Monday, January 21, 2013

Little Blocks

I'm a fairly new quilter.  I started my first quilt in 1983 and it's still a work-in-progress.  So, I don't have the years of experience that some of my guild members do. 

I went to a Bonnie Hunter class last year and she makes a lot of scrappy quilts.  She cuts all her quilt pieces out of 3", 2.5", 2" and 1.5" strips.  Anything less than 1.5" she calls strings, and uses them for string quilting.  I started a quilt in her class and it has some little bitty pieces. 

So, that's the background.  My cousin sent me some t-shirts to make a quilt for his daughter.  Most t-shirt quilts are cut 12.5" squares from the shirts and have a border around each square.  I wanted to do something different.  Some of the t-shirt designs had to be cut 15.5" in order to keep the entire image.  So in my graphing of the layout, I ended up needing some "filler" squares.  The filler squares were all 5.5" and I wanted a variety of pieced blocks.  So I went to EQ7, laid out a quilt background with 5" squares and plopped a variety of blocks in the squares.  I then printed off the block rotary cutting instructions so I would know what size to cut the pieces. 

This block came out of the Antique Mosiac library. 





When Joe saw the center pinwheel, he said he liked this block better than any block I had made.  The flat side of the pinwheel is 1".  The block is 5.5" square.  Those were some little pieces compared to what I usually piece.  (No comment about some of the flat points, please.)

I sewed them together in pairs of two.  Joe said they look like wheels.  Did I mention that the t-shirts were all Harley Davidson?  Rather fitting, don't you think?

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Christmas Gift

I have not posted in a long time because I have been very busy quilting.  I have quilt projects coming out my ears.  My resolution for the New Year is to keep my fabric purchases to a minimum (notice I'm just short of saying not buy any more fabric) and finish the projects I have started. 

Along those lines, my last post was of the quilt for my brother's stepson and his wife.  It was intended to be a house warming present, but ended up being a Christmas gift from my brother and his wife to their son and daughter-in-law. 





The couple's names are Joshua and Mandy.  The outer background is yellow daisies.  Daisies are Mandy's favorite flour and one of the requested elements for the quilt... along with the Royal Blue color.  

This is my first quilt using this pattern and there are some things I did differently with the second quilt from this pattern (more to come later).  I am, however, pleased with the mitered corners on the outer border.  The border fabric is a stripe and it took some time for me to figure out how I was going to use it in the border.  Looks good, doncha think? 

BTW, Joshua and Mandy are expecting their first baby.  How am I ever going to finish the quilts I have started if people keep having babies?