Kindred Spirits

The April 15 meeting of the Kindred Spirits quilt club went very well, lots of good show and tell, and a challenging project (with options!) was presented.

Chera wins the prize for the most creative adaption to our monthly pattern (below).

This original project is called the "Pink and Brown Nine Patch" and it's from Kathleen Tracy's book "Small and Scrappy."

We had some other great show and tell as well.

Darlene wowed us with the lamb she made. She has a little dress made of French linen, and of course her coat is wool. The 2 little white buttons actually look like sheep. Great job, Darlene! Ewe get the most fun project award for this month!

Some wonderful churn dashes, and some blocks from a block of the month club. Below is Carol's January and her February projects. She didn't join us until March but was able to get caught up with the group.

Our project for the month of April, due May 13, is a bit of a challenge. It is a 9-patch strippy quilt, with 9-patches that finish at 1.5" square. I get them 2 other options to consider, by upsizing that little 9-patch to one that finishes at 3" square. Stay tuned to find out what the group did!

Till next time, keep stitchin!

Mary

Kathleen Tracy

Kathleen Tracy is issuing a monthly challenge on her facebook group "Small Quilt Lover's." The January 1 challenge was to make the 8 inch square house, which was not as easy as you would think! A lot of us had trouble getting the templates to print out to the correct size. I finally drafted the block in EQ, and forgot that when you paper piece, the block turns out facing the opposite direction. The January 15 challenge was to add the half square triangles around the block. The February 1 challenge was to make 8 square in a square blocks. 

The February 15 challenge is to add a border to the house block, and make 8 more square in a square blocks. I'm off to do that next!

I've never posted a photo of myself here on my blog, and thought I needed to update my "selfie." I'm sitting at my desk at work, I made the quilt behind me a few years back. The blocks measure 4 inches square. On another note, I had my beautician dye my hair blond on Oct. 28 and haven't had it colored since then. I'm letting my natural color grow out. Guess I am mostly gray and white now! So what you see is 4 months of no new coloring. Looks like I'll have another 4 months before the blond gets all cut off. 

Think I'll go make some square in a square blocks!

Till next time, keep stitchin!

Mary

More Disappearing Four Patches

Here are a few more Disappearing Four-Patch projects from our Kindred Spirits group. Chera, above, made her cuts a different size, so her center block is a bit larger than our other projects. 

I love the soft colors she used for her project.

Here's another red/white/blue color palette, with a completely different feel to it. Darlene put her blocks on point and placed them in the border of her very patriotic-looking quilt. The dark blue/white centerpiece of the quilt is the 1800's Vintage Quilt again...see ModaBakeShop for the pattern.  Don't you just love the flags in the corners! Great job, Darlene!

These photos, above and below, are blocks that can be made using the Disappearing Nine-Patch technique. There are many other possibilities for laying out the blocks, too. 

The 2 blocks on the top of the design wall (photo below) are what you start with. Then, slice down the middle horizontally and vertically. (see block on the left)

The photo above is a year-long Friendship Quilt project that Anne participated in with her quilt guild. She packed a shoe-box with the pattern and some fabrics (the gold and off-white) and had her friends make 9-patches adding their own Christmas fabrics. When her blocks were returned to her, she cut them using the Disappearing Nine Patch technique. 

And lastly, is Pam's project, above, that looks like Anne's Disappearing Nine-Patch, only Pam used charm squares and just assembled the quilt as normal. 

We have a very creative group and it's fun to see how one pattern can be changed-up by each person that makes that pattern into something slightly different. That, to me, is one of the main reasons I enjoy sharing projects and time with other quilters. It's encouraging to see their creative take on a project.

Hope you enjoyed our little quilt show, till next time, keep stitchin!

Mary in Virginia