Patchwork (or) Pieced Quilts Archives : Indiana Quilter 40

DONATED BABY QUILTS TO THE LOCAL CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER

I am a big believer in giving back to my community. Here are six simple donated baby quilts to the local crisis pregnancy center that I made. As I make these quilts, they get donated in batches of 6 – 12 to two local pregnancy centers.

The blocks are a mix of flannel and cotton with the batting being scraps left over from my own projects. The backing is usually a flannel or child print cotton. They are tied with yarn. People know that I make many of these annually so many of the supplies are donated to me for this purpose.

Supplies For the Donated baby quilts:

Nine 9.5” cotton or flannel squares (3 rows of 3 squares each)

Batting

Bright colored yarn

Backing fabric (flannel or cotton – 1.25 yard)

At a minimum they should be tied at each corner and in the center of each block. They could be machine quilted easily in straight lines.

I do a self binding by trimming the batting even with the top, and then trimming the back to 2″ on each side larger than the top/batting. Fold the over hang in half once (so now 1″ wide all around quilt) and sew down as binding.

If using fleece as the backing, when self binding trim to 1″ and zig-zag stitch down. I have found if using fleece for the backing, I do not use batting.

Please remember that these donated baby quilts for the local crisis pregnancy center are meant to be loved to death, so make them well and colorful.

Reach out to others:

If you ask or look around your own community, there are people or places who would love to receive warm and cuddly quilts. These are also a simple way to teach people basic sewing skills.

In the past, I have used these quilts to teach basic sewing and giving skills to a group of teen girls at church. It was a fun way to learn and for them to socialize as well. Currently I am making the donated baby quilts alone as the girls have all left for college, and none of the current teen girls are interested in sewing.

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2015/02/10-crisis-pregnancy-quilts.html

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2014/09/19-crisis-pregnancy-center-quilts.html

LOST AT SEA QUILT

This quilt started out simple enough as an Ocean Wave quilt. And then “disaster” struck and I ended up with this Lost at Sea quilt.

My daughter wanted a bright and cheery quilt. And as always I was happy to make a top that used lots of scraps from my overflowing scrap bin.

This pattern uses two sizes of triangles and normally goes together easily enough. I currently cannot find the old paper pattern from a magazine that I used (it may finally have been used to death), but this quilt pattern is very similar.

Due to the the small pieces, and large amount of pieces needed there is a real need for the time to work on it.

“Disaster strikes”

So how did I make this mistake on the Lost at Sea quilt? Lack of time and being over tired so I just did not catch my mistake. I pieced this top in 1997 and my kids were all under 12, and we were homeschooling.

The blocks went together individually just fine.

It was when I connected the blocks that the mistake happened. The blocks got turned around and ended up in a totally different design. Yes, it does resemble real ocean waves and we all liked the finished top.

At least the gray and pink striped border frames it beautifully.

Another view of Lost at Sea. — Canon Inc

Crisis avoided by laughing about it, and just renaming the quilt. This quilt was a favorite of my daughter’s and it is long worn out from being loved into nothing but rags.

The finished size was 68″ x 88″. It was machine quilted in an all over wavy pattern in 2000 by MG.

And finally…

I love this pattern and it makes beautiful quilts. So far, I have only made these in scraps but it would make a beautiful two color quilt. I am thinking about making a solid colored quilt – maybe like an Amish quilt with black or navy background.

I made the below Ocean Wave quilt in 1990. Here it is in a personal quilt show last spring. It still looks good.

Ocean Waves quilt in green, blue, purple, and gray.

Wherever your quilt journey takes you, enjoy the trip. Learn from it. Challenge yourself. Be happy.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

VINTAGE CHURN DASH QUILT

Sometimes a quilt top appeals to me and I just have to bring it home. That is what happened with this vintage Churn Dash quilt when I saw it at an antique store in Oaktown, IN back in 2010. Plus it fit my budget at $30.

The blocks are 8″ square and are made of cheerful 30’s and 40’s prints. A solid orange sashing is between the blocks. Here is an easy pattern to make your own.

I kept it where it could be seen for several months while I decided about adding an outside border. I was not concerned about the size, however, I personally like an outside border to frame the quilt.

After several months, I decided to leave the quilt top “as is” and had it machine quilted by RLM in January 2011. The design is a loopy design that is close and does a good job of covering the entire top.

Loopy quilting design shown on front and back of quilt. — nary comment

We chose a poly/cotton blend batting, and the backing is a cotton multi colored design on light background.

The finished size is 64″ x 76″.

