Nickel Gumball quilt

In my sewing room sits a gumball machine.  Our grandchildren love putting in pennies and getting gumballs out.  I think every one of them has gone through the stage where they only want a certain color of gumball.  So they keep putting in pennies until they get the color they want.  Right now Macy only wants pink gumballs.  The gumballs in that machine with their bright colors along with this polka dot fabric from my stash was the inspiration for my Nickel Gumball quilt .

To make a gumball, I started with nickel square,of course, and made a snowball block.  I wanted to arrange the gumballs randomly so I designed a block where the snowball was not in the center as shown below.  All I had to do was rotate the block to create the random layout that I wanted.

Linda of L&R Designs used a pantagraph called Double Bubble to quilt my Nickel Gumball quilt.  Here's a close-up-







Twirligig quilt

I recently discovered the Disappearing Nine Patch block.  Not the concept itself but the now common name for cutting up a nine patch block and rearranging the pieces.  Since I have been doing alot with my idea of the Nickel Nine Patch block which is a nine patch made from nickel (5") squares or strips, I thought I'd try the Disappearing Nine Patch technique on the Nickel Nine Patch block. And Twirligig was born!

I used scraps of my Kaffe Fassett fabrics most of which I already have cut into nickel squares.  When I realized that I had six colorways of the same print, I decided to use the print in the center of each Nickel Nine Patch block.  Here's pictures of how I did it-

  

This easy technique can create very interesting designs that look complicated.  Try it, you'll like it! Remember that old saying from the seventies and maybe a commercial?  Now I'm dating myself but I've already told everyone my age anyway.  Ha!

I wanted an overall quilting pattern for my Twirligig quilt and as usual my long arm quilter gave me more than I expected.  Linda of L&R Designs came up with a custom design that she calls Cockscomb Meander.  The variegated thread was the perfect choice also.  Check out her blog to see more inspiring quilting designs.