I finished a little quilt earlier this year from a single Jelly Roll that I’d gotten from Craftsy and I’ve been thinking about making another one – I haven’t calculated how many 2.5 inch strips this one would take but the block size is 12 inches finished and the quilt size is 60×84. I wanted to see how it would look alternating blue and red framed blocks … I’d go scrappy with my strips of course but it’s easier to draft in just 3 colors.

This may be my Jelly Roll project the next time Stephanie pulls Jelly Rolls out of the hat for our Precut Party.

In addition to playing around in TouchDraw drafting quilts, I’m doing some binding and am ready to start sewing my Hexagon flower and 9 patches together – all the blocks are made/appliquéd.

Today was a travel day and since I had plenty of time to kill on the trip home from Jamaica, I played around with some ideas for 16 patch star quilts.

For a 12 inch finished block, the squares in the 16 patch would be 1.5 inches finished (2 inches with seam allowances) and the half square triangles would be 3 inches finished (3.5 inches with seam allowances).

For a larger quilt with a 16 inch finished block, the squares in the 16 patch would be 2 inches finished (2.5 inches with seam allowances) and the half square triangles would be 4 inches finished (4.5 inches with seam allowances).

And how about a RWB one? This one is a little more complicated, but more interesting too. The pieced border continues the pattern to the edges.

I’m looking forward to being back in the sewing room but probably not this weekend … I’m very tired and Keith travels Monday so we’ll probably have a relaxing weekend … once Finn calms down after getting home in the morning!

I’m sure you all could figure out this quilt by yourself but I wrote up a few notes on the website and drafted it in RWB – eventually, I’ll make one for a veteran too.

RWB Windmills

I plan a lot more quilts than I actually make but I’ve spent a couple hours this morning drafting (and shopping for) another quilt.

Do you remember this vintage quilt from eBay?

Even though borders aren’t my favorite thing to sew, I really, really like this quilt and can see making several of them. Connecting Threads came out with a new map line of fabric a few months back and I’ve bought a bunch of it not knowing what I might use it for and I’ve decided this quilt will look good in this collection. I had to shop some because I bought fat quarters and just a little yardage and I needed more yardage. The fat quarters will be saved for another quilt.

Before I could shop, I had to think about my rounds … I drafted several different versions and while I’ll make my final decision once I’m ready to start and have the fabric in front of me, I think it will end up like the quilt on the left.

You know I don’t work with small pieces so I drafted a quick quilt based on the vintage rail fence I posted yesterday.

I’ll cut my strips 2 inches for a block that will finish at 10.5 inches (11 inches with seam allowances). The squares can be cut from 2 inch pieces or I can even see using some of those small scraps I save that never get used and vary the size but the width of the pieced strip will need to be 2 inches with seam allowances.

Quilt size = 52.5 x 73.5

Block size = 10.5 inches (11 inches with seam allowances)

Set Blocks 5 across and 7 rows down – 35 blocks needed

 

I’m still playing around with the Fox and Geese quilt – I like this RWB coloration better  than the first one I think. In that one, the red was in the larger triangles and the blue in the smaller and while I liked the overall look, I think alternating blocks made from red with ones made from blue look better.

You could make this several ways

• as a 3 fabric quilt using one background, one red, one blue as shown in the drawing
•  using one background but different reds and blues – making each block from one fabric plus the background
• same as above, but using different backgrounds in each block
• go scrappy with your reds and blues using  more than one red or blue in a block but keeping your background to one fabric
• or go completely scrappy and use multiple blues and reds in each block and using a scrappy background too.

This is a smaller quilt and I will probably make it in kid friendly fabrics using 3 and 6 inch half square triangles. Block size would be 12 inches finished.  Refer to my previous post for ideas for a larger veteran size quilt. 

Eventually I’ll add this one to the website but there’s enough information in these two posts to get you started if you want. And if you didn’t see the vintage inspiration quilt … it’s in this post.

There’s also another option for placing your colors … look closely at the inspiration quilt and you can see that they change the position of the light and dark fabrics and have a “dark” background block and a “light” background block and alternate those two.

Have I given you lots of options or confused you?!!

I like big blocks, I can not lie …. are you singing it with me?!

I’d like to try this one as a 12 inch block but it might not look as good. Here’s a draft of a RWB version for a veteran. I put borders on it but you could also just make 35 blocks and set them 5 x 7 for a quilt that is also 60×84 or use a smaller 8 inch block if you’d like.  The inner border on this one is cut 2.5 inches and the outer border is cut 4.5  inches.

I’ve got a set of fat quarters and might make a scrappy kid’s quilt with 20 blocks, set 4 x 5 and finishing at 48 x 60.