Iris Quilts

NATIONAL QUILT MUSEUM * BLOCK OF THE MONTH

2/22/2021

N.Q.M. B.O.M. ROUND 3 - Block 2

Like I said before, as if I don’t already have enough projects going, I’ve decided to take part in the block of the month program that is being hosted by the National Quilt Museum on Facebook. Here is my finished block for the second part of the block of the month program. I am not a pictorial quilter by nature so I was not super excited about this block at first but I finally wrapped my mind around it and this is the result.

Another aspect of this block that didn’t align with me was that I was put off by the free cutting of curves and trying to blindly match them back together again. My background is in dressmaking and we rely heavily upon notches or hash marks that we use to match up seams. If one does not accurately match a curved seam line you end up with pleats and wrinkles as many of you have experience. After giving it some thought I decided to create this block using techniques that I was comfortable with and felt we're more technically accurate. It's in my nature to pay attention to the details.

The first thing I did was break out some paper and draft a square that was 14 in. I then used the golden ratio to decide where the horizon would be. After that I again applied the golden ratio to find the shoreline. If you've never worked with the golden ratio I recommend that you spend afternoon googling it and learning about how it can improve the visual impact of your art work.

Then I broke out my flexible ruler. I used to do a lot of pattern making when I made clothes and I invested in a curve ruler to help me with drafting a sleeve that matched the armhole of a bodice. I started with a curved line in the sky to create the illusion of hazy horizon line clearing out to the broader sky. The location for this line was also found using the golden ratio. For the rest of the curved lines in the water I used the same curve that I used in the sky but flipped it and rotated it each time so that it was a new iteration of the original curve.

Next I drafted the shoreline and the layers of the beach by giving the ruler a gentle tug so that the curved line used along the shoreline and the beach would be a gentler version of the same curve used in the water and the sky. This acts as a repeat on a theme which helps to increase the visual impact of the design. When I was done I drew registration marks at the peaks and valleys and halfway between those on all the curves. I then used my flexible ruler to trace off patterns of these same curves and add a quarter inch seam allowance at the same time because the ruler is quarter inch wide.

For my palette I fished through my stash of hand dyed fabrics that I had created and I utilized a couple of my focus fabrics to keep the theme consistent. Here is my selection of fabrics.

I used each pattern piece to cut the fabrics for this block. As I did I used transfer paper to mark the seam line and the registration marks on the wrong side of the fabric. Having visible seam lines was helpful so that when I pinned the fabrics together I was able to take a very small bite of fabric right on the seam line. This helps to achieve accuracy when sewing the two curves together. It's very effective for avoiding pleats.

After piecing the whole thing together I hung it on a wall and looked at it and tried to decide what I wanted to add to the scene. I decided that I didn't want anything added to the scene because I thought that the curved lines along with the circle for the moon/sun looked like an abstract interpretation of the beach. And then use my walking foot to add echo quilting to enhance the piece. I'm very happy with how my block turned out.

I'm looking forward to seeing what block is next in the for this block of the month quilt. I'm having a lot of fun!

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National Quilt Museum * Block of the Month

1/19/2021

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N.Q.M. B.O.M. Round 3 - Block 1

As if I don’t already have enough projects going, I’ve decided to take part in the block of the month program that is being hosted by the National Quilt Museum on Facebook. What can I say the first block, a set in circle, looked like it would be fun to make and I decided to give a whirl?

I've seen comments from folks asking how people put together fabrics that they're going to use for this block of the month. This is my selection of fabrics for round three. I started with a collection of fabrics that I had procured many years ago when I worked at a fabric store. I'll never admit to how many years they have been in my stash. Finally they're being put to use!

The first image shows the focus fabrics that I had from that collection. I went through my stash and pulled out all the blender and tonal fabrics that I had that went with the colors representative of this collection. The result of this is the second image.

My next step was to go through my stash and pull out any other prints that might compliment the blenders and tonals that I had gathered together. You can see this in the first image. The second image shows all the multi colored prints that I have gathered for this project.

I’ll probably add more fabrics to my palette of fabrics before I get to the last block. It doesn’t matter how much fabric we have in our stash we can always use more light and dark valued fabrics to make block designs pop.

