Casual Breakfast to Deluxe Dinner - All Within Bounds

My kitchen peninsula is quite narrow; most standard store-bought place mats are usually too deep for the small expanse. The sewing project was added to the ever-expanding "To Do" list. 

The original plan was to use these as great practice for some free motion quilting. However, I pretty much stayed with a simple corner curve for them once it came time to quilt. The right binding for these diverse fabrics posed a problem until I remembered what one quilter told me: "brown goes with just about everything." So, the binding is a brown/beige cut from yardage found at Hobby Lobby. I was in too big a rush in getting the photos and neglected putting out utensils/napkins, etc. But you get the general idea, I'm sure.

Leftovers .... Yum!

                                           Third Patriotic Quilt
When the first two veteran's home quilts were finished, I found I had made one block over-sized of the Godey Star, and decided to use it as a center block for this one. The red white and blue strips were also remnants of the Homeland quilt. I added some solid blue, and appliqued the stars that were cut from leftover squares from the patriotic mosaic quilt. The quilting on this one was based on a free motion design called "icicle lights" by Leah Day. I decided to do some free style fireworks in that middle pathway beside the stripes. All in all, this quilt, that almost wasn't, may be my favorite of the three.  

1st patriotic quilt - the mosaic

2nd Patriotic quilt - the Godey stars


So, when you have some interesting scraps, consider how they may become your next project. You may surprise yourself, too!

Dedication to a vet was penned on back of the remnant quilt in a be-ribboned star shape.

Go Go Godey!

Nancy Zieman's video for half square triangles was the inspiration for this quilt. I really liked the Godey block she illustrated at the 13.53 minute mark of her instructional video entitled "No-Hassle Half Square Triangles", which aired October 2014. 

Squares of fabric were leftover from my patriotic mosaic quilt. Many of those fabrics had been garnered from a share pile at quilting class, and the share pile was intended for the veteran's care facility quilting project. So, I decided to see if I had enough extra fabric to get a secondary smaller lap quilt put together in time for the donation. 

Rummaging through my own stash I found some 1980's fabric featuring patriotic sections that gave a faux pieced look. Fussy-cut and sashed to size, they made a great filler for the Godey blocks. From that point getting the rest of the borders was just a question of color and width. I went for a stripe and came up with the Homeland Stars and Bars lap quilt pictured below.

Label on quilt back. 

Foto to Fabric

     Our quilt group wanted to do a project together this year, so we were offered the opportunity to make patriotic lap quilts for a local veterans' hospital. I never could find any fabric that seemed to inspire. I have so many projects underway, I needed something fairly straightforward and quick, but nothing caught my imagination. Finally, though, I saw this beautiful photo online and decided to reduce it to the largest pixels possible to still produce a recognizable image from a reasonable distance. 
       Printout in hand, I began cutting 3.5 inch squares primarily from varied red, white, and blue fabrics. Next, I identified areas in the now pixelized photo that would need to have two-toned squares, and made half-square-triangles as needed. 
      To test the effectiveness of my fabric choices, I laid them out in columns and rows before committing them to stitching. Once satisfied with the layout, I picked up each column in order and clamped with a clothespin on which the appropriate column number had been written with a Sharpie pen.
      Next I will sew the squares together a column at a time, then join the columns. My plan is to somehow attach this to a piece of federal blue fleece for a really toasty warm lap quilt.
     Oh! And best of all, with this quilt, my local 14 month-old grand-boy joined me in playing with the fabric. (Fuzzily portrayed below...)

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Meanwhile, Happy Veteran's Day!

----------------to be continued. --------------------

"The Fifty Minute Block"

Well, ACTUALLY, first came the ten minute block.

(Ten Minute Block)

Then came the trial, beginning with four ten minute blocks. Forty minutes?

THEN came the answer with the fifth block added, for the new "Fifty Minute Block"!

This was an experiment inspired by the ten minute block. I wondered if four ten minute blocks could be used with another same sized block to make a ten minute block (fifty minute block) without obscuring the tilted centers of the smaller blocks. It does work one block out, like this.