New Jo Morton Club Quilt and.....and........and.........

Now that the Holidays are behind us, my house is still clean, and I have Time to start the new Jo Morton Club 12 quilts!  My first will be the darling little Square-in-a-Square (only 2-1/8"!) called AbbyGayle using Sweet Emilie fabrics.....it is so sweet!

 And, it has its own new little project container....Christmas gift from Moda!  Perfect fit to keep those little blocks organized and neat!!

 When I finished my Pinwheel blocks this fall, I needed another Leaders and Enders project so I am making 3" Railfence blocks.  Not using up my little strips fast enough with the log cabin blocks so I dreamed up this one!  Will need 576 blocks to make a 72" square quilt.......might need to make that 72" x 84" to fit my bed with a proper drop!  Lots of time to figure that out later......right now only have 53 blocks done so will need 523 more....that's close to 10%!!  Or, I could turn them into strips of "Chinese Coins" with sashing in between!  Ideas are endless!!  Or, use them as the center of a Sawtooth Star!

Another dozen 3-3/4" log cabin blocks......will need 576 of these too.......for a quilt measuring 80" square (have 33 completed.....long way to go!).  I love making these little blocks in my sewing room listening to audiobooks!  Right now it is "Maine" which I saw mentioned on someone's blog as well as a review in the local newspaper.  Just finished "Killing Lincoln" and that sure held my attention!  "Killing Kennedy" is in the stack waiting its turn.  Good thing my DH always gives me a bookstore gift certificate for Christmas!

From Edyta Sitar's "Dancing in the Rain", I wanted to make a little table mat .....Pinwheels are another Favorite pattern to make......seem to be really stuck on Half Square Triangle patterns!   My other ongoing 3" project "Shoofly" also uses them.......will need only 288 of them as the blocks will alternate with unpieced 3" squares (63 done so far!)  Note that I like to make my Pinwheels going toward the right....some pattern designers make them going to the left!  I loved Edyta's "Umbrella" pattern so I appliqued a little one!

 Lastly, here is Judie Rothermel's "25th Anniversary" fabric line.  There is a challenge that you can read about on the Marcus Fabric website.  What I like about this line is that all the fabrics are Different!  There are no patterns in 2-3 colorways.  Need to dream up a way to use these now!!

New Fabric,Quilt blocks, new and old

New fabrics received recently.....eight bolts of "New Colonies" (1830-1890) seems later than "Colonial America" but whatever!  The three on the far right are from Paula Barnes.  Oh wait, that's wrong!  The brown (fourth from left) and the pink and the cheddar are Paula's........I did not lay them out right!

This is how I cut 3" Shoofly blocks from 6" squares.  Ideally, I like to cut a 6" strip off my fabrics and then cut 2 six-inch squares from the selvage end for my "Scrap Box" because when I am ready to make scrappy blocks, I don't want to handle Yardage......just small pieces!!  Don't ask how far behind I am in this task!  The two 2" squares (lt and dk fabrics are layered and cut together)
at the upper left will become the four HST's.  The four cheddar 1-1/2" squares will be background and one 1-1/2" square will be cut from the dark floral for the Center.  You can actually get two Shoofly blocks from a pair of 6" squares.........or, you can make one positive block and one negative block!  I want only one so the rest of the fabric will go into the box for my 3-3/4" log cabin blocks....will talk about those soon!  And don't forget one for the Postage Stamp box!  Now that I have stated that I cut a 6" strip, I need to tell you that I recently started cutting 6-1/2" strips as I sometimes could not get the four 1-1/2" squares from one strip.

And here are six new Shoofly blocks from the new fabrics (plus one Orphan!)  Next time I make blocks I need to find more browns.....don't want the quilt to be too bright.....just "sparkle" here and there!  My quilt will need 576 blocks for a 72" x 72" quilt but only Half will be Shoofly blocks.....the other half will be unpieced squares of many different fabrics........expect a very busy quilt!!   Have 61 blocks so far......227 more to make but I am not going to spend much time thinking about that right now!!  

Have been going through a couple boxes of old fabrics and quilt blocks (looking for one particular thing.....but it is always fun to renew my acquaintance with these treasures every now and then!).  These are 4 patches that I may use for a small quilt, or maybe I'll just leave them as they are!

This was an interesting find that I will likely leave just the way it is.....tiny squares to make little four patches and larger squares to make them into Double Four Patch blocks.  The squares are neatly cut (but no rotary cutter in those days!) and then held together with a length of thread....you can see the length of thread across the top of the larger square.  The lovely little brown piece was an ophan I found in the box!

