End of the Month Goal wrap up... and some new ones

Its the end of the month and its time to review my goals. I am pretty happy with the progress I have made and the goals I have completed although I didn't get through all of them.

Firstly my sucesses.

Prepare items for Handmade With Love stall. I got a pile of things prepped for me to take away with us for our trip - can't remember exactly but I think its 4 laptop messenger bags and 10 iPad messengers bags. I also got organised a pile of fabric and wadding and zippers ready to make little earbud pouches and coin purses.

Work on Labyrinth Quilt. I bought the fabric for this and got it cut out (that might have been last month) Whilst we were away I got the 9 blocks made and the quilt top together. When I get home again I will decide if it needs another border and then make the backing.

Complete Secret Quilt Project 1 - this was acutally the t'shirt quilt that I made my daughter Fangirl. I got it quilted and bound and now she has it and I can name it.

Complete Secret Quilt Project 2 - this was a t'shirt quilt I was making my son ie The Beast. I got it quilted and bound as well and he now has it. 

Complete A to Z quilt. I got this quilted and bound before leaving for our holiday as well. It is to be a gift for a family memember too. They haven't as yet received it so won't say who it is for.

Complete the A to Z Blogging challenge. This finishes today and - yay I got it done. I blogged every day in April (apart from the first 4 Sundays). I actually got mine written ahead of time which relieved much of the stress for me. I had them scheduled to go up each day and just had to go in and add the links each day to facebook, twitter and the challenge blog. I must admit I didn't quite fulfill all the duties of a participant and didn't visit as many other blogs as I had planned but hopefully over the next few weeks I will visit many more (the links are still up so should be able to do it)

And then the ones that I didn't complete fully

Complete April Clue in Charlotte Hawks mystery. This is an almost. The last clue was putting the units together into a block and then assembling the blocks. I got the blocks done but to complete the clue was the putting together and to do that I needed some sashing in the background fabric but I didn't have any more of the background fabric left and I wasn't sure if I was going to need it or not. I planned to wait till I got home and spread them out on the design wall and work out if I needed the sashing and if so, what I could use. However I was in a fabric shop this past week and found something pretty similar so now I have fabric which I will use when I get home (no cutting mat to do it while I am away)

Complete 20 items for Handmade With Love stall. This didn't happen. I got 8 things made which was pretty good considering we were travelling for most of the month (I left home on the 6th April).

Its a bit hard to really think of this coming month's activities since we are still away from home although we are planning on heading home this week.

• work on the Labyrinth quilt - make backing
• complete the messenger bags which I have cut out and also the zipper pouches.
• make some cosmetic bags
• complete Charlotte Hawks mystery quilt
• Work on club mystery quilt
• work on Twilter's project
• update stash report. (I haven't put in the fabric purchases I have made this trip nor the quilt finishes I have had or the completed messenger bags ... a bit behind)

Z is for Zenith

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

This is the last day of the challenge. Who hoo we made it.

Z is for Zenith

The Zenith block is the only one NOT found on Quilter's Cache. When I looked there, there was not a suitable block for me to use in this challenge so I went to my reliable brain's trust aka my Twilter's group on Facebook and told them of my dilemma and like all good brain's trusts they came to my rescue. 

There were a few other suggestions as well but this one was the best (because it had a net presence and I could link you, my lovely readers, to the pattern) One suggestion was that I design my own (ummm no) but my fall back was to get one of the Twilter's named Zina to choose a block for me that I could call Zina's Choice. 

Anyway I didn't need to resort to designing my own or dobbing Zina in to choose one for me.

 Zenith can be found here  on a website called Patchwork Square owned by Wendy Russell. My colour selection was very similar to the one made by Wendy. I like how it turned out very much. Its made up of a collection of flying geese, half square triangles and square in a square.

Tomorrow I will show you the back of the quilt with this block in plus the finished quilt - you will have to come back again now won't you.

Y is for Yankee Charm

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

Today's block, Yankee Charm is found on Quilter's Cache here 

It's identified by Marcia Hohn (who owns that website) as being from the 1930s. Its a fairly simple straight forward block made up of half square triangles, squares and rectangles.

Marcia has a diagram of a quilt made from Yankee Charms with the 2 colours alternated in blocks. It looks great and has a very much a tiled floor look. I am very tempted to make it... it is going to go on the One Day pile

Its a two colour block on Quilters Cache but traditionally it was a 3 colour block.

I found a few other examples of the block of that name on the internet but which was different. Yet again we run into the situation where a block can develop variations over the year, and where the same name is applied to a variety of blocks

From nancycabotsewalong.blogspot.com

Today is the 2nd last day of the challenge. We have completed 25 days and that means that the final row of the A to Z quilt is complete  The last block will go on the back. This is the quilt top, minus the borders.

X is for X Marks the Spot

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

Today's block, X Marks the Spot is found on Quilter's Cache here. It is an original design by Marcia Hohn. I was intrigued when I started to read the instructions that I had to cut 36 2" squares. These were used to "snowball" all the corners of the rectangles or squares to make the diamonds in the corners and the other designs. It is a much more wasteful way of sewing these shapes but much easier. To do it other ways would require lots of templates to cut designs and well as the sewing of triangles to corners.

