Quarter Sections for BJB

It's summer, and I get to quilt my own!!  This is a quilt I made for a dear friend.  It is the Quarter Sections pattern by Highway 10 designs.

  

It's a great Fat Quarter pattern, very little waste, adaptable to the size of quilt/number of fat quarters you want.  I used 12 FQ for this generous lap/throw/napping quilt.  I needed a long quilt for a long lady.

 I love the variety of fabrics in this one, and the lovely brown tones. And, as a prairie dweller, I love how the design looks like the land from the air.  Farm land in the Canadian prairies is divided into sections (square mile) and quarter sections (1/2 mile x 1/2 mile) and then further divided into homesteads, smaller fields and pastures.  Now, of course, the fields are getting larger - fewer divisions, but the imagery still holds.   

 My friend came to visit, and asked if I ever sold quilts.  I said no, and we looked at my longarm and talked about the quilts I had hanging in my house and so many other things, a great, too short visit.   But before she left that day, I handed her this quilt, in a gift bag, and said "I don't sell my quilts but I do give them away".   There may have been tears--from both of us :) 

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City Slickers

 These two quilts are made at the same time--from the same two jelly rolls (one colors, one neutrals), and the pattern is City Slicker by Highway 10 Designs.     I figured out you could get two lap quilts this way.  If you want to see it in twin size, with dark instead of light for the neutral, I made this one.

I quilted these just after Chicopee Squared, and I wanted to try the echoed squares quilting pattern again, with the echoing, so I tried it again.  Gail did the piecing on these quilts, and they are for the church.

The first one:

Yay, it worked, I figured out the spacing for the echoing, using the piecing for guidelines, and I got the echos in  this time. 

The second one:
I decided to increase the scale yet again.

And below they are side by side to see the scale difference

I like this echoed squares quilting pattern a lot.   I like it even better as a  backgound filler like I used in my Elephant Abstractions quilt.   BUT, as an E2E, I don't like it as much as the square spirals I put on Bobbie's Simplicity

Both designs provide great texture, and use very similar angles and lines.  These Echoed Squares are should be more regularly sized than the Square Spirals, and thus require a bit more thought and attention while stitching, and perhaps even the right pattern so the piecing can be used to place the echoed squares without marking.   I think that is why these City Slickers were more effective than the Chicopee Squared quilt, the piecing made it easier to place them more regularly, and to get the echoes going.     

It was the quilting on these City Slicker quilts that Bobbie liked so much, that she asked for linear quilting on her quilt as well.

I really enjoyed being able to work on these 4 quilts in a 'series' so to speak, and to then be able to pick my favourite quilting from the 4, and I hope you have found this process interesting as well.

Movember-Quarter Sections

 This pattern is Quarter Sections from Highway 10 Designs.  I really like their patterns, and like supporting Canadian designers.

Movember is a fundraising initiative to raise money for men's health issues...the idea is to let your moustache grow in all it's glory for the month of November, while raising funds.


My cousin was having a baby this summer, and I wanted to make a quilt.  I was roaming the quilt store aisles, looking for inspiration and trying to decide which pattern to make and which fabric to use, since I didn't want to make another Yellow Brick Road or a Disappearing 9Patch, when Lori and Kathy released their Quarter Sections pattern.  They named it because it looks like farmland when you're flying overhead.  Also it's a Fat Quarter friendly pattern.  The Quarter Sections was perfect for me, because this cousin and I used to work together on the family farm.    Then, I just needed fabric, and low and behold, this moustache fabric caught my eye.  Also perfect for this family, as their wedding was in November, a few years ago, ---and the groom and his groomsmen were all participating in Movember--and wore their moustaches to the wedding.   Some of guests even completed their outfits by going to the thrift stores and buying polyester leisure suits to accessorize their moustaches.

And I knew there were pictures on their fridge of their older child and their niece wearing paper moustaches, so a continuing theme for this family. 

I quilted in a few freehand moustaches as well.

 But most of the quilting went 'round and 'round and back and forth, which is pretty much what happens on a grain farm....lots of it.

 And for backing I found this doggy flannel, which again, is perfectly suited for this family, as they have the nicest dog.

 And a stuffy puppy with his own little quilt for the older brother.  I've been told he is now named 'Slush' and he likes to watch the Cars movie with his owner, and watch him jump and play, and they read stories together.