Unnamed Quilt Blocks . . . and blocks still unmade.

As I have previously mentioned, two years ago I was lucky enough to take a free quilting class from a master quilter that lasted several weeks.  As part of the class, she would pass out basic patterns for some of the quilt blocks that we were to be making as our practice work.  Over the course of the two months or so that the weekly classes ran, I was able to sew together a number of six inch quilt blocks that are now sitting in a plastic tub waiting for me to put them together into a sampler lap top quilt.  I remembered that one of the patterns had no name, but was labeled "Unnamed.  I thought that it was a pattern that I had not tried, so I planned to use it for my letter "U" post today.  When I was ready to begin preparing this post several days ago, I went to my folder of patterns looking for the Unnamed pattern.  Much to my surprise, I found two patterns titled "Unnamed", both of which I had already sewn. 

The first one, pictured above, was one that I have found in other places titled "Friendship Star".  I made this six inch Friendship Star block for my class two years ago.  And since I've already done my "F" blog post on the  Flying Geese and the Flying Dutchman quilt blocks, I can't very well use the Unnamed/Friendship star for my "U" blog post, can I?

The second "Unnamed" pattern that I found in my folder was this one for a tree.  I also made a six inch block from this pattern for my class two years ago, and I remember that it was quite the effort to get all of the measurements and the angles just right.  I suppose that I could use this block for my Unnamed blog post (I guess that I actually am . . . ) but . . . .



This is actually the quilt block pattern that I had thought was "Unnamed" and that I had planned make  to use for my letter U blog post, but If you look closely at the pattern above, you can see that it does have a name, "Sailboat", which should have been sewn and ready to post on Monday for the letter "S", but is still unmade.   I have started cutting pieces for the block, but have not yet started sewing it.  Sigh.  The best laid plans . . . are better laid if you plan ahead a little bit better. 

Rail Fence

The Rail Fence Quilt Block is a very easy  beinning quilt block.   The zig zag design brings to mind the old fashioned rail fences made from logs split lengthwise into fence rails.  They could be constructed without nails or other hardware, and were popular in  frontier days when timber was plentiful but nails were scarce. 

source:  Wikipedia

To make my 12 inch square block, I started by cutting three strips of fabric, each 1 1/2 inch wide.  In order to make 16 three inch squares, I needed the strips to be 56 inches long.  Since my fabric wasn't 56 inches long, I ended up making two sets strips, the first set was about 44 inches long, and then the second set was about 15 inches long.  First I sewed the blue strip to the white strip, right sides together, then I sewed the red strip to the other edge of the white strip.

 After pressing, I began to cut the strips into 3 1/2 inch squares.  I purposely made the strips a bit longer than needed to allow myself some wiggle room.  I repeated the process with the smaller strips:

Next  came the huge decision of how to arrange the 16 squares for my final quilt block.  Should I arrange the squares this way:

Or this Way:

Or This Way:

Here's my finished Rail Fence Quilt Block again:

I sewed the 16 squares together into pairs first, then sewed each two pairs into a four square block. Next I sewed the top four square blocks together, then the bottom two four square blocks together. Last of all I sewed the top to the bottom. Can you see my mistake? It's very easy to get these blocks turned around the wrong direction. I had to take out several seams more than once as I was trying to get everything sewn together correctly, and I still turned the bottom right quarter square the wrong direction. It should be turned one quarter turn to the left. I'll have to fix it next week, as I have a busy weekend ahead of me and no more time to sew!

As with the other quilt blocks I have featured this month, the combinations of fabrics and colors  create endless variations of the quilts blocks, and the interweb is a wonderful place to explore the Wide variety of patterns available and to get ideas.  The book I was using as a guide for my block showed using three different fabric strips to make the block, but I have found many beautiful quilts that use four different fabrics,  such as this one at http://www.abbimays.com/assets/images/free%20quilt%20patterns/5railfence2.jpg:
I can see a mistake in the diagram above too.  Can you see it?

And Victorianquiltdesigns.com has an easy rail fence design that uses just three strips of two different fabrics:

Equilters.com  offers another 20 different sample quilt layouts using the Rail Fence block.  So who's ready to go and build a Rail Fence?

Quilting Supplies

It would be awesome to show you a completed or nearly completed Quilt Top for my Q post today, but since I don't have one ready, we'll have to improvise and show you the basics of my Quilting Supplies.

