Blockdown Quilt – Part 16

I can’t believe how fast this quilt is going. I am a bit behind but I still have a decent stack of blocks. It feels like we have just started yet here we are part 16. I am sure time doesn’t behave the same since covid. Hey we blame that for most things, I can blame it for this too I am sure. As well as my stack of blocks I am building up a note book full of designs I like. My own personal block library. I can completely understand why so many people bring out books of block collections, which I enjoy looking at, and I am wonder if I need to prepare one of my own. Maybe I just need to make more sampler books. I love blocks, and there are just so many wonderful ones, including a few I think I made up. I say I think because it seems there is very little that hasn’t already been thought of. I can say they are new to me and were not directly taken from any source material. Not quite the same as I invented them but possibly more accurate. We have a fairly small task this week, which may or may not be a win. I think for me the hardest part will be choosing as there will be a lot of options. Enough suspense this week the theme is plants. Before you curse me too much I will give you a clue for the future, there will be more scope for plant blocks later. I know there are a LOT of blocks that fit this one. This time we are making 6″ blocks.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position red 7
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions red 7 and 33
• For the large quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions red 7 and 33

Blockdown Quilt – Part 15

Well I have a confession, I am still thinking about what I am going to do for last weeks blocks. I know the vague idea of what I want to do, but I can’t decide how. Some of the ideas I have for the how are definitely at the insane level of things, but then that is me all over. I am hoping I can talk myself into something saner, but no promises. I think my fabric choices rule out some of the worst ideas, though even then there are ways around that. I am sure the insane heat last week didn’t improve my thinking ability either. This week is fortunately simpler and cooler. Hopefully those combined will mean I make better progress. I did at least finish my circles week this weekend, so it wasn’t a total waste. This week we are making 3″ blocks again and we need to use three fabrics.

• For the small quilt you will need 7 blocks and they will be orange positions 8-11 and 48-50
• For the medium quilt you will need 13 blocks and they will be orange positions 8-11, 48-50 and 70-75
• For the large quilt you will need 15 blocks and they will be orange positions 8-11, 48-50, 70-75 and 108-109

Blockdown Quilt – Part 14

Oh my it is hot. Any errors in this post are due to the heat, yes that is a bit of a cop out, it is also fairly accurate. I can’t even say this is a good time to hide indoors and sew as the idea of turning the iron on is horrible. Maybe this is more of a planning time. Perhaps some late night sewing when it is cooler but still too hot to sleep. This week we are working on the smaller 6″ blocks, and a theme I think couple of people will appreciate, letters. I know some want to actually add letters or text to their quilts so here is the perfect week to do that. However don’t forget there are blocks named after letters too. I suppose this could be an opportunity for some hand sewing and maybe a stitched letter too, might be cooler that way.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position red 4
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions red 4, 27
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions red 4, 27 and 44

Try to keep cool and stay hydrated. I will now go and work in a cooler room.

Blockdown Quilt – Part 13

I hope the week off has given everyone a chance to catch up a little. I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but then I knew last week was going to be busy so maybe my expectations were a little optimistic (delusional). I also have a total mental block on the last set that needs making. No matter how often I see 9″ or am told 9″ by the ladies who come to the group on a Tuesday I am still convinced it is 12″. To the extent that I now have an orphan 12″ block. I am hoping I can squeeze it in on another week. This week we don’t have many blocks to make so maybe we can do a bit more catch up if needed. The theme for this week is circles and we will be making 12″ blocks.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position green 4
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions green 4 and 14
• For the large quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions green 4 and 14

As ever try to think outside the box. There are a lot of circle based quilt blocks, but there are many ways to use circles in a block.

