BOM Quilt

Well, it's almost done!

I just have to hand sew the binding.

I used black and white fabric for the sashing and corner stones.

You can't really see the binding, but it is a very bright multi-colored

funky stripe.  Really makes the sashing pop.

Very fun project V!  Thanks for the play.

Tea Rose Quilt Top Complete (well almost!)

Thanks for the kind words of support and great colour suggestions.. I've plotted my journey on my blog if you have 5 mins - there's only a small portion of 'made' fabric in my colleraboration quilt (BOM meets Project Linus orphan blocks) but I have so enjoyed my 15 hours mins play!!!

Just some red binding to go to finish it off and accent the red borders

BOM quilt

I've been staring at these random blocks all week - all unrelated - the big pink ones are from a donation to Project Linus and I knew I had some blue stars lurking too. Then I got Victoria's email yesterday which has got me thinking about combining my BOM blocks with some orphan Linus blocks.- to make a quilt for Project Linus.. can anything become of this merger?? This is my next idea.

 

I like the idea of the pinks and blues but would like to add something a bit quirky out of 'made fabric' onto the large pink triangles.. like an applique something or other?? any ideas as to what is called for , would be greatly appreciated

2 for me and 1 for V

 

 

 

Glen I am so pleased you pushed that button the other day. Absolutely love my jar of bugs - think it is my favourite so far.

I have also completed one for the basics BOM quilt. I had a slight oopsy with this one but hopefully it is OK. I had just enough bright green fabric for the background with only a few scraps left over. Unfortunately I cut one of the smaller corner squares in half when making my HST's. I have had to replace the two corner squares with a slightly different fabric from the same range.

More Blocks of the Month

I just moved, but I set up an ad hoc sewing area so I could get to sewing right away! I'm trying to catch up on my blocks of the month, and still have quite a few more to make. Here's my most recent additions:

Cactus Flower

Hybrid Tea Rose

My BOM's to date

I am very excited to finally have space for a design wall in my new home. Do you have any recommendations for an easy and inexpensive way to set one up? Thanks gals!

BOM - Bug Jar!

Back here at the tail end of the middle of the group, there have been some really great and fabulous blocks already done. Some were even blocks that I had hoped to post as my month! I guess getting in line to be first can be a good thing sometimes! LOL.


But I think I found something really exciting. I am a total insomniac. I stay awake for a long long long time every night after everyone else has gone to bed. I have three dogs snoring softly (some NOT so softly) and I can hear Frank snoring from all the way out in the living room with the TV going! I watch a lot of late night TV and cruise the quilt sites on my iPad until about 2 or 3 AM every night.

One of my favorite blocks has always been the Bug Jar. I have collected fabrics to make a Jar Quilt for a long time but have never really made one. Maybe this will turn the corner on that idea today!

I thought we could make a Fabric Jar Block. I envision a quilt with jars of different colors – one red scraps, one blue scraps, a yellow and a green jar. An orange sitting on one corner and a tall purple one in the middle maybe.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a whole shelf unit full of different sized jars of fabric? Way cool. You can have mixed up colors of the rainbow in each jar and maybe different sizes of jars of multicolored scraps. You can dream in rainbows! If you can sleep!

Here is how to make a bug jar. I will show you some variations as well and you can get creative from there.

You need a background fabric. And a lid fabric. The coolest lids I have seen are from stripes so find a nice stripe scrap for your lid. And of course your made fabric.

For a 12 inch finished block this will measure 12.5 inches unfinished. Oh, just for reference .125 is 1/8 inch and .825 is 7/8 inch.

Cut:

8.5 x 8.5 of jar contents – this is your made fabric

1.75 x 5.5 – this is your striped fabric lid

Background – 2.5 x 12.5 block top

                      1.25 x 12.5 block bottom
               Two 2.5 x 8.5 block sides
               Two 1.75 x 4 lid sides
               Four 1.5 x 1.5 squares for jar corners

You can make a 6.5 inch jar block by cutting the following:

4.5 x 4.5 jar contents

1.125 x 3 – striped cap fabric
Background – 1.5 x 6.5 block top
                      .825 x 6.5 block bottom
              Two 1.5 x 4.5 block sides
              Two 1.125 x 2.25 lid sides
              Four 1 x 1 squares for jar corners

                                                            To assemble:

1. Get your bug jar square made fabric. Mark a diagonal line on your four jar background corners. Place the background fabric corner squares on the four corners of the bug jar square and sew on the diagonal (actually just to the outside of the line). Press toward the outside and trim the excess from the back of the jar. This makes the jar corners.

2. Sew the background jar sides to the sides of the jar piece.

3. Sew the lid between the two lid sides background pieces to form a long skinny strip.

4.  Lay out the block in the following order:

block top (background)
lid strip
jar strip
block bottom (background)

5. Sew the block together and trim to 12.5 x 12.5 inches. If you are making the smaller block you will trim your block to be 6.5 x 6.5 inches.

If you want to be creative and make a different size jar you can sketch your block in a program like EQ or on draft paper. Here are some measurements for a tall block and a baby food jar block. You assemble the block the same way as before.

Tall block that finishes 8 x 12. To make it finish 12 x 12 just add 2 inches to your sides to make the block background wider.