If you are going to take part in this project, I have some advice that I'd like to share with you. First, if you've never done a set in circle or you haven't made one in a while, you should watch some videos on YouTube about this technique before attempting it. I also recommend that you have a stylus to help you manipulate the top layer of the circle as you sew. I like to use a large porcupine quill. It's not only much more versatile than other stylus options it's also pretty cool having an 8" porcupine quill in your possession.

Next, this BOM quilt is a quilt as you go project. So if you do decide to take part in the BOM be sure to extend the dimensions of your block by at least an 1" to compensate for the shrinking that happens when you quilt.

Finally, after your done quilting you're going to want to bury your thread ends. The best tool for making this job enjoyable, yes I said enjoyable, is a spiral eye needle. This makes it quicker to thread the needle when you bury the stitches. You can find one on Google if you search. Also there are lots of videos on YouTube that show you how to bury your thread ends.

I hope that you feel inspired by this post. Please let me know what you’re working on or are looking forward to working on.

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A New Perspective on Quilting- Quilting with Jose Part 1

10/5/2018

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Quilting with Jose – A New Perspective on Quilting

Last year I had the pleasure of helping my daughter’s boyfriend, Jose, to create a baby quilt for his sister’s baby. Jose is a real renaissance man. He can sew, fix cars, build motorized bicycles and improve our camping experience to almost glamorous levels. He can do almost anything he wants without help from me. So when he came to me to ask for help making a bay quilt for his new nephew, I was flattered.
I explained the basics to him about color and value and showed him how to use my Electric Quilt program (EQ). To keep things simple I recommended a rail fence pattern but to keep it interesting I suggested a four rail fence block.
Next I suggested that he use a color palette that included warm & cool colors and contrasting colors. We both agreed that this combination would make for a stimulating quilt for a child to look at. Jose decided that he liked purple and orange. So we added in the complement for purple which is yellow and the complement for orange which would be blue. To help lessen the intense vibration hat complementary colors can create I recommended that Jose use a cool orange to complement the warm blue and a cool purple to complement the warm yellow.
Here was Jose’s first idea for the design. We both agreed that the yellow and orange zig zags competed too much with each other.

So Jose decided to keep the yellow fence and use blue for his other fence. Which we both liked a lot.

Now that he had decided on the color palette I let him go through my stash to find fabrics that matched the EQ representation of the design. Here is the final quilt.

We had so much fun that we intend to make another quilt together for one of his friend’s baby girl. So stay tuned for more quilting with Jose.

Thanks for visiting my blog and happy quilting to you! Janice

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QUILTMAKER'S BLOG TOUR - 100 DESIGNER BLOCKS VOL. 16

11/17/2017

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Block # 1553 Crossroad Pyramids

Hello my quilting friends and welcome to another stop on The Quilting Company's Quiltmaker 100 Block Road Rally Blog Tour! I'm glad you have managed to travel this far and come visit my blog. I hope you're not too dusty from your travels. Here's my block, Crossroad Pyramids. I’m very excited to have a block featured in Volume 16 of Quiltmakers 100 Block Challenge!

I'm also excited to tell you that you can become the proud owner of your very own copy of this wonderful resource courtesy of the folks at Quiltmaker. I hope you're as excited as I am. Please read to the end to find out how you can get your copy. This offer has ended. Congratulations to Renee A.!

The inspiration for this block is fairly obvious, it’s the pyramids of Giza found in Egypt. I’ve always have been fascinated with Egypt ever since the King Tutankhamun exhibit came through the United states when I was a kid.

As usual I turned to my trusty EQ quilt design software to get things started and the block below on the left is what I came up with. Then I took another look at the block and I wondered what would happen if I used striped fabric in the place of the medium value. The block below on the right is the result. I rotated the stripe so that they all met in the middle. Now that things were moving along nicely it was time to pick out some fabrics to use.

I dug out a bunch of directional and striped fabrics from my stash to audition for the block. It was important to consider the scale of the printed fabric in relation to the size of the finished unit. The block wouldn't look the way I intended if the texture of the print is too large to fit into the finished unit.

To help me make that decision I had to cut an audition window from a piece of white paper at the finished size. Since this was going to be a 12” block the unit's the finished size would be 1 ½” x 1 ½”. Here are the contestants for the block as seen through the audition window.

