What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Good morning!

I'm trying to clear the decks ahead of the upcoming Bonnie Hunter mystery. Here are a couple of things I just finished.

This scrappy pineapple quilt was my first experience with the Creative Grids Pineapple Trim Tool--I love it! Once you get the process in your head, it is basically fool-proof, and it results in nice, neat, SQUARE blocks.

It might have been a crazy idea but I thought it was worth trying … and I like  the results of using sashing as the design feature in quilts, rather than the blocks.

I made the sashing wider than normal in most of the designs, and added some insignificant block designs.. The rest of the space  is open space for quilting.

I might have to add colour, and instead of the applique blocks use whole fabric blocks with  interesting designs.

Note that the fine sashing in the second design is used as the final border in the first design.

A new set of blocks, a background fabric and light, medium and dark contrast fabrics. The corner of the blocks will be kept in the lightest contrast fabric, with the rest of the design in either the dark or medium fabrics.

The corner pieces in all the blocks are identical and meet to create a sort of corner block. Interesting!

But what if … I add sashing?

Mmm! I think I like it with sashing! Early days with project file, and I look forward to playing with these blocks.

The first design was designed on a standard grid with blocks and sashing, but the results looks like a central design with borders. I would make it as though there were borders, and would make the outer border narrower.

Second design is interesting, and the use of sashing is more obvious.

I like all of them, but especially the last one.

The narrow borders make this a very interesting design.

Narrow sashing is also interesting, but i like the first design better.

Oops! These are the designs which should have appeared yesterday. If you are a regular visitor you may have thought you had seen the designs published yesterday before, and you would have been right … they appeared just over a week ago.

I love playing with sashing, making some of it the same fabric as the background fabric.

I like the placement of light and dark backgrounds in the second design.

I love playing with contrast … some blocks high, some low … some plain so the quilting will become the feature.

I also like to make the sashing disappear, and so create another design element.

The blocks are pretty insignificant, but who needs attractive blocks when the sashing is out of teh ordinary?

Love the second design!

 I was given some stamped quilt blocks to embroider, and I decided to make a baby quilt with them.

Really bad picture, sorry! 46" x 60"

There were twelve baby animal blocks . . .

. . . which I combined using sashing in between.

By adding triangles to the sashing ends and including cornerstones, I formed a star at each of the corners of the embroidered blocks.

I finished it with a striped binding.

The quilt went together quickly--the embroidery took longer than the construction!

It looks terribly wrinkled in these photos, but after washing, it is much smoother. I put this one away for ...

It started like any other Triple Play tutorial.

Jenny, Misty, and Natalie were each asked to design a quilt with pieced sashing. Simple, right?

Natalie’s Pieced Sashing

Natalie created a cute arrow sashing with strip sets and hourglass blocks.

Misty’s Pieced Sashing

Misty used a traditional Seminole technique to sash her quilt with diamonds. And then, there was Jenny. (Oh, Jenny!)

Jenny’s Pieced Sashing

First, Jenny stitched stacks and stacks (and STACKS!) of half-square triangles. Then the sashing began. 

She made pinwheel, chevron, and herringbone sashing. She made flying geese, square-in-a-square, and sawtooth. And then…she kept ...

I bet you thought that we forgot about our ever-so-patiently-waiting Jacob’s Ladder blocks. It is time to do something with them!

When last we left them we had our 3 trouble maker blocks flagged so we knew what we were dealing with. Now is the time to make the decisions for what to do with these blocks. The end goal for this quilt is to have a bit of a sampler at the shop to showcase some different quilting ideas to show customers when talking about how to quilt their quilt (either by us or by them). With 15 ...

Pretty and interesting!

Love the second one!

 I am a little late setting my goals for July. 

I really want to keep sewing my sea swept sashing blocks - I hope to finish them this month.

I haven't been spending much time sewing lately. I need to make a list of the next steps needed on my works in progress, and then, I won't just stare at the mess and not know what to do. A list is much more ...

This seems like a small accomplishment for my sea swept quilt, but, I have made a decision to cut new blocks for the sashings and trim down to the right size. These 2 blocks were made using the exact measurements. They are not bad but a little small. I need 56 of these blocks for the quilt I am making.

Who needs fancy blocks when you have fancy sashing?

Well a few fancy blocks helps fill some of the spaces in a design.

Some of the sashing in the last design for today is pretty simple, but the red one more than makes up for the simple black lines.

Here are the blocks in a layout!

They are arranged a little differently than last week. I tried to mix them up a little bit making the brights a little more interspersed with the reproduction fabrics. It feels a little more balanced than it did before. I also opted to have them all facing the same direction. Since there will be some sashing separating the blocks, they won’t be able to form any kind of secondary design so it felt like it would be distracting if they were turned different ...

Welcome to this months challenge, which is about using sashing not just to frame each and every block, but to be a big part of the overall design of a quilt.

Open a new project file, select a straight setting of 5 x 5 12inch blocks with a 1 inch sashing.

Add a strong contrast colour to the sashing squares, and the light background colour to the rest.

Select a mixture of blocks and start designing. Use a light background fabric in all the blocks, pieced or applique.

When you have a design you like,  recolour some of the sashing ...

I finished this quilt top today. The fabrics are from the It's Elementary collection by American Jane for Moda Fabrics.

It uses this It's Elementary ABC Panel.

I cut out each picture 1/4" from the outer edge of the frame, shown in green here.

 I know someone who loves lavender!

Kaffe Fassett Nine-Patch 98" x 98"

Kaffe Fassett Nine-Patch (detail)

Kaffe Fassett Nine-Patch (back and binding detail)

I combined lavender and purple with a Kaffe Fassett jelly roll (and a little extra from a KF layer cake) to make this quilt. Setting the blocks on point with sashings and cornerstones gives it a look different than the standard nine-patch.

I had never used a jelly roll (2.5" x WoF) before. I liked the variety of fabrics; the roll was cut accurately (without pinking!); and the fabric was excellent quality and very soft. That ...

 This is another quilt I made with the scrap QST blocks.

QST Quilt--78" x 78"

QST Quilt (backing and binding detail)

You can see the previous quilt I made with these blocks HERE.

I used a straight setting, neutral sashing, and charcoal grey cornerstones with this one (the first one was on-point).

Sometimes, simple blocks are the best.