Blockdown Quilt – Part 12

With a British summer really getting underway now here I am with a quite busy week of patchwork for you. Don’t panic though as we will take next week off to give everyone a chance to catch up a bit. I think we are getting to a time when a lot of people can be busy and this is why I gave us a few spare weeks. Some of the apparently spare weeks will be for putting the quilt together, but equally if this project runs to 54 or 55 weeks instead of 52 I won’t be too worried. Goodness knows where we will be by then end of it, so I think we just focus on our quilts and let the future take care of itself. I am sure the future will always be better with more quilts in. This week we are doing 9″ blocks, and working on broken. LOL, I guess that isn’t the most positive sounding theme but you have probably noticed just how many quilt blocks are broken something. Of course you could take any block and break it somehow too. Might be interesting for an orphan block that is just wrong I suppose, of course none of us ever have that happen, cough.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position blue 4
• For the medium quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions blue 4, 12, and 20
• For the large quilt you will need 4 blocks and they will be positions blue 4, 12, 20 and 32

Blockdown Quilt – Part 11

Hmm, I have just read the theme I chose from this week. I wrote most of these quite some time ago so they are now starting to surprise me. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking and today is one of those days. I do admit it has some interesting options, and I am sure the legal team in our weekly discussion will have fun debating exactly how far we can go. This week we have 6″ blocks and the design criteria four points. See I said this one was both odd and fun. Lots of scope here.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position red 3
• For the medium quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions red 3, 30 and 32
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions red 3, 30 and 32

Blockdown Quilt – Part 10

Another Monday and another block challenge to think about. I still find it very helpful to have something as a background task to ponder for the week and I love how many new to me blocks I am discovering. I think I will have many years worth of quilts to make by the end of this one. Just as well as I think I also have the fabric for them all too. This week we are back to the 3″ blocks. So lots of blocks but hopefully simple ones, the theme this week is triangles. I have tried to keep the groups of blocks together where I can so yes there is scope for secondary designs.

• For the small quilt you will need 6 blocks and they will be orange positions 3,4, and 27-30
• For the medium quilt you will need 13 blocks and they will be orange positions 3,4, 27-30, 81-85, 54 and 55
• For the large quilt you will need 16 blocks and they will be orange positions 3,4, 27-30, 81-85, 54, 55 and 112-114

Blockdown quilt – Photos – part 2

Sorry for the long gap, I had a glitch renaming the images and just didn’t get back to it. It seems the no time issue Covid caused is still ongoing for me. Rather than having more time now I travel less I seem to have less time and a much longer to do list. I am also doing a lot more sewing, by longarm, by domestic and believe it or not by hand. I know that dodgy four letter word. I do want to share some photos of our progress though.

This is absolutely the classic 9 patch from Ginny. I love 9 patches and feel they are greatly underrated. Expect to see several in my quilt, I have plans.

The rest of the blocks I think take the 9 patch grid and play. They are all assembled as 9 patches still but the variety you can achieve is stunning. Above we have 2 for Janis’ quilt and below three for Rachel’s.

Finally (until I take photos of mine, bad Ferret) we have three from Sharon.

Blockdown Quilt – Part 9

I hope the summer heat isn’t putting people off quilting. Personally I love hiding in the relative cool of the house this time of year but I know the garden calls to a lot of quilters. Um, well now you come to mention it mine is calling too. I have a new herb garden to plant and the plants arrived today, so I need to deal with that. Still I would rather be sewing. I have caught up part 7, but I still need to make two blocks for last week, hopefully those will be done today. This week at least sounds pretty simple. We are making 6″ blocks with only two fabrics, yup anything you like but limited fabrics. I think I will go back over the blocks I found for other weeks and see who missed out.

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position red 6
• For the medium quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions red 6 and 35
• For the large quilt you will need 2 blocks and they will be positions red 6 and 35

Blockdown Quilt – Part 8

Another holiday Monday but here we are thinking about quilts. I suspect quilters can think about quilts at any time, including asleep. Today for me is a lovely day to be inside, it is very hot out there so sewing in the cool sounds good to me. I will also try to get more of my fabric sorted and folded today, I have new furniture coming for the fabric store room and I would like to be as prepared as I can before it arrives. Folding fabric also gives my plenty of time to think about designs for this weeks blocks, after all fabric folding isn’t really much of an intellectual exercise. This week the theme is people. I guess for those of you who want to this is where you might fit in you Sunbonnet Sue. I know several people have a whole list of blocks that will fit here, it seems a lot of interesting blocks include people in the title. I think this will be handy to get in some of the blocks I found earlier in the process but couldn’t fit in. So for our people themed blocks we need,

• For the small quilt you will need 1 block and it will be position blue 1
• For the medium quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions blue 1, 13 and 24
• For the large quilt you will need 3 blocks and they will be positions blue 1, 13 and 24