Block 3--Peace and Plenty

This is block 3 of the sampler quilt. In the pattern, it is called Peace and Plenty. The pattern shows one way to cut the pieces; in this tutorial I have chosen a different method to make the same block using "flying geese" (shown in yellow and white below) and half square triangles (shown in 2 shades of blue). Fying Geese are easy to make, and the rest of this tutorial is dedicated to how to make them for any given size.

For ease of reference, I will refer to the parts of the flying geese as the goose body (the triangle piece in the center) and the triangles on the sides are called the sky. Some people call the side pieces the wings, but I will call them sky pieces in this discussion.

You can make flying geese in any given size without the need for any special rulers. Look at the pattern that you are trying to make, and determine what size FINISHED geese you need. Remember that "finished" refers to a piece AFTER it is sewn into your quilt. For example, a piece that is 3-1/2 x 6-1/2 when you make it, will have a finished size of 3 x 6. The Peace and Plenty block is 12-1/2 inches when you make it, and to get that size, you will need to make 4 flying geese, each 3-1/2 by 6-1/x. That means that the geese will be a FINISHED size of 3 x 6 inches once the block is sewn into the quilt.

Choose the fabric for the goose body and the fabric for the sky. I chose yellow for the body and white for the sky. To make 4 flying geese, you will need to cut 1 square of the goose body color that is the WIDTH of the FINISHED goose plus 1-1/4 inches. Since the FINISHED geese in this pattern is 6 inches in width, that means you will need a square that is 6 + 1-1/4 = 7-1/4 inches square. For the sky, you will need 4 squares that are the HEIGHT of the FINISHED piece + 7/8" Since the HEIGHT of the FINISHED geese in this pattern is 3 inches, that means you will need to cut 4 squares that are 3 + 7/8 =3-7/8 inches.

Now, take 2 of the sky squares and draw a diagonal line through them. Line up one square on one corner of the goose square, and line up a second square on the opposite corner. See the picture below. You should have the sky squares lined up exactly on the diagonal, so that the line you've drawn on one square will line up exactly with the line you've drawn on the other square.

Sew a seam 1/4 inch on one side of the line that you've drawn. Go all the way from one corner of the big square to the other corner, sewing through body of the sky squares. Now sew a seam 1/4 inch on the other side of the diagonal line. It's a lot like making half square triangles. Cut this piece in two along the drawn line. See the picture below.

Separate these pieces and press out the sky pieces so that it looks like the picture below. Place a 3rd square on the corner of the goose body fabric, and draw a diagonal line through it, just like you did before. You will be sewing a seam 1/4 inch on either sie of the drawn line.

Cut on the drawn line, and repeat with the other units. You will have 4 flying geese units that look loke this:

Trim to size to get rid of the "ears" and you will have 4 flying geese units.

For this block you will need to make 4 half square triangles, using the method of your choice. Now you can arrange your block as follows:

Once you've sewn the pieces together, you will get a block that looks like this:

Sassy Quilter's April Meeting

The Sassy Quilters met at Meg's house in April. It was a stormy night, but the faithful turned out. Present were Meg, Mozelle, Susan, Eva, Sheila, Diane B., Diane P., Cindy, Dolly, and Estela. The business portion of the meeting was fairly brief in case we lost power or had to leave early because of bad weather.

We worked on different ways of making half-square triangles (there will be a separate blog post on that topic). Although most Sassies had made the first block (Grandmother's Fan) of the sampler quilt, some of the ladies worked on their block during the meeting.

We were treated to a bevy of beautiful quilts during show and tell. It looks like a lot of you, especially Meg, have been very busy quilting. We did show and tell sort of a like "bed turning." The quilts had all been stacked on the bed, and when the top quilt had been admired and "oohed" and "ahhed" over, it was pulled off to reveal the next beauty. These are the quilts we saw.

This was Meg's quilt; she cut long strips of fabric and pieced them randomly. Note that each vertical column has one single four patch randomly placed. Can you find the four patch in each strip?





This is a scrap quilt made solely from half square triangles. Meg quilted this for someone.

Meg made this framed four patch, using the same four patch in the center of each of the brightly covered blocks. It's very colorful!

This was made by one of Meg's "students" in another of her sewing groups. I believe this is a beginning quilter who made this. "Card trick" is not the easiest quilt for a beginner, but she did a beautiful job, especially in selecting her colors.

This quilt and the one below it use the same pattern, but in this quilt, the diagonals are sewn from black and white fabric, and the larger blocks are made using bright colors. At first glance, it's hard to see that it's the same quilt as the one below, which uses the opposite color scheme.

This quilt uses the same pattern as the one above, but in this one, the diagonals are made using bright colors, and the larger blocks use black and white fabrics. They are both stunning!

