Country Crazy Quilt

My quilting friend, Noell, came back from her winter down south with this lovely crazy quilt pattern that she shared with the Dalemead Quilt Guild that meets southeast of Calgary, Alberta.

The blocks are made from 5 fat quarters of fabric. I had a half meter of the darkest fabric and this baby quilt used up all the fabrics. There is a piece of the larger fabric left, but not enough to even make the binding, so if you want binding, you'll have to add fabric for that.

Step One: Cut four 8" squares from each fabric. We stacked our fat quarters and cut through all 5 layers at once to make 4 neat stacks of 8" squares. Set three stacks aside and work with one stack at a time.

Step Two: Cut your stack of squares into 5 pieces. Avoid parallel cuts, sharp points, and intersections at outside corners. You may want to sketch out your cuts on paper before actually cutting your fabric. As you cut, label the pieces that are cut off from 1 - 5 (1 being the first piece cut off and 5 being the last piece). You may cut all stacks the same or treat each stack differently - the latter will make a more interesting finished piece.

Step Three: Scramble your pieces using the following directions before sewing them back together:

• LEAVE STACK #5 IN ORDER
• STACK #4, MOVE TOP PIECE TO BOTTOM
• STACK #3, MOVE TOP TWO TO BOTTOM
• STACK #2, MOVE TOP FOUR TO BOTTOM
• STACK #1, MOVE TOP THREE TO BOTTOM

Step Four: Sew blocks back together with scant 1/4" seam in REVERSE ORDER (piece 5 to piece 4, then add piece 3, add piece 2, add piece 1). You will notice that seams might not match perfectlyl. Don't worry, you will trim them to size later. Press as you sew and when finished, trim your first stack of blocks to 7"x7". If you can't get 7" out of your blocks, just trim them all a little smaller - as long as they are the same size, your quilt top will look fine!

Repeat until all four of your stacks of fabric are sewn into blocks. (Makes 20 blocks)
Arrange your blocks however you like - 16 blocks will make a nice table topper and as you can see, 20 blocks makes a great start on a baby quilt. Add a border or two, use a decorative stitch from your sewing machine to dress up the crazy patch, the possibilities are endless!

--Ann

Early Influences & 1 Year of Blogging!

Wow! I can't believe it, but I've been blogging for a full year! I hope you're enjoying reading what I have to say! I still feel it's a bit presumptuous to think people really want to know what's on my mind! Often, while I'm sewing, I think about why I love to make things and who or what encouraged me along the way. Being creative is something that feeds my soul. I don't ever remember a time when I didn't have that urge in me to "make" something.

My parents had their own business and when I was there with them, I loved to pull out the coloured papers that were there for the photo-copier and a pair of scissors, pencils, markers and pencil crayons. I would happily cut and draw and colour for hours and although none of my creations survived the passage of time, the time was well-spent.

From Red Pepper Quilts

Later, sewing, crocheting and knitting were added to my crafting skills and I made doll clothes, blankets and gifts for those around me as well as for myself. I remember going on a school field trip and one of the parent supervisors had brought along her fabric hexagons and was making a tea cozy - I no longer remember the purpose of the field trip, but the process of turning bits of fabric into a useful item was burned into my memory.

A librarian suggested a book for me to read in the 4th or 5th grade. It was called "Calico Bush" and was about a young girl who was "bound" or indentured to a family as their servant until she came of age and how her life was brightened by the quilts she was allowed to make and be part of making. It was then I decided that I would make at least one quilt in my life-time!

Like many quilters, my first quilt was for my first-born (he's now 27!) and because it wasn't made from quality materials, it didn't last past the 2nd child! The second quilt was a double wedding ring quilt that was made from sewing scraps. It took 9 years to piece together by hand and to hand-quilt. Sometime along the way, I discovered rotary cutters and tried easier patterns and have made many more quilts.

What was your inspiration to start quilting? Do you have any stories about your earliest exposures to quilting?

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - April 25

My sewing machine sat idle for most of the week, but today was my weekly sewing day with a couple friends. As it turns out, there were only 2 of us here at my house today. My friend, Marie, was working on a challenge quilt from her guild retreat and was adding some beading embellishments.

Click to enlarge and check out the gorgeous beading on this one!

And I was playing catch up from one of the swaps I'm behind on - the Scrap Buster's Bee on Flickr. The idea here is that once a month, a member of the group posts what type of quilt block they want and the other members make that quilt block from their scraps. Here's the one block from the 3 months that I was behind on:

Scrappy crazy quilt block

While I was looking for some of my old craft supplies, I found this folded star pincushion kit that I started and didn't finish. It's now a little closer to being completed, but I need to find some fiberfill to stuff it. Although I love the look of the folded star, it was a little too fussy and time-consuming for my liking.

