Quilting Ideas for X-Plus blocks
Whether you were one of the winners of the X and Plus blocks last fall, made some of the blocks for yourself, or, like me, are thinking about making some for your own project, here’s some beautiful Free-Motion quilting (FMQ) inspiration, from Kathleen’s Quilts.
If you like what you see, be sure to click over for more photos and read her blog post where she steps through how she did it.
Sophie’s Scrappy Samplers Saturday Update
Why is alliteration so irresistible?
I’ve made my January blocks for both 2016 lotto block samplers and created a 2016 QAL page on this website with the information you need if you’re quilting along, decide to quilt along later and want to catch up or are just curious and want to follow-along.
On the 2016 QAL page, you’ll also find the code for a Blog badge for the Old MacDonald Mystery Sampler (OMMS), since everyone who has decided to jump in has said this is the quilt they will make.
I noticed I had a lot of batiks in my blue scrap bin and decided that I would use them in my OMMS blocks.
I used shades of blues and aquas with purple and cream.
For the graduated sampler, I am making a scrappy rainbow quilt, making blocks and cutting the rectangles for the setting as I go. This quilt will be made from prints only (no solids or batiks) for a more traditional scrappy quilt look. These blocks and setting rectangles represent the bottom left corner of my quilt.
Both sets of blocks are scrappy with multiple fabrics used in each block.
I couldn’t resist playing around with orientation of the Birds in the Air blocks when they were on the design wall. Here are some other ways 4 blocks might be arranged in this quilt.
 |
 |
 |
 |
There is a long blog post on Sophie Junction today about the quilt designs, the Block Lotto and me, if you are interested to read more about my process.
My Old MacDonald blocks for January
Here are my six blocks, the colours are a bit off. The left 3 are more purple and the sky is a light blue for all.
Interested to see the how this will turn out. Thanks Sophie for the design.
Sad News
Mary Jane Cardwell has been a part of the Block Lotto nearly since it’s beginning many years ago on a quilting forum and in recent years led her own block lotto there.
Our paths crossed many times in the quilting community and she became a friend I never met.
On January 4, she shared that she had Stage 4 Colon Cancer which has affected the liver, the lungs and the brain. A couple days ago she began chemo therapy. She died last night.
She was very lucky in 2013 and won the block lotto twice. Here are her finishes, posted 2 years ago.
She made many beautiful quilts and was a beautiful person.
Old MacDonald’s Birds
I also made six Bird in the Air blocks for Old MacDonald’s sampler. I know I get to keep these!
Another Setting Idea
I am still catching up with finishing up last month’s lotto (and trying to climb out of this funk I’ve been in over the holidays), but in the meantime, I wanted to share this quilt-in-progress from Aunt Marti’s blog. Look familiar?
Aunt Marti’s Scrappy Birds in the Air
These blocks have the opposite light/dark fabric placement than ours with a wider range of colors–maybe inspiration for making your own quilt? I am considering making a few of these blocks each month as part of the Rainbow Scraps challenge.
Her blog post (linked on her name above) includes a tutorial for cutting the setting square triangles using a special ruler.
A few years ago, on Sophie Junction, I blogged about the setting triangle math to use to figure out what size those pieces need to be (if you aren’t working from a pattern that tells you). You can find that post here.
If you are unfamiliar with Aunt Marti’s blog and have some quilts-in-progress and are looking for some motivation to get them done, you might also want to check out her UFO Challenge (details for 2016 are at the bottom of the linked post).
Have you ever . . .
Sophie provides such a dazzling assortment of blocks for us every year. I have saved many of the patterns because I keep thinking I will make a quilts’-worth of them for myself. My question to all of you is: have you used BL patterns again, for an entire quilt? (Other than the times you’ve won, or for the Mod Mod Sampler last year.) If so, which ones?
X and Plus blocks
Congratulations to the Winners!
And to all who made blocks – it was so wonderful seeing all the combinations and fantastic fabrics used. Great job, Sewists!
Row Quilt Sampler
The beginning of my row by row quilt sampler, including block lotto blocks I won last year and some disappearing 4 patch blocks I had left over from another project. I’m loving the how colorful it is and the colors are even brighter than they appear in the picture!!! This was such a Great idea, Sophie!!!!!