This vintage churn dash quilt makes me happy every time I look at it. The fabrics and cheery colors remind me of something my beloved Grandma would have made from feed sacks.

Cheerful colors make this quilt top. — Shoo fly quilt

Reminder to all quilters:

Please don’t feel like you have to make every quilt you have. It can be fun to purchase completed blocks, a completed top, or a finished quilt. The important thing is to surround yourself with quilts you like because they make you happy.

Purchasing parts of a quilt, or an entire top can also save some much needed time. Quilting should make you happy, not stressed.

HOW TO ENGLISH PAPER PIECE

I have no idea who showed me how to English paper piece hexagons and diamonds. But the years have slid by and I really enjoy this technique. It is portable, easy, and looks great when completed.

What research I have done on this technique is that it started in England (well that certainly is obvious) in the 1700’s. The technique showed up in America in the early 1800’s. I have not done enough research that may or may not show this technique in other countries.

Gather supplies:

Paper (I use scrap paper that is on hand, such as discarded mail)

Fabric

Pattern in shape and size desired

Thread

Scissors

Easy directions:

I found this slide show about English paper piecing to be very easy to follow and the photos much better than anything I had in my own personal collection for directions.

If you prefer YouTube, this is a nice presentation.

This previous post has a PDF pattern for the hexagon I use in most of my quilts using this technique.

How To English Paper Piece — Flowers & Tumblers Quilt

This is not a hard technique, but it is time consuming.

Here are my steps and tips FOR HOW TO DO ENGLISH PAPER PIECING:

Get my supplies together.
Make the template from something sturdy (I cut up the plastic lids from ice cream containers for this). Draw around it on the paper for the amount of hexagons (or diamonds) you want to do. Personally, I start with 2 or 3 sheets of paper and cut more as needed. I find I can use the same paper shapes 3 times before they are no longer stiff. Cut carefully and accurately.

Papers used for English paper pieced hexagons

I do not cut out hexagon (or diamond) shapes from fabric. I do cut squares or rectangles big enough to cover the shape plus be folded over to the back. My reasoning is that I can trim off the extra fabric from the back of each shape – I cannot make extra if I don’t allow enough room. I learned the hard way that not centering already cut fabric means there is not enough fabric on back to prevent fraying or just flat out not enough fabric.

Take one paper shape and one fabric piece. Pin the paper to the wrong side of the fabric. Baste all around the shape. You will want the fabric to fit snug and the edges sharp. Do not bend the paper shape or have the fabric sag away from the paper.
Starting with the center and one petal, whip stitch along one side. Add another petal and sew the two seams. Do this all the way around until you have one complete “flower”.

One completed English paper pieced flower.

AND FINALLY:

Do not remove the paper yet. When you remove the paper will depend on what you do with the sewn shapes. The basted edge holds the raw edges firmly so they can be sewn together to the next row of hexagons. Or sewn down to a fabric block by applique.
When you decide to remove the paper, simply take out the basting stitches and pull out the paper. As long as it is still stiff and the edges untorn, it can be reused in another “petal”.

Other places for information:

I found several other links about English Paper Piecing. We all learn differently, so these might be helpful too.

The History of English Paper Piecing | MQG Community (themodernquiltguild.com)

My Summer English Paper Piecing project | Diary of a Quilter – a quilt blog

Discover Vintage America | Covering Quilts (discoverypub.com)

GRANDMA'S FLOWER GARDEN

TUMBLING BLOCKS (English paper pieced)

Dear Readers,

Have fun exploring the world of English paper piecing. You may be one of those quilters who becomes “addicted” to this technique. Even if you are not one who becomes “addicted”, at least you will have learned how to do English Paper Piecing. Happy Quilting.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

CHINESE LANTERN QUILT

In all my years of quilting, I had never seen a quilt pattern like this Chinese Lantern Quilt. This beauty was probably pieced during the 1930’s. It is so unique, and I had the privilege of hand quilting it in early 1996.

The background fabric is a bright orange with cotton candy pink circles appliqued between the lanterns. Diamonds of 1930’s prints make up the lanterns and are appliqued on the orange background too. The first border is a narrow black strip, with the outside border more of the bright orange fabric.

The hand quilting is a circle inside the pink fabric circles. In the orange I quilted a stipple design. Some of the diamonds in each lantern are quilted too. I put 203 yards of hand quilting into this cheerful and unique quilt.

The backing is plain unbleached muslin. I wish that I had taken a photo of the quilt from the back as well, but at the time it just did not get done.

Finished size is queen.

