Rectangular 18-Patch quilt blocks
Next up this month: a series of easy quilt blocks. In fact, they are easy and scrap friendly - a combination that sews up like a treat.
I am a member of Comfort circle, a group of 10 quilters (most in The Netherlands) who make charity quilts together under the umbrella of do. Good Stitches. You never know what block will be coming at you next. This March it is the 18-patch block, made up of rectangular patchwork pieces.
This block is easiest to sew by piecing together long, thin fabric strips and then sub-cutting the sewn strips into squares. This way you don’t have to sew together a ton of individual 1.5” x 2.5” cut rectangles. Naturally, I have plenty of long, thin fabric scraps! Yesterday afternoon, I dug through my strings for 1.5” wide strips. The ideal candidate would be 24” long or more, but I could also use a few shorter strips in series.
For each block, I’ve matched two fabrics in the same color family, as per the queen bee’s prompt. Before long my strips were paired, trimmed, sewn and pressed!
Here I am carefully sub-cutting the strip-pieced units into tidy 2.5” squares. Whenever you sew and then cut (instead of cutting and then sewing), you have the chance to increase accuracy. That’s definitely a bonus with this block, since it is made up of many small pieces. The more small pieces, the greater accuracy generally required in patchwork.
After sewing strips and sub-cutting the squares, your work is almost done. Simply sew three sub-cut squares together as a row and then join three identical rows to make a block. Easy peasy! For best results, join this type of patchwork with scant 1/4” seam allowances not true 1/4” seams. That provides the wiggle room for trimming things up at the end, to yield a perfect 6.5” square (unfinished) block.
What a great choice for a collaborative bee quilt! Since each block has its own simple color scheme, the blocks from our whole group should come together into a beautiful scrap-happy whole.
Now I’ll mail these blocks off to the queen bee. Spring greetings, everyone!
This month in the Dutch circle of the do. Good Stitches quilting bee, we are sewing string blocks for our collaborative charity quilt. The block style comes from the book Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer. Fun, straightforward and definitely scrap-friendly!
This month’s lead quilter asked for Scrap Bin Geese, free tutorial by Andy Knowles of A Bright Corner. While a fairly straightforward block, it is made up of lots of small pieces. As such, it is indeed a scrap bin sort of project. Just my kind!
This month with do. Good Stitches our charity bee quilt block is the wonky star. That’s always fun! I have a whole scrap bin full of triangle scraps. Wonky stars are the ideal quilt block for using up triangle scraps. Each of the eight star points will use a triangle scrap.
Today I spent an hour or so sewing some deliciously simple blocks for the Comfort circle of do. Good Stitches. Eva-Marie @ZusJeb, our queen bee this month, has asked for simple cross blocks in clear, summery colors. Though such colors aren’t my forte, I did find some good candidates in my scrap drawers. You can always count on orange to make things feel fresh and summery.
The happy, sunny vibe of our this charity bee quilt is just perfect for this moment! After the most amazing, unusually warm weekend, it feels like everyone is smiling in The Netherlands.
I do love how my Drummer Boy Dresden pattern makes it so, so easy to use up all the random scraps. There are no wrong colors here and no shortage of fun combinations. Thanks to the strong repetition of that black sun center, this quilt feels grounded no matter how crazy-scrap-happy it gets.
Jacob’s Ladder has a few variations, but this one is made up of 4-patch blocks and HST blocks. Fortunately we were tipped to start the 4-patch blocks by sewing two long strips together. Then we subcut the already-sewn strips to quickly create pairs of squares. That’s strip-piecing - efficient, but easy to forget to do!
Today was the big day! Time to see what we’ve created. I spread out the blocks to get a good look at our quilt-to-be. Bright colors and cute rays on a plethora of interesting low volume backgrounds - what’s not to love? It’s feeling warmer in here already.
You know what I love? A sweet patchwork assignment to kick off a new year of charity sewing. Since 2010 I have been organizing an international quilting charity bee called do. Good Stitches. The idea is simple: use your creative patchwork energy to bless others.
Your rainbow messages, bee block rainbows and a fresh take on my Rainbow Plus quilt. This is the third time that I started fresh with arranging the pieces. This time, I am really loving it! May you enjoy the beautiful colors of today.
Our prompt this April comes from Eva-Maria @Zusjeb. We’re to make orange and blue blocks in any classic patchwork style. We should make one 12” finish block and a few smaller blocks in increments of 3”, 6” or 12”. Eva-Marie will puzzle the resulting blocks together to make a totally unique patchwork sampler.
We all know what happens if you give a mouse a cookie; but, what happens if a quilter plans a trip to Keukenhof, the famous Dutch flower garden?
Next up: the Rectangular 18-Patch block. It’s a scrap-friendly quilt block that sews up fast via strip-piecing and sub-cutting. Here are my sewing tips and a batch of blocks for destined for charity as a do. Good Stitches collaborative quilt.
Next month is my turn to lead the collaborative charity quilt for Comfort Circle of do. Good Stitches. A rainbow-blend Bear Tracks quilt is the project that I have chosen, inspired by the quilt I made for my book. Time to get things rolling with a few blocks!
Thanks to Comfort circle of do. Good Stitches, I am totally convinced that a flower-themed Disappearing Nine Patch quilt is a genius way to turn your random flower scraps into a pretty quilt a flash. Come see how it works!
Let’s take a little break from all things Wild Oranges, shall we? Since 2010 I’ve been an active member of do. Good Stitches, which is an online quilting bee that collaboratively makes quilts for charity. In the Comfort circle we’re making house blocks this month, inspired by this Kaffe Fasset book.
It can all feel a little chaotic, until you start sewing. Soon enough the tidy matched squares and pointy half square triangle blocks bring everything into focus. Ta da! These three butterflies are of the Super Scrappy variety. Aren’t they merry?
This collaborative quilt was made together with my bee mates in the Comfort circle of do. Good Stitches. The peachy, pink and purple palette is sugar sweet. I hope that its simple beauty brings comfort to someone in need. My intention is to find it a home among the Ukrainian refugees who are living in our city.
a collaborative quilt