As you can see some of the other choices would have worked out well others not so well. I decided to use the brown stripe for the block. If you use a stripe it’s important to starch the heck out of the fabric before cutting into it. This will help you to control the bias. If working on the bias freaks you out then try to find a stripe that is printed on the diagonal. That way the sides of the square will be on the straight grain when you cut your units out.

Let’s talk some more about scale. I knew that I would need to make up a baby quilt for a shower this past July. I decided to use this block, made at a larger size, for the quilt. My idea was that the block would be enlarged to 40” x 40”, which gave me a finished unit size of 5” x 5” for the square containing the stripe. Let’s go back and see what these fabrics would look like in a 5” square unit. I cut both a 5” and 1 ½” square so that you could see the difference between the two at the same time.

I decided to use the pink wavy stripe for the baby quilt. Even though it’s not a true linear image I thought it would make a funky quilt for a bay to stare at. I even did a mock up of the quilt in EQ before making the quilt. Here they both are; the EQ representation and the finished quilt.

Alright now that we have gone over all the choices for the stripe and I’ve shown you the finished quilt, let’s talk about turning this into a rectangular quilt. If you add a row of Flying Geese across opposite ends of the quilt/block we end up with a lovely rectangular design. It’s just that easy!

Now let’s travel a little farther down the road and see what else we can do with this design. Here is the design using a palette of purple tonals and blenders from the EQ library. The first design, starting on the left, uses just three values. If we add some gradient values of purple, for the wings of the geese, to the palette we can get a gradient affect starting with dark valued center and lighter values when we get to the outer edges. The last example shows the reverse gradient.

Alright, you have traveled with me this far, how about one more variation of what you can do with this block. Here’s a four block quilt shown in the purple palette. One has the three valued block and the other uses the gradient block option. Both quilts have sahing to set off the blocks.

Well, I hope you found this blog interesting. For a chance to win a copy of Quiltmakers 100 Block Challenge Volume 15, please leave me a comment below. Let me know how you feel about working with fabric cut on the bias or what you think of my post. I always try to respond to comments but there are so many during the blog tour that I don’t always accomplish my goal. So please forgive me in advance.

I’d also appreciate it if you would visit my Facebook page and click like. Also, please consider signing up for my email list. I promise that the email list is for my use only. I send out emails when I have something exciting to share with you, like a new blog post or a free pattern. This offer has ended. Congratulations to Renee A.! Thank you for visiting!

Happy Quilting, Janice

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QUILTMAKER'S 100 DESIGNER BLOCKS VOL. 16

11/13/2017

6 Comments

ROAD RALLY BLOG TOUR FOR VOL. 16 START'S TODAY!

Today is the start of the Quiltmaker Road Rally Blog Tour! For more information about the Road Rally check out their blog at Quilty Pleasures. Be sure to visit them every day as they will be featuring different blocks each day and giving away lots of goodies. Please be sure to come back here on Friday, November 17, 2017. That's my featured block day. On Friday I will tell you how you can become the proud owner of a copy Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 16.

Have a great day and happy quilting! Janice

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FREE PATTERN FRIDAY - OCTOBER 2017 - WHIRLPOOLS

10/20/2017

3 Comments

Hello Quilting Friends,

Here is the next offering for my special give away, Free Pattern Friday. I am offering this pattern for free and it will be available until I post the next one. Then it's gone! So make sure you get your copy.

You may also want to sign up for my mailing list. That way you’ll never miss an update to my blog. I promise never to sell your name to anyone. I will only ever use it to let you know about what’s going on at my website.

Here is this month’s free pattern, Whirlpools. This design was originally published in Quiltmaker magazine for May/June 2016. Click on either of the images below if you would like to read about how this design was developed.

In this blog I want to discuss value some more. I want to talk about why it’s important to have the right combination of fabrics values for your quilt design. By taking the extra time to find the right fabric values for your design you will be able to make a quilt that has the right amount of contrast between the light, medium and dark fabrics so that the finished design has the good visual movement.

If the values are too close between adjoining patch work pieces then the design will be washed out. You will lose part of the visual element that would have created the movement within your design. For the Whirlpools quilt design you need three values of Blue; light, medium and dark plus a green and a white accent. All three of the blue fabrics come in contact with each other therefore good contrast is very important.

