A Finally Finish: The Mauve-lous Panda Quilt

I love going on vacation, especially when it involves spending time with my Granddaughter Micah, but I really miss leaving my studio. I always bring a road project but it just not the same, is it? With that being said, I am SO behind on my QALs but before I can start working on them, I have a lot of baby busyness which needs to get done first. The Mauve-lous Panda Quilt, which was finally finished yesterday, is for "T" who is the owner of the local nail salon I go to and she is expecting her baby girl on June 1st.  I finished this quilt with days to spare.  In April, I had told "T" that I wanted to make a quilt for her baby and we were discussing themes which I am so glad we did. I was prepared to make her an Owl quilt, a popular baby theme, which to my surprise would have been a no-no since her family is from Vietnam and Owls would not be appropriate for a baby quilt since it symbolizes death according to her husband.  So "T" and I decided that Panda Bears would be a better choice and I was so glad to have found the mauve Panda print by Makower's from their Flo's Friends line.

I came up with this pattern because, pardon the pun, I couldn't bear to cut up the Panda's into small patches.  I was going to use nine patches for the sashing strips between the Panda panels but then I realized that I had the Checkerboard Express Block that I designed for Moda's Countdown to Christmas QAL last year which would be more interesting. I spent more time on finding the right fabrics for the sashing strips and backing since I knew I had to have had the fabrics in my stash than making the quilt itself. Personally, I feel if you are going to use less than five different fabrics in your quilt, they all have to play nice with each other; the colors just have to snap as I like to say. I really hunted through my Pink and Green stash to find the right shades. I used a Moda "Coral Rose" Grunge for the checkerboard and a Jade Green Dot from Benartex purchased many moons ago with a black and white gingham print and sure was glad I had enough of all three to make the sashing strips.

I quilted a combination of vertical organic lines with horizontal straight and crosshatch lines on the sashing strips and chose to use White Aurifil thread for the quilting which blended very nicely with the colors in the quilt.  

And yay for finding this sweet pink and black ric/rac stripe for the backing in my forever stash. This quilt measures 40"x42" so I was able to use WOF with an inch to spare on each side.  I'll be happily dropping off  the Mauve-lous Panda quilt to "T" this week.

As I mentioned before about my baby busyness, Micah will be visiting me this weekend since she will be attending the high school graduation party of our grandniece and getting to meet some family members who have not yet the little sweetie.  We'll also be dropping off the Jungle Crosswalk Baby Quilt to our niece, the mother of the high school graduate, who is expecting a baby boy in August.

  

I am so excited about seeing Micah so soon since it will only be six days since I've last seen her; usually it's weeks between visits.  Remember the Dot Is Crazy Quilt I made for her to use on her play porch?  I've committed a major Grandmother Quilt Crime by taking back the quilt since I found out after I had laid the quilt on the bench that her mother intended to leave it out all the time on their uncovered and unsecured front porch.  This may explain Micah's sad face in this photo knowing that Grandma was not going to let her keep the quilt.  I know that once a quilt is given away, the recipient is free to use it as desired but I'm sorry, I could not bear to see this quilt possibly getting ruined or stolen by outside forces. And it has nothing to do with my Mother's Day gift from Micah, a book about a Grandmother's Quilts which my DIL was so excited to give me. Unfortunately, she didn't read the story first because when Micah and I were reading the first page, the grandmother had passed away.  It should be no surprise that the book was taken back by the DIL.

There is a replacement quilt for the Dot Is Crazy quilt which is one I made several years ago as a test to see if fleece could be used instead of batting which happily worked out very well.  The nice thing is that fleece unlike batting does not need to be quilted as much and washes very well.  It's a nice, fluffy quilt, very colorful, the main focus print is from Joann's which I still have some left and I won't feel so bad if this quilt gets abused or goes missing because I can always make another one with the same fabrics.  This quilt will be going home with Micah, hopefully with no complaints.

