Gypsy Wife plus 2 Spinoffs

When I went to the Silver Thread Guild's quilt show in Creede a couple of months ago, I picked up Jen Kingwell's Gypsy Wife pattern. It looked like something that would be fun to make. It was!  You select your own fabrics - no directions are given for that - and you plug your blocks into whichever size spaces you want.  I like how there are 1 1/2" strips running vertically through the quilt that give it some continuity. 

Gypsy Wife

When I finished Gypsy Wife, I thought that Jen's concept would translate easily to designing more quilts like hers, so I grabbed some graph paper and planned out one that would use up some of my orphan blocks.  I'll be taking it to the longarmer's tomorrow, but thought I'd post a pic of the top.

As I was looking around on the web for sites about designing your own quilts, I saw this page, about making a crocheted blanket using different sizes of squares. I thought it would translate well to a quilt, and grabbed my bags of 1.5" strips.

I think that I can teach a class on doing this, so I'll be talking to my local shop folks tomorrow about that.   Wouldn't that be fun?

5 Quilts Finished

This one is for my guild's community service project.  It's made from 2.5" scrap squares, and was quilted by Judee Koda, a gal in my guild. 

 This one is called Pink Charlotte - it's from the book Three Times the Charm.  I used a charm pack.
 Jessica Cook quilted this one for me. It's a gift for my great-niece Cadence.

 This is made from 2.5" scrap squares, and all I did was design a star and then elongate it. Jessica Cook quilted it, and it's for community service.

 This was my very oldest ever UFO - the second quilt I ever made.  It was back when I hadn't learned about pinning to match seams, but it's good enough for community service.  Jessica did the quilting.

This one is called Town Square, and it's from the book Scrap Basket Sensations by Kim Brackett. It was quilted by Cathy Kreter, and is for community service.

Some scrappy tops I made last month

My own design - I just took a star and elongated it. This uses the split 9-patch technique. All 2 1/2" squares and triangles.

Swoon; uses the split 9-patch technique.  2" squares and triangles.

Using up some 3' squares and triangles.

This one is called "Six Degrees South of the Equator." It's from Scrap-Basket Beauties, but I used 2" strips instead of 2 1/2"

"Lake Cabin" from Scrap-Basket Sensations

"Over and Under" from Scrap-Basket Sensations

Top made using Diamond Ripple block from 100 Modern Quilt Blocks

Scrappy Split 9-Patch Star

As I'm preparing to teach a class on making quilts from scraps, I decided to make a few class samples. The quilt hanging in the store is the Christmas Swoon - all reds and greens. I made a scrappy star top, as well as a scrappy swoon (picture of that one to come later.)

Christmas Swoon

I've been making several different scrappy split 9-patch quilts for the community service project in my guild. I decided to make a Christmas Swoon quilt, using Camille Roskelley's pattern. There was a swoon-along group on Flickr (I saw it too late to join), and I got the idea from there. I finished it yesterday, and took it to the quilt show today to give to Kristen. She'll hang it in the shop, and I'll be teaching a class on how to do the scrappy 9-patches in November.

A little of this and that

I haven't posted for a month - but have been super busy cranking out tops and blocks!  And earlier this week, I dropped off four tops to be quilted - so when those come back, I'll have four completed quilts to share. Here are some things I've been working on lately:

Spools blocks for guild BOM

"Boomers" - made for September Block Lotto

 The above block is a double four-patch. Bonnie Hunter made an entire quilt in greens and tans with this block here. I decided it would be a great way to use up my 1.5" squares.  (Bonnie's uses 2" squares for the smallest pieces; I used 1.5")

Here are four of the double-four patch blocks laid out. 

This top is called "Flower Boxes," from the book Scrap Basket Sensations. I donated it to my guild. 

Crayon Box block - October Block Swap Adventure - for Charlene

Crayon Box Block - October Block Swap Adventure - for Charlene

October blocks for Sew Bee Wonky

Stash Bee Hive #4 October blocks for Christy

Chaos Star - Lucky Stars BOM - October

Strip Twist

I made this top in two days - it's from 2 1/2" strips. I donated it to our guild's community service program, and Barbara K took it home to make it into a quilt. 


This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern, free from her website. Go here to get it for yourself.

Making Quilt Kits

Last week and yesterday I spent some time cutting fabric and making some kits for 4 quilts. I plan to take two of them to Bishop with me on Friday - we're going up there for some fishing (him) and relaxation (me). There will be 4 days in Bishop and 2 in Lone Pine when we'll have hookups, so I'll take the sewing machine and get some piecing done. The 4 days we'll be without hookups I plan to do some hand work on a woolies project, read, and visit the quilt shop in town.

The kit on the right in the bottom photo is from this book, which I picked up at JoAnn.  I have a bunch of 5" charms, and need to start using them.

The two larger kits in the top photo are going to be quilts from this book, which I got at my local quilt shop (Cherry Berry Quilts). I had so many 2 1/2" strips that I think I can make every quilt in that book and still have leftovers.

The fourth quilt will be a small one, using a ruler and pattern I picked up at Eleanor Burns' shop a couple of weeks ago. It's going to use up 28 of my 5" charms.

Scrappy New York Beauty

I subscribe to many blogs, and as I was zipping through my Google Reader last week, trying to get caught up, I passed a quilt made of New York Beauty blocks and black sashing. Aha!  I grabbed my batik scraps, pulled my New York Beauty paper-piecing patterns out of my notebook, and got rid of a bunch of my batik scraps. My patterns are from Ula Lenz and Donna Duquette (whose patterns are no longer available. So glad I saved them!) 

These are 8" blocks, so this is a wall hanging-sized quilt.  I'll get it quilted sometime in the spring.

I finished some quilts before vacation

We're leaving the 16th for Colorado, so I wanted to take some completed quilts and tops to the guild meeting today. 

First, I tied and bound three of the scrap-busting split 9-patch quilts. Each one is made with 2" squares and HSTs.

I also finished a pink one, but forgot to take a picture.  All four of these were donated to our community service program.

Next, I donated this top to our Home of the Brave project.  Cathy and I talked about how there was a need for quilts for older little girls - too often the children's quilts are pretty "young."  This one will be nice for an older little girl who has lost her father/mother in combat.  It's a paper-pieced pattern I adapted from one I found in an old quilting magazine - I can't remember which one.

It's just a top, but Cathy will quilt it and someone else will bind it before it's presented.

Lastly, I finished our upholstery challenge.  A few weeks ago I asked for advice as to where I should place the buttons - and the consensus was on the "cornerstones" and not the blocks.  I think this turned out really, really cute!

1464 1.5" squares = another top made

This one went together pretty quickly. I had several stacks of 9-patches left from when I assembled them as leaders and enders last year, and decided to put them together into sets of 4. I added some sashing, a border, and four more 9-patches on the corners, and I have another top!

9-Patch HSTs

This is a technique I learned from Karen Combs' book Combing Through Your Stash. You make 9-patch blocks that are  half light and half dark, and look like giant HSTs. You then can make any block pattern that calls for HSTs. This top is about 35" square - and is made up of 384 2" squares plus 108 HSTs.