Monday, March 30, 2009

A mod block for Jacquie

LOVE these dots. wanted more of them... everywhere!
Can't wait to see how this quilt turns out!
Enjoy, Jacquie and Jon!

I love sad colors! A sad and a happy block...

I really loved these monochrome fabrics. I made one sad, and one happy
block. I hope you like them, Jenny!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

blocks for Lynn

So I finished my blocks for Lynn's month. since Lynn has been making all of these fabulous and complicated Dear Jane blocks, I decided to make blocks based on vintage patterns.

first, a tumbler block:
tumbler block for commo threads quilt bee

and because I had extra fabric, a version of a Kansas Dugout block. I debated about making a spiderweb, since I've had them on the brain, but I had a photo of a Kansas Dugout quilt in my pictures folder and decided to go with that. since I had a picture, but no pattern, I just eyeballed things and amended the design to make it sewable on the machine.
kansas dugout block for common threads quilt bee

ha, I just noticed that after a day of fiddling with different color layouts on this block, I sewed them in the wrong order. oh well, I like this too.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

jacquie's block

Like just about everyone else, I love this fabric. And yes, I have a bit of it in my stash. Until Jacquie's challenge, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but now it just might become a quilt for my son too.
I really wanted to showcase the fantastic tree and deer in the cut I received of the paint by number fabric. The best way to keep that part intact was a diagonal seam. I hope this is enough of a "nonblock" for him. The way the solids play off the sides of the paint fabric makes me very happy.
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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Block for Jacquie



Here's my block. This is my absolute favorite fabric of last year and I've got a tiny stash of it myself that I'm planning on using soon. I love how you paired it with linen and some other soft colors. I hope this block isn't too complicated. I imagine it being like a room wall with a chair rail in the middle and a border and wallpaper on the bottom, but that's just me. :)



It's a little over 15.5", so hopefully you won't have too much fraying when you go to trim it down.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Blocks for Lynn

I had planned on doing a zigzag block since I hadn't done one before but when I was looking through my quilt books this morning I came across a cool star pattern block in this book.

I used the same method as I did on my Brushfire quilt blocks - just on a smaller scale.

I also copied Jacquie and Carissa and made a stacked coin block too - I loved all the fabrics and it seemed like a great way to use them.



Thanks for the freedom Lynn - I really love that about this quilting bee...it's pushing me out of my "comfort zone" of sewing and getting me to try new things.

Friday, March 13, 2009

great minds think alike...

I was so excited to use the fabric from Lynn. this was my first block:



but there was so much fabric and i was enjoying it so much.... that i made a second block:

this one started off with 4 columns of "stacked coins" but i was running short on the brown border material, and i liked the squareness of just doing 3 columns, so i changed my design. After I was all done, I saw Jacquie's stacked coins as her second block! I think that the number and the size of the fabrics that Lynn sent lent themselves to this type of block very well. and I've always wanted to do a stacked coins quilt and this is my first. thanks for such inspiring fabric and creative freedom to explore, Lynn!

one more for lynn

I already had some strips cut for another idea i didn't use, and i didn't want to waste any of this gorgeous fabric so another mini for a block. I wanted to use that linen too. I still had fabric to send back. When I love fabric, it's hard to stop sewing. Thanks Lynn, it was a blast!

Two Blocks for Jacquie


Jacquie's block assignment was exactly why I wanted to participate in a quilting bee in the first place. It totally pushed me out out of my comfort zone and to be honest, making a block that an 18 year old guy would like really scared me. I ended up doing a couple of google image searches for minimalist and modern and saw a lot of great architectural inspiration. I hope I got it right. There was also enough fabric for me to make two blocks instead of one.



I hope you both like them!

mini quilt for lynn

I loved Lynn's idea of a mini quilt in a block, so I did a mini whirlygiggle. I probably could have gone a bit smaller with the template, but I like how it turned out. I decided not to use a background fabric, but to use all the prints since there was a nice mix of lights, mediums and darks.
I really like how the whirlygiggles spin of the edge of the block. I hope you like it too, Lynn. I have gobs of fabric left...do you want another block?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Lynn's Orange-y Lecien Anything Goes Quilt

Wow, I need to come up with a better name for this quilt. Since Rebekah has already received her fabric, I thought I would make my post.
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I saw this fabric, and LOVED it. It's one of those that I love so much that I didn't want to cut it. So I decided it would be perfect for the quilting bee!
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I went ahead and bought the fabric, along with a few coordinating prints from etsy. I paired them with fabrics in similar colors, mostly from Sew Mama Sew. Most of the solids are amy butler solids, and I believe the linen is essex cotton/linen blend. I tried to note all the fabrics in the flickr photo.
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Now, I bought the fabric a few months ago now, and cut it up then too. In retrospect, I probably should have split up the fabrics a bit differently. Everyone gets a piece of every fabric. Some pieces are fat, some are long.
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Now for the fun part. I have been debating what to ask all you fabulous, talented ladies what to make for me, and I've decided that a free-for-all would be great. Anything you want. All I ask is that there are no raw edges as this quilt will be used and loved quite a bit.
Inspiration for Common Threads
I've put together a flickr mosaic, but I really love everything. I like traditional blocks, modern blocks, curved, wonky, applique, nature-inspired, free-pieced, pinwheels, triangles, etc. I've noticed that recently I've been attracted to blocks that are mini quilts in themselves (like the zig zag block and the hexagons) and the texture quilts.

As for size and shape, anything goes. I will get them all to fit in the quilt somehow, and I kind of like the idea of a haphazard quilt. Oh! And if you love the fabrics, by all means keep the extras. But otherwise, please send it back, as I want to make a scrappy binding and possibly a panel for the back. And let me know if you need more.

Have fun, can't wait to see what you make!!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

2 More Blocks for Jacquie

Here are my blocks for Jacquie. It was hard to do something masculine, minimal, and non-quilt-block-like.
Block #1 for Jacquie Block #2 for Jacquie
I hope you like them Jacquie! The first one I cut down to size, but the second one I left longer. Hopefully you have a 15.5x15.5 inch ruler so you can be more accurate than I am!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Quilt block for Oiyi

It took me a while to get my pictures up on the CT blog -- sorry for the delay! Valentine's day is fun -- I can't wait to see what the final quilt looks like!

For common threads -- a valentine's theme. It took me a while to figure out how to do the hearts, but I like them!