Wentworth County Quiltworks

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!

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!

I've decided on my colour pool for my Bible sampler.  I'm going to use the colours that the Lord told Moses to use in the building of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness in Exodus 25:  after all, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the quilt will provide a covering for it.  It seems appropriate to me, plus, theLord gave Moses a nice variety of colours and a, well, colourful combination!

Ex 25:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering:  of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

Ex 25:3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold,and silver, and brass,

Ex 25:4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair,

Ex 25:5 And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood,

Ex 25:6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,

Ex 25:7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in thebreastplate. 

From the above passage, I've decided on shades of yellow, orange, blue, purple,red, white, and brown. 

My plans often change as I make a quilt, but I like to have ideas from which to springboard.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about quilting, it’s that what I originally picture and what the finished product looks like are often two different things!

I'm planning on doing the sashing in yellow and the backing in brown.  I’ll decide on the main print for the border and my contrasting prints when I find a fabric line I like and I am looking forward to fabric shopping!  Between the Farmer’s Wife quilt along (QAL),the Kaleidoscope quilt along, and the Summer Sampler Series quilt along (all of which can be found on Flickr), my fabric stash is depleting.  And look! Just in time to get more!

My next question then is"how big a quilt should I make?"  That's an easy answer - queen size.  It'll be my first full-size project and I'm planning on sending this quilt out to be done on a long-arm machine.  I know when the challenge is too great for me!

How many blocks do I need for a quilt that big? 

The blocks will be 12" but I've found a few patterns that are 6" that I can substitute to liven up the layout a little. I can either sew sets of two or four 6” blocks together to complement the 12” blocks, or I can just double the 6” patterns into 12” blocks.  Or I can just stick with 12" blocks.

 Assuming the sampler is made with 2.5” sashing strips and 6” borders, a quilt made with 30 blocks will be about 87”x101” finished size.  

 A smaller quilt will work well with 6, 9, 12 or 16 blocks.  A larger quilt will use 20, 25, 30, 36 or 42 blocks.

Making a Bible quilt

As a born-again Christian, one project that I want to do is a quilt of Bible blocks.  I've looked at books and looked at websites and the first question that came to my mind was"what colours should I use?"

Then a light went on:  why, colours that are mentioned in the Bible, ofcourse!

I’ve looked at two main passages in scripture that mention colour:  one in Exodus and one in Revelation.  A list of colours includes amber/gold/yellow, blue/indigo, brass/copper/rust, brown, crimson/scarlet, grey, green, purple/violet, red/vermilion, white and black.  I don't like black or bright red particularly, and it's hard to find grey fabric, so those colours are the least likely to be used.  I love the combinations of blue and yellow and purpleand yellow and green matches those colours nicely.  Depending on the block design, of course, red may have a place if it's used sparingly.  White is often used as a background print.

The fun part of planning is knowing that my plans will likely change more than once before something concrete is decided upon!  I enjoy the flexibility that quilting offers most of the time - just not when things I thought would look good together turn out to look really, really bad. 

I now have a design wall, so those sorts of problems should be able to be kept to a minimum.

Before I can buy the fabric I'll have to decide on exactly what blocks I want to make, how big the quilt will be and how I want to do the layout.

The resources I’ll use as I begin to pick my blocks include Quilted Devotions by Lisa Cogar and The Quilters Album of Patchwork Patterns by Jinny Beyer.

There are websites that have a number of blocks geared towards various levels of quilting experience as well. 

Please follow along with future posts as I journal the process involved in making this Bible block quilt from the planning stages through completion.

With a week to go until Elizabeth posts cutting instructions, I've finally found my fabric!  Not that it was too far lost, but it wasn't where I first thought it was!

I came across the Kaleidoscope block in my online travels quite a number of months ago and instantly fell in love with it.  I bought a few yards of fabric when Walmart was selling off all of theirs and I earmarked it specifically for a future kaleidoscope project, not knowing when that might be.

A couple of weeks ago, Lee at Freshly Pieced asked Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy to host  WIP Wednesday and when I went to post my linky over there, my eyes lit up!  A kaleidoscope quilt along!  Starting at the end of June!  Yayy!  Now what did I do with that fabric...?

Here it is!

I'll mix and match from it and see what I come up with!  I've decided I'll do a baby quilt and that'll bump my yellow and purple Baby Nine Patch back to the end of the project line for now.  Here are my fabric requirements:

• 12 fat quarters of printed fabric
• 1 yd coordinating solid plus additional yardage for borders if desired
• 3/8 yd for binding
• 3 yds for backing

The green, yellow and purple in the bottom left corner of the above photo are the choices I'll use for my coordinating solid.  I'll see which one matches best when I start cutting my prints.  I'll likely not bother with borders for a change.  Or so I say now!  I'll do the binding out of the same fabric as my backing and therein lies the mystery.  Do I have three yards in my stash that will work for backing?  Or do I have an excuse to visit Fabricland?  Time will tell.....

The idea is to be done this quilt by the beginning of August, so it'll provide an opportunity for me to practice my machine quilting.  I'm hoping it'll go fairly smoothly because of all the straight lines.

A week to go and I'm ready to start my first ever online quilt along and I've finally posted about it, after some, uh, slight procrastination.  How about that?

Now, about this Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt along......(my resistance is wearing down!)