Quilts of Valour project #2 Happy Blocks

 Happy blocks are a framed square and two of the groups I belong to, both Stashbusters and Heartstrings refer to them this way.

I love happy blocks.  They can be planned, cut from scraps, leftovers and you can be really organized and figure out what colours go where or be like me and just make blocks and see what happens.

These blocks looks great anyway you want to use them and they finish at 10" square so a quilt that is 6 rows by 7 rows gives you a 60" x 70" quilt.  I like to make happy blocks as leaders and enders when working on other projects. 

I cut a stack of 6.5" squares.  Lots of squares and in this case, tried to find and use up all my bits of Canadian themed fabrics.  

Then you need 2.5" frames.  One strip, width of fabric, gives you (2) 10.5" and (2) 6.5" strips.  If you are cutting a lot of frames from the same fabric, cut 5 strips and use 3 for the 10.5" strips and 2 for the 6.5" strips and you won't have any waste. 

Add you shorter pieces to each side of your square.  If you mix up adding the frames to the sides and then to the tops/bottoms, you won't have seams to match on fabric that is directional.  I don't fuss, just try to add a strip to a top and the next square, add to the bottom.  And, really, in the end, if my squares aren't all perfectly oriented, it won't make much difference until it is important to you.

I stitch the blocks, trim them to 10.5" and start putting them up on the design wall.  In a perfect world, I would alternate a light frame with a darker frame but with this quilt, I don't think it matters when there will be lots of blocks in the finished quilt. 

A stack of nicely trimmed happy blocks.

I found this panel in my Quilts of Valour fabric container and measured the blocks.  Each one can be trimmed to 10.5"  That got me thinking.  What about combining these blocks with happy blocks?

So, this is what I have on my design wall at the moment.  I

I think this might work and a great way to use up the blocks from that panel.   This pile beside my sewing machine is a bunch of blocks matched with frames, ready to sew.  I do that while watching t.v. in the evening when sewing time is done.  A good way to have my blocks ready to pick up and sew and, as mentioned before, I like these as leaders and enders.

A few years ago, I cut up a lot of fabric into squares and handed them out to the quilters in my Wednesday group and asked if they would frame them for me and hand them back in.  They each took a few to stitch and a few weeks later, I had a lovely stack of happy blocks.  The nice thing about this block when doing it as a group project is that if someone has a problem with an accurate ¼" seam, you can easily trim the blocks to slightly smaller - 10.25" and the blocks still work in a quilt.  Of course, you can use less blocks and add a border?  Lots of options.  This quilt is one of the finished ones we made from our group effort.  Notice that there is a 16 patch in there as well as some centers that are strip pieced.  They all work and this quilt made a nice donation to Quilts of Valour.  So, sew some happy blocks. 

Quilts of Valour blocks #1 for a Three Yard Quilt

Quilts of Valour Canada is having a quilt contest and if you go to their website (don't forget the "u" in valour, you can find the information on how to enter.  One entry for each quilt turned into your rep between Jan and December 2021.  I decided to give out some instructions for some simple to make quilts that can use up 'stash' fabrics.  Northcott fabric company does sponsor QOVC and I like to support them but I make at least 15 quilts a year and would prefer to make most of the quilts from my stash if possible. 

 I am not sure that a 3 yard quilt is accurate but it gives you an idea of how much fabric you need in order to complete the blocks.  This is one I made, using a panel.  The blocks measure 12" finished and it is easy to incorporate a panel as well as a variety of blocks for the center of the block.

The block centers are 6.5" cut, 6" finished.  For Quilts of Valour, I like to go through any fabrics that seems to be Canadian in their theme and use them.  A great way to use up leftovers.  However, you can choose to use one fabric only in the centers.  There are NO rules!  And, you don't have to use a panel, this is just an idea if you have one kicking around (there were lots of them printed for our 150 yr celebration).  I did not use a consistent red in this quilt but kept my reds to read the same intensity.  

To make this quilt 60" x 72" you need 30 blocks without a panel. 

Cut 30 - 6.5" centers.  You can get 6 blocks from the width of a piece of fabric.  If you want a consistent center, then cut 5 strips of fabric: 6.5" wide and subcut into 6.5" squares. 

I chose this green Canadian flag fabric but I didn't have enough so you will see that later, I had to use some other blocks to have enough for the quilt.  There are no rules! 

Cut 5 strips of the red or dark 6.5" wide  

Cut  5 strips of the red or dark 3.5" wide

Cut 5 strips of the light 6.5" wide

Cut 5 Strips of the light 3.5" wide. 

Stitch the dark and the light strips together matching the 3.5" of light with the 3.5" of the dark. 

Subcut these stitched strips into 3.5" segments. 

Repeat with the 6.5" wide strips of red and white or light and dark.  Stitch them together and then subcut into 3.5" segments. 

