I found the pattern for the block a while ago and thought it was a great way to use scraps. It was from the Quilting Daily web site and a hexagon shaped baby blanket. It is baby quilt #4. I loved the idea of the block construction but not the shape of the quilt. So me being me, I changed it around into what I believe to be a far more useable shaped quilt.
The quilt measures 43" by 55". You will need 18 whole blocks, 4 half blocks, 9 half diamonds and 2 quarter diamonds. The border is 2 1/2" wide with a matching bias-cut French binding. I don't know how much fabric is in the quilt because I used scraps but there is 13" of fabric in the binding. LOL!
I used a traditional weight cotton-batting for the inside layer. Not as thick as I like but after washing the quilt it has a very old-timey look so all is wonderful.
This is the shape of the basic unit of the block.
I started by sewing long strips of fabric together and then cutting out the shapes. Lots of wasted material in my mind and as you cut, your temple gets smaller. Not very satisfying! So what to do? How about paper piecing? I have never paper-pieced and it works amazingly well. Here is a link to a youtube video if you are curious. And when you have the three basic units sewn together they look like this.
Well I got tired of putting the blocks together the recommended way and I was also running out of strips long enough, so I tried something a little bit different. I rotated my scraps 90 degrees and made a few blocks this way.
I thought that was cute and wish I had done a few more like them.
I did outline quilting for the most part in the body of the quilt. I wanted something different for the quilting on the border. I did a search in some quilt stencil books I have and found this one I really liked.
The stencil comes from the book Quilting Designs from the Amish by Pepper Cory. When you are looking for stencil designs for machine quilting look for designs that flow from one repeat to the other. If you can't take your finger and follow the line for long distances the design is not a good candidate like the very top design. There is a lot of starting and stopping in that one. The one I chose (in the middle) the lines flow for however long you want to repeat the design. This is how I did the corner.
There are several ways to do corners. Hum, I think, I will do a blog post on how to make your quilt stencil design turn the corner!
And lastly the back and label!
Bubbles! I love that fabric for the backs of children's quilts. Yes, I do!
Until next time, have a good day!
Judy
2 comments:
That is an awesome baby quilt, colorful and fun but a design that can grow with them. I didn't follow all of your changes, but I don't quilt. I know I do the same with knitting patterns, and the result you got showed you definitely know what you are doing. :)
Thank-you! I'm hoping the little one will want to drag it around until it is totally worn out.
Sorry, I lost you with the changes. They were really pretty minor in that I went from a 36" hexagon blanket to a rectangle one and rotating the scraps 90 degrees on the base units of the block.
I love taking someone's idea and exploring the what-ifs.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
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