Quilting an Crafting.com

Returning to Basics - The Future of Quilting?

I have read several articles lately about how the present economy will most likely affect things we do in our everyday lives. Here at Quilting an Crafting.com and at our house it has always been about basics, using scraps perhaps buying a bit of material - for a larger panel - but for the most part looking thru the scrap bags/bins to create a theme then using or redesigning a pattern to create a one of a kind quilt. The Christmas quilt was a case of buying theme pattern fabric but when it arrived the print was a lot different size than we expected. We reworked the pattern to fit the print and have a really nice one of a kind quilt. My wall  hanging came about by digging through the fabric remnant bags/bins then creating a pattern out of those-a sea scape-as it turned out. I didn’t know until it just sort of happened. We think a big part of quilting is (1.) having an idea then (2.) building a theme and pattern to fit your idea. Lots of quilts years ago were built from joining sampler blocks together. So find your remnants chose a block size, and make one block, then a second, and a third, and before you know it you’ll have enough blocks to join to have a bed quilt, and it will be all your work! So don’t get to hung up on being up to date, start simple and build on that and have fun!
Let us take this chance to wish everyone a Happy and Joyous Holiday Season.

New Grandchild Quilt
July 2008

Pattern: Designer Log Cabins, June Ryker
Quilters Newsletter Magazine Dec 1992
Machine Pieced, Hand Tied

This is the fifth quilt for a new grandchild made using this pattern. I use FAT batting for the filling so it can be used under the child. I rarely use blanket binding on a quilt, but the Finding Nemo binding just called out to be used with the border fabric. The design on the binding complimented the backing fabric with a rubber duckie design. The quilt is hand tied using 3 strands of embroidery floss.

The star of the show!

Four Seasons
1980’s
Wall Hanging: machine pieced, hand quilted
Pattern: Star’s over the Smokies
Adopted from: More Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel

Using the Flexi-curve technique, explained in the book, I made blocks for each season, with topical quilting motifs; (examples) pumpkin-fall, mittens-winter, ice cream cone-summer, tulip-spring, in the four corners of each block. The four squares have the same block pattern motif so when they were joined they create the diamonds and triangles. This makes it look like four suns that flow from one season into the next. The quilting on the light blue border is a continuous weave which ties the four blocks into one whole world as it were. The two oldest boys enjoyed this in their room for years, and it is now part of the kitchen wall rotation.

Ohio Stars 1992

Bed quilt
Pattern: More Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel
machine pieced, hand quilted

The square were set on point with 1/2 and 1/4 squares added to make it rectangular. Sashed with cornerstone blocks.This was lap quilted by rows and the outer border print was also used on the back for joining the rows.
As usual, the one glaring mistake in piecing wasn’t found until after the quilt was finished,and it’s almost front and center in the picture.
I no longer tear out my hair when this happens.But the Aaaahhhhhgggggs !!!! still happen.

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Izzy’s Quilt - 1998
Bed Quilt

Pattern Traditional Spools or Apple Core
Hand pieced, machine pieced, hand appliqued, hand quilted

This one took a few years to gather material and piece together. It is a Charm Quilt, no two blocks alike**. I found hand piecing was just about as fast as machine piecing. Once the top was done, I cut long strips for the top, bottom and side borders, and then appliqued the top to the borders.
** Tip - Heard/Read some were that most fabrics have a front and back. Not all backs work, but a lot of them will, - different look from same fabric!

(This post is to honor Izzy who was a friend and family member for 13 years - we lost her this week.)

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Playing With a Block

Providence Block 10″
From 1898, Ladies Art Company
alternate name Providence Star

The original block, figure one. uses six different fabrics in dark, medium, light, neutral

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This is a great block to play with. Get out the colored pencils, markers, or crayons. You will also need paper, pencil and ruler: or a drawing program on your computer. (I used Appleworks)
Make your basic pattern, figure two. Mine is based on one inch squares. It is just squares and 1/2 square triangles.

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Make lots of copies! A computer program should let you resize your block after it is drawn so that you can print at least 2 blocks per page.
Start coloring! There is no right or wrong way to color in the block. To get you started see figure three.

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I used just 3 colors. Use dark, medium and light in just one color, then two colors, then three, four etc. Remember that black, white, tan and gray are colors too.
Going on road trips with kids? Give them a copy and a few colored pencils, who knows what they might come up with.
Figures four and five show the block with the darks and lights reversed.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

This block is a great way to use up scraps. If you decide to make a sampler quilt using all you blocks I suggest that you cut the pieces for each block separately, then put the paper block and the fabric pieces into a plastic sandwich bag, to keep them organized.
I made this quilt for my oldest grandson, using a different original block that I played with 25 times. My daughter did some of the coloring.

So - now you have all these paper blocks which you have turned into a quilt top - or not. Don’t throw them away! Use them as design elements for greeting cards, scrapbook pages, gift tags, bookmarks, picture frames. Paste them onto boxes. Take them to the sewing machine, put in an old needle and zig-zag stitch them together to make wrapping paper, posters or wall paper??
Origami cranes anyone. Uncolored blocks for those who are bored. Write a message on the back of colored ones, cut into pieces (paper jig saw puzzle) and send them to friends or family.
And you thought playing with blocks for only for kindergardeners! Leave us a comment, let us know if you have a favorite block to play with.

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