Wentworth County Quiltworks

Cross and Crown is this month's block; it's also known as Golgotha.  Here is the tutorial. It's similar to the Walls of Jericho block from last October.   It's a block that looks more difficult to make than it actually is.

Another month means another block!  The tutorial for the Contrary Husband block, another of the wedding blocks, is now posted!

The tutorial and templates for the Whirlwind block are up. This block is a little trickier than it looks because you want to make sure you are sewing the correct edges of the smaller (orange and white) triangles together.   Be sure to pay attention to what you're doing.

The templates and tutorial for the Road to Damascus block have been posted!  This block looks harder than it actually is, but I found it easiest to make with templates and by being as accurate as I could.  You'll want the Key Block diagram on the template printout in front of you as you make this block so you can keep track of your pieces.

The cutting instructions and tutorial for the Contrary Wife block are finally up!  That completes the sixth block to the Bible sampler.

The tutorial and cutting instructions for the Bright Hopes block have been posted! 

Love In A Mist is the first block in this sampler that will be foundation pieced. The foundation pattern has been posted.  I think the easiest way to approach this block is by dividing it into quarters; the pattern is for one-quarter of the following diagram.  Make four of them, sew the four quarters into a 12" block and you're done!

The tutorial won't be posted right away as life has a tendency to get in the way of blogging and quilting. That's what'll be happening over the next couple of weeks:  I'll be away as my father has open heart surgery.   I'll update everything as promptly as I can once I'm back.  Thanks for your patience!

The King's Crown tutorial has been posted!  This block was originally published in the Kansas City Star in 1931.  It was also published as “Thrift Block” in the Chicago Tribune on September 6, 1937, by Nancy Cabot.  I’ve seen it made with three fabrics, where the centre fabric is the same as the outer triangles of the Flying Geese, and I’ve seen it made with four fabrics, where the centre fabric is unique and sometimes fussy cut.  In this block, I’ve used three fabrics: fabric one is my white fabric, fabric two is orange and fabric three is blue.  It's a good beginner's block.  The next wedding block will be up in two weeks!

How to make Flying Geese units is something that is helpful to know when piecing certain blocks because it minimizes the number of bias-edge triangles you have to work with. 

The King's Crown block is a fairly easy block to piece and once you've made your four Flying Geese, the block is about half done.  You just add the squares to your four Flying Geese, join the three rows and that's it!

The cutting instructions and tutorial for the King's Crown block will be posted on the 15th of the month.

The cutting instructions and tutorial for Gentleman’s Fancy, the first wedding block, are up!  It seems like an appropriate one to start with on the wedding side of things since a gentleman taking a fancy to a girl is usually where a relationship begins.  It's an intermediate block, but much easier to piece squarely, I think, by using Flying Geese units instead of using nothing but triangles.  The trickiest part of the block for me was lining up a couple of my seams:  I made the block twice and had the same problem both times.   It's as good as it gets, but I think it'll be fine once it's put together with other blocks, sashing and cornerstones, and quilted.

It's October 15; that means the Walls of Jericho tutorial is up!

In two weeks, the first wedding block will be posted:  Gentleman's Fancy.  Stay tuned........

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in beautiful, sunny Canada, and it was the warmest Thanksgiving I recall at 80 degrees F.  

Between that and on-going concerns about Dad (and hospital visits) after his latest heart attack, I haven't been online or sewing as much as I usually am.  I did, however, finish block #2 for the Bible sampler.  The tutorial will be up on Saturday.

Since it's a Bible block wedding sampler, I'm going to start posting cutting instructions to wedding and marriage-related blocks as well; they'll be up at the end of each month.

This week, I'm linking up to

BOMs Away Monday - What A Hoot!

Manic Monday Linky Party - Sew Happy Geek

Fabric Tuesday - QuiltStory

and for the first time,

Design Wall Monday - Patchwork Times

As my W.i.P. Wednesday #14 for October 12 I'm linking to

Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday #47 as well as today's WOW at

Esther's Blog.

The cutting instructions are up for the Walls of Jericho block - block #2 of the Bible Sampler!  The tutorial will be posted on the 15th of the month!

Jacob's Ladder - block 1 and Walls of Jericho - block 2:

Remember that you can post photos here.  Just register at the top of the right sidebar and and "Photos" are the third tab on the navbar!