And lastly, would anyone know the name of this block?  I Think it (or a similar design) was recently discussed on one of the groups I am on but checking the older posts gave me no answers. The closest I could find in Barbara Brackman's book is #2039 "King's Crown" but it has plain corners and center (not pieced).  The fabrics in this old quilt top appear to be third quarter 19th century.

Projects, Containers, & Old Quilt Top

I think I told you in a previous post how much I like "containers".....helps keep me "organized"!!  I have spent (wasted) much time looking for something so I try to place projects in their own little space accompanied by the needed tools so I can just pick it up and go to work!  This first one contains some Jane Stickle ("Dear Jane") blocks that I started many years ago and got "stalled"!  Bet that never happens to anyone else....right?  Anyway, at first I was on Brenda's list and making blocks by hand, by machine and by paper-piecing.  Then, at some point I decided I wanted them to be all by hand and I didn't really like the muslin as I feared it might not stand the test of time.  Now I have chosen a Bella solid from Moda for my background and have two rows of blocks printed onto freezer paper for my templates.  Maybe tonight will be the night to start!  Or not!  Too many projects going on so it is hard to choose.  Another activity that slows me down is my constant cutting of 1" and 1-1/2" strips and 1-1/2" squares as I work.....need to keep those boxes full so they will be ready when I am!  

This is the container for the Jane Stickle blocks.....my Mom gave it to me a long time ago and said it had been a cigar box of my Dad's in the 1950's.....don't remember him ever smoking cigars but maybe it was a gift.  Whatever.....it is a sweet little sewing box and I treasure it!  Hopefully, tho, someday the project will outgrow this little box and I will need to find a larger container!

This is my Posey Packet project (have you noted that most of my projects are small blocks?  And involve handwork? More reasons for it taking such a long time until completing a quilt!)  from Froncie Quinn of Hoopla Patterns.  You can visit her site here.   This quilt is inspired by one made by Florence Peto of 3" NinePatch blocks alternating with 3" Applique blocks.  I think I am on #7 of 72!!!  Truly enjoy the applique and the results are so darling!  

The container for this project is a Lunch Box that Moda sold several years ago when they issued a Challenge.  The box contained Moda Neutral Fat Quarters from all their designers at the time.  They did not sell as well as I thought they would so after a while, I confiscated them for my own use!!

Another ongoing project is this Shoofly quilt (again 3" blocks).....I love choosing the fabrics and making these little blocks!  I made a small 12-block quilt from them that I think I showed in an early blog posting.....wanted to experiment with using Sashing or Alternate Blocks.  My inspiration quilt had sashing (it was a bright PA quilt but mine will be more sedate New England colors, well, except for a few brights I could not resist!) and I have decided to use alternate blocks, all different, so it will be a Busy Quilt.....that's okay with me.....I like lotsa color!  AND, it will finish earlier as only half the total number of blocks will be pieced!!  

 I found this little quilt top recently in amongst a box of old fabrics......cannot remember how I came by it!  It contains 4-patches alternating with a pink moire probably around 1850.  I have seen that orange with the brown dots in other 1850's quilts.  It is not especially well-made but I have layered it for handquilting.....will be a challenge as the outside setting triangles have the bias edge where it would be nice to have straight grain!  Lots of waves to tame!    The fabrics are in quite good condition.....why wouldn't they be?  Never used!!

 The purples are still purple since the top did not see much daylight!  They likely would have faded to tan if they had!  Love the poison green too!

 In this photo is my new ironing board cover of ticking.....bought yards and yards of the stuff years ago when we had a nice fabric outlet nearby.....the kind that had all kinds of fabric for clothing, quilting, home dec!  My ironing board is wood and while it measures the standard 15" x 54" of modern ironing boards, the new covers will not fit.  I love wood ironing boards and I guess I must be a Collector of them as I have 4......only two are in use, both with ticking covers.  

 Aren't the fabrics in the 4-patches great?  Goes to show that 19th century fabrics were Not drab, nor all brown!!

Scrap Box Winners!

The two winners of my two scrap boxes are Kaaren and Ronnie!  I've heard from Kaaren already and hope to hear from Ronnie today.  It has been fun reading all the comments and it makes me think that the upcoming year will be the Year of the Scrap Quilt!!!  I'll start making another scrap box!

Overwhelmed!

I am completely overwhelmed by the response to my scraps GiveAway!  Because of this, I will be drawing for a second box of scraps that I have worked to fill the past two days...........not hard.....the ends were sitting in two piles on two ironing boards, waiting to be ironed.  Then, I cut as many 6" strips as I can from each and the rest goes into the scrap box!