What's black & white & red all over? - Sashed Disappearing 9Patch

So I got this wild hair to make a black, white and red quilt somewhere around twin size for my loveseat. It gets cold in my house in the winter because it's not well insulated AND it's a raised foundation house.

I picked/stashed this fabric because I thought it'd make a good spiderweb. I didn't much care for that. *sigh* So, back to my inspiration...

My bathroom is black & white with red walls. My living room is sand walls with black trim. I kinda wanted to blend it together a bit. Not much, just a bit. Besides, I think the colors of the quilt will suit me. So this is what I decided to do... a disappearing 9 patch block that, instead of just being rotated and re-sewn, is sashed between the pieces. This block measures 18 inches unfinished, so 17 1/2 inches finished. However, each block will be sashed between blocks, not just between pieces.

I will only be doing a block or two a month of these. I just don't have enough time to do everything I want to do... LOL.

October Block - LSG Quilters' Bee

So I needed to make a block for the LSG quilters' bee. The first block that I was assigned was for FidgetKnits. She chose a monochromatic madness quilt block that measure 16 1/2 inches finished, with starting squares at 5 inches. Those are made into half square triangles. The colors she choose are scrappy yellows and a charcoal gray background fabric.



Gah it was such a pain in the butt. Why? For several reasons, actually. First, HSTs are notoriously unstable. They are sewn across the grain (these were constructed using this tutorial which is great, but I'm sorry, as soon as you cut them and press, they are across the grain and will warp at a moment's notice). They are constructed in lines of 4 and sewn together as such. Every block had to be individually trimmed every time it was sewn because of warping. If I have to do it again, I will soak the fabric in starch (not sizing, super heavy starch) in order to prevent as much warping as possible.

However, the quilt will most likely be very nice when she gets it done. One other thing... she sent 16 squares (she sent them as 6 1/2 inches, I had to cut each individual one down to 5 inches). Because she wanted 16 individual blocks in the 4x4 formation, that means that I had to do the tutorial 16 times. That means that there are in actuality 32 HST blocks made. I only pressed and used the first 16. The second batch of 16 (the repeats, if you will), are in a baggie and sent back with the block I sewed. She will mix and match the 16 left with the batches that others will send back.

So glad that one is over, and am 100% certain that I will NOT be sewing an entire quilt top using this technique. LOL

Stashing with a purpose - 10.07.10

So today my mom sends me an email titled "Hancocks?" This is our code phrase for "Can you drive me to Hancock Fabrics after work today so I can spend money on fabric, and you get at least a yard of something for putting up with me in the fabric store and giving me your honest opinion of whatever I put in my cart." Of course, y'all should know that unless it is a class night, the answer is usually "Sure!" :) I also got paid back a bit of money for a small loan that I gave out a couple months back (it was a micro-loan, not much of a loan, and I honestly didn't expect to get anything back at all so I never budgeted for it), so I hatched a plan.

Sarabande on the LSG "Quilters' Bee" (both of those links are Ravelry links) decided to do a "Spiderweb" quilt block as her block pattern. I've been rather obsessed with the idea since then, knowing I was going to end up picking fabric and queuing it up for sometime in the vague-ish future. So. I'd been spinning around in my head going "if I was given a choice... what would I choose?"

What's black, white, and red all over?

Why, my Spiderweb block choice!

I'll stop by Joann's on Saturday to see if I can find anymore black & white prints for the outside of the spiderweb blocks. The center color is that rich red, which is an "easily attainable" Kona cotton (which I will pick up more of this Saturday... they have 3 more full bolts of it).

Amysbabies on the same group has come up with another idea (and she even drew it up, made a template, etc!) that I'm going to borrow and distort... later. One thing at a time, grasshoppa... I already have two in progress, I need to finish piecing the blue/yellow one so I can get it off to the quilter (and be one step closer to getting it off my conscious).