Just Add Scraps #1 and #2

Just Add Scraps #1

Just Add Scraps #2

Can you believe these two quilts were made from the same quilt pattern? Can you believe the pattern uses a disappearing nine patch (D9P) block?  It's all about color placement.  Read on to see how I did it. 

Both quilts started with a basic nine patch quilt block,

were cut down the center both ways creating four new blocks,

the four pieces were rotated to create the look of sashing and corner stones,

and each of the 4 pieces was then combined with 3 pieces from 3 different blocks to create a new 4 patch block.

To finish the look of the sashing and corner stones, additional pieces were added to one short side and one long side as shown below at the right side of the  block.

You have two very different looks from a simple nine patch block based on color placement.  Just Add Scraps #1 has nine different fabrics in each block.  Just Add Scraps #2 has a green fabric in the center and the same cream fabric for every other square as shown above.

All of the nine patch blocks were made using 5" squares.  The additional sashing pieces are 2 1/2" X 5" and the corner stones are 2 1/2" squares.  I love this pattern as a great way to use lots of scraps really fast.  The small quilt starts out with only 12 nine patch blocks!  The larger one has 20 nine patch blocks.

I pieced the back of the Just Add Scraps #2 quilt from an assortment of green scraps that were in my stash. ( It actually looks better than this picture.)  The bright orange quilt backing used on Just Add Scraps #1 is from my stash also.  The width of the fabric worked for this small quilt so I didn't need to piece it.  Two more quilts using only fabric from my stash!  Forty one down, fourteen to go with only nine weeks left!

The two quilts are quilted very differently also.  Linda of L&R Designs came up with some very creative custom designs for them.

The first pattern she calls Square Loops Meander

 and the second one is Sine Waves. 

 

Click on the links for more detailed info. on the quilting designs.

Nickel Double Four Patch quilt

My Nickel Double Four Patch quilt uses more of the four patch blocks that I made back on Memorial Day weekend.  Another quilt made entirely from my stash!

This time I combined the four patch blocks with squares of green fabric and cream fabric and then alternated the blocks throughout the quilt.  I seem to have alot of green fabric so I decided to see what would happen if I kept all the dark squares the same.  I'm happy with the outcome and very happy to be using some green fabric.  Here's what the blocks look like.

 I pieced four different green fabrics together to make the backing creating another four patch and using more green fabric.  The scrappy binding was made from scraps of fabric left over from the backing.

Linda came up with a fun quilting design for this quilt. She used a cream thread throughout which works perfectly.

Mack's quilt

Five years ago today, my second grandson was born.  Macklane (Mack for short) is my daughter's first child.  Little did we know when Mack was born that my husband's four daughters and my son's wife would all have babies in the next year!  Bridger is the last one born in that year time frame.  He turned four yesterday.

I made this I-Spy quilt for Mack's birthday.  He hasn't seen it yet because his birthday party isn't until the weekend.  I hope he likes it!  The backing has construction vehicles on it and he loves that sort of thing.

I plan to make Mack's three little sisters I Spy quilts using the exact same fabrics that were used in his quilt.  I'll arrange the I Spy fabrics differently for each quilt so they can use them to play a matching game and since their names will be on them, there shouldn't be any fighting over whose is whose. One of his sisters has a birthday in November and the other in December, the day after my birthday so I guess they need to be part of this Double Nickel Challenge!

Linda of L&R Designs used a variegated thread and custom quilting design to quilt this quilt for me.  I used the same fabric for the binding and the letters of Mack's name.  I really wished I would have noticed that red square above the K in his name.  I would have moved it if I would have noticed before it was quilted!

Nickel Flower quilt

My Nickel Flower quilt is another quilt made entirely of fabrics from my stash.  Woohoo! It has 35 flower blocks.  Each block uses 4 nickel (5") squares and each fabric used in the flowers has a circular theme-polkadots, swirls or circles.  I used a bright color theme and made the background on each flower block contrast with the fabric used in the flower.  I used the same yellow fabric in each of the flower's centers.  This was a quick, easy quilt that was fun to work on. 

I pieced the backing using fabrics that followed the theme of the quilt.  I had 3-1 yard pieces of fabric to work with and decided on this arrangement.  I used the leftover backing to make the binding and matched up the binding and the backing when sewing on the binding to make the binding look scrappy like I have shown on previous posts.  It's a great way to use the long strips left after trimming your quilt after it's been quilted.

The quilting design is a custom pattern by Linda of L&R Designs.  Check out her web site's new look!   

5 more quilts done

Five more quilts done bringing my total to 36 with 19 to go and 15 weeks to do it in!

My husband went to Denver last weekend to visit his daughter and her family that recently moved there.  As a bonus, another daughter and her family were there visiting at the same time.  (I had to work.)  Anyway, I had the bright idea that this would be a good time to deliver some I Spy quilts. The youngest grandchildren in both families are 4 years old already and I want them to get some use out of their quilts before they are too old or big for them.  Of course, I didn't even have them started.  Nothing like a goal to get me moving!  I tried a different arrangement of I Spy fabrics for each quilt, put their names on them and used a backing that had some meaning to each individual child.  I made these a little bigger than the ones I have posted already.  They finish at 41"X50" approx.

This is a closeup of the Loops and Mod Flowers quilting on Evie's quilt done by Linda of L&R Designs. 

Bridger lives in Denver and Felix was visiting from Pennsylvania so they were the first to get their quilts.  Here they are posing for pictures. They have their grandfather's sense of humor in the first picture!

Evie and Elliot live in Pennsylvania also and had their quilts delivered to them by their aunt who was visiting in Denver.  Here they are modeling their quilts.

The fifth quilt I just finished is a version of my first Free quilt pattern entitled Bright Shiny Nickels. I made the top only as a model for a quilt shop that sells my patterns.  The owner of the shop wanted to use the alphabet fabric in a kid size quilt so we used it as the background.  The quilt is still made basically the same way, with 5" squares and strips, but not all blocks are nine patch blocks.