Working on my mini quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap over on flickr today.
I used emedoodle’s 3 Layered Star paper piecing pattern.
What do you think, partner?
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Sewing & Inspiration
Category Archives: Pattern
Work In Progress Wednesday
Work in Progress: Zakka Style Baby Quilt
Hey look, it’s my First. Ever. WIP Wednesday post! I so rarely take pictures of items that I’m working on, usually reserving the “big reveal” for the finished product. Over the long weekend I did a lot of sewing but didn’t fully finish anything, so I took pictures anyway.
This is a baby quilt pattern from Zakka Style: 24 Projects Stitched with Ease to Give, Use & Enjoy by Rashida Coleman-Hale. I know I’m way behind in this and everyone who wanted that book already has it and its old news, but I only just bought it for myself, so you’ll have to bear with me.
It took such a short time to whip out this quilt! It was complete and ready to photograph before the sun went down on Sunday, and I didn’t even get started until Sunday morning. I love, love, love the birdies on white, so I decided to build my fabrics around that one.
The quilt is 45″ x 60″ and I didn’t have any real linen on hand, so I used a linen-colored solid that I had lying around. Unfortunately, that means that my long strips came up a touch short. Oops! I had to piece some scraps onto the ends, but I alternated them in the quilt so they wouldn’t make a solid line and break up the quilt design in an odd way. You can hardly see it, I think!
I’m still deciding how I want to quilt this one. I always like the idea of somehow echoing the patchwork design in the quilting, but the reality is that an all over free-motion design is so much simpler.
The quilt is larger than I expected. 60″ in reality is way more than the fantasy in my head. I hope the baby that it is a gift for will love it for years to come!
Nubees Block Swap update
So I’m still swapping like a mad woman in 2012. I finished up two new sets for my hive members just this past weekend:
For Hive #1, March/April 2012 swap I made up a block based on the knee socks quilt block from The Modern Quilt Guild:
The tutorial for the original block can be found here: http://themodernquiltguild.com/2012/03/04/100-days-week-of-using-what-you-have-knee-socks-quilt-block/ . I’m going to have to explore it further soon, I love it that much.
For Hive #8, April 2012 swap I made wonky churn dashes for all (except one hive member who didn’t want a wonky block so I made her a special non-wonky one 
):
I have a new love for churn dashes, I think. The first time I really worked with this block was to make the baby quilt that is currently for sale on Etsy. I really didn’t like the pattern then, but I was also working hard to preserve and use every scrap of the print because I only had enough for that one small quilt and it’s out of print now. With these I had a little more freedom to play around and I like the effect.
Next up, a report on my Doll Quilts, the one I sent AND the one I received in turn.
Tagged 2012, April, block, churn dash, hive, knee socks, march, modern blocks, nubees, Quilt, swap
“Missing Rail” Tutorial
I made this quilt for my friends and their little girl (who should be here any second!), using those brilliant prints – Mendocino by Heather Ross. I’d been holding onto the fabrics for a while and I finally figured out what was stopping me from really getting down to working with them – variety. Somehow I’d managed to only get the fabrics with light or white colored backgrounds – mermaid on white, octopuses on pale pink, etc. The moment I added some more color to them, BAM! I had a quilt.
The block is a really simple one, but with near endless possibilities. It’s no secret that I love a rail fence quilt and this is my variation on the simple rail fence block. I played with calling it a “split rail fence” but I like “Missing Rail” – it makes me imagine little kids peering through a gap in a fence that their ball just went over.
This tutorial makes 24 blocks – 4 more than you need to make the quilt I made. You can use the blocks on the back of the quilt, make a pillow from them or just make the quilt larger.
To start, you need a quarter yard (either fat or skinny) of 8 different coordinating fabrics. In addition, you’ll need a quarter yard (not fat) of white for the vertical sashing, & some fabric for binding and backing.
Start by cutting out 3 pieces of each fabric that measure 8 ½” x 9 ½”
You can do this next bit using the stack and whack method – stack up all your like-colored pieces and cut them so that you have 3 new slices: one that is 8 ½” x 4 ½” and two that are 8 ½” x 2 ½”
Mix up that middle 2 ½” slice so that they are randomly paired with a matching 4 ½” and 2 ½” piece and sew them back together to form 8 ½” squares.
My sashing is made from 2 ½” strips of white cotton and the blocks are only sashed in one direction (vertical)
You can mix up your blocks however you like, mine are turned both horizontally and vertically, but the variations are endless:
My suggestion:
No sashing, all blocks turned vertically:
Only two colors, blocks turned 180 degrees each iteration:
On my sewing table right now:
I’m trying out a new (to me) free motion quilting design on this baby quilt. It’s called “Trailing Spirals“. What do you think?
Tagged baby, baby quilt, design, free motion, heather ross, mendocino, mermaid, orange, pink, Quilt, Quilting, spiral, trailing spirals, white, work in progress