I posted this quilt in my group of veterans quilts Monday and it seems to be winning some popularity contest. I don't know why in my quilt club made the quilt but it really is a pretty one. My Mom loved the quilt when she first saw it and took photos to draft the block. Several other people commented that they liked it too. So yesterday I spent a little time in EQ to draft up the block. I couldn't find this exact block in EQ or Blockbase but I found a block called Propeller in Blockbase that's close so we'll go with that name. It's an uneven 9-patch and this particular quilt is made with 12" blocks so that's what I went with to get the cutting directions. I'm only giving you the cutting instructions, I know you already know how to piece it. Patch A - Cut 5 5/8 squares and then once on the diagonal for the half square triangles. You need 2 squares (4 HSTs) for each color Patch B - 3" x 2 3/4" - 4 patches Patch C - 3" square - 2 patches Patch D - 3" x 8" - 1 patch Simple! The quilt above with 4 blocks by 5 blocks finishes at 48" x 60". That's the size that we make our veterans quilts per the hospital guidelines. It's a size that doesn't get hung up in the bed rails but still covers the patient. It's also a great size for the chemo department to keep patients warm while receiving treatment. While I was in EQ I worked up a couple of color options. This is kind of boring but would be spiced up if all of the turquoise patches were scrappy. This is better than the all-turquoise version. This version uses 1 3/4 of the tan, 1 1/8 of the blue and 7/8 of lime. Of course I had to do a totally fussy version and I have to say that all the fussy placement required for this version isn't worth the effort. I still like the original one best.
Starting today I'm going to have a new weekly feature for the summer. There will be a "Fabric of the Week". One fabric each week will be on sale for 48 hours. It might be a Gradient, a Stash Pack or a Shades Pack. In some cases it will apply to supplies on hand and in others I'll be dyeing to order. If you would like to receive a weekly email announcing that week's Fabric of the Week, sign up for that newsletter here. You can easily unsubscribe at any time. I'm kicking things off with the Emerald City Gradient. You can tell that it's one of my favorites because I made the quilt below with it. This is my summer bed quilt. I even took it to the beach with us to sleep under every night. For 48 hours (or while supplies last), Emerald City will be on sale for 25% off! That's $6.75/half yard instead of the normal $9. If you wan to receive email notification of every future sale you can sign up for the special Fabric of the Week Newsletter here. In other news, two of your favorite gradients are back in stock!
I haven't gotten a ton of things done since we got back from the beach. My Mom had cataract surgery Tuesday and it hasn't gone as expected. Her vision is still blurry. She had hoped to be able to drive home by Thursday but she's still forced to stay here with me. With her vision janked up she really can't do much so I loaded an old MP3 player with books and she's been listening to a couple of books. We are both looking forward to her follow up visit Tuesday for some serious answers. I had a few veterans quilts that needed to be quilted and I loaded 2 to see if she could quilt them. She was fine until the thread broke and she couldn't track back the thread because it blended so well with the fabric. So she gave up on that task. I figured that since they were loaded I'd go ahead and quilt the 4 that I have available to quilt. I actually have 2 more quilts but I don't have a backing that will work for both. They will have to wait until I can get some other quilts to pair with them. Here are the 4 that I finished this weekend. I don't know what this block is called but I like it a lot. I quilted this one with an overall leaf and hook meander. You know I love any half square triangle quilt and this one is no exception. It's a great scrap quilt with a very controlled palette of scraps. This one quilted up really fast with a wavy line following the zig zag. I did the zig zag seams and then went back and did another line in the middle of each row. I just eyeball the placement. There's no marking here! I even took the zig zag out into the border. This is the quilt that I tried to get Mom to quilt. I picked an overlapping wavy line motif to keep it easy. Since she got a few rows done I kept on with that pattern. This is one of those quilting patterns that looks like a complete disaster when you start but looks a lot better when done. It creates some really nice texture and keeps the quilt soft and cuddly. This is a cool pattern. Its really simple but very nice. In this palette it's very manly and that's what we are going for. We have very few female patients at the VA hospital. I quilted this one with a meander.
I think this brings me to 16 for the year so I'm almost halfway to my goal of 40. My lovely customers were very busy while I was away on vacation. I have 3 great projects to share with you today. Marcy is one of the many very talented ladies in my local quilt club, Country School Quilters. She has organized a challenge project and the first one had the instructions to create a pieced back with something recognizable (not abstract) applied in some way. This was her entry and she used Pebbles and Rocks and Woodlands (sold out) Stash Packs as part of her background. Debra Millar made this quilt using the Potpourri pattern by Laura Heine and she used the Southwest Gradient as the background. This collage technique is very popular right now and I think Debra's is outstanding! Patricia Caldwell's latest piece is Ascending Feathers. She used Fireline Gradient as the background and Sassafras for the leaves.
I hope these great pieces give you some inspiration for whatever creative thing you are doing this weekend. If you've made something with my fabric please consider submitting it to the Customer Gallery. In return for sharing you will receive a 20% discount code that's good for 3 months! After I posted my UFO update yesterday I realized that I had not given an applique update in a while and I've actually made a bit of progress on this. We've been watching a few series on Amazon Prime so I've had a bit of hand sewing time. I started in the middle and am working my way to each end. I think the last update included the red blossom. The Gold and blue ones finished out half of the first border! After I finished that side I came back to the center, stitched the peach floral blossom and added the center dot. Now I have 6 of 44 blossoms of the border done and that means I'm 13.6% done. I've made it into double digits! It might be time for a celebration drink! I even have the vine for the next blossom done so I'm moving right along. This is how I fold up the border on each side of the blossom that I'm stitching. It helps to keep the long border under control. Don't look too closely at my stitching on the back. My only concern is that I don't have any loose ends showing under the white.
I'm getting so close to finishing the first border that I have some extra motivation....once I get over the cold that my dearest husband gave me. |
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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