I have mentioned previously that I have been involved in quilting almost all of my life, but have always done  pretty basic, simple quilter patterns, and only recently started trying more of a variety of pieced block quilting.  The above picture shows the very basic tools that a beginning quilter would need:  Scissors, rulers or tape measure, pins, needles, thread, and of course, fabric.

Of course, before sewing machines were invented or became widely used, quilts were still lovingly crafted by hand with needle and thread.  I can't imagine the hours and hours of time that have spent in the history of the world by tailors and seamstresses and homemakers sewing clothing and bedding by hand.  We are so blessed to have sewing machines!  This Bernina was a gift from my DH many years ago.  It is considred quite old in today's world of computerized machines, but it is an awsome, well proved classic machine and I love it.   I learned to sew on my mother's old black singer sewing machine . . . at least it was electric and not a treadle machine like my grandmothers used.  My  parents gifted me my first sewing machine when I graduated from high school, and I used it a lot and wore it quite out.  I think that I even used it on the very first quilt that I ever pieced:

This was the type of quilting that I grew up with.  We used fabric leftover from sewing clothing to piece simple patchwork quilts.  The pieces were usually squares, but I wanted to do something different, so I came up with this design made up of quarter-square triangles, but I didn't know they were called that back then.  I cut each piece by hand with a paper pattern and scissors, and it is made from a variety of types of fabric.



Another very necessary  piece of quilting equipment is a good iron. To do a good job of quilt piecing, a good pressing of each seam is essential.  This little iron has served me very well for many years, but if the truth must be told, it has just about given it's all.  It's time for a new iron.  There are many different kinds of wonderful irons available, even little tiny ones just an inch or two in size, perfect for pressing the quarter inch seams used in quilting.

A quilter also needs some good instructions, patterns and ideas for planning the quilt, as well as lots of paper for sketching out design ideas and notes. I love browsing through books of quilts and quilt patterns.  Pre-cut kits for different quilt blocks are widely available and fun to try.  Graph paper is wonderful for sketching out designs.  In the old days, patterns were handed down from older generations to the younger and shared with friends.   These days the internet brings us many many friends and neighbors who are willing to share their patterns and ideas with us.

Most serious quilters today also have a wide variety of other tools including rotary cutters, cutting mats, and a variety of rulers and templates, usually made of clear plastic.  My DH bought us rotary cutters and a cutting mat about 20 years ago for sewing and crafting use (he has been known to sew too!) back in the days when our oldest children's elementary school had craft fairs for fundraisers.  We made quite a few fun things back then, but didn't really get into quilting.  That mat actually wore out or cracked,  and so we bought an even larger one about 10 years ago, and it's still going strong.  The clear acrylic rulers and templates were my own purchases when I attended a quilting class several winters ago.  They make cutting accurately sized pieces much easier than my original paper pattern and scissors method of 35 years ago, and come in hundreds of shapes and sizes. I only own a few.  I still love using my unconventional metal yard stick too for measuring and cutting larger pieces of fabric.

Quilting fabrics are very specialized these days too.  For accurately pieced quilt tops, 100% cotton fabrics are the preferred material.  It of course can be bought by the yard, but "fat quarters"  are popular products for quilters.  These quarter yard sized pieces of fabric make cutting and figuring amounts and layouts of cutting much simpler.  These are a few of the fat quarter samples in my stash.

And of course, we can't forget the layer of batting that makes the quilt the warm and comfortable covering that we all love.  I grew up using the polyester rolls of batting, but the class I took recommended the 100% cotton batting.  It is generally a bit more expensive, but thinner and easier to work with, and of course is 100% cotton to better go with the 100% cotton usually used with quilting today.  I've even heard that some people use batting made from bamboo fibers that they prefer even above the cotton.  I haven't tried that though.

And there you have it:  the basics of my quilting supplies!

Ohio Star

The Ohio Star is another popular quilt block pattern that is easy to piece. Simple patterns and instructions  can be found in many places on the internet.  Two that I looked at were mccallsquilting.com and  quilterscache.com .  Most of these patterns show making a nine patch block using 4 quarter square blocks combined with five squares.  Most of the patterns instruct to cut the 8 quarter triangles from each of the contrasting fabrics, and then piece them into the quarter triangle squares.  I decided to try making the quarter triangle squares in a way similar to the way that I made the half triangle squares used in the broken dishes pattern that I made the first week of the A to Z Challenge this month. 

