It's been hard to find time to quilt lately. I have quite a backlog of charity quilts that need to be finished. My wonderful quilt group is having a work day soon to make quilts for those in Oklahoma that need them, after the recent tornadoes. As some of you know, I have family in Oklahoma. I am very thankful that they are all safe and well. You can guess that this cause would be near and dear to my heart. I don't know if I can go to the work day, but I can make up some quilts to send.
I call this quilt Rails and Squares. It's a variation on a couple of traditional patterns. I thought it up myself, but it seems likely that somebody thought of it before. I used bright fabrics from my bins. The blocks are 9 in. square finished.
To make one block, cut 5 squares 3.5 in. x 3.5 in. of the same fabric. In the block above, it's the blue with stars. To make the rails blocks, you need 3 strips, each 1.5 in. wide by at least 15 in. long. I used two brights and one light, with the light strip in the middle.
Make a strip set with the 1.5 in. wide strips. In this case I sewed the orange to the light to the red. I pressed the seams toward the bright fabrics (away from the light strip). Then I cut 3.5 in squares from the strip set.
Now it's just a nine patch. I placed my rails blocks so that one color surrounded the center square (in this case, orange). I just liked it this way. It looks a little more complex, or something. Just sew the rows together, matching the corners.
For this small quilt, I made 12 blocks and set them side by side, without sashing. At that point, it measured 27 in. x 36 in. (finished). Then I added a 3.5 in wide border, for a finished quilt size of 34 in. x 43 in.
Here's one of my favorite blocks. I just love the happy frogs! In a couple of places, I didn't quite have enough of one fabric, so I substituted another.
The batting is Warm and Natural. I quilted a 3.5 in grid in the ditch, and bound it by machine.
In these pictures, it's just off the clothesline, so it's got a few creases than will settle out.
Well, that's one done, anyway! Why aren't my bins getting emptier?
Really cute, Sylvia - and an easy one to put together.
ReplyDeleteWhat an easy but pretty quilt!
ReplyDeleteThanks, folks! I love easy patterns. And if they're quick to make, I can make more!
ReplyDelete