In the sample below we have the original block with the correct amount of contrast between the three blues. There is enough definition for you to see the visual movement that I desired. You can see new elements come to life when the blocks are joined and rotated.

Now let’s make the medium blue a bit lighter in value than it is and see what happens when we look at the quilt. As I see it, the loss of contrast between the medium and light blue patch work pieces affects the motif that is created at the center of four blocks when they are joined. As you can see the element isn’t as defined as it was when the medium blue was a deeper value. We also lose the dynamic between the medium blue and the green accent fabric.

If we make the medium blue even lighter, we completely lose the element where the four blocks join and therefore the reason for having a medium value in the first place. The same is true in relation to the pairing of the medium blue with the green accent. You almost can’t tell the light blue from the medium.

Here is a comparison of the three examples as you would see them in the finished quilt. This should drive home the importance of good value contrast.

There are tools that will help you to discern the value of a fabric. You need a color filter and a gray scale value card. The color filters come in green and red. You use the red filter when working with cool colors and the green when you are working with warm colors. Since most of us work with a combination of the two, you will probably want to have both filters.

As you look at the fabric through the filter you place the value card near the fabric and move it around the values until you find the one that matches yours. The great thing about working with these tools is that eventually you will start to discern the value of the fabric without the red or green filter. I have these tools available at my ETSY shop for purchase. Click here to visit my shop.

I hope you’re excited and feeling inspired by my post and the pattern I have offered you. I can’t wait to see what your version will look like! Please send me a photo of it when you have completed yours. And don’t forget to leave a comment. You can find the link for this pattern below.

Please share this pattern with your friends by giving them the link so that they can visit my website and download it themselves. I've worked hard to give you this gift, so I kindly ask that you do not copy this pattern in hard copy or as a digital file.

I hope you have a happy day full of quilting! Namaste my quilting friend, Janice

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FREE PATTERN FRIDAY - AUGUST 2017 - BLUE WILLOW QUILT DESIGN

8/18/2017

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Hello Quilting Friends,

Here is the next offering for my special give away, Free Pattern Friday. I am offering this pattern for free and it will be available until I post the next one. Then it's gone! So make sure you get your copy. You may also want to sign up for my mailing list. That way you’ll never miss an update to my blog. I promise never to sell your name to anyone. I will only ever use it to let you know about what’s going on at my website.

Here is this month’s free pattern, Blue Willow. This design was originally published in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting March/April 2014 issue. In this blog I want to discuss the importance of value placement within your design. An understanding of value placement will help you to make a quilt that has the light, medium and dark fabrics where they need to be to achieve the look that you desire.

This quilt was made with fabric from Quilting Treasures Blue Moon collection. This group was great to work with because it consisted of a full scale of 10 values from light to dark. This was accomplished through the clever distribution of the texture used in the motif of each fabric print. The visual texture was achieved with blue printed onto white fabric.

Usually I work with a standard grey scale progression from black through a variety of greys to white when I design. Whenever I work on a new design I always consider value placement carefully. The placement of light and dark is what creates the pattern that our eyes perceive. I can’t stress enough how wonderful it was to work with a group of fabrics where someone took the time to create a near perfect progression of printed fabric textures ranging from light to dark.

For this design I used 10 values (10 fabrics) in total. It may seem like a lot of fabrics to gather together, but when you see what it looks like with less values you’ll understand why you will want to take the time to collect all the values you’ll need to complete this quilt as designed. I’ll go through a few variations where I decrease the number of fabrics used so that you can understand how more values (fabrics) can improve the look of a design.

The original design uses 10 values. I’ll start by changing the binding to match the last border. It may seem like a little thing to change but having a binding that contrasts with the last border adds a nice accent to the overall design. The next thing I’ll tweak are the light valued fabrics. In this design there are three light valued fabrics. I’m going to replace two of them with the third. This results in a design that uses 7 different values. Here is a look at both the original design and the new variation. I’ve also included a close up for detail.

Next I’ll tinker with the medium values used in the interior of the quilt. There is a swirl and a floral used to frame the light value portions. I’m going to change the floral one to match the swirl. I’m still using the floral in the border but not the interior. This creates a flatter image. The depth created by the use of the second medium valued fabric is missing. Here is the result below.

