The Buckeye Beauty blocks are together.  Now to decide how to put them together.  Each color set has two white backgrounds and two beige backgrounds.  Here are three layouts I'm auditioning.  What is your opinion?

this one I used both the white and beige backgrounds of the color sets and put them together to form the block.

This one I mixed up  the color sets a little.  I made diagonal rows with the background color.  beige, white, beige, white....etc. startingin the lower right corner.

This one is just a mix.

Any other suggestions?
it's fun to play!

Hello,
I finished a baby blanket but forgot to get a pic.  I'll ask my friend for a picture.  This weekend I watched an episode of Quilt In A Day.  Love that show.  She did a Buckeye Beauty and I fell in love.  It is easy and uses scraps.  So I had to jump right in and try it.  She did a wall hanging.  Mine will be slightly bigger...always have to do it bigger. 

First start out with charm packs.  Of course I didn't have charm packs, so I cut a bunch of 5" squares.  You need a background (I used two different backgrounds, white and beige).  Then cut a 'medium' and a 'dark' sets for each grouping.  Here is an example of my backgrounds and one of the medium (the yellow) and dark (the green).

On the backgrounds divide them into two equal piles.  On the back of half of the backgrounds, draw a line from top to bottom in the center of the square and another line from the left to right in the center.  This will form the four patch block.  Place one medium and one of these marked backgrounds right sides together.  Sew 1/4" on either side of one of the center lines.  Cut on the drawn line.   Open and press the seam toward the medium color.

Flip one of the pieces so that a background is on top.  The second piece should have the medium on top. Now lay these two piece right sides together.  The sewn seams should kiss and fit together. 

Extend the drawn line on the background onto the back of the medium.  Sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line and cut on the drawn line.

The magic happens here.  Press the seams to the background fabric.  This means the one of the seams will go left and the other will go right.  The center should lay nicely to form a cute four patch.  Isn't that just the best hiddent secret of this quilt?

On the seconds set of backgrounds draw from corner to corner.  Put these backgrounds right side together with a dark.  Sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line.  Then cut apart.

 

One you complete one set of blocks this is what you get.  You need to trim these blocks down it 4 1/4", but measure your blocks to make sure that is the right number.  I have not trimmed mine yet.  This is 1/4 of a finished block.  

 

 

Here is what the block will look like with four of the assembled blocks put togheter.  Isn't this just the best and easiest block~  Check out Eleanor Burn's Quilt In A Day show and the Buckeye Beauty block.



I want to try this for a Christmas quilt.  Wouldn't that just look fantastic!

Happy Quilting!

Potholders ...

It's another get off my "butte" night ... well, to be totally honest, it's an I don't want to go to the gym night.  And by working on this post, I can delay it for a bit longer.

I had planned to post this long before now, but life always seems to get in the way.  At any rate, the picture shows what 116 potholders look like in one of the big product bags from 31.  The blocks include 4 patch, 9 patch, disappearing 9 patch, log cabin, friendship star, churn dash, shoo fly, rail fence.

More to come ... probably later rather than sooner.

LeMoyne Star

Well, its taken me a while ... I figured that I should my "butte" in gear.  LeMoyne Star was a gift for a very special D&Der, the 2012 Region I Director.  A few facts for you ... I used, quite by accident, a total of 49 fabrics in the quilt top; I found out after the fact that purple is her favorite color; it took longer than I anticipated to complete this one; and I would make another one in a heartbeat.  Well, I should really say, that I do plan to use this block many times.  I just love it!

Below is the star block ... just had to see how it was going to look.  Don't worry, all the extra tidbits around the outer edge were trimmed off when the blocks were squared.  I will also say that when I trimmed the blocks, I opted to leave as much of the background fabric on the blocks as I could.  This allowed me to make the blocks slightly larger.

Below is my alternate block.  I used the fabrics from the star points.  I opted for something simple since the stars were what I really wanted to focus on.  Any block would have worked.

The only thing missing from the quilt top at this point is the corners.  I'll admit to not wanting to give this one up either.  It turned out so beautifully!

Is it Friday yet?

The latest update is that I do have 6 quilts, ranging in size from 37" square to 101" square, back from Ginger and waiting for me finish.  I also have 138 potholder tops quilted and will finish quilting 16 more tonight after work.  Afterward I should start cutting potholder backs but will probably get busy making bindings for the quilts mentioned previously.  Well, and get this Saturday's project ready to go ...

No fun pictures ... yet anyway.  I'm hoping to get that done this weekend also.  Below is what 138 quilted potholder tops look like though ... just in case you've ever wondered.

Julie's visit

Julie's visit was here and gone before we knew it.  Who knew that one week could fly by in a blink of an eye.  We sewed almost every night.  We started on the LeMoyne Star.  Julie got hers done and to the quilter.  I started on mine planning to follow the Links pattern from the Fons and Porter magazine, but as it progressed my plans changed.  I completed the center but then ran out of yellow fabric.  I'm heading to the fabric store to find more of the mottled yellow. 

Once the LeMoyne Star got to the stopping point, I decided to work on a baby quilt for a friend who had her second grandbaby.  She loves animals and I found these animal prints in my stash then pulled several different fabrics to go with it.  I love how it turned out.  I can't wait to get it quilted and give it to my friend!

 

 

Finally Julie showed me how to make a strip quilt with foundation.  We started with a 8" block of foundation interfacing.  cut a center 2" strip of fabric.  Then sewed strips on either side.  I can't find the blocks right now.  Everything from quilt week is stuffed back into my sewing room until I have time to clean it up.

 

Here is the Red and White Maple Leaf that I'm donating to the IMEF silent auction.  I love how it turned out and Ginger did a fantanstic job of quilting it!   All I have left is to make the label.

Can't wait till Julie comes for her next visit!

Quilting calms the nerves and brings peace to those of us that are take pleasure out of creating!



TGIF!

Talk about a wacky week, due in part to the drive home last Sunday and part because of the crazy work week.  Mother Nature isn't helping either with all of this rain.

I dropped off the LeMoyne star quilt and the Wild block table topper at Ginger's on Wednesday night ... in the middle of a down pour.  Those were the only two items I got finished at Sewing Central last week.  It doesn't sound like a lot but it is.  

I worked on the LeMoyne star quilt off and on for 5 or 6 days ... I ended with 26 stars and used 25 of them in the quilt.  I opted for an on point setting and alternated the stars with pinwheel blocks made from the same fabrics as the star points.

Thanks to June, I was able to figure out the order of fabrics for the Wild table topper.  I just couldn't get it to work until we played with them.  

No pictures though ... just haven't had time to get what I have uploaded for posting.  

Praying for a better week next week ... slower paced as I'd like to get more quilting (well, and work too) done.