February 17, 2017

Gabled House -- a free paper piecing pattern

This past November, our circle of the online bee do.good.stitches (Believe circle) made house blocks of any design for the group's monthly project.  When I saw that the Montreal Modern Quilt Guild had put out a call to action to make house blocks in support of victims of the senseless attack on a mosque in Quebec City, I pulled out the pattern I had drafted last fall and made a #QuiltsforQC block:


I drafted the original pattern in pencil on freezer paper.  In the spirit of the MMQG's effort, I thought it would be worth sharing the pattern online, with the added advantage of providing for me the opportunity to learn Inkscape.  I've made the pattern available as a free PDF on Craftsy.  (EDIT 1/21/2019: Craftsy is no longer hosting my patterns.  I've added this pattern to my Etsy shop; however, due to Etsy's pricing structure, I'm charging a small fee for this pattern now.)

This is my first pattern to share, and it is untested.  If you try the pattern, I'd appreciate and feedback you might have.

I am glad to see there will be a collection point at Quiltcon for these blocks.  My block is ready to be packed, along with my other supplies.

I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

February 3, 2017

Loominous Cabins

I purchased a fat-quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner's brilliant Loominous yarn dyes about a year ago, and spent some time trying to decide what to make with them.  I settled on 9-inch quarter log cabin blocks set on point.



This quilt uses all but one of the fabrics in the bundle.  I worked out a way to cut each fat quarter so that 25 fat quarters yielded 50 blocks, with enough left over to form a scrappy border.  The inner border is from yardage of the yellow metallic fabric in the collection; this fabric is also used as an accent strip in some of the blocks.  I had a concept in mind in the arrangement of the accent strips, although it might not be evident.



For the setting triangles, I used Manchester Yarn Dyed in Charcoal from Robert Kaufman.  This was my first time setting a quilt on point; I had a few issues in squaring it up, but hopefully they are not too noticeable.



I chose an AMH print for the backing.  This was not my first, second, or even third choice, but this fabric was on sale and was very cost effective.  Still, I am very pleased with how well it coordinates with the front of the quilt.


Here is a full shot of the back:


I quilted it in a diagonal grid, using multiple colors of thread in an attempt to create a plaid-like design.  I really like the texture this created.


Here are some shots showing the different colors of quilting thread.  Most of the threads are 50-weight Aurifil; the blue and yellow are 50-weight Mettler, but these are 3-ply and thus slightly thicker than the Aurifil.





The binding uses the orange "Headlines" stripe cut on the bias:


The quilt measures 71 inches by 82 inches. 

I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.