SewCal Red and White Challenge

SewCalGal is hosting A Year of Red & White Quilt Challenges . Have a look at the scheduling HERE

For February this involves designing a red & white quilt. I love designing quilts and also am fortunate enough to have EQ7.  I could have designed many spectacular quilts using a red and white theme, but when I read about it, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

My favourite block, found on one of my many explorations of the Internet, when looking around for older style, traditional quilt blocks that I could draw into the EQ7 program is "An Arrangement of Small Pieces". Once you know the grid it is drawn on, it is fairly simple to redraw any block in EQ7. I often do this and have a number of older style blocks that I place in My Library which can then be used like the blocks that already come with the EQ program.



This block goes back to the The Kansas City Star (1928-1960) and is described as one of the very few quilt blocks that describes in its name what quilting actually is all about. (you can find it at Antique Geometric Quilt Designs  and also in Maggie Malone's 5500 Quilt block Designs, p.38 (with a slight colour variation).  Apart from that I have not seen it anywhere else and have never seen a quilt made of it. Now I found this fascinating and got somewhat stuck on this block, possibly because it looks so plain and unassuming. Playing around with it in EQ7 there are some fantastic variations that one can create using this block. I already posted about this in an earlier post, but apart from a little table runner, never got around to actually making a full sized quilt using this block.

I think this block lends itself perfectly to a two coloured quilt and to emphasize the beauty of this block my virtual quilt is designed with simplicity in mind.

Here it is, my entry to the Red & White Challenge:  An Arrangement Of Small Pieces

An Arrangement Of Small Pieces

The quilt measures 56in x 65in and  I used just one main colour from the Jinny Beyer Palette (one of my favourite designers).  In terms of yardage one would need 2 3/8yd white background fabric, 2 7/8yd dark red tone-on-tone print and 1/4 yd light red small scale print. Now, I realise that not everyone will think that this is just extraordinary, but, hey, we all have our little obsessions and this block appears to be mine.

Have a look what else you can do with this block

This is just one of the many variations that I have come up with using my trusted EQ7 program. The possibilities are truly amazing and I keep coming up with new ones.

Really should knuckle down and actually piece my Arrangement Of Small Pieces together, maybe then I will get this block out of my system











Linking up to SewCalGal's A Year of Red & White Challenges The event is open until March 23rd, so there is plenty of time for you to come up with your own design to enter...in any case, make sure you head over to SewCalGal for the remainder of the time to have a look at the entries. I am so looking forward to this.

Karin

UFO Sunday- An Arrangement of Small Pieces

I have a few UFOs left over from last year.

Instead of working on them I dragged out some blocks that had ended up in the UFO block pile and decided to sew them up. I started on these blocks early last year, having visions of making a bed sized quilt out of them.  I  experimented with the block in terms of its construction as I did not want to foundation piece it and made a few trial versions of the block...not exactly sure what happened next, but I think I decided the fabric was just not right, at least not for a whole quilt.

I love this block. It is called 'An Arrangement of Small Pieces'  and traces back to the The Kansas City Star (1928-1960). Such an unassuming little block that offers so many possibilities. I still have an idea for a quilt in my head (and on EQ7) but have not yet found the fabric for it.  I think this will be a case of  knowing it is the right fabric when I see it. Have a look  at the tutorial I wrote last year if you want to have a bit of a look on how to make this block.

I thought that the blocks, while not strictly matching in colour arrangement, could look nice together on a white background to make into a table runner. That way, they are not forgotten in that pile and I can use this to practice my FMQ in the border...I am thinking feathers all around to soften the strong geometric look.

This is how far I got in just a few hours ...ready to baste! (might have to have a look at my other blocks in the UFO block pile ...there are probably a few small projects in there). Table runners are such excellent practice pieces for FMQ.

Apologies re photo... This could be better. Somehow I just could not get a better shot and the white fabric on a white background made it look a bit "bla" (so I edited the grey surround in).

Linking up to Leah Day's UFO Sunday on the Freemotion Quilting Project.


Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along #16

I was quite happy when Leah Day announced we are having a break during the month of May. Things have been hectic for me at work and most of last week I was sick, so I generally lost a bit of direction.