I only have one more baby quilt to make by next weekend and then I can resume working on my QALs (Classic Meet Modern, Adult Playtime Plus and the Fireburst Mystery QAL and maybe I can get sidetracked by a DREAMi project which I also have started a few of them.  There is always something for me to sew which is good, right?

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

My Fassett Fab Four

I've now have four quilts with Kaffe Fassett fabrics which are finally finished for the year so far with this past weekend's finally finish of the Kaffe Appliqué Quilt.  I wrote about this quilt on my Farewell to Fassett February post which I detailed the finishing of the top after being an UFO for several years.  

I don't do a lot of appliqué quilts but for some reason when this Going Green pattern by Darlene Zimmerman was published by American Patchwork and Quilts in February, 2011, I decided I was going to make two of them, one in feedsack fabrics and the other in Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  The feedsack version was finished around three years ago and after that the Kaffe version was an on and off again project.  This quilt wasn't even on any of my project lists or 2018 but somehow I caught a bug to finally finish it probably due in part to the other three Kaffe Fassett Quilts finishes.  And now the fraternal twin quilts are together at last.  Both of these quilts measure 66" square.

I quilted the Kaffe quilt the same way as I did with the feedsack quilt with diagonal lines on the pieced blocks and quilting in the ditch around each block with black thread.  (Why is it when you quilt in the ditch, you always go off in the area where it will show the most, in this case the blue blocks.)  I also sewed a coconut button in the center of each appliqué block to go with the tropical feel of this quilt.

And look at the fun backing I found in my stash which I bought yards of it maybe ten years ago.  I'm glad I finally am able to use it, and I still have some left; I think I may have bought the entire bolt.  I'm pretty sure it was on sale.

Here are my Fassett Fab Four and am pretty amazed that these were finally finishes for this year  and it's only May. This has happened in my quilting past when I always find myself in a Kaffe Fassett phase, never a rut, and I just have to force myself to stop using his fabrics. Once again, I am finding that I should take a Fassett Hiatus (say that five times real fast) or for that matter just a break from any sewing which I will do next week.  I'll be vacationing with my darling granddaughter Micah and her parents and I do not plan on doing any sewing.  But I will bring my forever 30's hexie project with me just in case I start getting antsy.  Who knows, I might finally finish this project.  

And the sewing respite will be brief because upon my return I'll have to kick into high QAL mode because I'll have some catching up to do with the Classic Meet Modern (hosted by My Quilt Infatuation), Adult Playtime Plus (hosted by MMM Quilts) and Fireburst Mystery (hosted by Tish N Wonderland) QALs.  All of the links to these QALs are on my sidebar.  I can't seem to get enough of participating in QALs because there's two more coming up this summer:  Christa Watson's Dot Dot Dash and Meadow Mist Designs and Quilted Blooms' Modern Plus Sampler.  It's just hard to pass up good QALs.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

The Regatta Quilt is a Finally Finished.

I thought I should finally finish my Regatta Quilt, a.k.a as the Whitewater River Rafting Quilt before I started two new QALs:  MMM Quilts Adult Playtime Plus QAL and Tish's Adventures in Wonderland Fireburst Mystery QAL.  I finished the top back in January but was in no hurry to quilt it since this was a "no pressure" QAL as the host Roseanne of Homesewn By Us gently suggested.  I had to take a photo of my Regatta Quilt with my collection of wooden sea birds as a shoutout to Louise who quilts on a boat since I was telling her "ya gotta regatta!"

Some of the reasons I participate in QALs are if I like the pattern and if I already have the fabric I can use to reduce the stash.  The Regatta Quilt was a double whammy because I loved the pattern because it used 2.5" strips, my favorite, and that I had the denim blue Aged Muslin sitting in my stash for several years now and the other fabric was the leftover from my Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt made several years ago and which I used Amy Ellis' Modern Neutral fabric line from Moda.

