4-Patch Stacked Posies

A couple of years ago, Mary Lou Hallenbeck was the speaker at the Pieces and Patches Quilt Guild in Jackson, Michigan. She had written a pattern which she called "Four Patch Stacked Posies". I knew that this was something I really wanted to try. Not long after that, I had a chance to visit the East Lansing Country Stitches store. I found this material on sale that I thought would work for this technique.

Finally, I had a chance to give it a try last month. The first step is to find the repeat of the print and cut four pieces using that repeat. The challenge comes at trying to get all four pieces lined up, one on top of the other perfectly. Using lots of straight pins and lots of time I came pretty close.

My repeat was about twelve inches. I did not try to cut the strips on the width of the fabric. I cut my strips vertically and then cut  that strip into three 3 1/2-inch squares.

From these squares, I have four squares that are identical. By putting the same point in the middle I get four, very different blocks. The four squares are sewn together as a four patch. Sometimes, it was really hard to decide which way I wanted to sew them together because I liked all my choices with the four squares.

Here are three different designs using these four identical squares. Not sure why I have only three pictures, but my guess is that I didn't like the fourth choice.

First choice

Second choice

Third choice

I have all my squares sewn together in blocks. When I am able to get to a quilt shop, I will get some coordinating fabric to finish the quilt. It will be nice size lap quilt or wall hanging.

Continuing To Learn

Every once in a while, I sit down at the sewing machine and practice "Free Motion Quilting". It looks so easy when watching a video. BUT IT IS NOT EASY. The teachers say "practice, practice, practice".  Boy, is that a true statement.

These placemats were done the last of February and the very first part of March. The quilting does not show up in the picture very well. On the middle red, I used loops and meandering. On the outside sections, I did straight line quilting.

On the following placemat, I tried pencil quilting. I love the effect, but I was surprised at how much the fabric migrated during the quilting process, even though I thought that I had pinned the quilt sandwich together well. I think I was able to salvage the placemat, but I see the distortion every time I look at the picture.

I am enjoying the sunshine this afternoon here in Jackson, Michigan. Praying that everyone who sees this post is well and enjoying your day.

It Is Finished!!!

Getting a project finished is a great feeling. We began a sew-along at our Pieces and Patches Quilt Guild in August of 2018. We were doing one square a week using Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book. During the winter as I had time I would work on my blocks. I finished my blocks in mid July, 2019. During next few weeks, I got all the blocks sewn together. The only thing left was to add the border, have it quilted and put the binding on.

During the summer I bought fabric for the border, back and binding. In February 2020, I began thinking about getting it finished. The guild quilt show was coming up in May, and it would be fun to show it there. After putting the first piece of border on, I knew immediately that it was not not the right fabric. I found a piece of fabric from my "stash" and decided to use it. It worked beautifully. Got the borders sewn on, took it to Jeanne to be quilted and put the border on a few days after I got it home.

I love my quilt. I made all 6-inch squares. I learned so much.

I got it finished!

The Red, White and Blue "Sawtooth" Star

A few days ago I saw a picture of this quilt block on Pinterest and immediately knew that I wanted to make something using it. I figured that if I made four squares, that would be enough for a table topper for Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. By using 2 1/2"strips and 2 1/2" blocks, the overall block would measure 16 inches, making the table topper finish at 32" x 32". Once I found my red, white and blue fabrics, I was all set to give it a try.

Love the result. Simple but very patriotic.