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.

Several people mentioned that the block I used in the quilt design yesterday was called Perkiomen Valley Block and an internet search showed that both the block as found in the antique quilt and what I call a split 9 patch – one with there’s a half square triangle also in the center block where this one just has a square – are both being called by that name. Maybe I’ll pull out my block encyclopedias when I finish with this isolation and see if both variations are called by the same name

My scans and appointments went fine today without any issues and we got home about 1pm. I didn’t feel great but I went to my isolation room (Keith’s office where we have a daybed), ate a little something after the prescribed time on clear liquids and then took a nap. I’m feeling better this evening so I pulled out the iPad and drafted another quilt using the same block. It’s similar to a log cabin in that you can lay it out in a number of ways, getting different results just by rotating the blocks.

When I eventually get around to piecing one of these, I’ll have to think about how to press them and if the pressing plan gets too complicated I’ll press the seams open. I prefer my seams to be pressed in opposite directions but when I’m working on a quilt where the blocks are being rotated in all directions, sometimes it’s easier to press open rather than risk seams coming together where they’ve both been pressed to the same side – I find those very hard to line up accurately even with pinning.

Thank you all for your emails and comments. I appreciate all the encouragement and prayers. This has been a long drawn out process but as I said in the beginning, I’m lucky that thyroid cancer is very treatable and by this time next week I’m hoping that I’ll be done with everything except the ongoing follow up to monitor for any future problems. I’m also having less symptoms from my thyroid replacement hormone so it feels like life is going to get back to normal soon.