Garden Path Quilt in Floral Fabrics- Fujita Maze from McCall's Quilting Magazine.

Because I loved this pattern "fujita maze" by Susan Guzman which appeared in the March/April 2013 McCall's Quilting, I just had to make a second quilt using totally different fabrics. My first bed quilt top with this pattern was using Japanese Taupe fabrics. (Fujita Maze using Japanese Taupe Fabrics)

Using a green fabric for my maze, and some bright floral FQs and yardage I had in my stash, here is my second quilt (5 x 6 = 30 14" blocks). I'm still wondering what I shall use for my border fabric.

Fast blocks from Fat Quarters: St. Louis 16-Patch

I recently found out about the St. Louis 16-patch quilt block that makes up into a wonderful looking quilt. And it's super easy to make from fat quarters. By using a 4" finished block, you end up with a 16" finished 16-patch (4 x 4), or 16 1/2" square unfinished.

From each FQ, cut 4 strips 4 1/2 " x 18" - which should be the width of the FQ. Sew 2 strip sets 1-2-1-2. Then subcut each stripset at 4 1/2" intervals (4 x 4 1/2 = 18" - perfect, no waste),  sew back together to make the 16-patch! This 16" finished block only takes 6 seams!

And you get 2 identical blocks from each pair of FQ. Use these in the same large quilt, or if making lap sized quilts, use 6 or 8 different blocks.

I still don't now if I want sashing between the blocks. I think I saw a Kaffe quilt using this pattern with no sashing, but others had put sashing and it gives it a different look. And for a bed sized quilt, you can put the blocks on point! So many design options!  And what a great way to use up those ugly FQ that have been sitting in your collection forever!

My first win from a blog! Grandma's Lawn Chair Pattern

I recently entered the blog contest on the   Amateur Quilter blog and I just found out I won!

First, I get this wonderful pattern by Diane Bohn:

Here are links to the pattern in case you want to buy your own copy:

Craftsy: http://www.craftsy.com/project/view/grandmas-lawn-chair---baby-size-quilt/128241

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/162213292/grandmas-lawn-chair-quilt-pattern-3

And I won a pile of fabrics : 

I never win anything in any contest, so this was just so amazing!

Now I need to look at the pattern and see what fabrics I can use to make this wonderful looking quilt.

Latest in Hexagon Going On's

While I was at my retreat at Shaker Meadows in Upstate NY with the quiltguys, I did some work with my English Paper Piecing Hexagons.

I'm hoping to get my first modern style quilt using these hexagons put together over the winter. I have the hexagons picked out, and the background fabrics, now to finish sewing the hexagons together and to applique to the background. 

Garden Path Quilt in Japanese Taupe Fabrics- Fujita Maze from McCall's Quilting Magazine.

Well, I finally got my quilt top together using Japanese Taupe Fabrics for the Fujita Maze quilt pattern from McCall's Quilting Magazine.

Here I am at my quiltguy retreat in Upstate NY at  Shaker Meadows:

And here I am after I put on the borders:

And here is another view of the quilt top:

My daughter did the arrangement of the blocks. We spent a couple of hours arranging the blocks to get the right feel - darks in lower left, lights in upper right.

This is the first time I actually cut into my stash of Japanese taupe fabrics that I have been collecting. I'm hoping to quilt this over the winter. I'm trying to decide which Japanese taupe fabrics to use on the back of the quilt.

MSQC 2013 Iron Quilter Competition

Just up, the Iron Quilter competition from the MSQC ( Missouri Star Quilt Co )

http://www.missouriquiltco.com/content/ironquilter

So I have ordered my 4 sets of charm squares, 42 5" square charms each. You have to use at least 1 set of 42 charms in the quilt. The set includes a lovely purple pansy:

But the colorways include purple and blue:

And I always love border prints:

Border prints can add sophistication and elegance without doing a lot of piecing work.

here is the complete set of 33 different fabrics:

So, are you entering ? What pattern do you think would show off these wonderful Lovely RJR fabrics?