First I cut two 5 1/2 inch squares of each of the contrasting fabrics.  I also cut four 4 1/2 inch squares of white, and one 4 1/2 inch square of red.   I set the 4 1/2 inch squares aside for later, then turned my attention to the 5 1/2 inch squares.   I marked diagonal lines in both directions on the wrong side of the white fabric, and then marked lines 1/4 inch to each side of the diagonals.  (see the square on the right).  I sewed along both of  the outside diagonal lines in one direction . . . .

 . . .and then cut the square into two half square triangle pieces . . . 

 . . . opened them up and pressed the seams.   This is just like the method I used for the half square triangles in the broken dishes block.   Next I flipped the two blocks and placed them right sides together, matching dark to light and light to dark. 

Now I marked the diagonal seam lines onto the dark triangle. (see the block on the left)  They were a bit harder to see, but I managed to sew these diagonal seems ok.  After I cut along the center diagonal, I now had two quarter square triangle blocks.  I think this was much easier than trying to match up and sew each of the individual triangle seams.    I repeated the process with the other two 5 1/2 inch squares: 

The teacher from the quilting class I took several years ago always recomended cutting the squares that were to be used for half square triangles at least 1/4 inch larger than most patterns say in order to leave some "wiggle room".  The excess fabric is easily trimmed off and the blocks squared up after sewing the diagonal seams.  It's always better to have the blocks be too large and trim them down than to have them end up too small.  I allowed an extra 1/2 inch for the quarter square triangles, and I'm glad that I did. It was pretty easy to square them up and trim them to the 4 1/2 inch size to match the solid 4 1/2 inch squares that I had cut previously. 

Next I laid the quarter square triangle blocks out next to the solid squares to form the Ohio Star pattern.  I sewed the squares into three strips, and then sewed the three strips together:

And here again is the completed Ohio Star block.  Some of the corners don't quite match up, but I think I'm getting a bit better.

As with all quilt blocks, the colors and patterns of fabrics can be varied to create your own personalized version of the block.  Here are three different variations of the Ohio Star from www.quilt.com:

At bellaonline.com  I found instructions for making the Ohio Star using Flying Geese blocks around a Diamond center:

So, when will I try out this one?  We'll have to wait and see.

Happy Quilting!

Log Cabin

The  Log Cabin quilt block is another traditional American  quilt pattern.  This block is simple to piece and is ideal for beginning quilters.  This popular block is  made from contrasting strips of fabric arranged around a center square. The contrast can be either contrasting colors or lights vs. darks.  The center piece of fabric is traditionally red, and represents the fire or the hearth, the central place in the home of the early settlers of our country.    There are two different ways to lay out the contrasting fabrics:

The Traditional Log Cabin layout has the contrasting fabrics arranged diagonally across from each other.  In this block the contrast is blue vs. yellow.  Notice the red center hearth square.

The Courthouse Steps layout arranges the conrasting colors directly opposite from each other.  This example shows contrast between blue and orange with a yellow center hearth square.

I found instructions for sewing a 10 inch traditional Log Cabin block here. Another good set of basic instructions for cutting and sewing a 12 inch block of either type Log Cabin quilt can be found here.  This is also where I found the above photos.

Once a quilt full of blocks have been sewn, the contrasts of the blocks allow them to be arranged in many different attractive patterns into the finished quilt.   Qlick here to see sample layouts for the traditional Log Cabin blocks, and qlick here to see sample layouts for the Courthouse Steps blocks.  There are just so many different combinations of color and fabric and layout!  Start looking here to see just a few of the endless variety of Log Cabin Quilt possibilities.  It's mindblowing to think of them all.

 I have really been wanting to try this block for a long time, and was planning to sew one up this week to feature in this blog post. Unfortunately I have spent too much time this week sewing my Jacobs Ladder Quit Block, cruzing the internet reading blog posts, and mowing the Lawn for the second time this spring.  (Sorry to rub it in to all of you who have still  been getting snow this week.  We have had some snow this month, but mostly a lot of rain, which means that the lawn must be mowed before the grass reaches our knees).  But then maybe I have just been a bit Lazy and haven't pushed myself hard enough to get it done yet.  I still want to do it, so you still may see my Log Cabin quilt block before the month is over.