When I quilted this Chinese Lantern Quilt, it was owned by PB of Fiddletown, CA.

Are you wondering why I am showing off a quilt from 1996? Truthfully, it is a gloomy, drizzly day here in central Indiana. I completed my reports for work and took some time to look back through my scrapbooks of quilts and found this cheerful beauty.

It is an unusual pattern – I have to wonder if it was designed by the maker.

Fun clip art of Chinese Lanterns. — Source: Bing clip art

Other ideas for Chinese Lantern quilts –

Here is a link to a pieced pattern that is named Chinese Lanterns.

I saw a version of a Chinese Lantern quilt at a quilt show in Terre Haute, IN. It is just one of many beautiful quilt photos from a post earlier this year.

Another beautiful lantern quilt. — Source: QUILT SHOW – Terre Haute, IN : Indiana Quilter 40

Please note that all photos and written content in this post are mine.

FIRST GRANDBABY QUILT

I recently spent some time looking at my old blog and walking down “memory lane” of quilts that I did years ago. I thought this quilt “First Grandbaby Quilt” would be a fun one to share. It was simple and made with a lot of love for a wonderful surprise.

Our first (and to date only) grandbaby was a wonderful surprise. Our daughter was and is a planner, and as far as we knew babies were not part of the her life’s plan.

So being a quilter, my mind went into “quilting mode” and what kind of quilt to make for the expected precious little person. The daughter refused to have a sex test done on the baby so any quilt would have to be for either gender.

After much sorting through the stash, I finally decided on cheerful and bright. Some bright scraps, some flower fabrics, some cat fabrics, and a newly purchased piece of Winnie the Pooh fabric for the border.

The grand-daughter arrived as scheduled in March 2015. She was (and is) a precious addition to our family. We are so glad to live only a short distance away which means we are able to babysit a few hours weekly. The years slip by so fast and she is now in kindergarten. She is beautiful just like her mom.

The First Grandbaby quilt is faded and well used, which is exactly what it should be.

See another easy quilt on this blog.

Completed quilt:

Remember these are the sizes I used and feel free to adjust to suit your needs.

Finished size is 54″ square.

Center 9 blocks are 10″ square. The strip blocks are 2.5″ wide strips sewn together side to side. Trim to the size you want.

Inside border of cat fabric is 6″ wide.

The outside Winnie the Pooh border is 8″ wide.

Machine quilting by RLM is a medium size stipple.

Binding is self bound with the gray flannel backing being pulled to the front and machine sewn down.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

ODE TO VINTAGE CARS

As I mentioned in the previous post, a current project is a quilt for my nephew. He loves vintage and muscle cars. I am making him an Ode to Vintage Cars quilt for his high school graduation this year. Simple and personal.

I try to do my business locally, and in this case the search for specific fabric took longer than expected. I found so many vehicle fabrics, but most were juvenile looking or were not the right kind of cars. Amazing as it is, I was able to get four vintage car fabrics on my last road trip to the Daviess County, IN Amish community.

My plan is this –

Double bed size made from 10″ squares. The car fabric will be alternated with solid orange fabric. It will be 8 rows across by 9 rows up and down for a total of 72 squares. So 36 orange and 36 car fabric. Can you tell I like to keep my math easy?

My thought is to add three separate borders: 2.5″ wide white, 2.5″ orange, and 4″ navy blue with small white stars. The borders will be my ode to my favorite muscle car.

I am aiming for a finished size of 85″ x 95″.

Right now, the rows are sewn together and the top is waiting the borders. I should be able to get the borders added this week. Then it will go off to be machine quilted.

I will add more photos once the quilt is complete.

It should make a young man who loves vintage and muscle cars a happy guy.

My favorite muscle car:

During my teen years in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, muscle cars were common. I had my favorites – Corvette’s and Nova’s. Then this TV series came on in 1979 named the Dukes of Hazzard. I fell in love hard for the most “magic” muscle car of them all – the General Lee. It was beautiful jumping and it always drove off after a jump.

Coolest vintage car — Source: Google images

I found out the hard way that jumping a muscle car was not smart and very dangerous. A school mate and I ruined his dad’s newly restored Camaro by jumping it on a country road. The moral to that lesson – let the stunt guys drive crazy.

Conclusion:

Easy and personal quilts can be made from any novelty fabric that suits the interests of the recipient. Here’s another idea for a personal quilt that involves vehicles. I also found an unlimited amount of car quilt ideas on Pintrest.

This kind of quilt is simple to make and a joy to receive. Have fun making these for the special people in your life.

