Last Finish for January

You've probably heard of the Disappearing Four Patch? This is my Disappearing Sampler. This was from an online class in November, taught by Brita Nelson, the Questioning Quilter. She has a channel on YouTube where she teaches some Disappearing patterns, and I've been following her for a while. 

I thought her class would be fun, and it was, but also very stressful, which was my own fault because I hadn't prepared properly. She had us cut fabric ahead of the class AND sew up the starting blocks, like the four-patches and the churn dashes. None of which I did because I wasn't paying attention.

In the class, she directed us to cut up the blocks we sewed and shift the parts into different positions to create new blocks. I tell you, I was cutting and sewing furiously--I never made so many blocks so fast, lol, but it all worked out in the end.  

Originally I had planned to just watch the class and decided at the last minute to actually sew. So I grabbed the fabric closest to me and used it. Not a fabulous choice, but it served its purpose. Going forward, it will be a good reference for some other disappearing quilts I'd like to try.  

I finished the quilting the other day with a pantograph called Spinner. I hadn't used it before, but I do like the texture it created.

Winter Garden

These are my Winter Garden blocks, from a kit by Julie Burton of Running Stitch Quilts. I discovered her website late last year and found her Garden series. There are three so far; waiting for the last one, Autumn Garden, to drop within the next month, hopefully. 

I liked all of the Garden blocks soon as I saw them. Not throwing in the towel with traditional quilts, but I need a change. After following several modern quilting blogs for a couple of years now, this year I've decided to finally start making some modern quilts. Maybe modern traditional would be more like it, lol.

These are big blocks, 20 in a throw-sized quilt, so I am making one a day, sewing each row as I complete the four blocks in the row. The plan is to finish the top by the end of the month.

I have never been one to do all the cutting up front, but I've done this a few times recently and love having the cutting all done. A word to the wise though--make up one block before you cut up all your fabric in case you don't like it!

After the cutting was finished, I laid out all the pieces for each block....

... stacked them all up in order on paper plates, and I just pull one off the top of the pile everyday to sit down and sew. Sew convenient!
 

First Finishes of 2024

 * Linking up to Oh Scrap!

I haven't blogged for quite a while, but I'm still here. It's disappointing to follow a link to someone's blog to read about their quilts, only to discover that they quit updating a long time ago. I always wonder if something happened to them, or if they just lost interest or what; so I won't do that. 

Last year was another year that was not as productive as I'd hoped. I did finish 10 quilts in the first half of last year, and then mostly nothing for the latter half of the year. 

I just finished this quilt a few days ago. It's called RST2 (Right Sides Together Squared) from 3 Dudes Quilting. It was a kit I found in Madison on a quilt chapter bus trip. I wasn't crazy about the pattern, but I very much liked the colors. I also liked that there was no specific background fabric. Wish I could find more patterns like that. 

I quilted it with a pantograph called Twofold Feathers, one of my favorites, from Urban Elementz.
 

These colors just sing to me.

I just finished this quilt today. This is another Fun Patch that I made with leftover pieces from the first one I made last year. The original quilt was an already made top I bought at a silent auction. I added blocks to the top to make it a little larger, but there were still many print pieces left over. And there are still more left over that will go into a third quilt.

This is a one-patch pattern with a single template piece. The copy of the pattern I have, called Fun Patch, I think, was from an old Quiltmaker magazine; but once I started hunting for it on the internet, I found it under various names, like Whirligig. I also discovered that Creative Grids makes a ruler to cut these pieces. The angle is not as steep, but using a ruler to cut out the pieces is a whole lot faster. 

I really like this pattern a lot. I can see it in a variety of fabrics or scraps or a rainbow version. I also made a miniature version from a French General charm pack, still just a top; and there's a second one in the works.