June 1st Quilt Block Exchange

[CarolineNH]

I have been quilting for over 20 years, and I think I will always have problems with colors. I am terrible at figuring out what I want to use, and which colors go with what. I go to quilt shows, and admire the spectacular quilts, especially the ones using really striking color combinations, ones that utilize an entire rainbow spectrum, etc. I love to see things like Piece O'Cake patterns done on colored backgrounds, but I don't think I could ever attempt one myself.

There are several ways I deal with this --
1) I plan a quilt mostly using one (or just a few) color(s). I have a kaleidoscope planned that will be black & pink (and variations thereof). I'm planning a Farmer's Wife Sampler in shades of purple. I took part in a fabric swap for fabrics in shades of gray. Those all look great together, and there's a surprising amount of variation on the gray scale.

2) I do scrap quilts, but generally from a particular style of fabric - all kid prints, or all civil war fabrics, or all 1930s repros. One thing I've seen in the quilt world in general that doesn't appeal to me is quilts made entirely from one designer line - as in "General XX line", "French something 2012 fabrics" - those tend to be a little too flowery, with all the fabrics a little too... something. Too similar in tone, too faded in color, etc.

3) I do kits. I happen to have a current love affair with Block of the Month programs that come in the mail - along with one BOM that I pick up at a local quilt shop. I'm currently working on 3 BOMs, but have 5 coming in the mail (one just the pattern, one pattern and fabric that's just getting saved for now).

Either way, it's not going to be me putting together one of those show-stoppers. Some of mine look fabulous, some are nice, most are serviceable, and use fabrics that I love (civil war prints, 30s prints, purples or blues). I've made two scrap quilts in tightly grouped colors - one for my oldest boy in black and white prints - blacks, whites, black fabrics with white prints, white fabrics with black prints. The other was for my youngest, in shades of oranges - his favorite color.
I don't have a photo album with all of my finished quilts in it, but I do have pictures of current BOMs on my blog.

Here's the black & white quilt


This is a baby quilt made from "leftovers" from the jewel box in oranges I did for youngest DS.

 

[CarolineNH]

Block Construction Suggestion -

I looked closely at the pattern. I really love patterns with lots of half-square triangles! One thing I do when making patterns with lots of HSTs is make the HST blocks larger than the pattern states, and trim them down to size. This makes sure that they are the right size to work with the squares in the pattern, and makes sure they are squared up before assembling the blocks. For some reason (a fault of my sewing or ironing technique, I'm sure) my HSTs rarely end up exactly the right size without this.

For this pattern, the fabrics for the HST blocks are cut 3-7/8" and the fabric for the squares is cut 3-1/2". I will cut the HST fabrics at 4", sew up the HSTs, and trim/square them up to 3-1/2". Hope this helps someone!

 

[katsdar]

Very pretty quilts

 

[katsdar]

Good advice I had to figure that out the hard way

 

[katsdar]

Marty
Guess what I baked today? It was soooo good, and I changed it a bit, instead of using the vanilla pudding mix, I forgot to get some at the store, but I had (left over from the holidays) some instant pumpkin spice pudding mix and used that instead, made such a nice treat along with the pecans.

 

[Marty1876]

Block Construction Suggestion -

I looked closely at the pattern. I really love patterns with lots of half-square triangles! One thing I do when making patterns with lots of HSTs is make the HST blocks larger than the pattern states, and trim them down to size. This makes sure that they are the right size to work with the squares in the pattern, and makes sure they are squared up before assembling the blocks. For some reason (a fault of my sewing or ironing technique, I'm sure) my HSTs rarely end up exactly the right size without this.

For this pattern, the fabrics for the HST blocks are cut 3-7/8" and the fabric for the squares is cut 3-1/2". I will cut the HST fabrics at 4", sew up the HSTs, and trim/square them up to 3-1/2". Hope this helps someone!

What a great idea!

Kat - I was thinking about trying it with Chocoloate, but pumpkin sounds really good too!!! I'm glad you liked it. Darn things are addictive. I just give away or toss all but one (or we'd all be really fat instead of pudgy in my house).

If anyone wants a friendship (Amish) bread starter. Its d e l i c i o u s. Postage is like $7. If intersted, I'll have like 3 extras I'd love to send to you.

 

[katsdar]

I forgot to add that I had gotten some fresh milk so I made some homemade butter and it was really scrumptious , Chocolate was my other choice, glad I went with pumpkin first.

Here is a summer fun project you all can do with your grand kids.
I never let my kids kick the can but roll it between them, and it makes really good tasting ice cream.

 

[MynikaFL]

Block Construction Suggestion -

I looked closely at the pattern. I really love patterns with lots of half-square triangles! One thing I do when making patterns with lots of HSTs is make the HST blocks larger than the pattern states, and trim them down to size. This makes sure that they are the right size to work with the squares in the pattern, and makes sure they are squared up before assembling the blocks. For some reason (a fault of my sewing or ironing technique, I'm sure) my HSTs rarely end up exactly the right size without this.

For this pattern, the fabrics for the HST blocks are cut 3-7/8" and the fabric for the squares is cut 3-1/2". I will cut the HST fabrics at 4", sew up the HSTs, and trim/square them up to 3-1/2". Hope this helps someone!


What does the HST stand for? I hope that is not a crazy question LOL

 

[MynikaFL]

I forgot to add that I had gotten some fresh milk so I made some homemade butter and it was really scrumptious , Chocolate was my other choice, glad I went with pumpkin first.

Here is a summer fun project you all can do with your grand kids.
I never let my kids kick the can but roll it between them, and it makes really good tasting ice cream.

Sounds fun

 

[MynikaFL]

Beautiful quilts CarolineNH I love them.