Tranquility

I normally use a wide variety of fabrics in my quilts. This one is an exception: I only used two. A navy mini-floral print serves as background for a lovely muted red and medium blue batik.

I used Blue Wren's Pine Bark block, which is also called Japanese Jigsaw or Japanese Puzzle. Easy cutting is a happy benefit of two color quilts.

My design wall came in handy for laying out this puzzle. After sewing all the blocks, I combined them in diagonal rows, adding the corner and border pieces as I went along.

I repeated the navy print on the back, with a single row of alternating batik/navy 6” squares. I quilted along the main diagonal seam lines using a triple serpentine stitch with silver gray thread. Tranquility finished at 49” square.

Dies used:
Blue Wren 6815 Pine Bark

Accuquilt
55017 Strip 2½” for binding
55000 Square 6” finished

Taffy Kisses

Sweet pastels combine with white for today's baby quilt. I chose lilac, pink, green, aqua, melon, and yellow prints from my remnant boxes.

These easy blocks stitched up quickly on Laney, my pretty blue and white Singer 301. I found just enough of a large dot fabric (from my latest bonanza) to add a coordinating border. I cut these manually to make sure the dots were centered.

I switched to the Janome for quilting to use the serpentine stitch. White thread in a 2” grid pattern is a good choice for this design. Taffy Kisses finished out at 42” square.

Accuquilt dies used:
55018 Small Value die, 4” and 2” squares
55017 Strip 2½” for binding

Sewing machine rehab update: We've collected several vintage machines over the past few months, so they're lined up waiting for their turn on the workbench. One's in process of being painted now, so watch here for the reveal sometime soon.

Sliced & Stitched

Did ya miss me last week? I needed some down time so I took a mini break to chill out.

Now I'm back with a luscious purple and gray quilt. Before cutting, I laid out the design using EQ8 software to audition different arrangements.

It didn't take long to stitch this easy modern block. For quilting, I sewed three simple straight stitch lines 1/4” apart, along each side of the slanted seams. Light gray thread blends well and emphasizes the lines while adding texture.

Sliced & Stitched finished out at 49” square.

Dies used:

Blue Wren   6600 Sliced Squares 6” finished
Accuquilt   55017 Strip 2½” for binding

There's absolutely nothing wrong with shutting things down, putting your feet up, and doing a whole lot of not much.

 ~Brian Gardner