Making stuff on Monday....

Happy Presidents' Day...although I prefer the schedule of my youth that gave you 2 holidays in February... Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's Birthday... it made a short month even shorter and during the Winter that is a good thing.

Well, I find myself wrapped up in projects that have me making blocks ...which will become quilts... someday... the the future...and I'm liking that a lot!

First, last week's assignment for the Three Dandelions QAL, from Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.

Block 11: Pound Sign... this shows how old school I am... most people today would call this a hashtag... whenever I see it I think pound sign...sigh... I'm getting old (notice I said getting old, not I'm old... I'm still delusional)

Block 12:  Flower Cross... not  an imaginative title... I can see why Tula didn't name each block...

I'm still loving the Momo fabrics... I'm actually a little ahead on this project as I didn't know if I would be able to see well enough to sew with only one eye corrected ...but I'm doing okay...and you know how it is... as soon as I think I can't do something or go somewhere, well, I just GOTTA do it!

And last week,  I stumbled upon the FQS Jolly Jabber Patchwork  Quilt Along... which you can see here. On the 15th of each month the pattern is released for an adorable 5" finished block. The plan is to make 6 of each block and at the end of the year you'd have 72 blocks to make a quilt with.

So, first thing I considered is what collection/designer to use... my crafty OCD insists on a plan... I perused my stash and found 3 layer cakes from Elizabeth Hartman... 2 are the Rhoda Ruth collection and 1 is Paintbox Basics... I love both of these collections ...and I found yardage of a cute multi-color speckly  fabric for background... I'm all set.

I started with January, Souvenir of Friendship and quickly made 6 adorable little blocks... and then I stumbled on a bigger version of this block (I know I should be black and blue from all the stumbling I'm doing...LOL) ... check this blog out... Out of the Blue Quilts... she made bigger versions of the blocks. Well when I first saw them she hadn't posted the dimensions of the bigger blocks and I assumed she had simply doubled the size to 10"... so I figured it out myself. If you go to her blog you can see that she has made them 12" ... but I'm sticking with my 10" size...here are my Souvenir of Friendship blocks...

if you bigify the pic you can see some of the cute prints in these collections... that big block has limey green foxes and the yellow one has giraffes.. too cute!

And here is my second month of blocks, Diamond Pane...

I see X blocks or if you turn your head sideways I see bows... hey at least I don't see dead people...LOL!

Anyway since I worked out the math...and it actually works... I'll give you my dimensions to make the 10" versions.

Souvenir of Friendship

Background:
A -  2.5" x 2.5"            Cut 8

Print:
B - 2.5" x 6.5"             Cut 2
C - 2.5" x 4.5"             Cut 4
D - 2.5" x 2.5"             Cut 3

Now you can't get this entire block from one 10" square...you will be short one 2.5" square. I picked a print that I had 2 squares of but you could also just use another fabric for the last square and put it in the middle of the block.


Diamond Pane

Background:
A -  5" x  5"               Cut 2
B - 2.5" x 4.5"           Cut 4

Print:
C - 5" x  5"                Cut 2
D - 2.5" x 2.5"           Cut 1

Now, when I made the HSTs for this block I started with the 5"squares... drew a diagonal .. sew a very scant quarter inch seam on either side of the diagonal ... cut on the line...opened it up and trimmed the blocks down to 4.5" square. You don't have a lot to trim off, but by only cutting the square 5" to begin with you can get this out of one 10" square.

I'd like to come up with at layout that uses both sizes of blocks in the same quilt... I have a couple of ideas already, so I'll see where this ends up later in the year.

And if that wasn't enough to play with I was alerted by my friend Laurey to look at this quilt by Lori Holt...

 on this blog... Why Not Sew.... OMG... GIANT TULIPS!!!!   I want a bed size quilt of these beauties.... and I want it NOW!!!!  Okay, deep breath... I decided to use my well aged stash of American Jane fabrics and I have my first block done...

I love the folk art quality of this block and the fact that not all of the leaves are green...the fact that I made the first block with blue leaves is a big deal for me... normally I wouldn't think of doing that... but I like the look... a lot!!!  My calculations have me making 30 blocks and with sashing and a border it should be large enough for my bed....now how quickly can I get the other 29 done??? Hopefully before my interest wanes... or they'll end up in a plastic bin like the last bunch of tulip blocks... but they will see the light of day in the end... of that I'm sure.

Sooooo... I'm off to cut some more tulip blocks... and watch the sun set out my living room window... it has been another be - yooo - ti - ful day... a good day for growing more tulips...LOL!

I'm linking up to day with Love, Laugh Quilt's Making Monday... and Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday... I haven't done that for a while...and it feels really good!

happy stitching-
carol fun