Halloween Quilt

I almost forgot, I made a Halloween theme quilt last week!  Well top that is ...and I would've had it quilted by today but I had a 7 hr car ride home yesterday and a mountain of mail to slog through so the quilting had to wait.  

 I know it's pretty basic but it was really just to show off those cute little scary halloween monsters!

 Anywho,  Happy Halloween everyone!
cheers, CW

Another Version of Martha's Quilt

I was looking through some old pictures and found a picture of an earlier version of Martha Washington's 'Smithsonian' top(see 10-20-12 blog).  This is the second version I made.  I was really glad I took these pics 'cause I gave that quilt away to a friend who has since moved.  You can see it really looks 'modern' when you use wild fabrics like this.  It was fun making but once I was finished I thought 'where will I put it?!'  But it turned out to make a great gift for my friend 'cause he is kind of a wild guy, so it was a good fit!

 I used a Dia De Los Muertos fab instead of toil.  Love that fabric, so campy!

I used an off-white cotton flannel sheet for the backing. With all the different colored threads in the quilting it made a nice pattern on the back.  I told my friend when he gets tired of the craziness on the front he can just flip it over for a rest!  It's all good!  cheers, Claire W.

More Medallion quilt ideas...

I could go on and on about medallion quilts.  The layouts are infinite.  Here's a few more to support that notion...

 This top was inspired by the wonderful repro fab. in the center.  Another fabric I was loathe to cut up.

 The center of this quilt was a bunch of leftover 4 patches.  Not enough to make another quilt but enough to make an interesting center.

 Another 'theme' quilt made for my son during his baseball days.  Go Giants!  Sorry I just had to work that in!

 The center of this one was another leftovers thing.

 Oh my, another Paris quilt!  Actually this pre-dates the one in the last post, but the center fabric is that same fab. The layout is similar to the base ball quilt.  I have used that layout a number of times.

See what I mean about versatility?  I think they are alot of fun to design and not to difficult to construct.      If you are wondering about how to get the big square in square centers let me know I have developed an easy method which I can post.

Medallion Quilts

I recently purchased Gwen Marston's new book "Liberated Medallion Quilts".  I am a great admirer of Gwen's work and I knew this new book would be a great treat!  It is filled with lots of wonderful medallion quilts by Gwen as well as a whole slew of very talented quilters.  But I was really surprised to find a picture of one of my all time favorite medallion quilts right across from the introduction, a quilt top made by Martha Washington which is part of the Smithsonian collection.  I made a replica of this quilt a few years back;  not-with-standing the difficulty in finding appropriate vintage prints and minus the last border (I'm still searching for the right print) here it 'tis...

The inspiration to make this replica, I hope, is self evident?!  It is a cool design!  When I first saw the picture of this quilt I was just idly flipping pages.   I stopped for a closer look and when I read the details I was really in awe.  I had not considered the idea that Martha Washington was a quilter?!  Well duh!  Most women of her time were seamstresses of one kind or another, it was a practical fact of life.

When I first saw this quilt I thought how contemporary it looked.  I made a quilt using this layout as a pattern only with contemporary fabrics.  I showed it at my guild's Show n' Tell and asked if people thought it was a new or old pattern and everyone agreed it look new!  I think the use of stripes and simple applique shapes (circles and ovals)  gives the design a very contemporary look.  But as Gwen points out in her book, Martha was probably just being practical (or "liberated").  Fitting borders like those above is a lot easier than making perfectly fitting pieced borders.  And I think the applique was simple for the same reason.

Besides the above vintage fabric version I have made 3 other contemporary fabric versions of this quilt. Here's the most recent one which has a "Paris" theme.

 I have modified the layout somewhat but the general features are still evident.  Medallion quilts are a great way to feature that fabric that you just can't bring yourself to cut up!  cheers, CW

9 FQ's and a Strip

Have you ever found a strip in your scrap bag that you thought was really great;  but, alas there was only one lonely strip. Not really enough to do anything with didn't really go with the other scraps, so what to do?

 That polka dot was so great I just decided to pull from my new bargain stack of FQs (see 9-19 post) to make something featuring the colors in that strip.

Really simple, quick and easy, 9 FQs,  and a strip.   48" x 58"
Here are some quick tricks to make this super quick and easy project.

- Cut the "theme" strip (44" x 3.25") into 3.25" squares (makes 13) but you only use 12.
- Choose 4 coordinating FQs  for the middle section and cut into strips using the long side = 4 - 4.25" x 22" strips.  There will be a small leftover strip.

