Bloggers Quilt Festival – Square Berries – Fall 2016

- Ann Petersen 11 Comments
quilt flowers

It is time for the Fall 2016 Bloggers Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy (of Amy’s Creative Side)!

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Yesterday I shared my entry into the Modern Quilt Category, and today I’m sharing my entry into the Small Quilt Category.  This one I’m calling Square Berries.  I designed these two blocks for the recent Cloud9 block design blog hop, and put my blocks together to make a small quilt.  I originally posted about the blocks and the quilt here and here – you can get tutorials for making the blocks in these posts.  Both are 12″ blocks, so this quilt is 24″x24″ (or 96″ around).

quilt flowers

I enjoyed designing the blocks and doing the tutorials.  I also had a good time doing the quilting.  I have been practicing machine quilting these swirls, and I am really happy with how they turned out.  I used Aurifil 4663 (Baby Blue Eyes – a variagated blue and white) on the front of the quilt and Aurifil 2311 (Muslin) on the back.

full quilt

abstract cabin quilting detail

I hope you enjoy my entries – I enjoyed making them!

Bloggers Quilt Festival – Wolfe Creek – Fall 2016

- Ann Petersen 1 Comment
Wolfe Creek

I just learned about this event yesterday – the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  Evidently Amy (of Amy’s Creative Side) hosts this event twice a year, and now is the time for the fall edition.  You can enter 2 quilts across many categories.  Looks like fun, so I thought, why not?

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My first entry is my Wolfe Creek Quilt, which I designed for my Albuquerque Modern Quilt Guild’s June challenge (see more about it in my post here).  The challenge was to create a Modern Quilt using fabrics we got in a swap.  It was designed and made for a Modern Challenge, so I’m entering it into the Modern Category!

Wolfe Creek

 

The ‘river’ hexies are made-fabric from the swap fabric I received, and use the Victoria Findlay Wolfe hexie acrylic template I bought while taking her workshop in Albuquerque.  The red is a Modern Grunge, and the entire background is made up of hexies (so lots of y-seams!).

I had a lot of fun quilting this quilt.  I did long, windy lines in the river to represent water.  In the red I did leaves on the bottom, medium-sized swirls in the middle, and larger swirls on the top to represent wind.  The water was quilted with Aurifil 4663 – a blue and white variegated thread.  The background is free motion quilted using Aurifil 2605 – a nice gray.

front detail

front detail swirls

I had more fun with the label!

patch detail

 

I’m going to also enter the Cloud9 blog hop block design quilt I just finished in the Small Quilt category – it is too big for the mini definition.  I’ll post that entry tomorrow!

 

Cloud9 Block Design – Strippy Squares

- Ann Petersen 9 Comments
quilt flowers

Welcome back for my second Cloud9 block.  Yesterday I showed you the ‘official’ block that I designed and made for the blog hop.  While making that block I was playing with another design, so I decided to make that one too.  I did send the first block (Abstract Cabin) to Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs to be included in the group charity quilt, but I had enough fabric to make the blocks for my mini quilt.

As a reminder, here is the beautiful Cloud9 fabric:

open bundle

Here is the mini quilt from my 2 blocks.  Both are 12″ blocks, so this quilt is 24″x24″.

quilt on a log

I’m calling the second block ‘Strippy Squares”:

final block

Let’s get started!

Some General Notes:

  • The block finishes at 12″, or 12.5″ unfinished
  • I am assuming 1/4″ seam allowances throughout
  • For fabric quantity, I used the bundle of fat quarters that were sent to us.  However you don’t need the full fat quarter of any of the colors.  If you cut carefully, you could probably do this with some larger scraps.

First cut the blues:

The photo shows the size to cut, and the number of pieces to cut of that size in ().  For example, the first section below says to cut one (1) 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ square from the light blue fabric,  two (2) 2 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ and two (2) 2 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ rectangles from the dark blue fabric.

Blue cutting

Then the Purples:

Purple cutting

And then the Grey:

Grey Cutting

Next we’ll work on the strips that go around the inner light blue square.

Step 1:

Join one dark purple 1 1/2″ square with one grey 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle (purple on the RIGHT).  Press the seam.  You can press the seam open or to the sides – whichever you prefer.

Next join one dark purple 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ rectangle with one grey 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ rectangle (purple on the LEFT).  Press the seam.

Once the strips are together, join the strip with the 1 1/2″ square strip unit to the top of the light blue 4 1/2″ square.  Press the seam.  Join the strip with the 2 1/2″ rectangles to the bottom of the light blue square.  Press this seam.

Assembly step 1

Step 2:

Join one light purple 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″  rectangle with one grey 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle (purple on the TOP).  Press the seam.

Next join one light purple 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ rectangle with one grey 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle (purple on the BOTTOM).  Press the seam.

From here, it is helpful to always orient the block that you are building so that the 1 1/2″ dark purple square is on the top.

Once the strips are together, join the strip with the 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ purple rectangle strip unit to the left of the light blue 4 1/2″ square.  Press the seam.  Join the strip with the longer light purple rectangle on the bottom to the right of the light blue square.  Press this seam.

assembly step 2 fixed

Step 3:

Join the 2 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ darker blue rectangles to the sides of the block – press the seams.

Join the 2 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ darker blue rectangles to the top and bottom of the block – press the seams.

assembly step 3

Step 4:

Join one grey 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle to one dark purple 1 1/2″ square, and a second grey 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle with a light purple 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle.  Join these two units as shown in the photo.  Press the strip, and then join it to the right of the block.  Press the seam.

assembly step 4

Step 5:

Join one light purple 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle to one grey 1 1/2″ square, and a dark purple 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle with a grey 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ rectangle.  Join these two units as shown in the photo.  Press the strip, and then join it to the left of the block.  Press the seam.

assembly step 5

Step 6:

Join one grey 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle to one dark purple 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle, and a one grey 1 1/2″ square with a light purple 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle.  Join these two units as shown in the photo.  Press the strip, and then join it to the top of the block.  Press the seam.

assembly step 6

Step 7:

Join one light purple 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle to one grey 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ rectangle, and a dark purple 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangle with a grey 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangle.  Join these two units as shown in the photo.  Press the strip, and then join it to the bottom of the lock.  Press the seam.

assembly step 7

And the block is done!!

final block

Here are some more photos of the finished mini quilt.  I’ve been doing a lot of practice with some rolling swirls that I think I want to use on another quilt I’m working on.

on the rock

on a log

full quilt

Here are some detailed pictures of the quilting.  I used Aurifil 4663 (Baby Blue Eyes – a variagated blue and white) on the front of the quilt and Aurifil 2311 (Muslin) on the back.

abstract cabin quilting detail

strippy square detail quilting

and the detail on the back:

back quilting detail

This was a fun project.  I had a good time designing the blocks – though it was a challenge!  I also really like the way the mini quilt came out, and the opportunity it gave me to practice my swirls.

Some of the other folks on the blog hop did cool things with using various programs to make their pattern/tutorial, and then turning that pattern into a downloadable pdf file.  I think I will give that a try – let me know if you are interested – if you are, I’ll move it up on my priority list!

I hope you enjoyed the blocks and the quilt!

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