My Turn

Yea, Ahhh, Oooo, Eeee....Apparently I have mixed emotions about being the "quilter" in charge of this month's quilt in the do. Good stitches bee. One of my jobs as the quilter is to tell the other sewers what pattern and color scheme to make their blocks out of this month. They will complete the blocks, then send them to me - at which time I will piece the various blocks together, add batting and a back, quilt, and Voila - send it off to our local Project Linus chapter.

Inspiration quilt: a cross between This beauty that became a pillow front from AmandaJean at Crazy Mom Quilts and these amazing triangles from Julie at Jaybird Quilts
Inspiration fabrics: (am I crazy for doing this...) ANYTHING modern. Try to stay away from whites though - as that will be the sashing.

I was thinking of the same methodology for piecing as in the Crazy Mom Quilts post, but using a different size triangle. (bigger - rather than the itsy, bitsy 3.5" ones as I drove myself half crazy completing 6 - yes 6 is all I made - earlier this month). *see notation below for alternate piecing method depending on your preferences.

After much consideration on triangle shape (apparently there are 6 different triangles) and size, I think it might be easiest to make a right triangle (2 sides as 12" each, and according to the Pythagorean theorem, that makes the hypotenuse 17") ... okay, I don't remember much about math. Here is what I used to come up with my plan...
my 12.5" square ruler. To get your paper pattern, I took a random sheet of 12" scrapbook paper, lined up the middle cross angle line with the edge of the paper, traced the edge to make a diagonal line down the center (my ruler was not long enough, so I went as far as I could in 1 direction, then turned the paper to finish the line), cut and Voila - (2) templates for a 12x12x17" right triangle.












Once you have your template, use the tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts to piece the triangle together. I do NOT have a preference for how wide the scrappy pieces are - just that there be at least 3 fabrics per triangle. Example below of sewing onto the paper for the first piecing.


*The other option would be to make a 12" square of scrappy pieced fabrics, THEN cut using the template making procedure as described above - either seems like it should work for me.












I'd love to see pics if you give this a shot.

Good luck! Can't wait to see what everyone else from our do. Good Stitches group chooses for fabrics.

- Sew Sane Jane

May bee blocks

So I have been participating in the do. Good Stitches online bee for two months now. It is an online bee where a "circle" of us - a group of sewers who signed up about the same time - make (2) blocks each and send them to that month's quilter. This month, the quilter asked us to make a "square in square" inspired block using "adolescent boy" color theme.

After much tribulation (further explanation below), these are the blocks that I sent off.


I struggled with color choices - I find that I often gravitate towards girly colors and prints. I had a few different prints picked out, but decided that the blue "buttons" were not too girly. I had a different green accent picked out, but decided that it made the combo too girly, so i changed to this green that makes me think "camo" without actually being camo.

I have seen postage stamp style patterns pop up on various blogs that I read. I decided to give it a shot. I cut fabric into 1.5" strips, then cut those into 1.5" squares. I made the 9 patch block that is the center of the above block first. Thought it turned out pretty good, so I thought I would make a much bigger section of it for the second block.

Eeeek does making these seem tedious. I ended up getting about 10 items wide and made 4 rows. Then I decided that I would just take chunks of that overall rectangle I made and make a block around it. I didn't want to keep it as a rectangle as the quilter said "square in square" inspiration. So, I cut it into a 4x4 block. I thought I would have 2 in the block to change it up from the first block I made.

As I laid it out, I wanted more of the blue fabric, so I started to add it to each side. I thought it was looking a bit too similar to the first block, so I thought I would only add the blue to two sides of the squares and try something else to connect the two patches. I laid it out on my 12.5" square ruler (since that is our goal size) and my conception seemed to work. So I added the white stripe and then a 6" patch of green. AFTER I cut and sewed the 4 patches together, it was too Little! it was only about 12" long instead of 12.5. So, I took the green off and made it longer as I thought that would fix it. IT DIDN'T! Now the block was 12.5" by 12.25. What went wrong - I still have not figured out. But this is the failed block. GRRRR



So, I put that away, where I couldn't see it as I am annoyed with myself! I decided on a completely different idea. Green with 1" squares more sporadically placed rather than the block of the postage squares.

I cut green (good thing I chronically get WAY more fabric that I need for a project) fabric into 1.5" strips and randomly cut those into various lengths. I randomly sewed some leftover 1.5" squares of the blue and white stripe fabric to the green, sewed the strips together, and Voila. A totally different block that Actually measures 12.5"




I liked these blocks and am thinking about doing a big quilt using the above block idea on a larger scale. (likely different colors)

I thought the two blocks went together pretty well - all said and done.




Not sure if the random placement squares is my favorite or the cute little random placement of the postage squares in the border of the first block. (apparently I like the "random" look today) :)




Are you in any online bee's?? What is your favorite experience - how about your most horrific??


-Sew Sane Jane
(Posted using BlogPress from my iPad)

Bee Block

If you are a "contact" on flickr sorry - I posted it a week or so ago when I first sent the blocks, but am just getting my post up now.





I recently got to join the do. Good stitches quilting bee. April was our first month of sewing. Our "Quilter" this month chose a great set of colors and give us a great herringbone tutorial.
I used some stash fabrics (I know some are from the newish Sugarpop Moda line) and some others that I don't remember the names of.
I can't wait to see the finished top once everyone sends in their blocks!

-Sew Sane Jane
(Posted using BlogPress from my iPad)