Circle of Squares

This post is part of an ongoing series.  Follow along as I make blocks using designs from my pinterest board with hopes of a beautiful sampler quilt at the end.

 

Block 6 is called Circle of Squares.

 It looks way more complicated than it really is, as you assemble 2 easy sub-block designs and then sew it together like a nine-patch.  Easy!

In my dreams, when this quilt is finished, I'll be able to have Denyse Schmidt herself sign part of my quilt.  This block, with it's big empty white square in the middle would be a perfect spot wouldn't it?
Hey, Denyse!  If you're reading this...Call me!
xx
:)
Emily

My pin
Block tutorial
Changes:  Instead of using 4 - 2.5" squares to make the corner sub-block design, I cut a white rectangle 2.5" by 4.5".  I think it gives it a cleaner look.

Stashing ::Pinks and Blues::

This post is part of an ongoing series of posts where I document my fabric stash purchases.

This year I am trying to keep track of my fabric intake in order to see how much I consume.  I'm not going to keep track of how much I spend, though, because then I might cry. 

For our July meeting of the SLMQG we talked about stash building.  And while I could do a whole post just on the things we discussed, I'll save it for another time. The one thing I would like to share is the "filling in the gaps" portion of the discussion. 

 Can you guess which gaps I needed to fill?

I know, I'm totally surprised myself!  

With both pink and blue I have a nice assortment of lighter fabrics, but am severely lacking in darker/bolder prints.  ...Until now.  Yay, me!

For the record my purple stash is pretty much non-existent.  I blame that on the fact that I haven't met many purples that I like.  My stash might have five purple FQ's in it right now, but I don't see that changing anytime soon.

So now I'm curious, what color(s) is your stash lacking?

Fabrics:

Fuchsia Ta Dot by Michael Miller

Fizzy Dot in Pink Flea Market Fancy Legacy by Denyse Schmidt

Pajama Party Houndstooth in Pink by Barbara Jones

Indie Chic Zig Zag Blue by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake

Small Navy Gingham by Riley Blake

Stella Dot by Dear Stella

Little Kita in Blueberry from Glimma line by Lotta Jansdotter

Happy Stripe Multi from So Happy Together line by Riley Blake 

Block Busting

I've been neglecting some of my bee block making for the past few months due to our basement project, along with a few rounds of out-of-state visits from our family.  So this past weekend I took advantage of an unseasonably cold/overcast day, a burst of sewing energy, and the fact that my husband was off hiking with our oldest son to get caught up. 

 I think it might be time to admit to myself that I need to cut back a little.

 :(

With the completion of these blocks comes the end of yet another round of my Bee Vintage group.  As much as I've loved this group, I'll admit that I'm looking forward to a little break.  Hopefully the time off will help me get excited for round 4.

Fineto

Sorry if you are you growing tired of seeing the same block done in different ways.
I promise this will be the last time I show you this one....

{A little mosaic for your viewing pleasure.}

These were made for the July edition of the {Sew Pieceful} Block Swap.
Blocks 2,3 and 4 are for my bee mates (done in their requested color schemes) while blocks 1, 5 and 6 are for me!
:)

Block dimensions/directions here.

Square in Square

This post is part of an ongoing series.  Follow along as I make blocks using designs from my pinterest board with hopes of a beautiful sampler quilt at the end.
 
I'm finally feeling on top of things in regards to my #pinterestsamplerquilt blocks. 

At least for now, blocks will be shown at regular intervals.

Yay! :)

Block number 5 features an oldie but goodie block design by The Sometimes Crafter.  It's one I've loved for a very long time and features my favorite thing: 2.5" squares!

If I had the stamina/will power I'd make an entire quilt using this design as my little scraps are overflowing!

But, with all that's going on right now I'm sure it will remain just an idea...  :(

My original pin
 The tutorial

{Sew Pieceful} June

My aqua and orange quilt is coming together rather quickly.
I think one or two more months of swapping and I'll have enough blocks! WooHoo!

Here are the blocks I received in June.

Add these to the blocks I already have and this one is shaping up beautifully.

After seeing a pretty block pop up in our group pool from one of my May swap partners, her and I quickly arranged a side swap, as well (we were in different hives for June).

I made her a rainbow-ish Road to Tennessee Block in all solids. 

She made me a Lucky star block in my colors!

Can I just say again how much I love swaps?! 

I'm having so much fun with this one...

Numero Quatro

This post is part of an ongoing series.  Follow along as I make blocks using designs from my pinterest board with hopes of a beautiful sampler quilt at the end.
 
 I know I've been a bit lacking on my pinterest blocks this month, but life gets in the way sometimes.  No apologies, it just is what it is...

Here is block #4 made from my resized cracker jacks block tutorial.
In my opinion, you can't go wrong with a little flea market fancy.

Enjoy!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday

Quilt Club Friendship Quilts

After showing you my Friendship Quilt I thought I'd show you the quilts made by some of my club ladies.  Not everyone has gotten theirs finished yet, but here's the ones that have popped up so far.  Of course, I like mine the best...But isn't that the way it should be?!