**Remember when printing PDF templates to make sure your page scaling is set to "none."**

I'll be missing WiP Wednesday tomorrow while I go visit my father in the hospital, so I'm linking up  Block 1 – Jacob’s Ladder  today instead.

Check 'em out!

BOMs Away What a Hoot!

Manic Monday Sew Happy Geek

Fabric Tuesday Quilt Story

Esther's WOW  Esther's Blog

My unstarted project inventory.  These aren't at the WiP stage yet; they're in the USO category:

Baby Nine Patch, only my colours are yellow and purple.

Midnight Shadows quilt kit that'll be made with...

...Midnight Garden fabric

Scrappy Flannel quilt that'll be made with...

...this flannel fabric

Abigail's Garden fabric for the second quilt I make with this pattern.

I also have my two antique Sunbonnet Sue quilts yet to finish.  My uncle's grandmother made the blocks.

As well, I've been acquiring fabric for "Quilted Purr-fection" - the quilt and the tote bag!

I have also acquired a dozen completed Log Cabin blocks and will make them into a lap quilt.

I keep forgetting about this wallhanging!  It shouldn't take long to do.

Don't forget Peaceful Pathways.  My fabric is ready, I just need to work up the nerve to apply paint to it!

I also have a few WiPs:  the Farmer's Wife QAL to catch up on, some thrift shop quilts to refinish and of course, my ongoing Bible quilt.    Plus my embroidered quilt.  And my poor, languishing Sunflower Sampler.

Wow.  I think I'd better call a moratorium on new projects till I get some of this stuff caught up!

These two poems are thought-provoking to me.  The first one I can relate to as I have two Sunbonnet Sue quilts to finish.  They were started by my uncle's grandmother and have stayed in the family, unfinished, for a number of  years.  I'm looking forward to finishing them but I still haven't decided on the perfect way to do it.   The second one speaks of long-term priorities.  The authors are unknown.  Enjoy!

Dear unknown lady of the past,

I hold your work within my hands;

A top with pattern gay and pure,

A frayed edge reveals loose strands.

The design is made of tiny scraps,

Set in a plain sugar sack ground.

Such tiny little stitches made -

A soft blue border around.

Where did you sit while piecing this?

Upon a stool by firelight bright?

Or slowly rocking on the porch

As the tired day drew into night?

What were your cares while you did work?

What plans and dreams did you spin?

I wonder why your work was stopped.

Why quilting never did begin.

My mind is filled with questions.

Were you just a girl or someone's wife?

Was yours a path of leisure?

Or a journey filled with strife?

I'll quilt this top, dear lady,

With patterns swirled and flowery,

And bond with one I'll never meet

In a sisterhood of stitchery.

                                   --author unknown                                         

My neighbor is washing her windows,

And scrubbing and mopping her floors,

But my house is all topsy and turvey,

And dust is behind all the doors.

My neighbor,she keeps her house spotless,

And she goes all day on a trot:

But no one would know in a fortnight

If she swept today or not.

The task I am at is enticing -

My neighbor is worn to a rag -

I am making a quilt out of pieces

I saved in a pretty chintz bag.

And the quilt, I know my descendants

Will exhibit with credit to me -

"So lovely - my grandmother made it

Long ago in 1933."

But will her grandchildren remember

Her struggles with dirt and decay?

They will not - they will wish she had made them

The quilt I am making today.

--author unknown

Block #1, the Jacob's Ladder block has been posted!  Check back on the 15th of every month for the next one and to see what's new!

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

What a busy week.  Not busy sewing, but busy behind the scenes again, on the computer.  Happily, before I got wrapped up with computer stuff, I did manage to finish pressing all the fabric for Peaceful Pathways, the Bible block wedding sampler and my next Elizabeth's Sampler.  I appear to be stalled on the Farmer's Wife sampler for now, but those little blocks are no problem to piece - although I haven't gotten into the ones with the weird geometric-shaped templates yet!

I've been on Blogger for almost a year and back in the late spring, I decided I wanted to build my own quilting website.  It wasn't anything I needed to rush into, so I didn't.  I've played with it off and on since May, trying to decide exactly what direction I wanted it to go in.

There are a LOT of blogging quilters out there so it's hard to find something original with which to interest people.  There are a lot of tutorials and block libraries and how-to advice for every aspect of the art, as well as posts featuring various quilters, quilt alongs and BOMs.

