I’m a couple days late posting this but I make and share ideas for RWB quilts for veterans as a way to honor and thank those that have served. My RWB hourglass top quilted last week will be donated to a veteran and I’ve got another RWB top I hope to get quilted this week. I’ve been wanting to make another version of my Autumn Leaves quilt. This one was pieced before we moved to Minneapolis so it’s at least 14 or 15 years old and it’s still one of my favorites.
And since I’m finishing up the two veteran tops I have here, it’s time to start thinking about the next one so I drafted a Rail Fence quilt with friendship stars. Block size will be 6 inches finished, 6.5 inches with seam allowances.
I’m always so inspired by my time here in Maine and anxious to get home and sew HeartStrings blocks!! We’ve decided on a couple projects for the coming year which I’ll announce in a few days but I wanted to share a couple other HeartStrings variations that I love and want to make again too. You can’t go wrong with one of our standard red or blue centered HeartStrings quilts.
But variations are fun too! Several Sharon inspired HeartStrings quilts were being worked on at the sew-in. These are more planned quilts using just 8 fabrics and a standard strip size. I’ve made 4 of these in the past and I’m ready to make another one too and I’m almost positive that I’ve got fabric set aside from one of my GA trips still waiting to become one!
I shared one of my HeartStrings quilts inspired by Ann during the Quilter’s Meet and Greet and Ann had another one to donate at this year’s sew-in.
I made mine with the black centers and corners also but I was looking back through the photos of previous sew-ins and found this version she made during our black and bright project.
And this RWB version she made … I’m thinking I need to make a RWB one too and I think I have the perfect center fabric in my stash.
I’m posting this while it’s all fresh in my mind but I won’t be able to start any for a couple months. I’m only going to be home a week before I go to visit Mom in VA and she’ll be coming home with me for a visit. We’ve got lots of projects planned already … and you know I have that brand spanking new longarm waiting for me too! It’s so true what they say … so many quilts, so little time!
I’m a little obsessed with shells right now … (I must have an obsessive personality – first ripples, then linen stitch, and now shells). I thought I remembered a shell Afghan from one of my books and I was right.
This one is from the book 7 Day Afghans and it might just be my next one. I’m almost finished my 2nd cake but I’ve got a long way to go on this current one. I lucked out and the extra cakes I bought at Michaels are the same dye lot so now I have plenty of yarn to make the length proportional to the width! Next time I won’t chain so many!
From the book 7 Day Afghans by Leinhauser and Weiss
When I’m not sewing, I’m looking for inspiration or shopping and we all know that I don’t need to do any more shopping!!! I have a saved search for Vintage Quilts on eBay and get emails with results of the search daily … I find so much inspiration in vintage quilts.
Today before heading out I spent some time looking. Did I mention my bow tie die arrived before I left on my trip?! Of course I’ll have to finish up the Kite top before starting anything else but I’m anxious to make a bow tie quilt from that same blue/green/purple bin of fabric I’ve pulled out for the Kites.
I like both these settings for bow tie blocks and will probably eventually do two quilts, one with each setting.
I love scrappy rail fence quilts and love how that one black rail ties all these blocks together. Do you think those are stitches or basting stitches?!! I’m thinking basting. I might use my string bin for one of these rather than cutting strips.
Another snowball quilt is on my list, next time to be paired with a nine patch block and I love the color arrangement in this vintage quilt.
Speaking of nine patches, I don’t enjoy sashing quilts but I love this homespun 9 patch with this wide sashing!
Seeing this one, made me run to the Accuquilt site to see if my 8 inch Qube set included a square on point die … I’ve said I’m not a big fan of the Qubes because they are smaller dies and cut fewer shapes per pass than many of the other dies but in this case my set does include an on point square … and I’m saving this idea and putting it on my to do list. It’s a very easy quilt but I love it!
I hope you’ve found some inspiration from today’s batch of vintage quilts too.
I was talking about my unused Accuquilt dies the other night when I shared the vintage bow tie quilt. I have a Kite die that hasn’t been used yet.
I’d like to make a scrappy quilt with it — here’s one I found on eBay the other night. The edges on this one look uneven so I’m betting they used diamonds between the kite blocks. The die makes this one a lot easier.
I love this vintage bow tie quilt I found last night on eBay. I want the Accuquilt GO 6 inch bow tie die but I have dies that I haven’t even used yet so I’m holding off for now.
I made this bow tie from a kit about 4 years ago and I thought it turned out really cute. It was donated.
I dislike the method of making triangles from using a square on a corner and trimming them so I wouldn’t make one using that method but this one was made by appliquing the center square on top of a 4 patch so I could always make another one that way.
I also made one from Charm Squares when Rae was little.
I have not managed to get the half Log Cabin top assembled yet. Maybe I’ll find some time tomorrow?! Or maybe Monday. I did finish the little yellow afghan and I’m going to start another one tonight.
Keith and I enjoyed our bike ride today – 10 miles along Bayshore to downtown and back. I’m glad he’s home! He travels a lot and I don’t mind his shorter trips (2-3 days) but I miss him when he’s gone a whole week.
Yes, I have a problem — I can’t resist buying Jelly Rolls on sale. I won’t pay $40 dollars for them but $13 – $18 … yep, I’m in and I always buy more fabric when I’m not getting time in the sewing room so September and October were bad (good?) shopping months for me. Now, it’s time to think about how to use them. You can always do a google image or Pinterest search for Jelly Roll quilts but I thought I’d look at my quilt photos and see what I have that can be made from 2.5 inch strips. Some quilts have borders, some have added backgrounds so I can certainly pull from stash to add to the Jelly Roll or I can just make them borderless. Some I have two or maybe even 3 of the same Jelly Roll and others I have just one.
I’m adding the photos as a slideshow since there are so many of them and it’s nice to have the ideas in one place when I’m ready to start sewing them.
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Do you buy them? What’s your favorite pattern you’ve used to make a Jelly Roll Quilt?
I was looking through my photos and the website today and this Rail Fence caught my eye again … and then Ann said she was working on a quilt kind of based on it too so I thought I’d share it here
I’m also ready to make another Drunkard’s Path … nothing fancy, just something scrappy.
This HeartStrings quilt was another one from Homespuns … I think I’ve got a few scraps left in a baggie (somewhere) but these three pretty much used the rest of my homespun stash.