In the meantime, I will finish the Ode to Vintage Cars quilt by adding the borders and getting it off to the machine quilter.

Have a great day.

LOG CABIN IN THE FALL WOODS (another log cabin quilt)

Fall is my favorite season and the only one I really decorate for. I believe that is one reason I go to Maine every September – the colors are so brilliant – the blue sky, the leaves, the ocean water. I thought it would be fun to make a log cabin quilt in fall colors. Here is the start of my “Log Cabin in the Fall Woods” quilt.

Red and gold leaves for LOG CABIN IN THE FALL WOODS — Stock photo from Pexels

Basic directions:

I started to make a fall themed log cabin quilt from my fabric stash. The goal being to not buy any fabric to make this quilt top. It was not hard to find the right red, orange and purple scraps and cut them into the correct sizes and shapes:

4″ center squares (dark red)

2.5″ strips (purple and orange)

When constructing the blocks, I only did two rounds instead of my normal three. When sewing two of the sides of the block are in one color (orange) and the other two in another color (purple). There is a total of 36 blocks to make this square quilt, or six rows by six rows. I like keeping the math simple.

I cut many strips to start and ended up cutting more to complete the blocks. That really is fine, I am trying to use up scraps.

36 blocks done:

When the 36 blocks were complete, I set them together in what is called the Sunshine & Shadow setting or the Dark & Light setting. Whatever the name, it gave a different look to the purple and orange blocks. I only recently realized how many ways the log cabin blocks can be put together to make designs.

36 blocks sewn together for LOG CABIN IN THE FALL WOODS

At this point, the top for “Log Cabin in the Fall Woods” is 68” square and needs a border or borders to complete. I lost interest and moved to another project. This project got hung on a hanger in the closet to be finished another time.

Adding the borders

I added more of the leftover strips to make the border to finish this quilt top. There are 5 borders to make the quilt the size I want.

Starting closest to the blocks, first border is 4″ in red print. The second border is leftover 2.5″ leftover purple strips. The third border is leftover 2.5″ orange strips. The fourth border is leftover 2.5″ purple strips. The final border is 4″ wide and a leaf print with metallic highlights.

Completed top for Log Cain in the Fall Woods. — Here is the completed top for Log Cabin in the Fall Woods

A completed quilt

The quilt was machine quilted in a large stipple design. The machine quilting was completed in May 2020 by RLM.

Finished size is 88″ square.

The backing is a solid purple sheet.

I did not buy any fabric for the quilt top. It is made of scraps or from fabric pieces already in my stash. Goal reached !!

Backing and machine quilting design. — Backing with quilting design showing.

Completed Log Cabin in the Fall Woods quilt. — Yeah! The completed quilt.

Another fall log cabin quilt – https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2009/10/log-cabin.html

Another log cabin – https://indianaquilter40.com/hot-chocolate-and-peppermint-quilt/

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

The Mystery Quilt Continues

Mystery clip art — Source: Bing clip art

I decided to do the mystery quilt that Bonnie Hunter put out on her blog during late November 2020. My goal was to complete each part as the directions came out every week. Real life put out some bumps and I am behind, so the mystery quilt continues…..

If you missed my previous post on this mystery quilt, please go here. In that post, I showed photos as I completed making parts 1 – 6.

I am not going to give details or sizes because you should to go to Bonnie’s website to get the complete directions. At some point this design will be put into a PDF pattern she will sell.

Fall color leaves — Source: Bing clip art

And the mystery quilt continues…..

Now I am in part 7 which is putting the components from the previous parts into blocks and sashing to complete the top for making the Grassy Creek Mystery Quilt.

The Main Blocks:

The first step in this part was making these Ohio Star blocks to be the center of the main blocks.

Ohio Stars for the center of the mystery quilt blocks.

Then adding the triangle components to the sides.

So the center block is complete. There is still the sashing and secondary blocks to make from the parts.

The sashing:

Sewing the gray strips together to make the sashing was easy but to me the most time consuming part of the entire process. For part 7 the red rectangles were added to each long end.

The final components to put together are the remaining flying geese blocks, HST, and red rectangles into a secondary block. This is where I am as of this morning – still needing to add the yellow and gray HST:

When I committed to doing this mystery quilt, I involved another quilter who had never done anything by Bonnie Hunter or a mystery quilt. She was not sure about it but was willing. Her top has been completed for 3 weeks because she had way too much fun using scraps and piecing an unknown design.

That being said, for those of us who get bogged down in a design, someone else just flies through it and is done. Usually other quilters say that I am the one flying through the piecing of a quilt top – not this time.

