Tulip the Decepticon and Other Quilt Blocks

 

I honestly did not set out to make a quilt block that looks like a Transformer. It's actually supposed to be a tulip. A Tennessee Tulip, to be precise. But my choice of fabrics for this Sew Along resulted in this block looking more like a Transformer than a tulip. 

See what I mean? I have therefore nicknamed this block Tulip the Decepticon. It's Brackman 785.7, if you know what that means. Brackman, as in Barbara Brackman, the author of the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. I finally own my own copy, the newest third edition, just out last year. As someone who loves trying new blocks, this comprehensive volume has been on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. But then I found out that Electric Quilt was bringing out a new edition. Why pay $150 for a used second edition when I can get a brand new third edition for far less than that? Yay! In addition, they also brought out an updated version of the BlockBase software, Blockbase+. Double yay! So, instead of drafting the blocks myself from 2" line drawings, I have software that will print out rotary cutting instructions, foundation pieces and/or templates in whatever size block I want. That makes me a very happy quilter!

And then I found out that Electric Quilt was having a sew along to teach participants how to use the BlockBase+ software. What better way to learn the software that learning by doing? So, I joined in. 

This are the fabrics I chose for the project. And here's the first block, Brackman 1273. 

Since some blocks have many names, and some names refer to several different blocks, Barbara Brackman assigned each block a number. That way it's much easier to keep track of which block is being referred to. 

But before I started this sew along, Bernina started an Old Block Quilt Along. I don't usually join in on these things because I generally have more than enough projects on the go. But I love old, traditional blocks, and I love trying new blocks. Besides, at the end of the year, I could win a Bernina! What's not to love about that? Owning a newer Janome, and a Brother (plus my vintage Singer...), I figured I would give the Bernina to my daughter if I won it. She just had a cheaper Singer, but then she told me that she bought herself a heavy duty Singer, plus she will someday get my mother's Janome, which is currently in my possession, and I figured I will keep the Bernina if I win it. I can't have my daughter owning more sewing machines than me. LOL! 

So, here are the fabrics I purchased to use in the Bernina project: 

These fabrics are stunning and I think I could make the ugliest quilt blocks around and people would still love them just because of how beautiful the fabrics are. 

Here's the first block, Brides Bouquet. 

By the time I made up my mind to join these projects and purchased the fabric, I had some catching up to do. 

Quilter's Delight

Bird's Nest, which I christened Rat's Nest, because it was such a mess. Still people loved the block just because the fabric is so pretty. 

Cross and Star. So, having caught up on the Bernina project, I then had to catch up on the BlockBase+ one. 

Brackman 2898

Brackman 1638

Brackman1915b.

The Bernina Quilt Along is one or two blocks a month over a year, for a total of 20 blocks (I think) and the quilt will be a maximum of 60"x80". The blocks are different sizes, so it will be interesting to see how they are all arranged together. 

The BlockBase+ Sew Along, on the other hand, has only 8 blocks, one block every 2 weeks. The participants can chose what size to make the blocks. I chose a uniform 12" for all of the blocks and decided to add more blocks to make it at least a throw size. 

Brackman 1232, one of my own additions. There are some incredibly challenging quilt blocks in this book. 

Morning Star. Still having to keep up with the Bernina project. 

Brackman 2328, another one of my additions. I messed this one up because it should have had two of the solid purple triangles on the top and bottom, and two of the print triangles on the sides, instead of one of each on all four sides. But with all of those bias edges, I didn't really want to start ripping out seams. And I really wasn't that happy with my choice to use all purple fabrics. 

Brackman 3953. This one used a combination of foundation paper piecing, regular piecing and applique. And I think it's a truly amazing block. I likely would have never attempted some of these more challenging blocks if I didn't have BlockBase+, but this is one I chose to include. 

Mill and Stars. For the Bernina Quilt Along, my goal is to use some of all 7 of the fabrics (6 coloured fabrics, plus the grey texture for background) in each block. (The 8th fabric in the picture, the border print, is for the backing). This makes it challenging to keep it from looking like a "rat's nest" because the fabrics are rather busy. But I'm hoping I learned from the Bird's Nest block.

 

Brackman 2734. For the BlockBase+ Sew Along, I chose not to use all of the fabrics in each block, generally following the guidelines for the number of fabric choices by the number of colours in the book and software. 

