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.