Mix & Match #3

Start With Two Blocks 
Everybody Knows

 Ohio Star                    Shoo Fly

And Make Two Blocks 
Nobody Has Heard Of

 Ohio Fly                       Shoo Star

Mix & Match #2

What If I Mix Up Two Blocks?

Shoo Fly                         Friendship Star

What if I make a Shoo Fly block and a Friendship Star block, cut them both into four pieces and then mix the pieces up?

Mix & Match #1

What If Two Blocks Became
Two Different Blocks?

Jacob's Ladder           Ohio Star

What if you take two blocks. Cut them into 4 quarters each. Take 2 quarters from each block and sew them together to make a new block. What do you get?

We're about to find out as I'm going to do that very thing with a Jacob's Ladder block and an Ohio Star block.

A Do Over

Four Friends

Four Friends is a quilts I designed quite some time ago. It is made from four Friendship Stars that Are cut into quarters and then re-assembled.You can find the pattern for it in the Summer 2013 issue of Quilter's Connection magazine.

(I can't find my picture of it finished; so you'll have to take my word for it that I did a terrific job of quilting it)

It has been brought to my attention that blue and yellow are not everybody's favorite colors. Go figure. So I thought I would try different color combinations for Four Friends.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 6

Today I'm posting the last of the numbers for my Shaganappi Alphabet.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 5

Today I finish with the letters for my Shaganappi alphabet and start on numbers.

Pieced Lettering

Part 4

You may be wondering about the name of this alphabet. Why Shaganappi?

I've designed a lot of alphabets to be used in quilts. Naming them was always a problem until I hit upon the idea of naming them after neigbourhoods in the City of Calgary where I live.

The neighbourhood of Shaganappi gets its name from the Cree word referring to the bison hide lacings that held Red River ox carts together.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 3

There are two tricks I use over and over to make this alphabet.The first trick is to paper piece the tricky parts.The second trick is to create diagonals using the binding strip method; that is, place two pieces together at right angles and sew them on the diagonal.

Three of today's 6 letters use both of these tricks.

Pieced Lettering

Part 2

Yesterday I showed you the first 6 letters of this alphabet. Here are the next 6.

G looks simple enough but the piecing for it doesn't. But looks can be deceiving.

Pieced Alphabet

Part 1

I thought it was time I shared another pieced alphabet with you. Starting with the first 6 letters.

The grid indicates size.

If the squares are 1/2" x 1/2", then the A is 4 1/2" x 7 1/2".

You might chose a different grid size.

Nice Quilting

Look What Michelle Did

Michelle did a great job of quilting her version of my Patricia/Ribbons quilt. I am impressed.

To learn more about the ideas behind what she did and to see closeups of the quilting visit her blog.

A Do Over

Seebe

Seebe is one of my older quilt experiments. I want to tinker with the elements that make up Seebe and see if I can find something new. Something I didn't think of way back then.

A Do Over

Campsie

Campsie is one of my earlier quilts. Back then I thought a block was a block. That what you saw was what you got. A block could be colored different ways and the results would all be different but not really different. I thought every block had it's own unique identity.

This is the Campsie block as I designed it.

Ontario Series # 7

St Thomas

My Ontario Series of quilt designs use what I consider to be non-traditional blocks. St Thomas is no exception.

It's a simple block and easy to paper piece. It's also asymmetric which is why I think it makes a good block.





Here are some of the things I discovered I could do with it:

Ontario series #6

Bolton

My Ontario Series uses blocks that are made using paper piecing. This is because the blocks employ non-standard triangles.

However, that doesn't make them difficult to sew. Using the freezer paper piecing method they are actually very easy to sew.

Nine Patch

I got to thinking about a Nine Patch block. Somehow it looks very different on point.

Partial Block #2

What if

Clay's Choice

Wasn't All There?

What if I removed a quarter of a Clay's Choice block? What could I do with what was left?

Partial Block #1

What If
Bear's Paw
Wasn't All There?


What if some Bear's Paw blocks only had three paws, or two, instead of four?
I could combine Bear's Paw blocks and partial Bear's Paw blocks.

Sashing

Card Trick

Sashing can change not only a quilt but a block.I've played with sashing occasionally and been amazed by the difference it can make.

Amish Star #8

Yesterday I played with an Amish Star by coloring it various ways and discovered this new block.

Today I want to play with the new block.

What Is It? #1

I'm going to explore some of the possibilities of an Amish Star block. But instead of playing with one block at a time I'm going to play with nine.

Instead of creating a block and then finding out what kind of quilt it will make I'm going to try creating a quilt and then discover what block was used to make it.

Paired Blocks #30

 Nine Patch

?




I thought I'd try combining two very simple blocks and see what happens.

Paired Blocks #29

Snail's Trail

Log Cabin



I had fun playing with these two blocks in my last post; so I thought I'd play some more.

Paired Blocks # 28

Snail's Trail

Log Cabin

Snail's Trail and Log Cabin are two blocks that are made in a similar way. You start at the center and work your way out.
I wondered, what if these two blocks were paired up? So I set out to find out.

Recycling

This Old Block

This block is from my 18 April 2010 post.
What if I play with it again?
Can I find new things to do with it?

Something Simple

What if I start with these two simple units?

I can make these three blocks.





What if I play with these blocks? Try them in different combinations. Color them different ways.

I can make a lot of different quilts. Including These:

5 Patch Block #2

I designed this 10"x10" block on a 5x5 grid; it is a 5 patch block.

Part of the fun part of designing your own block is you get to color it any way you please.


The other part is seeing what happens when you do:

Echo Block # 5

Friendship Star

Friendship Star is a very simple block. Adding a second smaller star to it makes it more interesting. Quilts made with the new block have more variety and life as a result.

Drunkard's Path

Drunkard's Path Plus

I got to wondering - What if a Drunkard's Path block had two quarter circles instead of one?




Here's what happens.

Quilting

Shoo Fly Place Mat

Version 4

Once again I'm playing with the idea that quilting can change how a quilt looks.
This place mat is made using 6 Shoo Fly blocks.

Summer Sun & Waves

The Ladies in
Foam Lake
Saskatchewan
Made This Quilt

"Some lucky person will win this great quilt. We have had many great comments about this quilt and have sold a lot of tickets as a fund raiser for the new Foam Lake Water Park. We had fun doing this and many have commented on the different design."
Elaine

The quilt is from my pattern Winter Sun and Snow. However, the ladies decided to rename it Summer Sun and Waves.

A version of this quilt first appeared in my Sunday 10 April post.

Echo Block #4

Clay's Choice