A Few More Possibilies

Can you tell I love doing this? Here are a few more layouts.

Quilt variation #5, diamond and diagonal stripes.

Quilt variation #6, diagonal diamonds and stripes.

Quilt variation #7, diamonds.

A Few Other Layouts

I couldn't sleep last night, and so I thought I'd play around with the quilt design. It occurred to me (after having sewn together the entire lower leftmost block) that the strip placement can get confusing when doing a block this size and if the 1/4" seams aren't consistent, it could make piecing the top pretty difficult. So I came up with a way to incorporate that full block with a number of smaller blocks made with the same strips. Here are a few examples: (Note, the blocks are not square, as this was just  playing around with some photos and not drawn to scale.)

Quilt #1 variation with random stripes

Quilt variation #2 with larger, more lumpy stripes.

Quilt variation #3, using the diamond motifs.

Quilt variation #4, with more even stripes.

In playing, I found I liked the teal as sashing. The pink was just not enough contrast. The teal color and smaller blocks seemed to calm things down a bit. We don't have teal fabric, but I would be willing to donate some if the group likes it. Or maybe someone else has another idea. I'll try to have a design wall so that we can play a bit on Thursday.

See you then.

Quilt Mystery Solved?

Welcome, Simmering Stitchers! I've looked through the bag of fabric, organized the strips, and analyzed the situation. And yes, I managed to figure out how to put the pieces together to make the basic quilt. There was a clue in the bottom of the bag that helped, but no real instructions, so it took me a bit of time.

Thanks to my camera and Photoshop, I am able to give you a visual of the quilt center. It will look something like this:

Simmering Stitchers Quilt without borders (artist's rendering)

The quilt is made up of 12 blocks. I have made up kits for the blocks, putting together the strips needed to make each block. If you look closely, you will notice that to finish the pattern, there needs to be one more column added to the left side and one more row added to the bottom. I have included those additional strips with those block sets.

I am labeling the blocks in this order:
Block1 - Block2 - Block3
Block4 - Block5 - Block6
Block7 - Block8 - Block9
Block10-Block11-Block12

The strip sets are labeled "A" through "G". The sets go together in the basic block as in the picture below:

Basic Block Strip Set Placement

The sets with a prime (') are simply turned upside down. There are 6 basic blocks in the quilt that are made like this. (Blocks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9)

The leftmost blocks (blocks 1, 4, 7) have extra strips on the left side. They go together like this:

Blocks 1, 4, 7
Notice the extra F and G strips to the left.

The bottom blocks (11, 12) have strips added to the bottom. The strips are F and G again, but they are turned on their sides, as in the picture below.

Blocks 11, 12

The 10th block is the leftmost bottom corner and so has strips added to the left and below - I will sew together that block, along with block 7. That will leave 10 more blocks for the other members of the group to sew.

At the meeting, we will decide how to divide the blocks among the team and talk about borders and backing. There's about 4 yards of one of the busy florals, that could work for either a border or backing. Several other fabrics also may be sufficient for borders. We can also discuss whether to piece the back or borders or add some applique to a border or to the quilt center for some additional creativity points. Can't wait to get going on this! Hope to see you at the meeting.