SAHRR, a lap quilt and an extended Free Motion Mavericks party

Welcome to week 421 of Free Motion Mavericks. I have a lot to share and the linking party will be on for three weeks while I'm on a travelling adventure.

Square within a Square for SAHRR

This week's instructions for the Stay at Home Round Robbin (SAHRR) is a square within a square block, recommended by Emily at The Darling Dagwood. She will be appliquéing flowers in the middle square, but I wanted to keep it fast and easy. A quick search bought me to 10 Ways to Make a Square-in-a-square block (see Related links below). I followed Methods 1 & 2 to see if there was any difference in accuracy. 

Round 5 - square within a square

Row of Square within
a square

For the first method (Triangles on the Square), you cut your HST (half square triangles) and sew them on, opposite sides at a time to the middle square. For method 2 (Squares on the Square), you use a larger square, place smaller squares at each end and sew through them diagonally. You do the same thing for the other sides, et voilà!

It turns out that I'm accuracy challenged at both of these 😁. Since my blocks were not any better using method 2, I just used the first method to make a few more. 

I also introduced a couple more fabrics. Here are the blocks that I made with them. They don't have the same intensity of colour but they seem to play nice with the others. 

I used Gail's suggestion of adding fabric between the blocks to space them out. Thanks Gail (of Quilting Gail).

Square within
a square with new fabric

Square within
a square - the reverse

In the last round of flying geese, I had made extra ones to add to the quilt. I wasn't sure of the layout. At the bottom of the quilt, you can see that extra row.

An extra row of flying geese at the bottom of the quilt

Daisy Quilt

My daughter loves embroidering. This fall, I added a border around one of her embroideries and she hand-quilted it. She is now ready to hand-quilt her own quilt. After finding a pattern, she bought most of the fabric at Mad About Patchwork. After I cut the 4" blocks, she placed them and I pieced them. The sandwich is now based and she's ready to quilt her first lap quilt. 😊

Daisy Quilt ready to hand-quilt

The pattern is the centre part of the Pink Daisy Quilt in the Scrappy & Happy Quilts book by Kate Henderson. I love the fabrics that my daughter chose - she has a good eye for colour! We weren't sure about which yellow to use as a border, so I tried out both. The quilt is roughly 41" x 45". I think that it's really lovely.

Scrappy & Happy Quilts
by Kate Henderson

What I learned

• I really don't know what I did wrong that both methods of making a square in a square block wasn't very accurate. I was out less than a ¼" but I was being so careful that they should have been accurate. Oh well, they did turn out fine - I just made my row a ¼" less wide. That's the great thing about designing your own blocks and quilts 😊
• I wasn't sure about adding a couple more fabric to the SAHRR but I think that it's fine. I even found a scrap of that very pink fabric that I used to make one of the petals. I'm looking forward to adding that little scrap.
• I also have a few blocks that I made that I haven't added to the quilt yet. At the very least they could go on the back.
• I love my daughter's quilt. She has a much more sophisticated colour palette than me 😊 I'm drawn to "the wilder the better" lol! She very diplomatically told me that the SAHRR quilt wasn't one of her favourites. I admire her gentle honesty.
• I'm really sorry that I won't be making the next two rounds of the SAHRR with everyone. I will try to read the posts online but won't get anything done for the next three weeks. If I'm able to link up to parties, please forgive me if I don't add the links to this post until I get back.

Related links

• FMQ Wild Hexies and Making Flying Geese, February 16, 2023
• Hourglass blocks at Free Motion Mavericks, February 09, 2023
• Wonky stars and a hand-made journal, February 04, 2023
• Stay At Home Round Robin, January 28, 2023
• 10 Ways to Make a Square-in-a-square block by Scrapdash

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. SAHRR Round 5, Patchwork & Quilts, Peacock Party, Finished or (Not) Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, Needle &Thread Thursday, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, 

Free Motion Mavericks

As I mentioned, this linking party will be open for 3 weeks, until Tuesday, March 12th. Please feel free to link up as often as you like! 😊

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps tried out "dimple quilting" on an orphan block. Here it is!

Melva tried out "dimple quilting" 

The Joyful Quilter made a Duke's t-shirt quilt for the member of her friend's family that lost everything in a house fire. She semi-custom quilted it on her longarm. What a great gift for someone who will doubtlessly appreciate it. 

A Duke's t-shirt quilt by the Joyful Quilter

Quilting Gail made a puff quilt as part of Island Batik‘s February challenge. If you don't know about puff quilts, you may want to check out the challenge. Pretty incredible....and lots of work! You can read how she made it here. Well done Gail!

Gail's Puff Quilt with Island Batik fabric

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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