F2F Top Finished

And the top is finished, just in time for the guild meeting. I asked a friend to take a photo during show ‘n tell.

You’ll have to imagine the strip of border at the bottom; it had to be cropped out to remove a head of the person in front of the photographer. Of course I see better places for some of the blocks–that is always the way with a sampler quilt. There is no perfect arrangement. I do like the color of the sashing/border.

The Sunny Lanes block (upper right) is one I made for everyone; here is the post where I showed it in each color way. Meanwhile, here is the post on this top’s beginning. Yep, top finished over the weekend and in two consecutive posts. It is enjoyable,  how quickly a quilt top goes together when the blocks are already made (never mind that I’ve had the blocks since 2016).

I think I’ve mentioned before that blocks came from US, France, UK, and Australia. Here is a fun location-specific print with a kangaroo crossing sign:

For next month, the guild is requesting male-themed throw tops. I think I’ll work on Irish Stars first.

Tomorrow (15th) is scrap happy day. I’d guess some of these blocks were made from scraps–when making three, it is a good use for small amounts of fabric. I know there are scraps in my three.  And you will find a link here to other scrappy projects.

I’m also linking to the Clever ChameleonTuesday Colour Linky party.

 

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F2F Blocks Reappear

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I participated in the F2F (Foot Square Freestyle) swap. Each month we made three blocks for one member; the receiving member chose the color scheme, and we could make blocks any pattern or style we wished. I had no plan at the time, so the blocks waited for a need or an idea.

The first project (here) was for the welcome blanket project, a project that is still going. The second will be a twin top for my quilt guild. Last month twin sized was their request, and I thought of these blocks for a quick finish. (They will be doing the quilting.) So I got them out and counted. Yes, there were 20, which would be enough for a twin with sashing. So I ordered a brown that would work with all, and it has arrived.

Next the lay out. I really have fun with all that dithering and moving around.

This isn’t the first layout; it is just the first one I photographed. (You didn’t really want to see all 20 variations, did you?) After studying them a bit, I moved a couple and swapped one with the “extras.”

Better, but I still see a couple I might move. I’ll see what I think after I’ve cut the sashing.

And there were 5 blocks left; that will be just right for a baby quilt for the firemen.

I imagine there is something in my stash that will make the four alternating blocks. It would be a pity if I had to go shopping.

(You knew I couldn’t stick with one project, didn’t you? I’ll get back to Irish Stars.)

F2F November Blocks

The foot-squared-freestyle (F2F) blocks have made it across the pond, so now I can show them.

The color request for November was bright purple and bright blue. I’d have liked to have had much brighter, truer colors to offer, but jewel tones and crayon colored fabrics keep disappearing faster than I can buy them.

I remember visiting a new quilt shop in the greater Lafayette area and being delighted to see the whole range of crayon colors. The shop owner said she planned to continue offering them. But I moved away.

I did go shopping, but the marketers have determined that I’ll not get clear, bright colors this year.

So, the blocks.

 

Sunny Lanes 12 1/2 x 12 1/2

See the watermark?  It is there not because I am claiming the pattern, but because I learned how to make watermarks. I see no reason to claim a traditional block. This one is traditional in shapes, but not colors. Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns shows the lightest and darkest two colors in the triangles, as here, but the four patches are made with only two medium prints. I have been quite free with the coloration of the four patch segments. So it is, and isn’t, traditional.

I always have to do my post-construction critique. I think I might have liked it better if I’d used the medium blue instead of the light lavender or if all four corners had used the medium blue, while keeping the lavender.

Since I’ve been making blocks only, I hadn’t thought much about how it would look in an overall setting. Then I saw its potential on The Chain Piecer’s blog. Pretty impressive, eh?

Dutchman’s Puzzle 12 1/2 x 12 1/2

I have to make blocks with Flying Geese sections occasionally to maintain my supply of bonus triangles to use as leaders and enders. 🙂 Besides, I like it. The traditional fabric choice is two colors, but I like to emphasize the pinwheel.