For an 8 x 12 finished block:                       For a 12 x 12 finished block:

          2 x 8.5         Block top (background)       2 x 12.5
          2 x 3.5        Lid (stripes)                          2 x 3.5
  Two 2 x 3          Lid sides (background)           2 x 5
          5.5 x 8        Jar fabric (made fabric)         5.5 x 8
 Four 1.5 x 1.5      Jar corners (background)      1.5 x 1.5
 Two 2 x 8            Block sides (background)      4 x 8
         2 x 8.5         Block bottom (background)   2 x 12.5


If you want a flat bottomed jar, leave off the two bottom corners of the jar. You can tweak the measurements in any number of different ways and make a variety of different shapes and sizes. Oh, you can make the top corners of the jar larger than the bottom two corners and have a different sort of jar.

Enjoy!

glen

Playing Catch Up

Finally got to work on these blocks.  I love how they turned out and learned a lot about making a BIG piece of made fabric.  Now I need to work on the basket and HST blocks that Victoria posted.  This is so much fun. 

Hugs, Cathy

My Hybrid Tea Rose

I really like this block.  I did the leaves a little different.  I made a log cabin block and cut it on the diagonal.  Now on to the next BOM.  Hugs

BOM: Churn Dash Slash

For this block of the month, we're going to take a classic quilt block, the churn dash, and pizazz it up with made and slashed fabric. This tutorial will make 2-12 1/2" blocks with the effect that the churn dash shapes were cut from each other and are floating on top of the background. This would be a great block for using a large or directional print for the background/contrast fabric.

First- make fabric!

1. Start by sewing a 14-15" square of made fabric. Add a slash or two- it will look best if your slash goes somewhere near the middle of the block. Trim to 14 1/2".

Cutting

1. Cut a 14 1/2" square of contrast fabric.



2. Now, cut each square into an uneven 9-patch by slicing a 4" strip off of each side, making sure to keep the pieces in place. You will have:

1- 6/12" center square
4- 4" x 4" squares
4- 4" x 6 1/2" rectangles

3. Next, cut each 4" x 6 1/2" rectangle in 2 the long way, again making sure to keep track of each piece's position in the 9-patch. You will have 8-2" x 6 1/2" rectangles for each block.



4. Finally, cut each corner square on the diagonal. Make sure to cut the diagonals framing the center square for the made fabric, and also if you are using a large or directional print for your contrasting fabric.


Arrange the Pieces

1. Start to switch out the pieces closest to inner circle, making sure to swap for the piece in the same position form the other block to get the effect that the contrast churn dash is floating on top of you made fabric and vice versa.



2. The two churn dashes emerge once you switch out all the pieces.


Sewing

1. Sew the corner triangles with a scant 1/4" seam to make half-square triangles. Trim to 3 1/2" square.


2. Sew the rectangles together along the long side. Usually I chain piece and throw it all together, but for this block, I pinned, and sewed one pair at a time so I could keep all the pieces aligned.

You will have 4 3 1/2" x 6 1/2" rectangles. Remember to keep them in their places!


3. Press the rectangles and half-square triangles open with the seams towards the contrast fabric. When you lay out your block, you will have:

1- 6 1/2" center square
4- 3 1/2" corner half-square triangles
4- 3 1/2" x 6 1/2" rectangles

4. Now sew the side pieces onto the center pieces.


5. Press with the seams of the center section towards the contrast fabric. Press the seams of the top and bottom section in the opposite direction.



5. Sew the top and bottom onto the middle section.



6. Press the seams toward the contrast fabric.


Ta-daa! Your block is done!


Now go back and repeat the sewing steps for the reverse block.

Enjoy!

B.O.M. July - Hybrid Tea Rose

This is a block that featured in the Block Lotto a couple of months ago and credit goes to Kate of http://katesquilting.blogspot.com/ for tweaking and modernising an old block and calling this one Modern Clover .
By using  'made' material and spiralling in a wonky 5 sided log cabinny way - you can create a rose effect.

First, you'll need your scaps - mine aren't colour co-ordinated in seperate bags - just piled in an Ikea bag - organised chaos!! Anyway, you'll need to choose a colour-way for the rose, some greens for the leaves and stem and some plain colour for the background - I have chosen white

It was a race to see if I had more blues than pinks

Green strips for the leaves

Sew enough strips together to form a square (on point) of 7 inches

 My blue stash won!! Sew your rose colours in a wonky log cabinesque way to give the impression of petals curling around a centre (Can you see why mine's a Hydrid T (ea) Rose!!) Again to be on the safe side it needs to be about 7 inches square - I can say this now with the benifit of hindsight

 Once squared, I cut the green square so that the stripes run horizontally. You will also require 2 back-ground squares of 7" cut into triangles. Plus a nice green stem.

 Sew the leaf triangles to the white ones, and sew the stem inbetween the last two triangles. As I am slap dash in my approach I have estimated on the big side so that at this part, I can square them up to the correct size of 6 1/2" square. Maths is not my strong point so please feel free to advise an easier approach!!

Sew the rose to a leaf square and the stem to the other leaf square - Take care at this point to match up the centre point as you now sew the remaining 2 last pieces into place.

Place a pin at the point where the 2 centre seams meet and sew in 2 parts - from the pin to the end - turn over and again from pin to the end

Once complete, square up the block to a 12 1/2" square

Here's a picture of my toes that also happens to have 2 completed blocks. The first pink one that I tried, I accidently cut the green block in half the wrong way - but its OK - Check out the wobbly stem - it was a windy day.

Cactus Flower

Just finished my Cactus Flower.  Wasn't sure how the green was going to look since all my blocks are red, blue, a little white and cheddar yellow background.  But I think it turned out all right.  I am sure having fun with these.  You have all done such a great job with the tutorials.  Hugs