Little Green Quilters Update

July 1 - - edited... I had this post ready for last week's update, but since there was no posting, I am linking this (while on vacation)with Susan at www.blackberrycreek.typepad.com !

I am making no progress on anything this month. But I have been playing.

In the making of this church quilt, there were a lot of triangles left over.

See? I sewed them into half square triangles...327 of them, to be exact. They are trimmed down to 2.5 inches. So, what to do, what to do?
I had no idea how many layouts you can do with half square triangles! Take a look at 10 possibilities I laid out on my design (dining room) table...

1. Here they are, all lined up in a row.

2. How about diamonds?

3. Pinwheels, anyone?

4. I am not sure what this block is called; it looks sort of like a starburst!

5. An hour glass layout....

6. I call this one 'school of fish'!

7. Each of these blocks has a square in the center, and....

8. ...here is the same block with pinwheels in the center. A totally different look!

9. Can you see the four patch block in this setting? (I guess you could also call it a 16 patch block, but I would assemble it like a four patch.)

10. And here is a nine patch block setting! (Or a 36-patch, if you like!)


With only 327 of these 2.5 inch squares, the quilt will not be a big one, perhaps a baby quilt or two. I think I know which one I like the best! How about you?

Graduation Quilts 2011

Each year our church presents quilts to the high school graduates. I am part of the group that makes the quilts. This year we had four graduates, and we presented the quilts today!

This first one is from a free pattern called "Trimming the Tree" by Sharon Holland at http://www.fabri-quilt.com/ . On the websight the quilt was done in holiday fabrics, but we used the current popular colors of aqua, red and white. (All our fabric is donated, and it is a challenge to come up with fabrics that work well together. This one worked out great!)




The second quilt was made using the "Twister" tool from http://www.country-schoolhouse.com/ . It is relatively simple to make...first sew 10" blocks together into a giant quilt. Using the Twister ruler, the quilt is recut, and when resewn together, pinwheels appear! The fabrics follow an outdoor theme: owls, deer, bear, paw prints, tents, etc. The young man who received this quilt is actually going into camp ministry!

Here is a quilt pattern called "Warm Wishes". We had this old red, black and white fabric in our church stash for a long time. It is an oldy, and it would take a special pattern to make the fabric shine without losing it's creative artistry. When I first saw the "Warm Wishes" pattern, I knew we could finally use this treasured fabric!


This beautiful floral quilt may just be my favorite this year; I'm not sure of the name of this pattern. We had a large collection of large print floral fabrics, but none of the pieces was enough for one quilt. So we used many florals to make this gorgeous quilt. It is so much more beautiful in real life than in the picture. Such an easy pattern, too.


We tie all our quilts. While there are few of us who do the actual piecing, we generally try to get lots of women in the church involved in the tying of the quilts. It was easy this year, with just four quilts; one year we had eleven quilts to make and tie! Each quilt measures 80"x 90".

It is a blessing to be a part of this ministry. Most of the kids have testimonies of living their lives for the Lord. The quilts are a warm reminder of their Christian heritage in our church!

Little Green Quilters Update

I've been doing some work on the Purple Estate Sale quilt.

I decided to do a 'round robin' pattern. Normally a round robin quilt is worked on by multiple quilters, each adding a border as the quilt is passed around. This round robin is staying put with me!

Here is what it looked like last week, the center medallion purchased at an estate sale.


And here is the progress I have made this week: one pieced border and one containment border. Hey, this is fun!

The next round will include these appliqued flower strips. (I still have to machine stitch around each flower.)

Stay tuned....I hope to have more progress to show next week!

I will also be posting pictures of four quilts made by women in my church for the 2011 high school graduates. We are presenting them on Sunday, so I'll have the pics maybe on Monday!

To see the progress made by other Little Green Quilters, go visit Susan at http://www.blackberrycreek.typepad.com/