Tag Archives: quilting

The Army Star

Posted on July 20, 2012 | 4 comments

I have faithfully used Nancy J. Martin’s Perpetual Calendar 365 Quilt Blocks A Year since the calendar was published by That Patchwork Place in 1999.

More recently, I decided I would practice with Electric Quilt by drawing some of the blocks from this calendar.

Army Star is one of those blocks.

If you have Block Base, the block is listed as 1981 and is a slightly different version. The Kansas City Star printed the block in 1941-43.

Both blocks are based on an 8 x 8 grid.

Here is what Army Star looks like in a straight set:

I’ve put the block on point in the following design:

I suppose I could have been patriotic and used red, white and blue, but I didn’t think of it. I was concentrating on the design itself. I’ll play with color another time.

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Tagged Electric Quilt, EQ7, Kansas City Star, LCsCottage, Nancy J. Martin, patchwork, quilt block, quilt design, quilting, The Army Star

Washington State Quilters – Spokane Chapter

Posted on July 2, 2012 | 4 comments

I have finished my contribution for next year’s Washington State Quilters – Spokane Chapter (WSQ) raffle quilt.

My original block is in the lower right hand corner of the quilt. It looks like this:

You can find a free PDF for the block by clicking on the Freebies tab above my header.

Here is my contribution to the next raffle quilt:

All three blocks are 6-1/2″ square.

The first two blocks are paper-pieced. My big tip for paper-piecing…cut a piece of fabric bigger than you think you need!

Now that’s done, I can either pull a weed or two between thunder storms, or I can alter a pair of shorts for my sister. I can’t say that I’m eager to do either, but the good fairies don’t seem to want to them either.

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Tagged applique, LCsCottage, quilting, raffle quilt, Spokane, Washington State Quilters

Free Motion Quilt Challenge – June

Posted on June 29, 2012 | 30 comments

The June Free Motion Quilting Challenge at SewCalGal is a tutorial by Cindy Needham. Cindy is a talented and professional quilter who travels all over the world. She is also an author, a designer, and hostess of retreats. Be sure to visit her website to see her fabulous quilts!

Cindy gave us so much useful information and lots of practice! I loved this month! Cindy suggested the ‘divide and conquer’ method. In other words, divide the work into sections and then fill in the sections. Instead of an entire blank canvas (or fat quarter, as in my case) to fill, I could simply concentrate on a section at a time. Baby steps.

Here’s my piece:

Cindy suggested using a contrasting thread. Obviously, I didn’t pay any attention to that. Don’t be like me.

The only time I changed threads was when the spool I was using ran out. Yup…I was using up thread, and I emptied three spools.

Do you see the Jester hat in the quilting above? Wendy, over at Ivory Spring, does it much, much better! She has a tutorial on how to quilt the Jester hat. I need more practice! I was confused frequently while trying to change directions.

More close-ups: