Neutral Basketweave

At www.blockcentral.net/eve we are doing a neutral strip swap. I've pulled out an old UFO that will be finished up now thanks to this swap.
I started this one LONG ago and kind of forgot about it. It's a basketweave in all neutrals. I am hoping that once the quilt top is done, I can applique some big bold flowers on it, right over the basket weave... but first I need to get the neutral part done. This is a REALLY easy project. The quilt is 64" square. I think I might add an 8" border to all the sides so that it's 80" square. The main part takes 64 strips, 2-1/2" x WOF (width of fabric).

Sew 4 of the strips together... I put the darker strips on the top and bottom and the lighter ones in the middle. I think this will give it more of a 3D shading when finished. Now cut up the long piece into 8-1/2" squares. I have a NIFTY template called "Get Squared" that is exactly that size so it makes cutting them up VERY EASY! You need 4 squares from each long strip. You'll have some leftover pieces... I just add them to the scrap pile for my next crazy quilt.

I stack them in piles and label them. There are 8 rows and 8 columns. Rows run side to side and colums are up and down.

The easiest way to put it all together is to lay it all out on your design wall (or floor as I do :).

I lay row one, with 8" spaces between the 4 blocks. Then I layed out row 2, but these go under the empty spaces. Then I put down column 1, starting under row 1 and skipping spaces. Then column 2.

You want every other block of row 1 to be the same, every other block of row 2 to be the same, etc. Same with the columns... every other block in the column is the same. I used somewhat lighter blocks going up and down.. and deeper ones going across. I'll post a picture of my completed top in a few days. Guess I need to get sewing!

Going through my quilts...

I decided to go through some of my quilts today and check to see if I signed the backs of all of them. As I went down memory lane, I took a few pictures. Thought I would share this one with all of you. I made this one for my hubby and I also made a similar one for one of my brothers that loves fishing and boating. This was a pattern for a wallhanging that I expanded to make a bed sized quilt. I love how it turned out.... but then I LOVE PLAIDS.

My round robin top comes home!!

Today I had the BEST day! The mailbox was filled with all kinds of squishy and quilting goodies.
First of all, my round robin came home today!! Don't you just LOVE it?! It matches my living room PERFECTLY. I made the center and 5 friends from www.thequiltandneedle.com, each added a border to it. There's one more special friend that wasn't in my group, that will be adding her border to it and I'll do the same to her top. After that, I want to add a few more borders of my own so that it's bed size. I LOVE MY QUILT!!! I just so happy with how it turned out... CAN YOU TELL?!! LOL

The other things in my mailbox were: a beautiful Christmas stocking block, a couple of FQ squishies from a wonderful friend with a nice note, a fabric wallet made by another sweet person :), some purple squares, a thank you card from my sis (I shared some fabric with her and now she's a fabricholic) and a Quilt Mania quilt magazine (this is my favorite magazine). Feels like Christmas here!

Gumdrop Twist Block Pattern

Here's my block for the December Favorite Block at http://www.blockcentral.net/eve. We're doing CHRISTMAS CANDY blocks!

This one I've called Gumdrop Twist (12" finished). VERY EASY!
You cut (5) 4-1/2" squares and (8) 1-1/2" squares (mark these with a pencil on the diagonal) of the white background, (2) 4-1/2" squares of the green and (2) 4-1/2" squares of red.
Then if you are familar with the snowball block, same method... All reds and greens are done the same....sew a small white square in the two top corners, sewing across the white block diagonally. Trim the excess off and fold/press the white back to complete the block. Put them together like a 9 patch.. SIMPLE! Just be sure to aim the gumdrops like mine so that they are dancing around the block :)
Email me if you need how to on the snowball corner... northerndeb@ymail.com

Civil War/ 1800's Quilt

I've started a new quilt! AGAIN! BUT, this time I finished a quilt before I began a new one so I feel okay about it. This is the start of my Civil War Fabrics Quilt. I am SLOWLY collecting some very pretty civil war and 1800's repro fabrics.

I'm not sure how I'll be putting this together just yet. I have two options... I might make 16" blocks with this plate in the center and then just do a straight setting OR I might use this as the medallion center and work lots of different blocks around it. I'm leaning towards the second way since I get bored easily. I would be able to do some hand worked blocks and some machine ones to surround this.

I still need to decide on a background to set this on. I'm leaning toward a lightly printed muslin if I can find one in civil war prints that I like. Otherwise it'll be plain muslin. I also need to decide on a fabric for the center circle. I'll applique that to the plate, after I applique the plate to the background.

Pour mes visiteurs français .... Merci beaucoup de votre visite sur mon blog.

1/29/2014 Update: I've had LOTS of questions and interest in this block. This is my own design but there are some patterns out on the market that are similar. I have an old Russian sunflower block pattern (1950's or older) that inspired me. I used a template for the petals from a company that is no longer in business but you could use any Dresden template. I folded long thin triangles in half and inserted them into the seams to get the white part. This quilt is one of my UFOs now... I used this as the center of a large block and have added rows to surround it. I am slowly making a medallion quilt. One of these days I will update with a picture. Thank you for all the interest. 

Al's TV quilt made by Lisa!

This is the quilt Lisa made for my hubby, Al, for his TV/movie room. The sashing looks a little pink in my picture but it's kind of a gray/beige.

Al is a car guy, a fix-it guy, and a former state champion of foosball (we're talking WAY former ... as in the 70's). Lisa put all of his favorites into this quilt. He loves Ford cars and trucks, sports, Dots candies, and Route 66. She made this as a gift for him to have in his movie/tv room downstairs. She loves vintage/retro stuff so the TVs are designed as vintage ones. She put paper pieced foosball guys in two of the corners (her and I designed these just for him) and she put some really nice embroidery into the other two corners. One is a Corvette emblem and the other is his nickname, done the way he had it painted onto a shirt back in the 70s. Can you tell she put lots of love into this?! He's crazy about it, of course!

Here's two more stocking I finished for the swap on BC. I have two more that are done except for trimming the blocks and cutting off the threads. Tomorrow, if I have enough time, I plan to take a picture of a quilt my youngest daughter Lisa made for my husband. She did an amazing job on it and it's time to get it posted here. OK, JENELLL!!!!!???? LOL... It's just one of those things.... meant to do it LONG ago.

Jenns second quilt

I just had to show all of you my daughters second quilt (not quite finished, she still has to bind it with the navy). Her first quilt was a gift to a friend for her wedding and this second quilt is going to be a house warming gift for her boyfriend. She made it using, mostly, a Moda Layer Cake. It's a paper pieced star that the two of us drew up. She quilted it herself on my Pfaff (no stitch regulator or anything fancy). Yes, you're right, Im ONE PROUD MAMA! This is the back of the same quilt. She had planned on adding a checkerboard border but after getting quite a bit of it done, she decided against it and added the other borders instead. SO, instead of scrapping these, she decided to put them together to make a two-sided quilt. I think it's a wonderful surprise to see this on the back.

Grandmas 100th Birthday Roses Quilt

This is my entry into the Park City Girl's Quilt Festival. I made this quilt as a gift to my grandmother on her 100th birthday. I wanted something that had lots of meaning plus something extra special since she was the one to teach me to sew. This quilt has 100 rose buds blocks in the center. I grouped them in fours. The 4 borders represent her 4 sons and families. The rose buds on each end of the vine are her sons and daughter-in-laws and the flowers are the children of that union. My father is the one with 6 flowers. One son died young and only had one daughter so I added some berries to help fill the vine in a little more.

I gave this quilt to her a year ago. We had a family reunion party at our house with all the cousins to celebrate her birthday. It was a wonderful chance to see family that lives in California, Washington and other parts of the US.
Grandma is turning 101 this month.

The top of the Americana "favorite block" swap is finally done (well, I might at side borders..not sure yet). I finished putting everything together and Im happy with the layout. Isn't it a beauty? I have to thank everyone at BC who made blocks for it because they all have such talent with picking designs and colors. These all look wonderful together and all the piecing of the blocks was perfect! Here's a closeup of some of the blocks. I added a year 2009 block , added BC in another and also my initials toward the bottom. This is my quilt to keep! I just love it :) I'll start quilting it next year because Christmas is coming and I've got quite a pile of things that need to be done first.

Here's a closeup of the top half. Time to pack it away for a few months but I just wanted to show everyone first. AND THANK MY FRIENDS!!

Purple and Green Quilt

The purple quilt is coming along. I've finished the center 49 blocks and attached them to each other. Next I'm going to make a group to surround this. I'm going to bring in a warm golden beige in the final border plus two shades of purple... a medium and a very dark.