So….just keep at your project, enjoy, and complete. I have not given up or allowed myself to work on another quilt top. This one will not be a UFO.

NIGHT FLIGHT (or a Flying Geese quilt)

Flying Geese is a well known and much loved block among quilters. The pattern is fairly easy to make and can be arranged in other ways beside the traditional Flying Geese quilts. I like darker backgrounds, and thought that “Night Flight” (or a Flying Geese quilt) was a good description of geese flying through a night sky.

According to some books in my personal library, this setting is called “Dutchman’s Puzzle”.

All the “geese” in this quilt are Jinny Beyers fabric that I had a stash of. Add solid black fabric for the background. I put a lot of hours into this quilt and it was finished from start to finish in 2008.

Making the “Geese”:

For this quilt, I started with 5″ squares. I drew a line diagonally and then sewed a generous quarter inch on each side of the line to make 2 half square triangle (HST) pieces that I matched and sewed up the center to make each “goose”. Yes this is a time consumptive, but I prefer the accuracy and less stretching of the triangles.

In order to put the design together, I simply laid the pieces out like a magazine photo I had seen.

I used to spend a lot of time working with triangles, but over the past 10 years or so I have gone to using the half square triangle method because of the accuracy, and the way triangles tend (for me at least) to really stretch out of shape, which is means a lot more squaring up to make the blocks fit.

When I show other quilters how to make these Flying Geese blocks, I use this method. The size can be adjusted easily to any size triangles desired.

Backing and Machine Quilting:

The backing is not a match to the front at all. In fact, I think it is a super ugly fabric (my own opinion). This fabric was on sale for a great price and is good quality cotton. Another plus is that it was on hand. The budget would not stretch enough to cover another back, and the machine quilting.

Finished size is 100″ square.

Machine quilting is an all over cloud design by RLM in July 2008.

Binding the quilt:

The binding is 2.5″ strips cut from the leftover Jinny Beyers fabrics. It is sewn into a long strip, and ironed in half (1.25″). I machine sewed the raw edge down on the front, flipped it over to the back and hand stitched down.

Here is another view of Night Flight (or a Flying Geese Quilt) completed. The black background makes the “geese” shine.

Challenge yourself:

Pick a simple pattern like this one, and adjust the size to what you would like to work with. Work through the pattern using the photo of the quilt you chose as the guide. Most of all, have fun.

Here are two links to other info on Flying Geese quilts –

https://indianaquilter40.com/the-great-migration-quilt/

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2010/04/flying-geese.html

Category: Patchwork (or) Pieced Quilts

DONATED BABY QUILTS TO THE LOCAL CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER

Supplies For the Donated baby quilts:

Reach out to others:

LOST AT SEA QUILT

“Disaster strikes”

And finally…

VINTAGE CHURN DASH QUILT

Reminder to all quilters:

HOW TO ENGLISH PAPER PIECE

Gather supplies:

Easy directions:

Here are my steps and tips FOR HOW TO DO ENGLISH PAPER PIECING:

AND FINALLY:

Other places for information:

CHINESE LANTERN QUILT

Other ideas for Chinese Lantern quilts –

FIRST GRANDBABY QUILT

Completed quilt:

ODE TO VINTAGE CARS

My plan is this –

My favorite muscle car:

Conclusion:

LOG CABIN IN THE FALL WOODS (another log cabin quilt)

Basic directions:

36 blocks done:

Adding the borders

A completed quilt

The Mystery Quilt Continues

And the mystery quilt continues…..

The sashing:

NIGHT FLIGHT (or a Flying Geese quilt)

Making the “Geese”:

Backing and Machine Quilting:

Binding the quilt:

Challenge yourself:

Here are two links to other info on Flying Geese quilts –

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

Supplies For the Donated baby quilts:

Reach out to others:

“Disaster strikes”

And finally…

Reminder to all quilters:

Gather supplies:

Easy directions:

Here are my steps and tips FOR HOW TO DO ENGLISH PAPER PIECING:

AND FINALLY:

Other places for information:

Other ideas for Chinese Lantern quilts –

Completed quilt:

My plan is this –

My favorite muscle car:

Conclusion:

Basic directions:

36 blocks done:

Adding the borders

A completed quilt

And the mystery quilt continues…..

The sashing:

Making the “Geese”:

Backing and Machine Quilting:

Binding the quilt:

Challenge yourself:

Here are two links to other info on Flying Geese quilts –

PLEASE NOTE: ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.