RED...BLUE Community

RED ROSE and MIDNIGHT BLUE are great quilts for Community Service.  I put together loads of kits for my guilds using their donated fabrics, and this one is the easiest to cut and kit.  If I have a good border fabric, I kit RED ROSE with borders.  Otherwise, the 12 block quilt is still a nice size without borders.  And if I have enough colors that go together, I do the 20 block without border MIDNIGHT BLUE.   Also, 9 blocks makes a great quick baby quilt.

Working from a 5" strip or half strips or scraps is so easy for this quilt.  Usually I start with a center fabric to set the color theme.  A fat quarter will yield 12  5" squares for the centers.  Then it is whatever I like with that center.  One of my guilds has a huge closet full of fabric, which the members have sorted into laundry baskets by color--makes my job easy and fun!

STARFIRE Party Dress

So many ways to use fabrics for STARFIRE.  This group called Party Dress from Blue Hill Fabrics makes up into a sweet little girl quilt.  Most of the prints are quite light, so they create a blended background for the soft lavendar stars.

The border is cut 5"-- larger than the RoseCard patterns suggested 3 1/2".  I think that on the next printing, I will change the fabric requirements and the border size to 5" cuts.  The two quilts that I've made so far have that size, and I like it.

Preview 25

We love 3 1/2" strips!  They show off more of the fabric than 2 1/2" and they are quicker to sew.  This "invisible" 4 Patch has been a favorite of ours for years.  We have called it Madame Butterfly when we made it of 28 Asian strips.  In the Fryer Patch pattern version I called it What Four, because you can't tell that is is made up of 4x4 patch blocks.

This variation uses 14 "dark" strips and 14 Background strips.  The background can be cut from a single fabric or different fabrics.  The fabrics can be high contrast or low contrast/blending.  With borders it finishes 63"x 77".

Preview 21

Take a Jelly Roll,  Bali Pop, Tonga Treat strips, and any of your other favorite 2 1/2" strip rolls.  Add a Theme fabric for fun or a Background fabric if you want the squares to stand out.   The pattern is basically Saratoga, but with the rails made in 4 squares instead of 2 rectangles.  There are loads of leftover rail pieces, so they become a border around the quilt finish framing the Theme Fabric.  This quilt is a generous throw at 60"x68"

The cover quilt is very busy, because I like lots of pattern and print.  Can't wait to make it in something softer, as well as something with more contrast.  And next time I will be more careful with my 1/4" seam allowance.  I did just about everything wrong--sewed at different times, used different machines.  It turned out to be a good thing that this is a busy one.

Mother's Day at Candlelite Quilts

I just got a call from Cathy at Candelite Quilts in Chelmsford Mass.  She needed more Freedom patterns quickly for a very successful Mother's Day promotion.  Go to the website candlelitequilts.com to get the details.  She is giving away a free pattern with a fabric pack purchase, which also includes a seed packet. They have a discount on backing and a tie-in with a quilter for special pricing on quilting these projects.  I love that they have a plan in place to get them done!  Cathy reports that they have sold dozens of packs just in the first day!  Obviously a great idea--thanks, Cathy--and have a great Mother's Day.