Add the shorter/smaller pieces to each side of your 6.5" center squares, making sure you stitch in the same order for each one which will reverse the colours on each side.  I start with the light 'up' on each block.

Press seams and then add the longer strips on each side, making sure to match red to red and white to white.  Trim to 12.5" and you are done!  There are many options.  You can make less blocks and add a border. I am thinking of using this small panel in the upper corner as it won't work for centering it in the quilt.  I don't have all my blocks on the wall yet but it will be 5 blocks wide and 6 blocks long. 

A simple to make quilt that uses up some of your fabrics that you have sitting and wondering what to make.  I think we get overwhelmed with ideas so thought I would give a simple way to make a block and thus a quick quilt.  

There will be two more posts coming with ideas so stay tuned!

Sunny but crisp and cool - my favourite weather

 The sun has been shining nicely for the second week in a row and that is both a good and a bad thing! I love this weather and so nice to wake up to sunshine.  But the windows are gross and I need to put that on my list of cleaning chores.  Plus, with this dry weather, we are playing tennis every afternoon and that really messes up my quilting time.  However, the rain will arrive and quite possible snow, so I am thinking positive that fresh air and exercise is more important than time at my machine? 

So what have I accomplished? I completed the January step for the Meadowland mystery. 

A second block was made for the Patterns by Jen colour of the month block challenge.

A pile of fabrics that I were stashed in a bin were pulled out and pressed, folded into 7" squares and put through the GO cutter with the tumbler template.  Both Heartstrings and Stashbuster groups are challenging members to make a tumbler quilt in January.  I had to wait for a cutting mat to fit the template and once it arrived, I got busy. 

The start of the tumbler quilt and am using an idea posted on Heartstrings of keeping the first and last tumbler of each row the same so it looks like a border. 

Of course, I can't work on one thing at a time so I started making wonky, scrappy log cabins from all my leftover bindings and trimmings from backings.  I will admit, I had to pull out some light fabrics from my string bin since I don't use a lot of light backings or bindings.  These are growing!

I was getting a bit confused about the order of the fabrics for the log cabin so finally clipped a block to my light so I could look up and see what comes next at the beginning... on which side! 

And here are the bins of lights and darks.  This makes a mess and one of the quilters on Heartstrings set her strips up with a sewing machine and dedicated the space to log cabins only, temporarily.  A great idea.

With all my trimmings from cutting tumblers and strips, I filled a pillowcase to stitch closed for donation.  And got a new one out and have it in my little bin which makes it easy to fling the scraps in there.  I have since found out that the pillows are supposed to be 18" square so will have re-do my pillow and will probably get two of what I have here.

So, the log cabins are growing and I laid out two rows of tumblers to see if I could figure out which layout I wanted to use.  Who knew there were so many ways to lay out tumbler blocks?

I did find some fabrics as I was sorting out what to cut for tumblers that will make a good quilt using my Carolyn's blocks, centers with two frames that makes great use of a fat quarter with little waste. So, that is now added to the project list!

And here is the finished quilt top using the tumblers. 

I also got my cat quilt blocks put together.  A bit of a crazy quilt but most of the fabrics have something to do with cats.  A few plain ones thrown in to make things a little calmer?

A close up of some of the fabrics.

And, more tumblers cut.  These will make a great project for a retreat because you don't need a design wall when you are making it scrappy.  I just alternate lights and darks and away I go!

So, some projects are now on hangers waiting for backings and bindings to be prepared.  Quilting in February will be on my list of things to do! 

Almost the middle of January and sewing time is still limited.

I have no idea why my time at my sewing machine is so limited but hoping I am finally on track to get a few things accomplished this week.

Tennis courts are still wet and we are still walking at 1pm every day regardless of weather or temperatures. 

Christmas is now put away in my house - undecorated/dedecorated?  We need a name for this process and it took me 3 days!  I only found a few things after everything was away that need to be stored, but, I planned for that because it always happens! 

Everything is tucked under my stairs and there were fewer containers after I purged quite a bit of our seasonal decor.  And, I tidied up my 'bunker'.  I get asked what a bunker is.  Well, we are built on a steep slope on the side of a hill and our driveway is on the upside of the hill.  They dug down deep for the foundation of the house and that created this space, which is under our master bedroom on the main floor, and it is an area with no windows but it is dry and the furnace is here so it is warm! I keep the B-line (home quilting system) here and all my fabrics that are stored by genre.  Plus my scraps and backing fabrics (on bolts) are here as well.  

I managed to actually get the bindings on the quilts that were waiting last week to be completed.  One is for Quilts of Valour and I used charm packs from the Northcott O Canada line and it was a November Heartstrings challenge.  

And this is the CQA 52 week block challenge from 2019.  Finished!!