- Note:  Not all FQs are created equal.  If a particular yardage measures less than 44" you might come up a tad short on your FQ.  This happened to me (see 7th pic down & last pic in post)  I used the selvage to compensate. (white section on left end of block)  Doesn't bother me, but if you want full clear strips measure your FQs first.

- Lay one strip face up on your sewing machine and sew 3 consecutive patches face down on strip. don't iron yet.

- Cut the tail end off this unit. Place it face up under your presser foot, flip the previous unit around and sew all 3 patches to this side.  OK now iron toward the strips and cut. I call this the sew-cut-sew method.

 Any time you can assembly line something, sew and then cut, it will save you time and ironing!

- Now take one of the other 4.25" strips face up put your newly cut and ironed 3 patch unit face down and sew,  take the next 3 patch unit and sew it down on the tail of the same strip. etc.

- take another strip and place it face up, flip the previous unit around and sew those two units onto the next 4.25" x 22" strip.

- You end up with 2 blocks that are joined at one end.

- Separate these two blocks and cut the last 4.25" strip in half and assemble the last block separately.
- Repeat to make 12 blocks.
- Assemble your blocks randomly 3 x 4 like my top or however you like. I alternated the orientation of
  the block's seam lines.  Row 1= sideways, up, sideways  Row 2= up, sideways, up  etc.  You could     also see them all going the same way. (refer to quilt top photo)
- For the border- cut 5 FQs into quarters = approximately 9" x 11".  You will need 18 of the 20.
-Decide which patches you want for the corners and trim to 9"x9".
-As you can see the long end of the quarter-FQ is more less the same length as the blocks.  You may need to trim a smig off some depending on the length of the fat quarters. Blocks are actually 10.75" square unfinished.

- When assembling any top I always try to divide rows and seams into the shortest lines of sewing = the least amount of intersections to make errors.  Errors tend to multiple over distance. Refer to the picture of the whole top at the beginning of this post.  Sew two sets of 4-trimmed 9" x10.75" patches for the sides. Then Sew two sets of 3- 9" x 10.75" patches plus corners patches to the top and bottom.

The constructions is quick and easy. The success of a quilt like this is in the fabric choices.  Choose fabrics that pop and that you love, with that special strip as your guide and you can't go wrong!  Cheers, CW

PS- Any feedback on these instructions would be greatly appreciated, especially errors. thanks!

More Orphaned Blocks

My local guild www.PVQA.org has the nice custom of making Thank You blocks for all the chief board members each year.  Many years ago when I was the Programs chairman I asked for Orphan blocks as my Thank You blocks.  I rec'd over 100 blocks!  Orphan blocks give you a certain freedom to experiment. Solving setting and composition problems can be fun and instructive. Here are a couple of quilts from that collection where the blocks were close enough in style but all slightly different in size.  (It is square it's just hanging funny)

In this group of blocks (all donated by one person, thus the continuity in color) I put the largest block in the center, the smallest blocks on the sides and the matching blocks on the corners. Then I cut the sashing in between to make up for the various odd sizes.

This quilt is similar to the first in that the odd sized block goes in the center but the sashing on the central block makes up for the difference in the block's size.
The other nice thing about making quilts from Orphan blocks is that since I have not invested any time in making the blocks I feel more freedom to experiment with the quilting;  another way to build skills.

 Orphan block quilts make good charitable quilts too, they feel a little easier to give away since the time investment is less.  I donated the first quilt to the Japanese Tsunami quilts project but the second one I kept.  I just love that singing bird!  cheers, CW.

Orphan Blocks- More Quick Quilt Ideas

Orphan blocks;  I'm not always interested in my own orphan blocks but often times I can see something redeaming in someone elses orphan blocks.  A couple of weeks ago when I was combing through Randy's scraps and I came upon some orphan blocks they caught my interest.

I told Randy if I took the set I would make them into a quilt for a charitable cause.  That suited her just fine. Here's one of the blocks:

Randy said she thought they were from a Stack 'n Whack class that she took long ago.  They are really very nice blocks maybe just a little monochomatic.
There were only six blocks at 9" finished so I sewed frames around them to make them 13" and then added a second sashing and border in purple.  Nothing fancy but at 36" x 48" it is the right size for the wheelchair bound vets lap quilts project.   Blue, green and purple, always a winning combo!

Sometimes the simple solutions are best ... and turned into a quilt which will be enjoyed by someone in need.
Do you have a set of orphan blocks that you have kinda lost interest / hope in ever making into a top?  Maybe we could organize a block swap of sorts and get those blocks off the shelves and into quilts for charitable donation?!  If you are interested & / or have ideas as to how this might work leave a comment.  cheers, Claire W.