Another one of Meg's; this is a sort of windmill pattern. It's a four patch, and each piece is identical to the others. The twirling effect comesfrom the way the pieces are rotated.

Another one of Meg's quilts. This pattern is called Square in a Square 2; it looks complicated but is actually easy to piece.

Meg calls this quilt "Monkey Business." Doesn't it remind you of the kid's game that uses plastic monkeys that you try to string together by the hand? Meg says that all the pieces in this quilt are identical (2 different colored strips joined at a 45-degree angle, forming a rectangle). It looks a litle like another pattern called Snail's trail. This one is made in batiks.

Eva designed this block by playing around with 2-1/2 inch strips of coordinating colors. She and Susan are now working on a written description of how to make this block, with an eye toward publishing this in a quilt magazine. Way to go, Eva and Susan!

And this is Mozelle's beautiful cream and navy quilt. She's been making these blocks for the better part of the year, and now it's pieced! It's curved piecing and she did a fantastic job--notice how nice and flat it lies! Meg won't have any trouble quilting this one.

Hope to see you all at next month's meeting! We will be working on the second block if you haven't finished it by then; otherwise we will be starting on the applique motifs. Please bring your fabric to the meeting so that you can work on your block.

Grandmother's Fan Block

This is the first block in the Grateful Hearts Sampler. It is called Grandmother's Fan. Below is a write up of the steps that I used in creating this block. Please note that the instructions given in the pattern are somewhat different. Feel free to use the pattern instructions or any other method that is most comfortable for you. First you will need to decide what colors to use in the "blades" of your fan. I chose green, fuschia, and turquoise for the blades, and bright yellow for the quarter circle at the base of the fan. Once you have determined what colors to use, cut your fabric into rectangles 4 inches by 1o inches.

Arrange your fabric rectangles in the sequence in which you are going to piece them. Note that I cut 2 pieces of green, two pieces of fuschia, and one piece of turquoise. If you want each blade to be a different color, cut only one rectangle of each color.

Stack all your fabric rectangles one on top of the other, aligning the edges exactly. Baste through all 5 layers of fabric (one layer for each blade). I used a dark basting thread because it is easier to see.

Cut the paper templates apart and line them up on your stack of fabric that you just basted together. Notice that there is a grainline on the templates, so line them up appropriately. I used a glue stick on the back of the template to hold the paper onto the fabric.

Use your rotary cutter to cut the fabric along the template edges. The templates have curved edges on the top and bottom. I cut straigh across, and it doesn't make any difference in the finished piece.

Once you've cut all the templates out, you'll have four sets of your fan blades. Don't remove the paper template or the basting until you are ready to sew each fan. You will have some bias edges, and keeping the sets basted together helps keep them from getting wonky. Sew your fan together and press. Sew or baste a line of stitching 1/4 inch away from the large curved edge. Turn this edge under, and run a line of glue form a glue stick to hold it in place.

Now it's time to work on the quarter circle that will form the base of the fan. Take the template provided with your pattern, and trim off the seam allowance ONLY ON THE CURVED SIDE!!!!! Leave the seam allowance on the straight edges!!! Repeat, cut off the seam allowance only on the curved side, and leave the seam allowance on the straight edges.

Pull out about 3-1/2 inches of freezer paper from the box it comes in. The strip should measure at least 3 inches by the width of the box. Fold the paper in half and then in half, so that you have 4 thicknesses of freezer paper. Pin the trimmed quarter circle template onto the freezer paper, lining up the straight edge of the template with the straight edge of the freezer paper. Trace the curved edge onto the freezer paper and cut along the tracing line. You will have 4 freezer paper copies of the quarter circle template.

Iron the freezer paper, shiny side down, onto the fabric you want to use for the base of your fan. Be sure to leave a margin of fabric on the curved side of the template.

Cut the fabric around the quarter circle as shown. Leave about a 1/4 inch margin around the curved edge. This is the seam allowance.

Flip the freezer paper quarter circle and fabric over to the back side. DO NOT REMOVE THE FREEZER PAPER YET. Smear a light coating of glue from a glue stick onto the curved edge of the fabric. Now, using your fingers, press the curved edge of the fabric towards the center. Press along the edge of the freezer paper. In other words, finger press the seam allowance in toward the center; the glue will hold it down once you've you've finger pressed it.

This is what the back of the freezer paper template/fabric should look like. The cruved edge has been folded towards the center along the curved line of the freezer paper.

Take the fan that you sewed together before, add the quarter circle that you've glue-basted, and arrange on a 12-1/2 inch square.

Repeat for all 4 corners. Now you are ready to machine applique (the dreaded "A" word) the fan onto the background. Use a blanket stitch or try one of the fancy stitches on your machine to sew along the large curved edge. Then use the same or a different stitch along the the curved edge of the fan base. Voila! You've made the first block!

March Meeting

Susan showing her mini wallhanging.

