Quilt Chains

Quilts made for my enjoyment - without a person or organization in mind, can feel very creative. I love the quilt on the December cover of American Patchwork and Quilting. We do not need any more Christmas quilts, but I figured that I could find an owner. The flannel medallion backing that worked well with the colors in this quilt - black, red, green and white, was a bit too small for the original layout, so I played in EQ and found a layout that was a bit shorter, to fit four yards of backing. I did pre-wash the flannel before measuring.

The designer used a mix of blacks and greys, and it was fun to pull the fabrics from stash. For the snowflakes, just two fabrics were used - a pearlized cream, and a Kona black that had a honeycomb texture. Two reds for the X blocks, and they had a variety of blacks and greys as background. Multiple greens for the trees were found - even some very small scraps for HSTs, and a black with a small white square dot that reminded me of snow for those backgrounds. The border is a grey on black.

One of my neighbors happily claimed this quilt.

The extra red squares drew me towards a bag of 2.5" -ish squares that were leftovers from a sale, gifted to me by a friend. this led to a search for more small pieces or squares, and the Unexpected 9-patch quilt came together. With careful pressing, the 2-color combination blocks all nested nicely. The backing fabric is a green with white Christmas kitties. Red and white diagonal stripe for binding.

Another neighbor, who happened to see these blocks on the design wall, adopted this quilt. It was very fun to piece, though I learned that not all squares are really the size they seem...some were too small, many too large (or not square) and needed trimming before assembly.

I picked up a small charity quilt top to assemble at our December meeting, only to discover that the top was already sewn together. It was a bit too small, and the overstuffed red stash drawer yielded a cheerful gingham for a border. A white and grey print backing was pulled from stash. Solid red for binding.

The bag also contained some extra strips sets. Again - and interesting size - larger than 2.5" but not 3". I converted them to 4-pathes with careful trimming. Searching for more pieces, I came across the saved stitch-and-flip squares from Through the Woods (top quilt), pressed and trimmed they came together with the 4-patches, and a yard of red/white/black print became alternate blocks and border. A couple of darker reds to pull from the print and some other grey bits rounded out another charity quilt. A rather crazy red paisley fit as a backing.

And then a rail fence quilt variation seen on Pinterest sent me to four oddball FQ's. The the fabrics been cut on the straight of grain, piecing would not have been needed. Once started, I just went ahead and pieced some of the small strips to get the number of blocks needed. Another white/grey print worked for the backing, and my favorite black and white diagonal print for the binding kept it jaunty.

The current projects in progress include an American Hero top and placemats for a Master Gardener sale. There are a lot of scrap leftovers to organize, and my Pinterest boards are just full of ideas.