My Regatta quilt measures 51" x 74" which is six inches less in width that the Regatta pattern designed by Studio M.  I decided not to follow the construction method and instead cut my strips to size which would have worked had I not cut some of the strips wrong coupled with sewing all of the strips together in one direction rather than alternating them like you're suppose to to avoid wonkiness which is what I ended up with.  In order to square up the quilt, I needed to trim 6" from the width and the quilt still needs some stretching in order for the sides to  be straight  Yikes, how embarrassing.  I almost wanted to rename this quilt to Seasick.  If you read my Throwback Thursday post, this could be my new picnic quilt.  But then it's also the perfect size to take to our local movie theater which has the comfy reclining seats and the air conditioning is cranked up during the Summer so both my hubby and I can share for snuggling.  I've been known to fall asleep during a movie because I'm just that comfortable.  I'm also planning to take the Whitewater River Rafting quilt when we go on our Colorado vacation this summer and hoping to take some photos of the quilt by the river.

Here's a close up of the quilting: a combination of straight lines with curvy lines in between which is becoming my favorite to use with strip quilts.  Also, my new quilting friend are the Schmetz Microtex Sharp needles  which I used since the Aged Muslin has a very tight weave.

I was hoping to take a photo of the quilt laying on the grass but we had torrential rainstorms last night so Hubby suggested he hold it up instead.  I really need a clothesline .  I almost got Hubby to put up patio fencing but then he mentioned it would block my view of the squirrels who visit us every day to partake in the lovely nut spread we leave out for them.  That idea was quickly kaboshed because I couldn't have that, squirrels are an important part of my quilt being for Dreami projects.  I just came up with a thought this week that the number of squirrels in my yard at one time would be the number of Dreami projects I can be working on so today there were five of them.  But, before I can start on them, I need to get some other quilts on my UFO list quilted.  BTW, we've had more than five squirrels at one time.

Happy Quilting!

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

Throwback Thursday: The Picnic Quilt

Since May is the month of Mothers' Day, I thought my May Post for Throwback Thursday should be about a quilt which brings back Quilt Mom Memories, the Picnic Quilt made at least twenty years ago.  When I first mentioned to my Hubby that I wanted to write about this quilt, he knew which quilt I was talking about and even knew it by name.  But then he made me panic when he said he hasn't seen it for awhile and I really had to remain calm.  It wasn't in the car or the garage like I thought it was but then realized several years ago I moved it to my studio so it wouldn't get tossed or lost. Whew, this made me take a few deep breaths. It's one of the first quilts I made when I started quilting but not until I first made each my two boys a bed quilt because that's what a quilter should make before anything else, right?

I didn't start quilting until my boys were respectively around 13 and 9 years old which I think I was pretty fortunate since they were somewhat self-sufficient and left me alone when I was quilting.  I should mention that the boys had Mario Brothers to play with also. My two boys, in fact, were pretty receptive to my quilting even when I exercised Quilter Mom Eminent Domain and took over the upstairs TV/Computer/Toy room which was next to their bedrooms and was renamed The Quilt Room.  It really was no problem since the basement was after all finished and the computer was moved to the never used formal dining room which was good for me to keep an eye on their computer use while I was in the kitchen.  I used to cook back then.

I still remember when both of my boys were in my quilt room, kneeling on the floor next to each other, watching me use the rotary cutter to cut off the legs of my oldest son's ripped khaki pants to turn them into shorts.  Mike, my youngest, with his mouthful of bubble gum turned to his brother, Tom and said "aren't you glad you have a mom who quilts."  Mike is the one who blurted out quite a few memorable lines when he was young; my favorite being, when when were going out to dinner at a local buffet restaurant and we're walking in the parking lot and he said, "I'm so hungry, I can eat TWO all you can eats." This same Mike also committed the worse quilting travesty by using my rotary cutter to trim a photo he was going to use on his Science Fair board when I was not home.  He did not quite grasp the knowledge that anything under the rotary cutter is going to get cut too and laid the photo on top of a just appliquéd lady bug block which happened to be laying on the board.  He never did that again; I made sure I never left my rotary cutter laying around after that.  And not to leave out my oldest son, Tom, out of my Quilt Mom memories of him is he was recanting to me a discussion he was having with his then wife, now an ex, about their bedding and her wanting a down comforter and he telling her his preference by saying "I grew up sleeping under handmade quilts" which just warmed my heart even though he was off by a decade.

Getting back to the Picnic Quilt which is in a sorry stage now, is made up of mostly Tom and Mike's old blue jeans and madras summer shorts which at that time they had outgrown with some batiks, plaids, denim and fun fabric from my stash.  The utility side of quilting appealed to me so I remember cutting the tumblers out individually and then hand piecing the tumblers together during numerous weekend road trips and watching TV.  The rows and the blue batik border were sewn by machine.  I guess this really isn't a quilt but a throw since I only backed it with denim and there is no batting in between, but for the sake of this memory, it is a quilt.  It was always meant to be a picnic quilt kept in the car in case we needed it to put over a picnic table or to lay on the ground and it was used for that reason many times.

Here are closeups of the fabric and patches and as you can see, some of the hand pieced patches has fallen apart and were mended with some real noticeable stitching and some of the patches from the boys' jeans included grass and mud stains--see the big green arrow on the right. I still love the multi-color denim print with the purple and green which was from a pair of muscle pants, a popular style back then for boys and it's hard to believe the print is over twenty-years old and still looks cool.

My best and favorite memory of the Picnic Quilt is when I was making it and sitting in front of the sewing machine with the patches strewned all around, Mike was walking past the Quilt Room, popped his head in, gave a cursory glance at what I was doing, made a quick, subjective interpretation and then ran down the stairs. Mike, being the Gallant to his brother, the Goofus who was probably laying down on the couch watching TV (if you've read Highlight Children Magazine while at the doctor or dentist office like forever as I have, you know what I'm talking about) was yelling, "Tom, Tom, you gotta pick up your clothes off your floor, Mom's cutting them up and making a quilt; she must be out of material!”. I am hearing this and my mind was responding, I am?, no, I'm not, these are old clothes you've outgrown, is that what you think I'm doing and if that's what it takes to clean your room, then I am.  I had to chuckle about Mike thinking I was out of material.  Did you notice the usage of the word "material" which at that time was what it was called back 20+ years ago and soon after I started working at a Quilt Shop, I quickly adapted the more proper word to say and write "fabric".

There are times when I wish my boys were little again, probably when I feel the years creeping up over my mind and body and when I see Tom and Mike facing grown-up problems which we don't want our kids to have, but that's life.  If there's a quilt I want to hold on to for the memories of my boys when they were little, it would be the Picnic Quilt.  It will always hold a special place in my quilt memories and will remind me that I'm a Quilt Mom who has two boys who love quilts...and also someone who still has not yet ran out of material.

Linking up with:  MMM Quilts, Throwback Thursday

Another Finally Finish: Dot Is Crazy Quilt

Today is the last day of the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop hosted by Carla of Creatin' In The Sticks in which I have enjoyed participating with the other bloggers by presenting a project made from one of the blocks and by making all of the 30 blocks somehow.  I'm glad I was able to finish my quilt to celebrate the end of the blog hop.

The month of April has been crazy in terms of the weather we had; snow, ice, rain, wind, etc. all unseasonable for Spring but must have been good for my quilt output because I was going subconsciously for a five for five or a quintuplet of quilt final finishes.  It seems that anything I sewed turned into quilts which is a nice superpower to have and the only time I seem to have possessed it was when I had to make a number of baby quilts for the Blanket Ministry in a short period of time which was expected and not unexpected like my April quilts were. Or it could be another instance of hexing myself, but in a good way, when I say or write something, the opposite will happen and in this case, I mentioned that I thought my 2018 production so far was lacking.