Susan showing the Asian wallhanging (above) and the floral stack n whack (below).

Debbie's Little Dresses (above) and Sylvia's Blue/Lime Green quilt (below). You can't tell from the picture, but she mitered the borders!

Sylvia's Black and White Half-square triangles with Appliqued center squares.

We gathered at Mozelle's in March to work on donation blocks. Present were: Mozelle, Eva, Susan, Joyce, Diane P., Sylvia, Debbie, and Estela.

Eva demonstrated several blocks that she is working on, some of which would be suitable for making donation blocks. We decided that the lap quilts would be better if they were made of five rows of 4 blocks each; the blocks are to be 8.5" square. That would make a lap quilt that is approximately 32" wide by 40" long. Eva also showed us how to press seams to avoid having a lumpy intersection where you have 4 pieces that come together at a single point.

Estela handed out the pattern for the quilt sampler we will be working on for the coming year, and demonstrated some tips for cutting and piecing the first block. There will be a separate post on this blog showing some of the steps for piecing the block, which is called Grandmother's fan.

The pictures are from Show and Tell. Sylvia brought 2 quilts for Meg to quilt for her. One is the Blue Squares sashed in Lime Green; eveyrone loved the green, maybe because it reminds me that maybe, just maybe, spring will come to cold NW Arkanas. Sylvia also showed us a Black and White Half Square Triangles in which she appliqued a square in the center. Love that Applique!

Debbie showed a really cute quilt she made from a pattern called House Dresses. Each little dress is a different color--the pattern is not for beginningers because it has "Y" seams (inset seams) that require great accuracy. Fantastic piecing, Debbie!

Eva finished a queen-sized quilt that she showed, but I forgot to get a picture of it. I'll get a picture on Thursday and post it later. Sorry, Eva. Besides, I'm not sure I should refer to it as your quilt, since I think Mozelle has designs on it to match her draperies!

Susan, ever the over-achiever, showed us 3 items she worked on. The first was a "stack and whack" type quilt made from carefully cutting identical squares of fabric that had a large floral print, then rotating them in various ways, like a kaleidoscope, to get very different looking blocks. All the blocks shown on this quilt were made from the same fabric; the squares are different because of the place where the fabric was cut and how the squares were rotated. The second item she showed is the large Asian-themed motif that combines Susan's love--and great skill--at embroidery, with very careful piecing. The wallhanging inspires serenity (and envy!). The third item that Susan brought was the small wall hanging that she said her husband claimed for his potting shed.

The next meeting is on April 14, at Meg's house. See you there. I hope you will have an opportunity to gather/buy your fabrics for the quilt sampler, and put together your basic sewing kit to bring to the April meeting so we can start making the sampler blocks. See you then if not before!

Donation Quilt Blocks

In February we cut fabric into 2.5" strips and decided to make 8.5" blocks that will be sewn into lap quilts. Susan Moore showed us a quilt made from a simple pattern consisting of a 4-patch that was then framed. After the February meeting I sent out a summar of the meeting, and the summary included directions for making the block. Here is a picture of the block. Hope this helps understand what we're aiming for. The gray that you see around the block is not fabric--it's the carpet! I laid it on the floor to photograph it.

Grateful Heart Sampler

I just got back from a quilting retreat in Gainesville, TX, with a group of Dallas-area quilters. One of the ladies told me that she was working on a quilt top that she hoped to finish during retreat. When she finished making her blocks, she held it up for all to see. And guess what? It was the Grateful Heart Sampler that we've chosen for our project. She made it in batiks, and it is gorgeous. She did not make some of the blocks in the original sampler; notice that she made a star kind of block for the top lefthand of the quilt, which is a Grandmother's Fan in the pattern.

February Meeting and New Name!

We met at Mozelle's house to cut fabric into 2.5 inch strips using the Accuquilt Fabric Cutter. We made almost 50 bundles of 6 strips each! We took bundles home to make into 8.5 inch blocks that will be used in making lap-sized quilts for wheelchair patients. Haven't decided where we will donate these--there are so many organizations that need these--Washington Regional will be setting up a hospice facility, the Veterans hospital, children's hospital, etc.

We changed our name! We are now the Sassy Quilters. Mozelle made it a point that you have to have quilted at least one quilt to call yourself a quilter, but thank goodness that we all qualified under that test! Of course Mozelle has outquilted everyone!

Looks like we are going forward with our sampler quilt. Estela will bring the patterns for everyone to the March meeting, so everyone will have a chance to go through their stash to see what fabrics they will want to use and what they'll need to get. We'll work on the first block in April. We've modified the pattern to include some blocks that will provide a teaching opportunity. For example, in place of one of the blocks from the pattern, we will use a block that has "Y" seams so that everyone can learn how to do this. We'll also make an applique block to each everyone about the different ways of doing applique--by hand or by machine.