You're a grand old flag

I saw a very cool flag quilt in Volume 2 of Better Homes and Gardens Sew Scrappy magazine. Around the same time, French General's Panier de Fleurs collection had arrived at our quilt shop. I knew that I had to make this flag quilt using the gorgeous reds and blues from French General. Just one problem - the kaleidoscope blocks were made with templates, and I try to avoid having to use templates. I found a set of acrylic templates to make the block and tried my hand. My points came nowhere near meeting in the center!

So my grand old flag project was shelved. Until I ran across this post on Pam Kitty Morning's blog. She was also doing a kaleidoscope block and had found a kite shaped ruler, but she also linked to Sugar Stitches blog, where Jennifer had held a quiltalong using another ruler, called the Kaleidoscope Smart Plate. I ordered a smart plate and waited anxiously for it to arrive.

With the Smart Plate Ruler, you make ordinary pinwheel blocks using half square triangles and using the lines on the ruler as a guide, trim off the edges to make a PERFECT kaleidoscope block!

I whipped this together in less than a week. Thanks to PKM and Jennifer, I have a beautiful French General flag quilt. My final finish in 2011.

Happy New Year everybody!

And now for something completely different

2011 seems to be my year of conquering old BOMs. Here is one I started in 2007. I am a huge fan of From My Heart to Your Hands sampler patterns designed by Lori Smith. I own a few of her patterns, but the idea of making all those fabric selections was daunting. Then I happened upon Homestead Hearth's Special Programs page and saw they were doing Golden Memories as a Block of the Month program and one of the choices was reproduction fabrics. I signed up immediately!

The first kit of 3 blocks arrived in August 2007 and I immediately pieced them together, loving all the fabric choices. Then - as is my tendency - I started another project, put the new blocks aside as they arrived and collected them in a project box. I even pulled it out last year and gave some thought to completing all of the alternate blocks, which looked very tedious to me. After an hour or so cutting 1-1/4" strips, the project went back inside the box.

This year, though, I decided to finish. I made all 31 tedious alternating blocks and now I am working on the 32 sampler blocks.

For the most part, I really like the fabrics included in the kit, but at the same time, some of the color combinations are not pleasing. The fabrics in block 5 did not look good laid out on my sewing table, and they certainly did not look any better after I sewed them together. Here is my modified block on the left next to the center that I would have ended up with had I used the kit fabrics. I decided to substitute from my stash if I didn't like fabric combinations, and it's been a lot of fun changing fabrics around and using some of my favorites from my collection.

Can you resist smiling?

When you see this color?   Seriously - can you?  I can't... of course orange is my favorite color.  This is the second finish from my September retreat.  I made all the blocks while there and then assembled them when I got home.  This is a great project to use when you are borrowing a sewing machine - no worries about your seam allowance because you square up the blocks after putting them together.

I used Elizabeth Hartman's Crazy 9-Patch Lattice pattern.   Check out her blog Oh, Fransson! for many other very cool quilt patterns that she so generously shares with her readers.  AND I see she's coming out with a new book in May, which I know I will be buying because I loved her first book.

I've made this before in green for my niece.   It's a great way to use color blocks in a quilt and for some reason, I never stop buying orange fabric.

 

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I love looking through the pictures each time the festival is presented.   It's full of very inspiring photos.   Go to Amy's Creative Side and take a look.  Click the festival button below to see all the great quilts!

My entry is the beautiful Eventide I finished in April of this year.  The pattern is one from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co., and her version was so pretty, I had to copy it using the 3 Sisters collection Luna Notte.   I made this quilt as part of a sew along sponsored by Thelma of Cupcakes 'n Daisies.   Having the sew along really helped to motivate me and keep me on task to finish this quilt by the deadline.  (I'm so bad at deadlines!)

After I finished, I passed it off to my awesome long arm quilter, Jenny at Jenny's Doodling Needle.  Jenny did a fabulous job with the quilting and now my binding is on and I'm loving this quilt even more.

My Chocolate Truffle

I recently had the pleasure of attending a small quilt retreat with some friends.  We had a wonderful time sharing tips, inspiration, good food and many laughs.

I was able to finish blocks for 3 quilts while I was there.  Here is the first one I put together when I returned home.  I used the Thimbleblossoms pattern Red Velvet, and the stone fabrics from Fa La La and La Petit Ecole for the centers, a dark brown for the star points, and background fabrics from almost every French General collection.

I can't call this Red Velvet, so how about Chocolate Truffle?  I still need to decide on an outer border, but I love how elegant and understated this quilt looks using a very limited color palette.

I almost never make the same pattern twice, but this one is an exception - it's super easy to make and a great retreat  project (I made the first version while on retreat, too!)

Ruby Tuesday

Yes, I know it's been FOREVER since I updated my blog.  I'm still getting caught up on some old and new blocks of the month.   This seems to have been the Summer of UFOs for me.

But everyone needs a little something to spark their creative juices.   I am totally in love with Bonnie & Camille's upcoming fabric collection, Ruby.   I bought a fat eighth bundle.   I made this.  Bliss.   Oh wait - that's their last collection!  I love the addition of grey to this new line and I love the brighter green.

The pattern is Basket Case by Cluck Cluck Sew.  Leaving off the borders (which would mean waiting until October for Ruby yardage to hit stores!), the quilt measures 50 by 70 - perfect width to use a white Minky dot on the back and have a cozy, snuggly quilt.

And next I've pulled out ANOTHER old UFO - I have all the blocks done and now I just need to put it together with the pieced sashing.   I forgot how pretty these blocks are!

That's all folks...

Well, all of my blocks for my Moda U Selvages quilt, anyway.   I need to piece the settings for this quilt, but I will leave that for another day.  I'm happy to say that all of the blocks are now done!