Jacob's Ladder: Thankful Thursday/A to Z Challenge

This quilt block is my version of the pattern called Jacob's Ladder.  I hope that you can see the steps or rungs of the ladder in the block.   I think that they show up best when done in just two colors, and some say that the traditional colors for Jacob's Ladder are blue and white.  Just as with the Broken Dishes pattern, this block can be done in many colors, but I liked the traditional blue and white the best.  It really needs to be pressed, but I think it turned out ok.

 Many traditional  American quilt blocks are based on the Bible, since religion has always been an important part of our American culture.  (See Bible Quilts and Their Role in History.)  Jacob's Ladder comes from the story of Jacob in the Old Testament.  Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, had been sent by his parents on a journey to his mother's homeland to seek a wife who would have his own beliefs and values, as he had received the birthright and covenants promised to the family of Abraham as long as they were faithful.  Along the way Jacob stopped for the night at a place in the land of Cannan called Luz.

"And he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached the heavens and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it."

Genesis 28:12

Modern prophets have explained that the rungs of the ladder in Jacob's dream represent the steps that we need to take during our lives in order to return to heaven to dwell with God.  Jacob was so impressed with his dream that he renamed the area where he had stayed Bethel, which means House of God.  Bethel later became the religious center of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Many years later, another prophet lived who was the namesake of Jacob.  This Jacob was the son of Lehi, a prophet who lived in Jerusalem in the days when Zedekiah was king of Judah.  Lehi had been warned of God that Jerusalem was about to be destroyed, and was told to take his family and leave Jerusalem.  Over the next several years he and his family traveled through the wilderness outside of Jerusalem.  It was in this wilderness where Jacob and his younger brother Joseph were born.  Eventually the family made their way across the ocean to the American Continent.  Jacob lived a life filled with trials and difficulties and wars, but he was a good, faithful man who knew God and dedicated his life to teaching his family the right way to live.  He also left a written record, which can be found in The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. 

 . . and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents.

For,  for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us.
Jacob 4:3, 4

I am grateful for prophets.  I love reading the words of Jacob, a wise man who knew trouble, but who also knew the way to God and happiness.   O be wise; what can I say more? Jacob 6:12

Broken Dishes: Blogging from A to Z

I've dabbled in quilting almost all of my life, but haven't finished many projects, so this month I'm trying to finish a few new blocks that I've never before attempted. Most recently I put together a Broken Dishes block:

Broken Dishes Quilt Block

This is the first of the new quilt block samples that I will be sewing this month as part of my blogging from A to Z challenge.   I don't have a huge stash of quilting fabric, but I do have a few things in the store room, so I shouldn't have to go out and buy anything new.  I really love this blue floral print, and this white on white.  They're two of my favorite fabrics from my stash, so I've chosen them for this first block. 

This Broken Dishes square is made up of  16 half-square triangles.  In the quilting class that I took several years ago, the teacher gave us a paper template for sewing and cutting multiple half square triangles at a time.  I messed up my markings the first time, so will save that fabric swatch for something different.

 I was able to successfully sew and cut out my 16 half square triangles on the second try.  Here are two of them. They aren't perfect, but . . . what can I say. I did square them up a bit, but if I strived for perfection, I'd never finish anything!  The next step was to arrange the squares into the broken dishes pattern and sew them into strips:

Not too bad, if I do say so.   And here again is the finished quilt block:

Of course, the broken dishes quilt square doesn't need to be done in just two colors.  This is just the way that I chose to put it together.  Most of the squares that I've seen have been done in many colors.  For more ideas on different fun combinations of this square go to bing.com: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Broken+Dishes+Quilt+Block&FORM=RESTAB

Did you know that there is also a book with the title of Broken Dishes?

Broken Dishes by Earlene Fowler is book number 11 in her Benni Harper Mystery series.  I have loved the Benni Harper mysteries, and think I have read them all.  You can read about Broken Dishes at goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/275812.Broken_Dishes.

But you really should probably start out by reading the first book in series, Fool's Puzzle.  I think that there are 15 books in the series, but  Earlene Fowler has also written and published several other books that I love, including a book of quilt patterns that includes snippets of back story about Benni Harper that aren't included in the other books.

I've loved browsing this book, but probably won't be making any of these quilts any time soon, as I think they are a bit above my skill level at present.  So, if you like reading and you like quilting or even just looking at fantastic quilts, you just might like reading Benni Harper's books.