One thing I haven't seen is an extensive library devoted solely to pieced Bible sampler blocks, although there are sites that feature Bible blocks of various styles .

I'm going to build such a library; I blogged about it yesterday.  The plan is to discontinue the Blogger blog and move it over here.

However, I learned after I signed up with webs.com that you can't import a blog into their site.  You can link a blog, but not import it, even though they have a blogging application.  I'm completely redesigning the blog from the ground up and moving most of the posts, one at a time, but not all of them.  The problem is that I can't move the comments you've all left me at Blogger over the past number of months!

When I'm done, the Blogger blog will redirect to this website.  I have a lot of work yet to do on it, such as posting a variety of photos in the Photo section once I've finished moving posts.  It's going to be an ongoing W.i.P of its own, but I'm enjoying it and I never would've thought I'd enjoy playing with basic, simple web design.  I doubt I'll play with much fabric until next week, but by next Wednesday's W.i.P. post I'm hoping to be back at the sewing machine!

To see what everyone else has been up to this past week, visit Lee at  Freshly Pieced.

At the end of last month’s post, I was just starting to crunch the numbers for the Bible block wedding sampler’s fabric requirements.  This month, we’ll finish number-crunching our layout plans.

 First of all, basic quilt sizes are generally as follows:

•        A comfortably-sized baby quilt is roughly 42”x52”.
•        A crib-sized quilt measures up to 45”x60”.
•        A cozy lap quilt is around 54”x72”.

Consult the following for quilts for typical bed sizes:

Mattress sizes:

• Crib Quilt     27" x 50"
• Twin Quilt     39" x 75"
• Double Quilt     54" x 75"
• Queen Quilt     60" x 80"
• King Quilt     72" x 84"

 Quilt sizes for beds:

• Baby Quilt     36" x 54"
  
• Twin Quilt     54" x 90"
• Double Quilt     72" x 90"
• Queen Quilt     90" x 108"
• King Quilt     108" x 108"

Standard Batting Sizes:

• Crib Quilt     45" x 60"
• Twin Quilt     72" x 90"
• Double Quilt     81" x 96"
• Queen Quilt     90" x 108"
• King Quilt     120" x 120"

If you are making a quilt for a particular bed in your house, your best bet is to measure the top of your mattress and add the amount of overhang you want on each side as well as the amount you want for your pillow tuck (usually around 18 inches).

I decided that I’m going to make my Bible block wedding sampler a queen-sized quilt.   It’ll be my most ambitious project to date, consisting of thirty 12” blocks.  My basic layout has a 6” border and 2.5” sashing strips and I ordered my fabric last week.  If you decide to do a quilt this big, here are your numbers

30-Block Bible Sampler    Finished size 87”x101”

Border – 1 7/8 yards fabric

Sashing – 2 1/8 yards

Cornerstones – 3/8 yard

For your blocks estimate using roughly a quarter yard of fabric per 12” block (12.5” unfinished).

Batting – 90”x108”

Backing – 9 yards

If you’d like your quilt to be lap-sized, the finished size of a 12-block sampler is 58”x72.5”. 

Border – 1 7/8 yards fabric

Sashing – 1 yard

Cornerstones – 1/4 yard

For your blocks estimate using roughly a quarter yard of fabric per 12” block (12.5” unfinished).

Batting – 72”x90”

Backing – 4 1/2 yards

A good beginner’s quilt is a basic 6-block sampler with a finished size of 58”x43.5”.

 Border – 1.5 yards fabric

Sashing – 5/8 yard

Cornerstones – 1/8 yard

For your blocks estimate using roughly a quarter yard of fabric per 12”block (12.5” unfinished.)

Batting – 45”x60”

Backing – 3 yards

Now what if you’d rather make 18” blocks or 6” blocks?  Well, you’ll have to either enlarge or reduce your block patterns.  There are charts online that can help you do that, or you can use the following formula:

 [block size wanted] divided by [current block size] multiplied by 100 equals [percentage to enlarge or reduce original block].  For example:

To enlarge:

Current size = 12" and you want a 18" block -

18/12=1.5 -> 1.5*100= 150%

To reduce:

Current size =12" and you want a 6" block -

6/12=.50 ->.50*100=50%

Now that you’ve got the numbers, round up your fabric because next month I’ll post the tutorial for our first block!  As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me!