August – Wonky Stripe Block

Hi girls,

What a treat to be inspired and challenged every month via our quilting bee, and now it’s my pleasure to host the month of August.

The inspiration for my collaborative quilt comes from the book The Modern Quilting Bee Block Party by Alissa Haight Carlton and Kristen Lejniek. I love the open-endedness of the design and as I have never made a free form quilt before I thought our quilting bee would be the perfect place to start.

I ask that you create a strip of stripes showcasing a fun mix of floral and geometric patterns, dots, stripes and solids in red, white and aqua pieced together with a simple white background. This block can use up some of your favourite scraps. 

This block is a simple design and I ask that you create 2 different blocks (see variations below).

To give you an idea of the quilt design, here are 3 different blocks together. There won’t be any sashing between the blocks.

Fabrics and colour:

Red, white and aqua (floral and geometric patterns, dots, stripes and solids)

Solid white for background fabric 14" x 14"

Some of the fabrics I chose for my block:

Construction:

Makes 1 finished 13" x 13" block with 1 striped strip.

1. Cut the 14" white background square into 2 rectangles (of any size).  Cut the fabrics (red, white and aqua) into rectangles that are at least 3 ½" wide and vary in height.

2. Sew the coloured strips together into a strip that is at least 14" long.

3. Trim the edges so that they are straight and parallel.

4. Sew the pieced strip between the white background fabric. Trim the block to 13" x 13".

Variations:

Here are some suggestions to add some variety to the block. And, of course your own creative ideas are welcome too J

2 pieced strips

You can choose to make the block with 2 pieced strips. They can be wider or narrower. Simply cut the white background fabric into 3 rectangles and follow directions above, leaving at least 1 edge of the block white.

Vertical stripes

You can choose to add some vertical stripes to your pieced strip. Also, you might notice that my skinny stripe is narrower than 3 ½". 

What I enjoyed the most was the process of selecting and organising the layout of fabrics, experimenting with the free form style, as well as deciding on the variations between my blocks.

I am looking forward to hearing from you all and seeing what you come up with. 

Hope you’re enjoying balmy summer days and nights in the Northern hemisphere….if you’re away on vacation, enjoy and we will hear from you once you return home and begin quilting again!!

And for our quilters based in Switzerland, bonne fete nationale - 1^st August!!

Thank you in advance my fellow quilting bee friends.

Chris

Katy's Block for Hayley...

Here's my Carpenter Star for you, Hayley...
I hope it fits with all of the other lovely stars posted by the group. This will be a beautiful and colourful quilt, and it looks like you're getting all of the colours of the rainbow!

This was my first time working with HSTs and I did end up getting a square ruler for the cutting phase... I loved how it came together, as I always do with any of the blocks we have done as a quilt collective! I am very happy with the finished product, and there is no question I'm becoming a better sewer and quilter from this experience.

Hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday. I was hoping to get some work done on my own stashes quilt, but one child is sick and the other is needing some attention, so it will have to wait for another weekend. Summer seems to be a hard season to find the time to dedicate to the machine!! You may see it all pieced together sometime in the fall.

Quilt for Paw.

My girls have always called their grandfather 'Paw'.  It is an old fashioned Scottish word for father.  It suits him very well and we all use it, all the time.  It was Paw's birthday at the start of this month and I decided to make him a quilt.  Fortunately, Granny and Paw came to visit us this week which gave me a couple of extra weeks to finish the quilt.

The quilt is made from stripy fabrics cut into triangles and then sewn into squares.  I started off by just playing with a couple of stripped fabrics that I had in my stash but soon had to go and buy about 8 more different stripped fabrics.
I took the quilt to Jennifer's house on the evening that I went to have supper with Jennifer and Meg.  I had started a border but it was not right.  Jennifer and Meg suggested a black border with small squares to match the body of the quilt. Great idea, I rushed home and made the new border.

I took this photo in the garden and the sun was too bright so the photo is a bit pale.  I really enjoyed making the border.  I took the quilt top to the shop with me when I went to buy the batting.  The lady in the shop suggested that I put sections of stripy fabric in the binding - another great idea!  Other people designed this quilt for me, all I had to do was show it to someone and they gave me the next step.

Paw loves his quilt and Granny has decided that it is too nice to be kept in the bedroom and that it can live in the living room on a sofa.  She has also decided to redecorate the rest of the room to complement the quilt.
Now I have to get started on Hayley's block.

Linsay.

Love, so far...

I LOVE it ladies! Just got the final square and am so happy with the outcome. I will probably add four of my own squares to make it big enough for the queen bed in our spare room. I cannot wait to see how it all comes together. Thank you!!!

Genevieve's Block

Here it is!  Hope you like it.  I didn't mind doing the HST's, but all the trimming was very time consuming.  I am very interested to see this one come together.  I think it will be quite stunning.
Anyone from the earlier months have their blocks together yet?  I would love to see them.  The rainbow blocks look fabulous!
Genevieve

Amy (Canada)

And here is mine! These HSTs were very challenging! The Waterloo area group was wondering if it would be better to cut the squares smaller so that you didn't need to trim the HSTs, just cut off the corners. Is this an option, or is trimming just a part of making HSTs? Can't wait to see the final product!

Chris' block for Hayley

Hi girls, here's my block completed....certainly not as defined as the other ones posted but hopefully it will find its place in your quilt Hayley :) I enjoyed making this for you.