to invite my husband, his Mom and I for Thanksgiving Dinner. I picked three of the block patterns from the BOM and stayed close to the colors that Antoinette chose for two of them, but decided to go with green instead of yellow for the center block.

Now I am going to have to be inspired by the colors of the Holiday and also the ice blue skies of winter.