Ohio Star 12 1/2 x 12 1/2

Again, not quite the Brackman coloring; she shows two colors, though the dark background and light star are traditional. I like trying to match the values while changing colors–Brackman calls the color arrangement I’ve used Mosaic. And she lists four block constructions that have been given the name (among others) of Ohio Star.

Yet a different color pattern has the name Lone Star.  One year for Christmas I made a pair, using the same fabrics. One was colored as the Ohio Star (for my dad who started life in Ohio) and the other colored as the Lone Star (for my step-mother who started out in Texas). Too bad I don’t have a photo to share.

You can tell I spend as much time browsing her encyclopedia as sewing.

 

F2F September and Other Blocks

I was so glad Sue posted photos of what she had in mind for her month (here). From the verbal description I had pictured mostly black and white with a touch of only one color. And I thought it would have to be modern. But before I acted on the two ideas I had started, I saw her post and realized that it could be done in traditional patterns too. And could have more colors than one.

So that means I can use my current favorite block, Sunny Lanes, as one. Maybe everyone will get this block after all.

Sunny Lanes 12 1/2 x 12 1/2

I knew from the start that I wanted the diagonal rainbow; I debated between color and black print for the two corner 4-patch sections. I’d wanted the diagonal to be unique in the block, but it felt just too dark. So color it is. The other two blocks have a single color added.

Variable Star 12 1/2 x 12 1/2

Sometimes I piece the center of this star, but not when I have such a lush print. I was shopping with a friend a while back, who spotted this combination of black-and-white prints. Now I wish I had bought yards instead of a half yard of each. But as I remember it, I was concerned about luggage and airline weight limits.

The next block is my favorite of the three. What I like most is the way the values work–lighter in the center and darker (both “goose” and background) for the outer sections.

Dutchman’s Puzzle , 12 1/2 x 12 1/2

Too bad I didn’t have four text fabrics–we’ll just pretend the circles are Os.

I was about to put fabric away (imagine that!) when I remembered heart-hug blocks for an online friend, who had requested black/white/red.

6 1/2 x 6 1/2

And then I remembered Block Lotto for Sunshine (link in sidebar). The theme for September is brights. I really like bright month–should I win the pot, they would be fun to work with. Having recently done a lot of scrap cutting, I thought I’d start with checking how many brights I had in the 3 1/2-inch square box.

12 1/2 x 12 1/2

Every piece does not have to be bright; just so some are. I had more than this, but two pair are enough of a chance to win them all. And I also planned to finish up a block from stray chickens that were left over from the Urban Chicken quilt that I made last spring. (The blocks of a pair that is an entry do not have to match.)

12 1/2 x 12 1/2

It seems one “chicken” got out of the fence, so I had only three. That seemed to necessitate a different arrangement than along one side.

So guess what!  No fabric has been put away.

Come Sunday, I’ll link with Oh Scrap! (button in sidebar)–with it being NW Quilt Expo weekend, I doubt I’ll be doing any more sewing.

ETA I won the block lotto batch, which is great because I love working with the brights.

F2F August Blocks: Red, White, and Blue

As you know from past posts, I’ve been doing scrap control.  And serendipitously it was time for Foot Square Freestyle (F2F) blocks. When I read that Susan’s colors were colors I had already sorted in my scraps, I got even busier at cutting squares. I knew I wanted to do Sunny Lanes and Variable Star again, so when I could I cut the size blocks needed (2 1/2- inch square and 3 1/2-inch square).

Sunny Lanes (The block is really square, but the photo wasn’t)

The pattern is so scrap friendly that it was great fun. I started out thinking one block red squares and blue triangles and another the reverse, but I didn’t have that many usable scraps, so combined them into one. One modern fabric in the batch, Domino Dot from Violet Craft’s Waterfront Park. Most are from the 70s. The red with black flowers and yellow centers that really stand out like dots (lower left) may be older. Or it may be just one of those perennial prints that we used to see over and over. What a change now, the variety in the limited editions that are offered each season!

I had just a small strip of Bridgetown from Waterfront Park and cut my 6 1/2-inch squares so that each had at least one whole bridge in it.  Variable Star, with its large center, just asks for either a big print as this or some piecing as I did last month.

