Design Wall Monday Oct 22, 2012

Have you ever made a "Winning Hand" by Quilt In a Day?  This is fast, fast, fast and fun!  I picked up the pattern/booklet at a garage sale several weeks ago.  When I showed it to a quilting pal, she said she'd never made one and suggested it would be a good one to try on one of our stitchin' days.  I made mine scrappy, but used the same colors throughout.  And yes, it is so easy. 

When I assembled the blocks, I tried to put the colors in the same position in each block, but messed up about three.  So to try and cover it up, instead of setting them exactly the same, I mixed them up.  Not sure about that.  I made 15 blocks for a twin size, but I might re-set them to match each other and just have a lap size.  Heaven forbid I take the three apart and re-sew them.  Nope.  I'm using the deep purple for sashing, and the floral for the border.  

Check out http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/10/22/design-wall-october-22-2012/ for more inspiration!

Whoop! Whoop!! Oct 12, 2012

Yay -- I got something quilted, at last, at last!!  My shoulder has been giving me fits, so I've been getting chiropractor-ed for several weeks, and I'm almost good as new.  Well, as new as you can be at my age ;-)  

This quilt is one of two that belongs to my friend Phyl.  She had a box full of full fans, fan blades and bits and pieces of fabric that her grandmother and her mother had worked on decades ago.  Some were hand-stitched, some were machined pieced, but putting them together created some interesting fans, none of which lay flat.  She had decided they were beyond help and wasn't going to do anything with them.  Another friend, Sally B, and I protested loudly!  Phyl gave in, and the three of us cut and pieced and stitched and smooshed and ironed the fans into submission, added centers with rickrack around them, and made enough full fans to make two twin bed toppers!  I was able to finish quilting the first one, and I believe they will be treasured for generations to come.  

Whoop!  Whoop!! 

Go to Sarah's place to find more accomplishments: http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2012/10/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-theres-floor-in.html

Anita's Arrowhead Tutorial

Since there was interest in having a tutorial for Anita's Arrowhead blocks (see my last post), here you go!  First, I have to say, this is a pattern from a Quiltmaker magazine, but that only date that appears is 2011, so I can't tell you which issue.  

This is a really unique technique, and fun to do.  That said, the first few times you make it, you'll probably want to refer to the instructions.  The main thing is, watch where the darks and lights go when you lay it out for stitching!  

The pattern calls for 8" squares of fabric, that are cut at 2".  I already had a big stack of 6" squares, so in order to have it look better proportioned I cut the pieces at 1 1/2" and that's what I'm referring to in the directions.  

Stack a dark and a light square, right sides together. Make a mark on the top right and bottom left, 1 1/2" from the edge.

Sew 1/4" seam down from the mark at the top right, to the bottom, pivot and continue across the bottom and sew off the edge.  Turn and do the same on the other side.

Yes,  you'll have two open spots!  Weird, huh?  It's ok.  Then you will cut the square diagonally, once.  Watch the direction of the diagonal.







Now take the top triangle, turn it and stack it on top of the bottom triangle.  

Now you'll cut a strip 1 1/2" from the left and from the bottom.  

You'll wind up with an assortment that looks like this.  Snip the rabbit ears and press the seams open.

Rearrange the pieces according to the following photo, paying attention to the placement of the darks (brown) and the lights (print), and sew.

Trim to make it a 6" square.

Tada!  Now you can put a bunch of these on your design wall and decide on the layout.  (I still haven't decided on mine.)

If you have any questions, please leave a comment.
Enjoy!
Brita

Design Wall Monday Oct 1, 2012

Which-a-way should I go?  This pattern is called "Anita's Arrowhead," and appeared in Quiltmaker magazine last year (thanks, Debbie!).  The technique is really fun to make -- you start with two squares sewn right sides together, leaving 2" open on the top right and bottom left.  It's then cut diagonally, stacked and cut twice more.  When it's rearranged, this is what you get!  Maybe I should take photos as I make a block so you can see?  Then when the blocks are laid out, you can put them together with dark edges against light (top picture), or light to light and dark/dark.  Which way do you think it looks best?  I can't decide!

The Kaffe blocks I had on my design wall last week just didn't want to come together.  So I lost interest, and they're packed away (story of my life).  But I still wanted to play with Kaffe fabrics, hence the blocks shown above.  This is a good project to work on during my stitching days with friends because they aren't difficult.  You just have to make the first one to use as a reference -- and trust me, you really, really need to have it :-D

So there are you are, for this week's design wall Monday.  Go to Judy's website at www.PatchworkTimes.com to see links to other design wall projects, that's always fun!