For my thirty blocks, I decided to use a stash of fat eighths and some light yardage of Zen Chic's Hey Dot which has sitting idle for awhile and as you can see above I still have some leftover.  I deviated from the original quilt by not using the same background fabric in all of the blocks or lights were excluded from some of the blocks.  I have to admit, but you probably could figure out, that I did not make the block of the day on the assigned day but rather made them in groups of five and one time I made ten blocks in one evening because I needed to catch up.  All of the blocks sewed up fast and it was very easy to make more than one at a time.  I ended up finishing my blocks ahead of schedule and decided that I would finish the quilt by the end of the month to coincide with the end of the blog hop.

And another admission which sort of contradict my statement that all of the blocks sewed up fast which is that #29 Block-Dovetail had sixteen 1-3/4" x 4-1/4" strips for two rail blocks which I decided not to do because I still had a one-eighth piece of this funky stripe left and thought it had the same essence of the dovetail strips.  So I guess, if you sewed #29 like I did, then all of the blocks do sew up fast.

The blocks were arranged by block number for the quilt.  It helped that after I made each block, I placed it on my design board to ensure that the colors were evenly spread  throughout the quilt.

If there was any indecisions for this quilt, it would be for the quilting and for the backing.  I couldn't decide at first if I was going to do straight line or curvy line quilting and settled on horizontal straight line but then after sewing the top I realized that vertical curvy line would look better.  And for the backing, they say three times the charm and after choosing two other possible backings I decided on this wonderful yellow patchwork print with stripes and dots which helped me to choose lemon yellow thread for the quilting.  If there's a lesson to be learned, it's to buy additional yardage when buying precuts for the binding and sadly I did not have any Hey Dot yardage which I could use (I don't do scrappy binding) but I did have this gray plaid dot in my stash.

Have I mentioned how much fun I had making these blocks.  This is definitely a fun and happy quilt. It measures 50" X 60" and each block finishes 10" square.  While I was making the blocks, I thought it could easily be renamed 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Hours and thought it would make a great quilt marathon where the quilters stayed up for at least 30 hours straight to make these blocks but there would need to be some safety rules like no rotary cutters or scissors could be used after the eighth hour.  But, I thought better and decided it would instead really be a fun quilt guild project for each member to draw the number of the block they're to make and #29 is the block you don't want if you don't like cutting odd sizes.

And you can guess who's going to receive this quilt to go with her new play porch?  Yes, my sweet granddaughter Micah whose mother worked very hard this past weekend to put it together but to my quilt horror took a photo of Micah with her Christmas quilt (which I won't show) in her play porch.  It's also time Micah receives a new quilt because Sandra, MMM Quilts mentioned to me that she thought I needed to make a 1-1/4 year old quilt for her but it's too early so Dot Is Crazy will be her 1-1/8 year old quilt.

And in case you didn't see my post for my Jungle Crosswalk quilt made from Block #22, you can read about it HERE.  If you're looking for a quick and easy quilt to make, a lot of these block patterns could be used.  Be sure to check out the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Link.

I don't know if I can keep up this momentum for May but I do know that I'm ready for my next QAL, MMM Quilts Adult Playtime Plus QAL.  My fabric has been chosen and instructions will be posted next week.  And I know there's a couple of projects which need finishing or starting lurking in my studio but then again we're going to have some nice 70 to 80 degree weather this week and the garden centers are filling up with flowers.  I'm pretty sure we're finally going to experience Spring or Too Soon Summer now and I'm really hoping I'm not hexing myself again if snow happens to appear next week.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

SPA Spurts:The Finally Finished Dot and Dash Quilt

This quilt just happened to get finally finished.  I started it in March while misbehaving when I was supposed to be working from my project lists and QALs so I guess you can say this would be considered a DREAMi project. But truly it's a beyond DREAMi project since I was originally distracted to make another Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt with shades of teals, pinks, grays, colors that was inspired by Patchwork N Play's Delilah Quilt and low-volume fabrics.  The strips were die-cut and ready to be sewn together but before I started, I happened to be putting away some fabrics and came upon the Spa Green Quilters Linen fabric which I had forgotten I bought a mere six months ago.

