Blockdown Quilt – Part 35

Another week another challenge in the blockdown quilt. Just a heads up for folks following along, at the end of the parts to this quilt our weekly virtual meeting will become a sew along. To make sure we all get our blocks finished. So I will not be starting another quilt right away. I do have some ideas for more blog quilts though if people are interested. This also means if you haven’t started this quilt yet you do have time to give it a go. I suspect there will be several week of us getting blocks made to finish this off.

After the very gentle start last week we now have something to exercise the grey matter a bit more. The theme for this week is landscape. This is intended to be a very broad theme with anything from a literal representation of a landscape to very abstract block named after parts of landscape allowed. Always fancied trying a small amount of grandmothers flower garden, maybe this is the moment. I forsee a lot of book searching on this one, although clever google searches will also find a lot of possible blocks. We have 9″ to play with so hopefully enough space to try all kinds of blocks.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position blue 5
• For the medium quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions blue 5, 16 and 29
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions blue 5, 16 and 29

Blockdown Quilt – Part 34

Happy New year. First a confession, I haven’t managed to work on this quilt in the 2 weeks off. I have however manage to work on other quilts, so not a total loss. Today I plan to have another push on my new years day mystery quilt. Each year Merry Mayhem writes a mystery for new years day, and I love them. It is a great start to the year to be making a new quilt. One which is generally pretty quick and a lot of fun. A couple more days and I will have a new quilt top. The top will then have to wait a while, as I have a new machine coming and I think it will be one of the test tops for that. Don’t worry I have customer quilts to keep me busy quilting as well as some ideas for new show ones.

Hopefully you are now ready for some new blocks to play with. I have to admit I think my head may already be full of quilt ideas, but lets chuck in something else to think about anyway. I wanted something fun to start the year, so this very much shows my bias. This week we are making 6″ stars. All those stars you found that were too simple for the larger blocks, here is the chance to use them.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position red 9
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions red 9, 18a
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions red 9, 18a and 42

Blockdown Quilt – Part 33

First thing (yup before I forget) I will be skipping the next 2 weeks. Either so you have a chance to catch up, or so you don’t need to think about new designs over the festive season. Take you pick for the reason. It means our next section will be next year. Weird how fast that has come around. I did wonder if I was crazy starting another of these quilts, but it seems Covid is far from done with us so yes a project to keep us thinking is a very good thing. I do still wander around thinking of possible blocks and design tricks for this quilt. I will be hoping to use the 2 weeks off to progress some of these blocks. Although I also want to work on a mystery quilt and a couple of art quilts and the double wedding ring and a couple of customer quilts and do some baking and ……. yeah there might be a bit too much to fit in. I will see what I am able to get done. Fingers crossed I don’t react to the booster, I can’t spare the time.

This weeks blocks are quite light hearted depending on how difficult you want to make things. The blocks will be 3″ and the theme is squares. I am tempted to make mine a little tricky but I am also planning ways to production line that.

• For the small quilt you will need 6 blocks and they will be orange positions 12 and 43-47
• For the medium quilt you will need 13 blocks and they will be orange positions 12, 43-47, 56-57, and 60-62
• For the large quilt you will need 15 blocks and they will be orange positions 12, 43-47, 56-57, 60-62 and 104-105

Blockdown Quilt – Part 32

It seems the UK has had plenty of weather in the last couple of weeks, I have been fortunate to have had no damage but I do feel for those still without power. I wonder what sort of longer term solution there will be as we become more dependent on electricity and have more extreme weather we will need some kind of a plan. The weather did give us plenty of inspiration for last weeks blocks. This week is another I have been looking forward to, having found a LOT of blocks that would fit here. Choosing is going to be very hard I think. This week is 12″ blocks on the theme places.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position green 7
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions green 7 and 13
• For the large quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions green 7 and 13

Blockdown Quilt – Part 31

I am sorry folks, but I am absolutely LOVING the weather. We had a little snow last night, which settled, so we dutifully took the dog out to play in it. He also loves snow. Walking in the dark in snow is just so magical. We didn’t get any more overnight but at least what we had has stayed as it is cold here. This mornings walks we had a lovely pinkish light reflecting on the snow and a few little patches of blue sky. Just enough to be able to really see and admire the clouds. I guess that how i feel in this weather is something like what other people feel in the sun. It is just so uplifting. This week I didn’t make much progress with my double wedding ring quilt as I have been working on the first of my applique blocks from last week. I am doing hand applique again so I know it will take a while, I am just pleased I can do it atm.