English Paper Piecing - Hexagons

Seems like all the quilters are back to making English Paper Pieced hexagons. A fad from the 1800's is back with a vengeance.

As someone who has regarded "hand" as a four-letter word, I have avoided sewing hand work until the past year. I was finding that I was spending close to 20 hours a week waiting at various events - doctor's office, children's music lessons, watching TV, ....   So I picked up some hexagon cardboard templates from www.paperpieces.com. Actually, I got my first ones from one of my on-line fabric purchases, they had the 2", 1", and 3/4" hexagons available, around $3 a package.

So here is a photo of some of my hexagons from the past year. I started using 5" charm squares to make 2" hexagons. Just the right size for my large hands and first attempt and hand sewing, though I had recently learned to hand sew quilt bindings. My daughter wanted a quilt using sunset colors - reds, oranges, blues, purples, yellows, ...   So she went through a box of charm squares and picked out fabrics.

Using some binding scraps, the 2 1/2" strips I was able to piece the 1" hexagons, and I did enough to make a flower with the 7 I made.

This will be a long term project. I may have enough 2" hexagons for a bed quilt, I don't know yet. My plan is to applique down the flowers, I am not making a traditional Grandmother's Flower Quilt!

But, I broke down to try some smaller hexagons. After seeing that people make quilts using 1/4" hexagons, I got more templates : 3/8", 4/8", 5/8", 6/8", 7/8", 1", 1 1/8", 1 2/8", 1 3/8", 1 4/8" and 2". Might as well mix it up a bit.  I am having a really hard time with the smaller sizes, I need to leave an extra large seam allowance, and then trim after I have basted.

What size hexagons do you like to make?

Garden Maze Quilt Top shaping up

Here are the first 24 blocks of my garden maze blocks done with Japanese Taupe fabrics.  I need to get the block layout finalized and start to sew the rows together, and add a border. Maybe I can get to quilt this quilt top before year end and not have it be one of my endless UFOs.

Garden Path Quilt Blocks - Fujita Maze from McCall's Quilting Magazine.

Garden Path quilt block from McCall's Quilting. Pattern available online at : http://www.mccallsquilting.com/patterns/details.html?idx=15047

Also called "Fujita Maze".  The first two blocks Are done in Japanese Taupe fabrics. This is the first quilt I am making using Japanese Taupe fabrics. After making 30 blocks in a 5 x 6 layout (still to be sewn into a quilt top) I started on using some floral FQs I had laying around, as a maze is an age old garden design. Quite a different look with the very same block.

block details: Finishes at 14", center square is 6"

Here are some other Japanese Fabrics that I am using in the quilt. This are what some shop owners call "Top Shelf" Japanese Fabrics, as they are woven and not printed.  The top two fabrics are light taupes with some woven threads, they are very nubby and have a great texture.

The bottom two fabrics have much more woven design using multiple colors. I especially love the red and purple threads randomly places in the black fabric.

Writing on a Quilt using quilting thread.

Ann Brooks on her blog Fret Not Yourself talks about writing on your quilt. Here is a quilt that I wrote on. I don't have a great picture of the front showing my signature, but the back is clear, though reversed:

Do you ever write words of encouragement or sign your quilt using quilting?

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Toes in the Sand BOM #2, #3, #4

Here is block #2 in the Toes in the Sand BOM:

And here are block #3:

and finally, here are block #4 that I managed to make:

this one was a bit more difficult, with a set in seam - a first for me!

but I decided to use my stash in doing this block of the month - west minister fabrics in mostly pinks and blues.

After liking all these modern quilts, I decided to through some solids in there as well. I think that they really added to the blocks!  can I call them blocks when they are triangles?

And I decided this week to do a quilting blog, and start a companion etsy page!  WOW, what a week.

I'm working on the Toes in the Sand block of the month, using the wonderful Hex 'n More ruler from Jaybird Quilts.

Here is block #1:

these are made with 2.5" strips, cut wit the Hex 'N More ruler as 60o triangles, and then pieced into a larger triangle.