I knew I had to dump one DREAMi project to work on this new DREAMi project because I had the perfect pattern which has been in my head to use the Spa Green fabric with the 2.5" strips already cut--Dot and Dash from Christa Watson's latest book Piece and Quilt with Precuts book which I used to participate in her Squiggle QAL.  There are quite a few "I wanna make" patterns in her book and the Dot and Dash quilt was the one I really wanted to make since it uses 2.5" which is my favorite precut size and I can die cut strips myself.  All I needed to do was to die-cut the Spa Green fabric into 2.5" strips.

This quilt was seemingly done during spurts of time found in between other projects I had going on and the blocks were all sewn by the time we left for our getaway last week.  Even though I needed to catch up with the 30 Quilts Blocks in 30 Days QAL when I came home, I wanted a change of quilt pace which didn't involve Kaffe Fassett fabrics or a QAL (since the start of 2018, I've made four quilts with Fassett fabrics and have participated or am participating in four QALs.)  What started as a quilt being made during spurts of time found became a mad dash to the finally finished line.  The top was finished this past Sunday, the basting and quilting started on Monday and the quilting and binding was completed late Tuesday (after I had lunch and a nice shopping spree with my partner in quilt crime, Carol, at my favorite quilt shop where I bought the binding for this quilt and 28 fat quarters and yardage also wanted to come home with me too.)  This rarely happens, no, not my fabric binge buying which happens more often that I like to admit, but a quilt top made and then quilted and bound within the same week.  Usually once a top is made, it's on quilting standby for more than a week but maybe less than ten years, standard quilt making procedures for me.   So yay for me for doing the totally unexpected this week.

I decided to add a little pizzaz (for me) to the machine quilting by adding a meandering, wavy line in between the straight lines. Since the fabrics are somewhat on the calm and quiet side, like a Spa, I wanted the quilting to show up so I used Connecting Threads Essential Thread in Parchment.  Since the Quilters Linen was a more tightly woven fabric, I used a Microtex Sharp Needle and the quilting went smooth and fast. I do a lot of straight line quilting,  so I did quilt it using the same method Christa does in her book by starting the quilting on one side (instead of the center of the quilt) and quilting it to the other side. I can say I've done it this way on my last four quilts and the distortion at the ends of the rows is minimal unlike when I start the quilting in the center.

Here are some closeups showing the mash of fun prints which included Meows, Mushrooms and a Mermaid print.  I wish I included more peachy/pink prints (this quilt may look a little too calm) but when I do make the other quilt which I was intending to make before Spa Spurts, I will definitely be using more peachy/pinky, which is a nice accent color for the teals and grays.

I've been saving my precious yardage of SUCH Design's 108" wide backing of Newsprint in Spackle for just the right quilt which I already used some strips for the front so I was happy to finally use it and the binding is a wonderful dark blue/green print from the Cotton + Steel Basics Collection.

I was hoping to take a nice photo outside but the wind once again reminded us that it wanted to be included.  I thought for sure we left it back in Myrtle Beach. It sure was nice, though, to see the sun making an appearance during these past few days and I wouldn't mind if it still stuck around, just lose that wind.

Now that I've enjoyed this brief change of quilt pace, I'm ready to work on finishing up the 30 Quilt Blocks QAL and putting the quilt together so I can be ready for MMM Quilts Adult Plus Playtime  QAL which started this week. And I was planning on giving the Fassett Fabric Stash a rest but my son has requested a quilt made with Shot Cottons since he loves my Postcard from Sweden Quilt and I can't say No to him (most of the time) or another Kaffe Fassett project.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop: Jungle Crosswalk

Today is my turn to be hoppy for the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop by showing you the baby quilt I made with the Crosswalk Block.

