Allô and welcome 😊. It's a lovely snowy day which started with a guided tour of the Woven Histories exhibition at the National Art Gallery of Canada and some quality time with sweet Poppy! I saw the exhibition when it first opened - it's really amazing, but it's even better when someone is telling you a story about some of the artists and pieces.
First round of blocks for SAHRR
Monday was the first day of instructions for making the blocks for our quilt. We got to choose a block that started with the first letter of our name. I chose the Art Square Block that I found online. There were instructions but just the very old fashion way of making blocks, i.e. attach one triangle to another. You do know that I'm accuracy challenged, so this was very challenging. After making four Art Square Blocks, I took the time to find alternate ways of making it, such as the stitch and flip, or making 4 flying geese at a time.
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| Four Art Square Blocks for the Christmas panel |
You may notice that I changed the order of my blue and gray fabrics in the flying geese block part. I originally wanted the gray to be in the centre but I didn't cut my fabric properly for the first block, so blue in the centre it was. Since I only cut my fabric one block at a time, I decided to try both ways. I like them both, but I do prefer the gray surrounding the block's centre.
I've had to take almost everything off my design board - I don't make many large projects. Since the panel is quite long, I'll probably only do one border but with different blocks. We'll see. I do love these blocks in the corners.
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| Christmas panel with the four Art Square blocks |
I've looked at other blocks starting with "A" for my cowboy panel, although now that I know how I could make these blocks more easily, I may stay with this block. I've washed, trimmed and ironed the panel, so I'm ready to go. I'm slowly picking fabric to go with the panel. I love the muted colours and am looking for some denim colours, browns and the cactus green. I may even have some plaids that would go well 😊.
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| Next, making blocks for the Cowboy panel |
"Snow Happens" wall hanging
I finished the border around "Snow Happens". It's not as bad as it could have been. 😁 My points are still mostly there but the diamonds got cut off on the side borders. That was because I didn't follow the instructions - I just don't cut things at ⅛". Since I'm not very accurate anyway, that ⅛" will not make much difference (OK it would but this is my excuse!) Anyway, some of those diamonds got cut but it still looks pretty darn cute!
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| "Snow Happens" wall hanging |
I had some lovely blue Christmas fabric but wasn't sure about using them since they have a little bit of other colours, like the little snowman with a red scarf! I don't think that these little pops of colour distract from the blue.
What I learned
- I know that my piecing skills are not great. Before I started the Art Square blocks, I should have researched how to make it using more modern tricks. I didn't realise that I was making a flying geese within the block and that I could easily make 4 at once!
- Using these faster methods don't guarantee more accuracy but at least it's a bit easier!
- I go so long without making quilting blocks that I forget how frustrating they can be.
- For the other blocks in the SAHRR, I'll try to find easy alternatives if I have to.
- I did go through my many magazines and books of blocks and found a few alternatives, as well as a few tricks, so I hope that I'll be OK for the next ones.
- As I mentioned already, rounding up the measurements to not use ⅛" wasn't brilliant, but I suspect that my blocks would not have fit anyway. I think that the best way to make sure that such a border works is to make the pieced border first and then work from there to add inner borders that will be large enough to fit them. It's a little late, but if there is a next time, I've written it here!
- I'm actually looking forward to making the blocks for my cowboy panel. So we'll see how that goes!
- Update: I just figured out that my lovely Art Square blocks are the same as version 2 of Kathleen's King Crown block...and I thought they looked too complicated to make!😂
Related Links
- Plans for 2025 (including SAHRR) and Free Motion Mavericks, January 15, 2025
- A Different Kind of Agenda and Fabric Cover and January's OMG, January 09, 2025
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the first round of the SAHRR with Kathleen McMusing. You may want to check out other participants' first round. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, TGIFF, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts,
Free Motion Mavericks
Welcome to week 516 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.
Kat of Scrapbox Quilts has made a beautiful quilt (22" x 29") for this cute bear. This is for the Bear Hugs mission. Kat used the blanket to practice her FMQ swirl designs from Angela Walters' swirl challenge.
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| A pink Bear Hugs mini quilt by Kat |
Quilting Gail's first finish (that she can show us) for 2025 is this lovely Christmas Tree made by watching "Helen Godden’s Christmas Countdown" with her sister on Zoom. What a great way to spend time together while quilting! It was also a great way of playing with FMQ.
Your Art Square blocks are great!!! And I like your plan to border your panel with different blocks! That's a great idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Gail. These blocks were frustrating to make but now I think I'm ready for the rest :-)
Deleteyour King's Crown blocks are looking great with your panel.
ReplyDeleteHi Pat, I only just realised that I did make version 2 of the King's Crown block :-)
DeleteFabulous choice for you blocks! I am sorry you are a bit challenged with the accuracy but we would hardly notice if you didn't tell us. I might take off that last cut diamond and add two little coping strips next time to center it...but again...its done, and no one would notice and it is a great piece.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea for the blocks Kathleen. Actually, I may follow your idea of the coping strip in the middle - it's still only pieced. My seam ripper needs the exercise and it would look more polished. Thanks!
DeleteI don't mess with the eighth's measurements much... I over size which allows me to trim to size and find that it helps to keep points and improved accuracy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance to share in your party. Have a great weekend.
Thanks Melva - it didn't quite work out as I hoped (I didn't plan it much so it did come out as I should have expected!) Stay warm :-)
DeleteYour Snow Happens flimsy looks great, and as others have said, if you hadn't pointed out the diamonds, I would have said it was a fun design choice! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat block choice for your SAHRR. Should be fun to see all the different blocks the participants choose.
ReplyDeleteAll really pretty blocks. 'Glad to learn of your FMQ link party. I'll have to join in soon.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of great stuff in the works. I love how you share your process, including making it work when things don't necessarily go as planned. Thanks for linking up with me for TGIFF!
ReplyDeleteYour round one blocks are so pretty and will go great with your center panel! Thanks for sharing with us at Monday Musings!
ReplyDeleteYour Art Square blocks work great with the panel. I love your border on your Snow Happens piece as well.
ReplyDeleteJ'aime bien les deux versions de tes blocs, gris ou bleu au centre, ils sont doux et vont très bien avec le panneau central. Ca va être amusant d'arranger tous les blocs autour du panneau au fur et à mesure de leur réalisation ! J'adore ta broderie, la bordure est superbe. Les petites touches de rouge et de vert sont discrètes et ajoutent de la couleur ;)
ReplyDeleteI love your Snow Happens and I like your Sahrr blocks. Those fabrics are really pretty and they go perfectly with your centre panel :)
ReplyDeleteNow you know that you can do hard and complicated since you "discovered" you made a version of the King's Crown blocks! Thanks for sharing your process as well as what you learned along the way!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Snow Happens. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.
ReplyDeletenice post!
ReplyDelete