Its a fun design. This is my attempt. I love my kombi van fabric. I have used it all up now just about. Sigh.

More than the block itself I love the designs that came out in the diagram of the quilt made from just this block. Another one for the one day maybe list.

W is for Wagon Tracks

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

The pattern for today is Wagon Tracks and can be found here on Quilter's Cache. Its a traditional block that isn't really that special as an individual block

However when you see a whole quilt made from the block it really comes into its own. Its rather striking I think you will agree

Victoria's Star

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

Victoria's Stars is today's block and can be found here on Quilter's Cache. It is an original paper pieced design by Marcia Hohn. Its really very dramatic and I loved how my block turned out.

The illustration on the Website of a whole quilt made from the block was gorgeous with the interlocking stars coming through in a secondary pattern. I am not sure I would be tempted to make it though as a whole paper pieced quilt would involve a lot of work removing the paper. I have made one paper pieced quilt and believe me it was a LOT of work getting all those little bits of paper out. Still ... the dramatic result just might be worth it

U is for Union Squares

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

Today's block is Union Squares that can be found here on Quilter's Cache. It is another traditional block that goes by a number of other names including An Effective Square, Four Crowns, Union as well as Union Squares. It consists of multiple half square, quarter square and square units. It can be sewn with flying geese instead.

It is a popular block for use in making Christmas themed items such as table runners because of the star nature of the block but it is dependent on the colour choices on the whole. 

T is for Tennessee

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

I got these blocks made in January so as to be ahead of the game come the challenge. Originally I was just going to make 8 or 9 but got on a roll and boom.. they were all done. I made one, took a picture, put it up on the design wall with the others, in order. Usually I would choose them from the list of blocks that I had sorted through and selected back in 2016 when I first decided that I would do this for the blog challenge this year. But sometimes I would go back to Quilter's Cache and check out some other blocks and sometimes select one of those. And sometimes I wouldn't copy the one that I chose to my list. 

That is what happened with this block. And when I came to write the blog I couldn't find the name of it. I tried to go through the list of blocks under T on Quilter's Cache but I couldn't see it. I decided that I must have gotten out of order, gotten confused and skipped T and made either 2 S blocks or 2 U blocks but I couldn't find it there either. 

Finally I went to my Brain's Trust ie my Twilter Group on Facebook and lamented my problem there, along with a photo and Vicki, From the blog and podcast My Creative Corner 3 tracked it down on Quilter's Cache. It does indeed start with T. In my panic I must have skipped over that block and not checked it out. Thank you so much Vicki!

So here it is Tennessee, which can be found on Quilter's Cache here (it really can even if I couldn't see for looking). Its  traditional block and is described as a great stash busting block as the whole block is made up of half square triangles, one side common and the others of varying colours and with different coloured squares in 2 corners. Completely scrappy and totally gorgeous.

I loved the pictures and diagrams I saw on Quilter's Cache of a whole quilt made from the block - some awesome secondary patterns developing and a wonderful block for using up scraps. 

Today is the 20th day of the challenge and T sees the completion of the 4th row of the A to Z quilt. Here is what we have so far

S is for Sailboat

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

Sailboat is another pattern from Quilter's Cache and can be found here It is listed as a traditional pattern and an internet search turned up a lot of patterns called Sailboat, or a variation of it. And there were lots of different ones. I didn't see the version from Quilter's Cache turn up else where but there were a number of similar themed ones. The Quilter's Cache version was an "on point" version. 

This was the more common version to be found

or variations of it such as this one

All of the version used a combination of half square triangles and squares to complete the design.

I wasn't overly happy with the way mine turned out... it was very bland and doesn't show up well in the photograph which was a bit washed out.

The version shown on Quilter's Cache was very dramatic when put together in a table runner and would be very striking in a whole quilt

R is for Red Cross

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

Red Cross is a traditional quilt block, which has a number of variations on the same theme. There are also a lot of blocks that are called Red Cross which are very different from each other. Being the name of a famous organisation a number of blocks have been named in its honour (I presume). They are usually self descriptive, ie a block that has a red cross in it! The pattern I used came from Quilters Cache here .

I found one very similar to it on Jenny Beyer's website here. It used mitred corners in it (I avoid this particular technique as I haven't really mastered it)

This is mine. Just to be a rebel I didn't make it in red!

The whole quilt made from the red cross quilt block looked really boring to me. The overall design  achieved could have been as easily achieved by cutting strips and squares. I thought it was nothing and certainly won't be going onto my must do list 

Q is for Quatrefoils

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm sewing a patchwork block for each letter of the alphabet. Each day I will share that block and a little about the block and direct you to where you can find a tutorial for that block on the Web.

I hadn't heard of this block before choosing it for this challenge however it is marked in the Quilters Cache as being a traditional block and when doing a web search I found a number of articles about it and a YouTube video on making it. I found someone's pinterest board on the block here.  

The pattern for this block can be found on Quillter's Cache here The pattern is for a 9" block but I wanted a 12" block so increased the sizes of the units I cut. Instead of 2" squares I cut 2.5" and instead of 3.5" squares I cut 4.5" squares.

This is the youtube video for making the block.

Here's a diagram of a  quilt made using the quatrefoil block