12 1/2 x 12 1/2

I had hoped for eight different reds but had to make do with six. These two blocks are repeats from last month. I don’t think everyone’s color selections will work on these blocks. For example next month’s request is for black and white and an accent color.  That one doesn’t spell “traditional block” in my mind.

In my scraps, I found the center of the next block already assembled. I had to figure a way to get it to 12 inches.

12 1/2 x 12 1/2

I have no idea why the two sides are not made up of squares–probably I didn’t have enough fabric. Too bad I didn’t write notes or keep a  quilting journal. I’d like to know what I was thinking. I considered various means of framing to enlarge it and finally decided on this tipsy look. But I had forgotten how to do it. So I cut out a piece like the center and various triangles till they fit and made a square.  I think it could be done with any size to make any size block, though one wouldn’t want the center to be disproportionately small and dwarfed by the frame. (I think I’m going to work on it with orphan blocks for doll quilts–if it works you will see them here.)

I’m planning to do a tutorial for the tipsy framing sometime next week. But for now I am packing to go to a quilting retreat at Lake Tahoe. If I can get to a computer, I’ll link to Oh Scrap! (button in the sidebar).

My blocks for last month are here. I’ve added a tag for F2F that will make it easier find them all as the year progresses.

The F2F button in the sidebar leads to the most recent post; Click F2F in the sidebar and look for a gallery hot link. There is one in the August 10 post. Then scroll through the various months. There are already quite a few interesting blocks there.

My First Set of Three for Foot Squared Freestyle (F2F) Bee

I joined the F2F group a month late, so this is my first participation. Blocks are 12 x 12 (Foot squared) (finished measurement) and the maker chooses the method and pattern (Freestyle). The “queen bee” chooses the colors. Annette chose orange, aqua/teal, and green with white background. I like the results enough that I might try something with that palette later.

Most of my standby blocks are one or two color with a background, so I browsed my trusty Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. And I found this one, Brackman 1144.

12 1/2 x 12 1/2

Yeah, by the time I finished there are more than three colors. Sometimes when two colors don’t seem to work together, they will play well if you add colors. So I did.  Technically the color change makes it a variation of the number marked by adding a letter, but I’ll use the number for convenience.The variation would have to have been in print before the 70s to make the system.) Those two center squares are not black, but a very dark mottled aqua and green. Brackman lists the block as “Sunny Lanes” by “Nancy Page.” Florence LaGanke Harris wrote a syndicated mail-order column under the name of Nancy Page from the late 1920s to 1940s. I remember a friend trying to research Nancy Page’s bio and not finding anything until she finally learned it was a pseudonym.

I could make three of the same or three different ones.  I like variety sometimes and this was one.  Right next to 1144 was a block that was shown in two colors plus background, but I could see a way to modify the colors, Brackman 1143. (Same qualification on number usage as above.)

12 1/2 x 12 1/2

Following the pattern exactly, I would have made the orange squares the darker green and the peach, white. I debated a while between the peach and white, and though I really like that orange and peach together, I think I might have liked the block better had I used white. But I don’t dislike this one enough to rip. Brackman found this one in four places with three names. (I wonder if all four thought they had invented it.) “Nancy Cabot” (a pseudonym for Loretta Leitner Rising and later Wilma Smith) called it “State House” as did Robert Frank in his catalog. It was called “Double Four Patch” and “New Four Patch” in Household Journal  and a related “Aunt Jane” pamphlet. Some block names are not so picturesque as others.

And the third block doesn’t appear in Brackman’s book, though she shows Variable Star with many different centers.

12 1/2 x 12 1/2

A block with a large center just asks for variations, and you can do anything you want with that square. I had left over squares from auditioning them for 1144, so I decided on this arrangement.

The arrangement also allowed for  repetition of fabrics. In a sampler quilt I like to repeat fabrics 2-3 times at least, and each color I’ve used has been repeated except the two lighter solids.  So if Annette also feels that way, she has some repetition here.  Maybe it is not quite so necessary when the colors are so close.

Check out the F2F Gallery here.