I did get the January "patterns by Jen" block made and am making a second one is reverse colour placement.  Cut out, but not stitched.

I have started on the cat quilt from 10" squares and 21 blocks are finished - 19 to go!

The pinks for the Rainbow scrap challenge haven't moved from the cutting table but I have added more ideas of blocks to make for this year.  Stop finding ideas and start cutting and stitching.

The January step for the Meadowland mystery is set out and ready for me to put this step together. 

I have my GO cutter set up and ready to go with the tumbler challenge and waiting... waiting... for some cutting mats to arrive.  Postage from the U.S was crazy expensive but I found a Canadian company in Ontario that had what I wanted and they were in the mail the day I ordered them.  Of course, Canada Post is slow from there to here but, they are on their way and supposed to arrive on Thursday.  Crossing my fingers so I can the January Heartstrings tumbler challenge on the way to being cut out and put together.

 

Our traditional guild had a pick up of prizes after our Christmas Holly Jolly bingo game and I took my 3 ring binders of patterns with me, opened my back hatch and half the binders went to guild members to peruse and look through for inspiration.  I encouraged them to pass the binders on to other guild members since we aren't meeting and don't have our sharing table.  So this pile isn't nearly as big and I was able to tuck the binders away in a smaller box until the next meet up. 

Back to getting some piecing done and hoping I have a few more 'finished' projects or least something organized up on the design wall! 

A New Year means new starts and hopefully from WIP's or UFO's completed from previous years.

Here we are in another New Year and hoping it is a better one for most of us.  I did end the year listing everything that was positive about 2020 because I read that you should end the year with your glass half full, not half empty.  There were and are some positives for us but it does mean trying to look past what is unpleasant which for us, the big one is - the WEATHER here in the Pacific Northwest. 

 

We love our sunshine in Arizona and the biggest issue for us is trying to be positive with dark, dreary, rainy day after miserable, wet day.  Our goal is walk for an hour daily with tennis courts being too wet to play on but, seriously, some days it is really difficult to gear up in layers to stay dry.  Much easier to layer up in clothes to stay warm on a cold, sunny day.  But, we persevere and in the last month have only missed two days and one of those was because of a medical appointment. 

 

I have been reading - that means, when I read, not much else gets done.  And, am procrastinating on taking down the putting away the Christmas decorations although I love the feeling of the clean empty house after that happens. But reading instead of sewing - unheard of for me but, we have a this great little library box in the park where we walk and it is sponsored by Kiwanis.  It is a bit of a game with me now to go to the box to see if it is empty, the same as the previous day or, full.  The full days are great as we can root through to find books that appeal to us and if we get a dud, no big deal, take it back the next day and grab something else! 

 

But typically, our walk and courts look like this. 

I did get my December step of the Meadowland mystery completed.  Done and ready for Thursday when the next clue is released.

 

And two quilts got quilted and binding is ready to be stitched and added to the them.  Hopefully today, or tomorrow.  My CQA 52blocks is ready for binding and the November Charm challenge from Heartstrings is also waiting patiently for the last step.  This charm is made from Quilts of Valour fabrics from Northcott so that is where this will get donated. 

I have pulled out some purples for PBJ block of the month and January is purple or eggplant.  She gives you the pattern to use for the blocks and I am going to make 3 different 12"' blocks for January (because one seems like not enough?).

I pulled my Accuquilt go cutter out of hiding and dug it out of the box and set it up.  The Heartstrings group is working with tumblers and thought I could cut some.  A lesson learned because I am missing a part big enough to cover the template. I have ordered a larger one but this is on hold for now.  Of course, I don't have any rulers that are the same shape at what I started cutting.

The Rainbow scrap challenge for January is pink and I have pulled out my strings and fat quarters ready to figure out which blocks I am going to make this year.

This is one option for my 2021 blocks. 

I had a set of 10" squares that are cat themed and decided to cut them up, adding in about 12 more fabrics and am going to stitch up the blocks and make a cat quilt for my grandson and his girlfriend.  Am sure he doesn't read my blog so can make this and surprise them.  They are cat people and love their feline pets. 

I am a lurker on Stashbuster's group and they are working on something called Trailmix which I might consider doing and I have my 2020 RSC blocks all sitting and waiting for me to use them in some quilt tops.  

No shortage of projects but first, house has to be de-decorated and all containers put away nicely, neat and tidy and that will lead to some other tidying.  I also want to go through my kitchen cupboards and donate all and any dishes that we don't use since there are 2 of us for meal and not the full family to feed.  

Happy New Year to all and hopefully we can all get vaccinated in a timely manner, life will slowly resume so that our activities of the past will be easier to access and enjoy.  Virtual guild meetings are great and nice to not have to drive but still, the face to face chatting and socializing is something that I miss.