Because I got started on making some of the most challenging quilt blocks in Brackman's Encyclopedia, I asked in a Facebook Quilting group for recommendations on what they considered challenging quilt blocks. Someone recommended Brackman 3806.5. This one has 8 mini stars, each less than 2 inches square, as part of the design, including 8 tiny Y-seams! There is no way to make these stars using foundation paper piecing. I tried using the templates, but the pieces are so small that it's virtually impossible to stitch on a sewing machine. Hand stitching? Not my forte. And then I thought of English paper piecing. Yes, it's still hand stitching, but the cardstock would give a little more structure to the pieces while being stitched. So, the above picture is the first of the mini stars. Far from perfect, but still recognizable as a star. You'll have to watch this blog to see if I actually end up completing this block. 

Meanwhile, I've got several quilts that are works in progress and I want to get them finished, so I'll get to those projects and put these blocks on the back burner for now. 

Too Many Projects on the Go

While working on Practice Makes Perfect, I decided to see if I had sufficient fabric left over to make the practice quilts for the two Angela Walters classes I own. One is Quilting With Rulers: Free Motion Made Simple, which I own online (hopefully, the new Craftsy will get our pre-owned classes sorted out soon). And the other is Help! How Do I Quilt It?: A Machine-Quilting Manual, which I own on DVD. Like the previous class, these are both taught mostly on a domestic machine, so I will have to be creative to make them work on my longarm. But, after all of the time and effort I invested in Practice Makes Perfect, I really am not in a hurry to do another quilt using free motion or rulers. I just wanted to get the quilt tops done so that they'd be ready when I am. And I can put the remnants of the fabric in the scrap bin. 

This is the quilt top for ruler practice, which I will call Practice Makes Perfect 2. But I had gotten sidetracked while working on Practice Makes Perfect, and started on something more interesting. 

I think I will call this Fall Frolic. It's made from the Jordan Fabrics pattern, Teatime, and it gave me the opportunity to use my Strip Tube ruler for the first time. I am actually farther along than this picture shows, needing only one more border and then it will be ready for the longarm. It will be for my nephew, Andrew. 

Back to making practice quilt tops, I got this far on Practice Makes Perfect 3 (pattern from the "Help!" class) and discovered that my HST border was too long. I've been revising the instructions as I saw fit and even though I starched the fabric before cutting HSTs, the bias still stretched. A LOT! I have some ideas for how I'm going to remedy this, but I wanted to work on something more fun for awhile. (I also made templates for the paper-piecing part - those diamonds in the centre - because I realized that I would run out of fabric if I did it all with paper-piecing). 

I had seen this video and thought that those quilts would work for baby quilts. Not that I have run out of ideas for using HSTs in baby quilts. But I certainly am not opposed to finding and trying new ideas. My local quilt shop sells precut metres of fabric for $7/metre and I resolved to give this a try. So I picked up 3 coordinating fabrics the next time I was in the shop. 

And this is what I tried next. 

This one is the Jigsaw quilt, demonstrated by Misty starting at 17:29 in the video. Full cutting directions are not provided, because, of course, they want to sell the book, which you can find here:

(And if you purchase through this link, I'll actually earn a small pittance. I have no idea how much because it's never happened so far). 

I'm going to keep this author's books in mind because I really like the idea of a 3-yard quilt and they will be great alternates for HST baby quilts. Unfortunately, I don't currently have backing fabric for this one, but that's not a big problem since I also don't have a recipient in mind. 

Meanwhile, I did a little doodling. 

This is one of the quilting designs (or at least my version of it) in the "Help!" Not bad for a non-doodler, eh? But I don't think I will ever master the serpentine lines!

October started with daily emails of quilt block designs from Moda arriving in my inbox. These are part of the #ModaStitchPink project for Breast Cancer Awareness month. I don't usually join Quilt Alongs, since I already have more than enough projects to work on. However, my oldest niece, Julie, celebrated her 50th birthday on October 11th. And her favourite colour is pink. Plus I have a sister who is a breast cancer survivor and an aunt who died at 95, who was a breast cancer survivor as well. So, I thought, "Why not?" Especially since I like trying new quilt blocks. I picked up several pink fabrics at the quilt shop, including a very pale pink solid that I'm using as the background. And I added some pink fabrics from my stash, and started making blocks. 

I think I need to move purchasing a new camera higher on my priority list. My cell phone camera just doesn't capture colours very well. 

I've only got the first two blocks done so far. As usual, I don't always follow directions exactly if I know a method that I think works better. In the above block, I used the no-waste method for making flying geese. 

I hate wasting fabric, or trying to figure out what to do with triangles that I've had to cut off corners. So, this method works really well for me. 

I told my niece that it would be a combined birthday and Christmas present and she'd probably get it closer to Christmas, but I didn't tell her that it's a quilt. I suspect that she'll probably guess. 

Well, back to the studio. In addition to these project, I've also got some more masks to make.