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.

Nickel I Spy #3

This I Spy quilt is for Lily. Lily turns 4 this week. We have 6 grandchildren turning 4 in a year's time.  From September 19, 2006 through September 18, 2007, my husband's 4 daughters, my daughter and my son's wife all had children!  I think that's probably some kind of record.

Lily has a baby sister, Lucille or Lulu as Lily calls her so I thought it would be nice for them to have matching I Spy quilts.  By matching, I mean all of the I Spy squares are the same in each quilt but are arranged differently so they can play a matching game when Lulu gets old enough.

As you can see, I added their names in the center of the quilt.  I fused the letters of their names on and did a small zigzag stitch around each letter.  I used a different color scheme for each quilt.  The same fabric was used for the name, the backing and binding on each quilt-pink for Lily and lavender for Lucy Violet.

Linda of L&R Designs did a cute flower and loops quilting design that really added to the "girlyness" of the quilts.  Here's a close-up of the design on Lily's quilt.   A pastel variegated thread was used on Lily's quilt and a lavender thread was used on Lucy's.  Two quilts done, many more to go!

Easter Eggs quilt

Just in time for Easter with a week to spare!  I say this with surprise because I too often finish projects late or give up on them when I know I can't complete them by the time I want to use them or give them as gifts. 

This Easter Eggs quilt just popped into my head last week. As I sat staring, with a basket of odd pieces of trim sitting in my line of vision, I came up with the idea to "decorate" some nickel squares.  This turned into decorating "egg" blocks and my Easter Eggs quilt was born.  Funny how the design process works sometimes!  Now I have a table topper to decorate my table for Easter or maybe I'll put it on the wall and use it as a wall hanging.

To decorate the "eggs", I used scraps of ribbon and rickrack of various sizes and even some scraps of chenille strips.  I left a few eggs without any embellishment when I felt the pattern of the fabric was enough.  A fat quarter was used in the center and was the color inspiration for the fabrics and trims.  This project would be a good use for all those decorative stitches on my machine that I never use.  Maybe sometime I'll decorate some eggs that way.  Here are some close-ups of a few of the eggs-

As I was looking at this quilt on my table, I decided that Easter Egg coasters would be cute so I made this one.

            Easter Eggs quilt as a table topper                                  Easter Eggs coaster



Nickel Snowballs quilt

The Nickel Snowballs quilt is a great way to use a lot of your fabric scraps.  I used 70 blue nickel squares and 245 white nickel squares, all from my stash. I love the look of the scrappy white on white fabrics.  Of course, any color could be used.  I just seem to have lots of blue fabric and I barely put a dent in it even though  the quilt ended up so big that I had to lay it on a bed to photograph it.  It has not been quilted yet but I'll post it again when it has.  It's laying on a queen bed but is actually a twin size.  Doesn't look too bad in my blue and white bedroom. I can't make too many more this size or I'll never catch up up on my challenge!

 

Nickel Snowballs quilt



Nickel Snowballs is another quilt from the Nickel Nine Patch series of quilts that all begin with a nine patch block of nickel squares.  Just start with a 5" square of fabric and add smaller squares to all four corners.  Sew diagonally across the corners as shown and then press the squares to the corners to form triangles and you have a snowball block.

                            

After making the snowball block, I incorporated it into a nine patch block. This nine patch block makes it easy to achieve the look of sashing and borders without the hassle of long strips.  I used 5" X 14" strips to replace 3-5" squares in this example.  I had enough fabric to do this which really cut down on my cutting and sewing time.

                          

My next quilt project is much smaller and just in time for Easter.  It can be used as a wall hanging or table topper.   I'm using up a bunch of small odd pieces of trim that I don't know why I even kept.  Here's a peek-



Flower Power

Flower Power is the flower version of my Twisted Nickel quilt.  Both quilts are made using the exact same block!  Color placement makes all the difference.  They are part of my Nickel Nine Patch series of quilts.  That's the name I'm giving all my quilts that start out as a nine patch made up of 5" squares.

Here's how to make this block also called Washington's Puzzle.  The scraps you see off to the side of the ruler will someday be a second quilt. What a deal, two quilts from one set of blocks.

                       

                        

Here's the quilt I am working on to use the scraps from the Twisted Nickel quilt.  Just an idea right now.