Quarter of Nine #10

What If You Made

 

An Ohio Star

 

Block..

...Then Cut It Into

Four Quarters?

Quarter of Nine #9

What If You Made

 

A Friendship Star...

...Then Cut It Into

 Quarters?







The result is 4 Quarter of Nine blocks that are really quite strange.

Quarter of Nine #8

What If You Made

 

A Churn Dash

 

Block... 

...Then Cut It Into

Four Quarters?

You would have 4 small units to play with. I prefer to call them Quarter of Nine blocks since the original Churn Dash block was made by sewing 9 squares together and each of the new blocks is a quarter of those 9 squares.

There are any number of ways you could sew the Quarter of Nine blocks back together to make larger blocks.

Quarter of Nine #7

What If You Made

A Shoo Fly Block...

...Then Cut It Into 

 

Four Quarters?

Quarter of Nine #6

What if You Made

A Nine Patch

 

Block...

...Then Cut It Into

 

 Four Quarters?

This Old Quilt

Gave Me Some New Ideas

I Used To Think This Was

The King's Crown Block

And, of course, it is. At least, according to conventional wisdom, it is.




But then....

I Have To Show You This

This is the quilt my wife Linda is currently working on.

She took the Weyburn block that I showed you in my last post; decided to make it scrappy and added some sashing.

I don't know if you can imagine this quilt without the sashing. But I can tell you it was nowhere near as interesting or lively. I think the sashing was a brilliant idea.

Often it's the little things that make all the difference.

Three Very Different

Identical Blocks

It is possible to dramatically change not only the superficial appearance but also the basic design of a quilt block by changing how it is colored.

I'm going to explore some of the possibilities using a simple block.

You Can Use Old Ideas

To Make New Quilts

I was going through some of my old quilt design files when I found this block, High Prairie. It's named after a town in my home province of Alberta.



Back when I designed this I didn't realize that every block has multiple identities. I thought that, what you saw is what you got. So I would stop designing as soon as I found something I liked.

What Can I Do

To A Friendship Star

To Make It My Own?

Traditional blocks do not have to be traditional blocks. You can make new blocks from old ones if you put the pieces together differently.

If the two half-square triangles on either side of a Friendship Star block are rotated, the result is a new block that looks nothing like a Friendship Star block.

What Can I Do

To A Shoo Fly Block ...

...To Make It My Own?

It happens to everyone. You're assembling a block and somehow the pieces don't go together the way they're supposed to. So you say something like, "Oops, I made a mistake."

Think again. You didn't make a mistake. You made a new block.

What The Heck Are

Analagous Colors?

When you are choosing a color scheme for a quilt you will sometimes hear the suggestion that you should use analogous colors. What the heck are analogous colors?

Hand Applique

My wife Linda and I just got back from 5 days in Canmore where we attended a David Taylor (go to his site, you won't be disappointed) workshop.

If you ever get a chance to attend a David Taylor workshop do it! David teaches his method of hand applique.  He appliques with his quilt flat on a table so that the resulting quilt lies perfectly flat.

Hand applique is something I've never done. But now it's something I want to do again.

What If You Use One Block

But In Different Sizes?

What Sort Of Quilts

Can You Design?

The best way to find out is try it.

I'm going to try it with King's Crown in three sizes: full size, 3/4 size and 1/2 size.

Change This

To This

And What Do You Get?

Sometimes You Need

A Small Alphabet

If you've ever sewn a pieced alphabet, you've noticed that a lot of them can be quite large and take a lot of sewing.

Even if you haven't noticed this, I have. I wanted a pieced alphabet that was small, very small. And simple to sew. So I designed Foothills.

Sew Half-Rectangle Triangles

Method 3


It's nice to have a choice. When you are sewing a block it's nice to be able to pick the method that's best suited to your talents and tastes.

I've shown you 2 methods of sewing half-rectangle triangles in my last 2 posts. Now, I'd like to show you a third method using freezer paper.

Sew Half-Rectangle Triangles

Method 2

There is no one right way to do things. Each of us has different abilities and sensibilities. What works for one person doesn't for another.

When I teach quilting I've learned never to say, "This is how it should be done." I've learned to say, "This is how it can be done."

In my last post I showed you one way to sew half-rectangle triangles. Today I'll show you another.

Sew Half-Rectangle Triangles

Method 1

A few days ago, on 22 January, I showed you quilt designs using this wonky block.

 Caroll Drudy of Attic Window Quilt Shop liked my designs and tried making the block. She reported, "I had to make those rectangles several times before I got them to come out right."

Now, I think it would be great if you were to make a quilt or two using this block. And I don't want you to have trouble with the rectangles; so I'm going to show you how to sew them.