November block for my mother’s room at the care center is Turkey Tracks, the pieced version. It is another easy block and I used some older Jinny Beyer prints and stripe for a fall-like color scheme. I love mitering borders and it seemed the perfect …
July Block of the Month Patriot’s Star The July block is my design and could easily be repeated for a four block quilt for the Honor Flight quilts. With multiple repeats of this 16” block a patriotic throw for 4th of July picnics …
April’s “T” block is a popular alphabet block. I especially like the versions that are arranged as tessellations so chose the block called “tea time”. I am not fond of tea but do remember my first drink of the beverage at a very young age. I was in the church basement with the quilting ladies as they took their break to enjoy an afternoon dessert and glass of tea before wrapping up the day. I was feeling very grown up to be able to partake with the ladies at the big table instead of the smaller Sunday School table for kids. I have no memory of what the dessert was but the beverage was tea. Kool-Aid was the afternoon beverage of my choice at age seven but not an option that day and I was thirsty so I took a long drink of the tea and nearly spit it out. That would have been impolite and I certainly did not want to seem ill-mannered. I saw some ladies putting sugar in their tea (sugar cubes it was back then) so I helped myself to make my drink more palatable. It seems my taste buds have a preference for the sweet but no amount of sugar could rid my mouth of that bitter taste. Teapots and tea cups were part of my grandmother’s home décor but “tea time” was usually “coffee time”. I still have some of the collection of tea cups brought back as souvenirs of travel displayed in the guest bedroom. I will cherish the memories of tea time but will never acquire a taste for the beverage.
As I worked with the drafting of this block and project I played with colorations that might also be fun for “trick and treat”. Maybe it will be repeated for the October project! The block is easy sewing but does require attention to arrangement to get the “T” formation. I preferred the look of two stacked blocks to make a vertical wall hanging so this finishes 24” x 39”.
Fabric:
“T” block: 1/3 yd each of two contrasting prints
Inner border: 1/8 yd
Outer border and binding: 5/8 yd
Backing: ¾ yd
Batting: 27” x 45”
Cutting:
“T” prints: 9 each 3 ½” x 5 ½” rectangles; 24 each 2” x 6 ¼” rectangles.
Further cut the 2” x 6 ¼” rectangles as pictured below, 12 of each print:
——- 4 1/8”—————
— 2 1/8”—
The cut is a 45 degree angle with long side 4 1/8 “ and the short side 2 1/8”.
(Tip: If you keep wrong sides together of matching prints you need make only one directional cut on all the rectangles rather than the two shown Use the photos as a guide.)
Inner border: 2 -15 ½” x 1” for top and bottom and 2 – 31 ½” x 1” strips for long sides.
Outer border: 2- 16 ½” x 4 ½” for top and bottom and 2 – 39 ½” x 4 ½” strips for sides.
Binding: 3 – 1 7/8” strips joined (If you like wider binding allow ¾ yd for yardage requirement instead of 5/8 yd).
Construction:
Join the 45 degree angle pieces to make a 2” x 5 ½” rectangle.
Follow the photos for sewing and arrangement. Add narrow border strips top and bottom and then sides. Do the same for the wider outer border. Layer top, backing and batting, quilt and bind. Sit down and enjoy a cup of tea (or kool-aid).
A design wall/board is useful to arrange the blocks in the proper configuration before sewing.
Since March is my birthday month I looked for a block that represented birthdays. My first thought was “cake stand” but I also found “Happy Birthday”, “Birthday Cake” and “Birthday Parties”. Spring Daffodil is adapted from “Happy Birthday” as identified in Jinny Beyer’s book, The …
February Block of the Month You Are My Sunshine This block was inspired by the month of February—Valentine’s Day, anniversary of my parents marriage and of several of their siblings and probably many others out there. It is named for my parents song, “You Are …
Circle of Prosperity, January, 2015
I have titled this small quilt “Circle of Prosperity”. It may be recognizable to readers as Burgoyne’s Quilt but was also identified by other names one of which was Wheel of Fortune. It seemed a likely candidate for sending a prosperous new year wish to all.
Things I like or would change: it was fast; the color contrast makes the design obvious (love those Grunge fabrics from Moda); quilting motif was easy to develop (draw) by dividing a square into 8 parts and then free form drawing flower petals in each section; border would have better proportion if wider by about 1 ½ inches each side. Below are the general directions for making the block with borders.
Fabric:
Block: ¼ yd dark; ½ yd light
Border and binding: ½ yd if horizontal stripe, ¾ yd if vertical stripe (I cut my binding 1 7/8” wide, if you use different width you may need more)
Backing: ¾ yd
Batting: 28” square
Cutting Dark:
3 strips 1 ½” by width of fabric (wof), cut one strip into 3- 13” pieces;
4 squares 2 ½”;
1 square 1 ½”
Cutting Light:
3 strips 1 ½” by wof, cut one strip into 3- 13” pieces;
3 strips 2 ½”, subcut into 4 pieces 15 ½” x 2 ½”, 4 pieces 1 ½” x 2 ½” and 8 pieces
3 ½” x 2 ½”;
1 strip 3 ½”, subcut into 4 pieces 5 ½” x 3 ½”
Cutting mitered border and binding:
4 pieces 3” x 24 ½” (or wait and measure finished edge after block is constructed);
3 strips 1 7/8” by width of fabric.
Construction:
Use ¼” seam allowance; press seams toward dark or toward the larger unseamed piece
Sew each dark 1 ½” x wof strip to the corresponding light 1 ½” x wof strip; cut into 20- 1 ½” x 2 ½” sections and 8- 2 ½” x 2 ½” sections. Sew 16 pairs of 1 ½” x 2 ½” sections to make 2 ½” square (figure 1). Sew 2 ½” x 2 ½” to either side of remaining 1 ½” sections.
Sew 13” strips together to form a dark, light, dark strip set and a light, dark, light strip set; cut d,l,d set into 8- 1 ½” sections and the l,d,l set into 4- 1 ½” sections. Sew 2 d,l,d with one l,d,l in the center ( figure 2). Make 4
Make center square using the four 2 ½” dark squares, four 1 ½” x 2 ½” light sections and one1 ½” square as shown in figure 3.
Use four 9-patch and four 3 ½” x 5 ½” rectangles to add the second round as shown in figure 4.
Follow finished photo to complete the third and fourth round. Add mitered borders by stitching each side from corner to corner but stopping and starting stitching ¼” from edge of block. After stitching all four borders line up two adjacent sides of border pieces (folding excess fabric from block out of the way), mark and stitch a 45 degree angle from stitching line at inner corner (block) to outer corner. Check for accuracy before pressing and trimming off excess. Baste backing, batting and finished block together. I quilted a flower in the center and then did a meandering stipple. Geometric quilting lines following the block design could be used. This is also a good time to practice any design you would like.
For the next year I will share directions for making a 20″-24” table mat or small wall hanging once a month. Each will be based on a single block. The first reason for doing this is to provide my mother, who is in a care …