Taking a Break...

I've got a lot going on at the moment, and am a bit behind on quilting - so I'm going to take a 2-week break from blogging.

See you back here on April 3.

Quilt 147: Scrappy Charm Squares On Point - DONE!

One of my favorite designs for a crib-sized quilt is the one done with charm squares stitched together to form a 6x12 block rectangle, and then cut down and rotated to get the on-point effect.

Quilt 90 was the first one I made using the design (and on that post I showed how it's done - click here to see the post).  This is my fourth time making one of them.

This one is different in one respect:  It's made up entirely of charm squares that were left over from other projects!  Well, I love the economy of THAT!

And here it is:

48" x 48" - quilted on the Q-Matic (stitch design is "AJSPANTO15 Rose Blossom") - bamboo batting

 Not only are the squares leftovers, but the 2 borders on the top were made from leftovers.  Even the batting is made up of 2 offcuts from other projects, which I tacked together.

The stitching pattern I purchased from on the Urban Elementz website:

"AJSPANTO15 Rose Blossom"

Here's a closup of thetop, showing these gorgeous roses:

And here it is on the backing:

Another success!

Quilt 146: "Chain Link" with Gembrook Strips - DONE!

Last month I posted about a strip quilt I made using Australian-manufactured jelly roll with the name "Gembrook".  After making that quilt, I actually had quite a few strips left over, and after mixing in a few scraps from the bindings of other quilts, found I had enough to make a quilt using a block called "Chain Link".

Here's the first block I made - and you can pretty much tell exactly how it's done just by looking at it:

I used 2.5" strips for this - so the pieces in the block above include:

• 2.5" x 2.5" (5 white squares, 8 colour squares)
• 2.5" x 4.5" (4 colour)
• 2.5" x 6.5" (4 colour)
• 4.5" x 4.5" (white -for the corners)

I put the squares together and added a soft grey 4" border (and backing).  I used dove grey thread for the quilting - and here's the finished quilt!:

48" x 60" - quilted on the Q-Matic - Bamboo batting

Here's a closeup showing the quilting design - stippling and double hearts.  It's quite dense, but really compliments the overall design.

A while back, a friend of mine gave me a package of jelly roll strips - leftovers she didn't want.  Looking at what is there, there's almost enough to make another one of these, perhaps if I pick up a couple of fat quarters with the same bright white/pink/green colours.  I'm going shopping this week and hope to find what I need, and if I do... there'll be another one of these shortly!
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Quilt 145: Tractor Factor - DONE!

This one is a simple one, but terribly cute.  It's just a large printed panel with a border of solid gold homespun on the outside.

48" x 52" - quilted on the Q-Matic - bamboo batting

I opted to use chocolate coloured thread for the quilting so that I could do edge-to-edge quilting without having the thread interfere with the images of the tractors.  as you can see, it worked pretty well.

Here's the quilt pattern I selected - it came with the Q-Matic

The backing fabric is the same as the outer border, and here's what the stitching looks like on the back.

Easy, simple, but very effective!  This one is going to the charity Inspirational Quilts - and I think some little boy is going to just love it!

Tips and Tricks: Looking Thru Rose Coloured Glasses

I love making simple block quilts with charm squares and pieced block quilts with different prints on them.  Deciding on the arrangement of the blocks in the top can be a little tricky, however, as I've found in the past that my quilts don't always have the balance between dark and light blocks that I'm aiming for.

For example, look at this quilt from last year:




I wouldn't call this a "total fail" - but you cansee that the dark pinks are clustered in the upper half, and the stripe blocks aren't quite as evenly distributed as they might be.  It's not like I just threw the blocks down willy-nilly; I did spend considerable time arranging them.  But when I'm sorting through and deciding how to arrange blocks like these, it isn't long before my eyes become a little fatigued.

Then I saw a product review for "Sew Red Glasses". And became intruiged.  I looked for an Australian source for them, but couldn't find one, so I decided to just buy a pair of cheap red-lense glasses on eBay - and here they are:

Here's a quilt I'm working on now.  There are only 12 blocks here, so not really a lot of options on where to put things.  Even so, when I put on the glasses, I'll see the blocks differently.

Here's the same block arrangement seen through the glasses. 

The red in the glasses makes the image more monochrome/greyscale, and so colour becomes less obvious and contrast between the lighter/darker prints more obvious, making it easier to check the balance.

I suspect that the Sew Red Glasses work much better than my cheapo eBay glasses do, but it's a step in the right direction!