Granny Squares

This is Heather T's quilt.  When she brought me her Scraps of Life quilt, she said she was going smaller with the next one.    And she did.

The blocks in this quilt are 6 1/2".  61 pieces each.  3/4" squares.  168 blocks.  You can do the math on the number of pieces.  Amazing.

Heather had asked for feathers all over, and I decided that for the scale of the blocks, I would put one feather frond in each block, this way almost every square has some quilting in it.  I alternated the 'tilt' of each feather, so it was a continuous design and also it created two different diagonal flows, so lots of movement provided by the quilting.

And, after a while (there are a lot of these little blocks in this quilt--if I recall correctly it's 12x14 layout, so about 72x84), I decided there should be a subtle medallion in the center, which I created by SID around 16 blocks (a 4x4 section) and then quilting continuous curve in the little tiny squares, leaving the background fabrics unquilted.

 

 

It shows better from the back--remember, it was meant to be subtle.  The larger looking circles are where two blocks meet.   I could have made it stand out more with echoing the SID and some straight line quilting, but this was a nice effect--a nice surprise for someone who looks closely enough.  Can you spot the medallion in the photo below?

(it starts just above the pink block on the right hand side)

 This quilt is very heavy, as tiny piecing tends to be.    The shot below shows the movement and the diagonals formed by the feathers.

Angels

 Had to watch my spelling--this post was almost about geometry :P

When Heather dropped this quilt off, I think she said it was one of her very early quilts, and it was a block of the month type of deal.  She didn't finish all the blocks, but decided she should put together what she had, and it will be a gift for someone special.

 We kept the quilting at a medium custom--SID around the blocks and stitching around the appilque, echoes and some swirls, a sashing design and feathers in the border.   

 There's a hole in the bird seed bag

Mary's Etoile Rouges

Obviously, it's not 'rouge' but that is the name of the pattern.  This is a block of the week quilt from Green Avenue Quilts all blocks are variations of Ohio Stars.

 Mary wanted a custom quilting treatment, but this quilt is very large (that's a king size bed I have it draped over), and we did not want to break the bank either, so it's a continuous design, and the only stitch in the ditch is around the borders.  There were only a few designs where I didn't plan properly and ran into a corner and had to break my thread, but that's what happens with designing as you go.

 Isn't this border fabric wonderful?  Mary decided to treat the whole border as one, so a nice spineless feather fit the bill.  The fabric line is French General.  I just fell in love with the blue.

 As a sampler quilt, I wanted to use lots of repetitive designs--u-turns, continuous curve, loops and unquilted areas, in different variations and repetitions on each block, according to the piecing.

 Mary brought a wool batting, which allows the stitching t show so wonderfully. 

 Mary also made two pillow shams with the bonus blocks from the program.

 This quilt was fun to do, which is a good thing, because there was a lot of it!