Okay I may have made this block just because I love the its name….
There are a variety of colouring options for this block… and there is so much you can do with it. The block is made up of four identical pieces…
And they can also be arranged in different ways. Lots of fun to be had with this one. The free paper piecing pattern for my 6 inch version can be found here….Toad in a puddle pattern.
I may have to play with this pattern and make another block just for fun.
I am starting this week with the addition of the Rolling Stone block to my Hodge Podge sampler….
I love this pattern and I have used this block before, when I did complete quilt using a 12 inch version. For this quilt I did the traditional layout for the block and you can see the completed quilt here if you are interested.
You can find the pattern for my 6 inch version here…rolling stone pattern For the 12 inch pattern I used Don’t Call Me Betsy’s great tutorial.
My plan is to get at least one more Hodge Podge pattern posted this week… so stay tuned….
I will start this week with a moment of honesty…. this is the first and possible only Crossword I have ever completed. I have started many a crossword but never, ever completed one. My mum does the crossword daily, and does a stellar job of getting them complete, but not me. So without further ado, here is my one and only completed crossword….
I started this Crossword last year, when I was asked to review Cheryl Arkison’s book, A Month of Sundays. While flipping through the book I saw this pattern and fell in love.
The top came together easily using a collection of white/cream/light grey low volume prints and black and white prints. The pattern is gentle but very effective.
The black and white prints give you the squares of the crossword, with the creams giving the background a real newspaper feel.
I dug deep into my stash, as well as the stash of a couple of helpful friends to get enough black and white text prints…. and then tried to keep the supporting black and white prints very graphic.
You may have noticed the fabulous quilting on this project… I can safely say that it was not my doing. This quilt top is huge and I could not drag it through my home machine, let alone create such a wonderful pattern. The Crossword was quilted by the talented Jolene Knight, on of our Guild long-armers.
I love the rhythm of the undulating curves of this quilt. It is soft and gentle and really perfect for this quilt. Jolene kindly quilted this baby up for me as the finished quilt will be donated as part of the PMQG’s Charity program.
For the back of the quilt I used a slab of text print, which seemed a perfect fit…
And the finishing touch was a scrappy grey binding that I machine attached.
This is just one of the quilts I decided to get finished and donate. Earlier this year I took stock of my rather large collection of UFO’s and decided I needed to get most of them finished and donated. Unfinished blocks and tops do not do anyone any good…while a completed quilt can do so much…
QUILT DETAILS:
Pattern: Crossword by Cheryl Arkison
Fabric: Low volume scraps and B/W prints
Finished Size: 68 x 72 inches
My little break from blogging has had quite an effect on me….I got into some bad habits and need to get back into the swing of posting…. Paper Piecing Monday seems to be very ingrained in my process but the rest needs some work.
So without further ado here is today’s pattern, the Laced Star….
I really like this pattern, and not just because I have a thing about paper pieced stars! The traditional colouring of this block gives the star a different look….
….giving the star some lovely movement. You can find the free paper piecing pattern for this 6 inch block here… laced star pattern
And the last order of business is to let you know the winner of the Glass Half Full bundle was Wendi who was chosen by the very scientific method of my husband picking a number between 1 and 151 and that numbered comment won. Very high-tech I know.
This month I am the designated Quilter for my Do.Good.Stitches group….which means I get to set the block for the month that my other Bee members will be making. My recent down time allowed me to paw over quilting books for hours uninterrupted which was a wonderful pleasure…and one of the patterns I found in an old quilting book was this block called Homeward Bound…
The finished block is 12 inches square (12 ½ unfinished) and is pretty simple to put together… all you need is…
Four (4) 3 ½ x 3 ½ squares for the outer fabric (grey)
Four (4) 3 ½ x 5 inch rectangles of the cross fabric (electric blue)
One (1) 3 ½ x 3 ½ inch square of the center fabric (light blue)
Four (4) 2 x 5 inch strips of sashing (white)
Four (4) 2 x 3 ½ strips of sashing (white).
You can see above how I pieced the block together in segments which made for quick and accurate assembly. It is a fun block and I love the overall patterns these blocks are going to make…
I can not wait to get all the blocks in… it is going to be fun watching this quilt come together.
WOMBAT QUILTS 