Folded Star Pincushion

 The other project on my table today was the Granny Square quilt. I have a couple blocks sewed together now and I can tell this is going to be another favourite of mine.

Granny Square quilt blocks

 What unfinished projects are lurking hidden in the back of your closets?

--Ann

The Needle & Thread Network

WIP Wednesday - April 18, 2012

The snow is finally gone and the grass is starting to turn green and that makes it hard for me to stay focused on quilting projects. Saturday was the local Dalemead Quilt Guild's annual Stone Soup Day, where we all get together and work on quilts that will be given to local charity groups.

Scrappy strips - donated

Above is a baby quilt/toddler quilt that I donated from blocks received in the Scrap Busters Swap. The green border is a reproduction print that I already had and the backing is a flannel, also from my stash! We had a great time, so much fun that I forgot about taking pictures until we were packing up! By then all the quilts were put away!

3x6 Bee Flickr Swap

With a fresh week and a clean design wall, the rest of the 3x6 bee blocks were put back up. These are the quilt blocks that were primarily blue and white and I framed them with a blue print fabric that I was hoarding had in my closet. It is a good size for a baby quilt, but on the wall, I thought it wasn't the right mix for a baby. I've pulled out an assortment of blue fabrics and will be adding to all sides of this quilt to make something at least lap size. Stay tuned to see what happens next!

Dr. Seuss baby quilt

And yesterday I was working on the Dr. Seuss baby quilt - it's all quilted and the binding just about finished. Last week, I missed my WIP Wednesday, but I did finish another baby boy quilt, took a couple photos and put it up for sale.

Baby Boy Quilt with Minky back - FOR SALE

Thanks for all your comments! I really appreciate hearing from all of you!
--Ann

The Needle & Thread Network

Granny Square Quilt

I think my Granny Square quilt is working it's way up to the top of my to-do pile. This is such a great project to use up some of those scraps in your fabric stash. While I'm procrastinating waiting to start, here's some great examples of Granny Square quilts from all over the web.

from Blue Elephant Stitches

from Canoe Ridge Creations

from A Quilting Life

from Quilt Story

Hope you enjoyed a little quilting inspiration!

--Ann

Wedding Quilt Finished!

This custom quilt was a joy to complete from start to finish. Although paper piecing is not my first choice for constructing a full-size quilt, this quilt pattern needed the precision that paper piecing provides.

Click to see close up of the quilting!

I loved the fabrics and this quilt pattern works well with the fabrics chosen. Marie of Blueberry Hill Quilts in Chestermere, Alberta, did a beautiful job on the quilting (as always!) and selected a paisley floral pattern that is just stunning on the completed quilt.

Looks great on my wall - maybe I should make one for me?

Someone will need to remind me to take pictures of the FINISHED quilt - the pictures I took were before the binding was sewn down and I packed the quilt up and forgot to rehang it and take some pictures before packing it up.

--Ann

WIP Wednesday

WOW! This week flew by and here we are at Wednesday again! The quilt binding is sewn on the Sunshine & Cloud yellow and gray quilt from last week and the custom wedding quilt is being quilted. I cut the left-over fabric from the wedding quilt into 1.5" and 2" squares and set them aside and while browsing some of my favourite quilting blogs, I found this picture of the Granny Square quilt block done up in red and white fabrics from Auntie Em at Quilt Crossing.

I thought how awesome that block looked, so complicated, yet so simple and imagined how the left-over squares would look done up in this pattern, so here's a couple that I put up on my design wall:

This will probably be a WIP for a while, as I have several other projects that I need to finish, but this one may not let me ignore it for long! I don't have enough squares for a full-size quilt, but I see this one as a picnic quilt or a lap quilt for sitting on the front porch on a cool evening.

One of the projects that is ahead of the granny square quilt is my blocks from the 3x6 bee group on Flickr. I wanted to include all the blocks into one quilt top, but it just wasn't working. I split out the blue and white blocks and you'll see them another time, and put the blue, yellow and purple ones together with an awesome batik fabric from my local quilt shop, Along Came Quilting. I originally wanted to finish these with lots of white space, but no matter how I arranged the quilt blocks, it never looked quite right. So, here's how it's going together:

Auditioning white space or sashing

Sashing wins!

Sashing with borders

So, that's what's keeping me busy this week! What are you working on? Have you ever had a project not want to go the way you thought it should?

--Ann

The Needle & Thread Network WIP Wednesday