This week our theme is weather. They are only small blocks though. 6″ so we will need to be a bit picky. I suspect I will be doing some foundation piecing as I have an idea what weathers I want to illustrate. Hopefully it will be a little simpler than last week at least.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position red 15
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions red 15 and 19
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions red 15, 19 and 37

Blockdown Quilt – Part 30

First the important news, I have finished my 288 arc pieces. I admit I do have enough fabric and papers to make more if I decide I need the quilt bigger, but I think this is it. If I have my maths right I have enough for a good size bed quilt. I admit I am not using the layout suggested. I want something wider and shorter, but that should work. If not I have to make a couple more arcs which isn’t a big deal. I also got a lot of foundations prepared fore the setting pieces, so I can work on the insane numbers of those in any gaps this week. In between that I will not only be doing my usual work but also start on this weeks blocks, as I know mine won’t be quick. This week we have 15″ blocks with applique

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position purple 2
• For the medium quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions purple 5 and 2
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions purple 2, 5 and 8

As with my mariners compass, my fabric choices make this non trivial, but I am hoping to find some quite traditional blocks I can do with my limited palette. I guess if the worst comes to the worst I make more Hawaiian blocks. Of course you can do any kind of applique you like. I much prefer needle turned so that is what I am aiming for, you can pick anything and indeed any technique. I guess reverse applique could be great with my fabrics.

Blockdown Quilt – Part 29

After a far too exciting weekend I failed to finish the last 30 arcs for my double wedding ring quilt. We had a great idea to go and pick up a takeway for Saturday dinner. Thanks to the alternator on the car failing that turned into a 4 hour marathon to just get home from 3.5 miles away. We ate dinner in the car, in the dark with a dog. It honestly wasn’t too bad, but it lost the whole evening and really left us both tired the next day too. Rather than getting in the full day of sewing I had a lazy day and played some board games, which was probably good for me, but didn’t do much for the quilt. It may have to wait until next weekend to get done now, but maybe I can fit in a few short session to progress it.

This week we are returning to a theme we have done before. I found so much that fitted here I felt it deserved a couple of block sizes. This week we are looking again at rotation, this time in 9″ blocks.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position blue 7
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions blue 7 and 11
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions blue 7, 11 and 31

Blockdown Quilt – Part 28

We are trundling along with this quilt and hopefully finding some interesting quilt blocks each week. Last week I had a lot of fun working out what crazy symmetry I could have in 3″. I wish they had been bigger blocks, although that may have given me scope to make my life really hard. I am not saying I lack self control or any sense when it comes to quilt making, but it is handy when I am restrained from some of my crazier ideas. I have been pushing on with the arcs for my double wedding ring. I was sure that I would finish one colourway this weekend but instead cleaned floors and did baking. I am one set of 9 away from being done. I then just need to do about 70 of the other colourway and the arcs are complete. Just and only are special words aren’t they Baking wise I am working on perfecting stollen. I love them and it is getting harder to buy good ones. Last year I made several but I wasn’t thrilled with the recipe so I am now testing new ones. Hopefully one of them will be the one and next year I will be ready to just bake. Fortunately even rather exploded and deconstructed they taste ok.

This week we will be working on 6″ blocks, nicely themed to go with my current pre-occupation,  the theme is food. I was surprised how many food related blocks there are. Fruits in particular seem to come up a lot. Of course making an applique of your favourite food would also be an option.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position red 11
• For the medium quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions red 11, 21 and 31
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions red 11, 21 and 31

Blockdown Quilt – part 27

I guess I should start by confessing. No I didn’t work on this quilt last week. I did on the other hand get a lot of longarm work done and some more of my double wedding ring. So it wasn’t a wasted week by any means. I hope some of those who really were desperate to catch up a bit did manage some time to sew on this quilt. I also hope no one suffered too much from the crazy rain the last week. We were lucky and got off far lighter than I expected but it did make us clean the gutters and the pathway. I suppose that counts as a win. I am also tentatively planning some art quilts with the hopes I might get to work on them this winter. Not promising anything but you never know. It will be more challenging as I will be trying to make everything using only fabrics I already have. I hope I have enough stashed to make that work. I suppose at worst it may determine which images are feasible for me at the moment.

This week we are back to small blocks. I love these as I find they go really quickly for me. It seems though the world is split on this, they are either the quick easy ones or the slow I have a lot of these ones. I found it very interesting that they divide people so much. I also thought this weeks theme would be one of the easiest, but nearly all the ones I have made so far wouldn’t fit this so perhaps it will take me a bit more thought than I expected. This week is 3″ blocks with the theme symmetry.

• For the small quilt you will need 6 blocks and they will be orange positions 21-26
• For the medium quilt you will need 13 blocks and they will be orange positions 21-26, 86-88, 51-53, 58 and 59
• For the large quilt you will need 16 blocks and they will be orange positions 21-26, 86-88, 51-53, 58, 59 and 101-103

This is not a blog post

Well more exactly it is a blog post to say there is no blog post today. It is half term in my regular classes and most of the people who come to the discussion for this quilt have other things planned this week so we have decided to have a week of and maybe use the time to catch up I did say maybe. Next part will be posted next Monday as usual.