It has been fun to see everyone's take on the blocks they received.  

As you can see, we definitely each have our own unique quilt personalities.

 This one was made by Kae. 

 She was the first to get blocks and the first to get hers finished. She has a son who was in the military so a patriotic theme seemed quite obvious for her.

 

This one is Rochelle's.
She loves dark blues.  She made each of us her signature "heart" block in our color schemes.  See if you can spot it in each of the quilts.

Connie wanted a mix of pinks and browns.
She is our newest member as was lucky enough to join in the fun right before the year ended.

Nelda also picked blue, but said either light or dark blues.
She chose to sash her blocks in a two-tone design which I think looks cool with her blocks.

Jolene's black and red blocks are very striking to me.
She did a nice job setting them on point. 

A fun little detail she had was having her quilter add each person's name to the block that they made.  We all thought that was pretty cool!

Like I said, each of us definitely has different tastes, but with a each other's help we've been able to create beautiful quilts for ourselves.
It's been a fun project for us!

Resized

This post is part of an ongoing series.  Follow along as I make blocks using designs from my pinterest board with hopes of a beautiful sampler quilt at the end.
 
Today I've been working on some pinterest sampler blocks which has required some resizing on my part.  Let me just say that math was never my strong suit so I find it highly ironic that I love quilting and quilting requires loads of math. But awhile back I pinned a helpful formula on how to resize quilt blocks.  Worked like a charm even for my mathematically challenged brain.

The original block I pinned finishes at 19" which was too big for me, so here it is reworked and resized to 12.5".

You need 4 - 6.5" sections to make a 12.5" block.
For each of the 4 sections:

Cut 1 - 4" square of white, cut diagonal for 2 - HST's
Cut 1 - 4" square of patterned fabric, cut diagonal for 2 - HST's
Cut 1 strip of white fabric 1 7/8" wide by 4.75" long
Cut 2 strips of patterned fabric 1 7/8" wide by 4.75" long

See original tute for assembly instructions.
BTW - It's super easy to assemble.

I had to trim my blocks down just a hair to get them the right size.
 Here's how I lined up my ruler. You can see that I lined my 1/4" mark with the corner point of the block.  I ended up cutting off about an 1/8" - 1/16" from each side.
With that my block squared up at a perfect 6.5".

Good Luck!

I'll show you the block I made for my pinterest sampler soon...

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Friendship Sampler

I'm so excited to show you this quilt today! 

  I am a lover of classic red and white quilts, (check out my red and white pinterest board)

so when this project came about I knew red and white would be the obvious color choice for me. 

 

My club ladies made me such beautiful and diverse blocks.

 I ended up making myself an extra six blocks so that the quilt would finish as larger throw size. 

 Can you guess which ones I made? 

I decided to go crazy with the traditional feel and added a wavy border. (Wavy border = another crafty goal checked off.)  I am pretty giddy with how it turned out.  It was intimidating, and the math made my head spin, but thankfully I worked through it, bias binding and all!  :)  .

Rather than sew the label on after the quilt was done I wanted it to be a permanent part of the backing, so the scrappy back worked out perfectly.
 

 

I'm pretty much in love with this quilt right now! Can't wait to reveal it to my club ladies next week.

Linking Up to Show and Tell Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, and Finish it up Friday

New :: Vintage

This project started out as a little challenge to myself.

My husband's grandmother was an avid quilter.  She made many, many quilts over the years.  So many that when I asked my mother in law if she could pick a number, she said "hundreds."

My MIL has a bunch of her quilts that are now well-worn family heirlooms. Some are still on beds living out their days keeping visitors warm.

One quilt in particular of hers I like because of it's bright, cherry colors.  She made it using her old house dresses.  Since it is now torn and tattered I decided to see if I could recreate it as a little ode to grandma...

 These are the fabrics I started with.  Just some 30's repros I picked up here and there.  

I wanted them to have the same feel as Grandma's original so I purposely picked non-matchy-matchy prints.  Besides, I'm not much the matchy-matchy type.

 Grandma's original has this same pink background color along with all the bright solids.
As you can see she was a woman who was not afraid of color! 

 I know it's super granny-traditional but it's still very sweet to me.
And it came out looking exactly like hers.

 Since it's a vintage knock-off I thought it deserved a real vintage back.  The pink stripe is a sheet I picked up thrifting many moons ago.  Thrifted sheets = Instantly soft quilts! 

 With this quilt I've also accomplished another goal of mine from this year, which is to make more quilts with non-white backgrounds.  Check!

I'm pretty sure my youngest will lay claim to this quilt in one way or another since it is pink.  I'm thinking with the other 2 quilts she's already claimed I'm going to have to find a way to start displaying them in her room somehow. 

 It will be a sad day when she finally outgrows her love of pink, though.  :(

Details:
Finished size 60" by 78"
Quilted by Lynn Peterson
Hand-sewn binding by Me
Linking up to Fabric Tuesday and Sew Cute Tuesday