Grandpa's Delight

A while ago we were asked to paint a barn quilt. The block used is called Grandpa's Delight in honor of a recently passed grandfather. In the past I thought that painting quilts might be easier and faster than with fabric, however, now I know differently.

54-40 or Fight Big Block Quilt

I love big block quilts to make a child or baby sized quilt quick or to use as picnic blanket or even to hang on the wall. This big block quilt uses the 54-40 or Fight block 36 inches square finished with 4 inch borders. It will measure about 44 inches square when finished.

1. Choose at least 3 fabrics, or more if you like.
2. Set the 54-40 or Fight calculator settings as follows and sew the big quilt block:
   Method = Traditional piecing
   Size = 36"
   Columns = 1
   Rows = 1
   Fabric Width = whatever you're working with.
3. Attach cornerstones of 4½ inches square with border of 4½ inches wide.
4. Sandwich and quilt your quilt.
5. Finish with double mitered binding using 6 strips 2½ inches wide.

Happy Quilting,
Jeanne

Jewel Box Watercolor Style

I usually like my Jewel Box quilt in vivid jewel tones, however, I've seen some beautiful versions using subtle differences between background and jewel fabrics as well as using very earthy fabrics. They were stunning too.

Lately I've been experimenting with mixing traditional quilt blocks with watercolor style. In this example, I divided the block into a 16 X 16 piece block. Within each color group, there are 4 different shades from light to dark which makes 20 fabrics total.

Background

• light - 57 half square triangles
• medium light - 40 squares
• medium - 48 squares
• medium dark - 24 squares

From each of 4 color groups

• light - 12 half square triangles
• medium light - 10 squares
• medium - 8 squares
• medium dark - 6 squares

Happy Quilting, 

Jeanne

Tic Tac Toe block

Tic Tac Toe block is two blocks each of the Shoo Fly and the Nine Patch. This is another example of using blocks with the same grid layout together to make a new block.

To calculate how large to cut strips for squares and half square triangles, divide the finished block size you want by 6 and add seam allowances. For each block, you'll need 16 background squares, 8 background half square triangles, 8 green half square triangles, 2 green squares and 10 purple squares.

Here is how you could do a simple baby quilt or picnic blanket: Sew 4 blocks 18" square with a 3" finished border. Finished size is approximately 42" square.

Try using your scraps and making it using 2 or 3 fabric groups like light & dark, greens & purples & yellows, or warm & cool.

You could also add sashing between the blocks and extend the cornerstones from the Nine Patch units. As always, lots of things to try

Happy Quilting,
Jeanne