On the weekend I finally sat down and went through my stash...that was a bit of an overwhelming experience. There are a lot of potential projects in there, one more enticing than the other. While going through I came across a packet of some 20 fat quarters (blenders in all sorts of colours). I got this some years ago when I renewed my subscription to one of the quilting magazines. No idea what I was saving them for. I now decided to use them for the continuation of our Quilt Alongs with Leah Day...initially I thought I would prepare some squares, practice new designs on them and then sew them together using the QAYG method, however I have now decided to actually make a quilt top similar to Leah Day's Batik quilt...mine will just be a smaller version of  blender squares with some sashing and a border, so all I have to do for the Quilt Alongs is to get that out and practice the design on it. While the QAYG method is a good option, knowing myself it will sit there for another couple of years. This way I should have a quilt top finished by the end of the Quilt Alongs.

I have now started my 'An Arrangement of Small Pieces' project. Here are the first three blocks...decided after all to stick to one colour per block.

An Arrangement of Small Pieces

The blocks come together quickly and I will be able to chain-piece 3 - 4 at a time, so this now looks all very manageable and should be reasonably quick (already have another design in mind which I am quite excited about).

Then tried some Zippling...I did not think that I would like the design that much as I have tried something similar before and my brain just could not handle the straight lines. Well, this time it went very smoothly. While I did not have particular shapes in mind, I just zig-zagged along and it turned out quite well and I actually found it easier to interlock than the Sharp Stippling. Fun design to play with.

Zippling

Until next time

Karin

An Arrangement of Small Pieces

Earlier in the year I spoke about my project for the year...a quilt made with a block called "An Arrangement of Small Pieces". I found this block on my favourite web site  Antique Geometric Quilt Designs and somehow got fixated on it (and I mean fixated - not quite sure why but I really like its name and the idea that a quilt actually is an arrangement of small pieces). However, then the setting up of the blog, moving house and life in general got in the way and I did not make any progress on it whatsoever. The last few days I was trying to again explore the origins of the block a bit further however this has proven difficult. It is included in Maggie Malone's 5500 Quilt Block Designs Book (2003) and I believe it got published originally in the Kansas City Star publication (by Nancy Cabot?). I thought that I had once come across it on the web, however could not find it anymore anywhere. In Maggie Malone's book it is given as a Nine Patch block and on the Antique Geometric  Quilt Design web site it is presented as a 6 X 6 grid.

First of all, I drafted the block in my trusted EQ7 program using the 6 x 6 grid. Initially I had it as a 12" block, however then later scaled it down.

An Arrangement of Small Pieces

This is what it looks like. I then explored how best to sew this. I did do a practice sample earlier in the year but now that I am getting closer to actually starting on this, feel that I need to re-visit this. This could be foundation pieced quite easily however I do not fancy foundation piecing an entire quilt...also that would mean (unless my thinking is not quite straight) that the seams of each triangle would be facing up which would cause an issue when putting it all together in terms of lining up the intersections. So, at the moment I am thinking that I am going to piece this having the seams of the triangles alternating, so that it fits together neatly when completing the block.

The whole block would finish at 9" square which is a size that I like working with. In terms of fabric I tried all sorts of things but kept coming back to Thirties fabric. Not that I really like Thirties fabric (my preference is country and reproduction fabrics) but for some reason this block seems to need it. Initially I tried to audition what I had and thought I could complement it with other bits and pieces, however I finally had to concede that this was not going to work - my idea is to do a variation of this block which would involve either having a srappy type look or go for the more restrained scrappy type look which then incidentally gives you a nice secondary pattern.



Restrained Scrappy-type look

Scrappy-type look

So, undecided at this point, and also still looking at ways to simplify the contruction of this block. Anyway, I ended up buying a Moda Jelly roll (30's Playtime, Chloe's Closet) Not cheap, but gives me a lot of fabric to play with and ultimately cheaper than continuously adding to the 'bitses' that I have (and then never quite having enough).

Well, only one thing left to do...I actually have to do a bit of a practice run to see whether I can piece this accurately enough. Also have to continue working on my Craftsy BOM...still working on the February block!

Until next time

Karin