When Carla first put out the call early this year for bloggers to participate in the Blog Hop, I knew I wanted to because I just love making quilts with simple blocks.  And the #22 Crosswalk block couldn't be any simpler and what a wonderful block it is to showcase fabrics.

Here is the link to the original TUTORIAL for this block.  Disclaimer:  since I was making multiple blocks in a different variation, I constructed my blocks differently.

I think I have a new favorite pattern for baby quilts thanks to the Crosswalk Block.  As you will see later in this post, my quilt uses two variations of the Crosswalk Block which I did in order to create the colorful checkerboard sashing.

To make my 40" square quilt, I used the following fabrics:

1/3 yd each of two prints for the rectangles each block

1/3 yd each of four different colors for the side squares (sashing)*

1/3 yard for binding

1-1/4 yard for backing (provided the wof is at least 45" wide)

*the original pattern called for two colors to be used for the squares but I wanted to make this quilt as colorful as possible so I chose to use four different colors.

Before making the blocks, the side squares (sashing) need to be made first. From the 1/3 yard of each of the four different colors, cut three 3" x wof strips.  When sewing strip sets, I like to cut my wof strips in half which will give me at least 22" to prevent the strips from warping.  Once you decide on the color order of the strips, make six panels, all in the same order,  which should measures 10-1/2" high by the width of the strips.  Press all of the seams open.  Depending upon how wide your strips are, you may be able to cut seven strip sets from each panel which means you will have an extra panel to save for another project.  You will need 32 strip sets for the quilt.

From each of the two prints, cut eight 5-1/2" x 10-1/2" rectangles.  Decide which print will be used for either the Type 1 and Type 2 blocks; the same print should be used for the same type block.

You are now ready to sew eight Type 1 Blocks and eight Type 2 Blocks.  You will see that the difference between the two blocks besides the different rectangles is the placement of the strip sets.  If you look at the Type 1 block, the strip set with the blue square on the top is on the left side (see red arrow) and and on the bottom on the right side. For the Type 2 block, the strip set with the blue square is on the bottom on the left side and the blue square on top is on the right side (see red arrow).  For both of these blocks, the seams when sewing the rectangles to the sashing squares should be pressed open.

Each row of the quilt consists of two Type 1 and two Type 2 blocks and when the blocks are set in an alternating block layout, you will see that a checkerboard sashing is created.  If you were to sew all of the blocks the same way, the colors squares will not alternate like a checkerboard and you will have two squares of the same color next to each other.

Here's a photo of the quilt and you can see how the checkerboard sashing is creating by alternating the layout of the Type 1 and Type 2 blocks.

For the backing of the quilt, I chose one of the prints from the top as well as for the binding, it's one of the colors used in the sashing squares.  I machine quilted with simple diagonal lines across the blocks and also quilted in the ditch around each block--nice and simple.

Did I mention how much I love this pattern and the resulting quilt.  I thought taking photos of the quilt warranted a visit to the nearby play park and Hubby, my Master Quilt Holder, was able to climb up the jungle gym and stoop down for me to take this photo.  I told him it was good training for him when our granddaughter comes to visit.

I enjoyed participating in the Blog Hop and making this quilt which turns out will soon be going to a new home.  We just found out that our niece is expecting a baby boy in August so the timing was just perfect.  

I hope you find this quilt fast, easy and fun to make and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Here's a LINK to Carla's blog where you will find the schedule of the bloggers who are participating in the 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop and to check out their projects.  This blog hop runs until April 30th so there are eight bloggers after me who will be posting their projects.

Thank you Carla for hosting this wonderful blog hop; I am so happy I was chosen to be one of the participants. I've been sewing along and these blocks sure are fun to make and I will be able to share  my quilt made with the 30 blocks soon after the Blog Hop is over.

Hoppy Reading and Sewing!