The design has two dark fabrics used in the blocks that create depth just like the medium valued fabric did. I’m going to remove the second dark fabric and use only one dark fabric in the design. We are now down to 7 values used in the interpretation of this design. Here is what that looks like.

Finally I’ll change the tile motif in the middle of the block to match the inner border. Now we are down to 6 values used in the design. I think that the design loses some of its sparkle when the palette is pared down to almost half of the number we started with. Here’s the result. You can decide for yourself how it makes you feel when less fabrics are used to interpret the design.

I hope you’re excited and feeling inspired by this pattern I have offered you. I can’t wait to see what your version will look like! Please send me a photo of it when you have completed yours. And don’t forget to leave a comment. That way I know I’m not alone here. : )

This pattern is available from download from my ETSY Shop. Click here to purchase this pattern.

I hope you have a happy day full of quilting! Namaste my quilting friend, Janice

1 Comment

FREE PATTERN FRIDAY - JUNE 2017 - OVER UNDER QUILT DESIGN

6/16/2017

2 Comments

Hello Quilting Friends,

Here is the next offering for my special give away, Free Pattern Friday. Once a month, on a Friday, I will make a pattern available as a free PDF download. The pattern will be available until I post the next one. Then it's gone! So make sure you download your copy today.

You may also want to sign up for my mailing list. That way you’ll never miss an update to my blog. I promise never to sell your name to anyone. I will only ever use it to let you know about what’s going on at my website.

This month’s design was originally created for Fons & Porter’s Easy Quilts fall 2014. If you’d like to read my original blog post for this design click here.

The original design was a 46” x 62” lap sized quilt. I decided to scale it down to a crib sized quilt measuring 40” x 54”. I got rid of the extra row of blocks across the length and width. I like this smaller size better. It feels like a better size for a small child to drag around. I feel that it’s important for a child to actually enjoy the quilt that a loved one made for them. Rather than having it hung on the wall as a decoration. Let me know what your feelings are on this subject, if you please.

When this design was originally published Fons & Porter deemed this design to be a great choice for their Quilts for Kids program because meets all of their guidelines. Plus it’s quick to make. The best part is that the yardages are relatively small. So you probably have all of the fabrics that you need in your stash. Better still because this design uses 2.5" wide units it's perfect for precuts!

I made a new version of this quilt for the daughter of a friend of mine. I invited him to choose the colors. He and his wife decided on green & purple. I decided to use black as the background color to set off the bright colors. My friend is a tattoo artist so I felt he and his wife would appreciate the avant-garde coloring of the baby quilt, which they did.

I want to show you how different this design can look when you change the value placement. Each of the following variations are shown with their corresponding greyscale value placement map. These maps will help you to identify what values you should use for each part of the block. They also will help show you how to arrange the blocks for each layout. The yardages shouldn't be too different but I would buy a little extra just to be safe.

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FREE PATTERN FRIDAY - MAY 2017 - Panel Quilt DESIGN

5/12/2017

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This month’s design was created to find a way to make use of a beautiful panel I bought at a quilt show. The panel features The Flower Fairies of Cicely Mary Barker (CMB). Which are fairies that represent different trees and flowers. Cicely Mary Barker first published her fairies starting in 1923. Since then they have taken on a life of their own and their popularity continues today. You can learn more about Cicely Mary Barker by visiting her Wikipedia page. If you’d like to learn more about her Flower Fairies and become a part of the online community, click here to visit the webpage.

I’ve been a fan of CMB and her Flower Fairies since I first learned about them back in the eighties. I have acquired a few collectibles featuring her fairies over the years. At some point I started to come across CMB Flower Fairies printed on quilting cotton. These were repeated prints of various motifs and scales. The Flower Fairy fabrics are printed by Michael Miller Fabrics and have a lovely coordinating blender group known as Fairy Frost. Click here to see their collections.

I also noticed the Flower Fairy panels that were being sold in my local quilt shops. I’ve been tempted to buy one but I didn’t want to deal with the challenge of finding a good design layout for using the panel. The patterns available that I had seen for using panels didn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. I can’t explain it, they just didn’t do it for me. So I knew that I would have to come up with my own design if I bought a panel, therefore I never bought one.

Then one day I came upon the Night Fairies. Oh be still my heart, I loved the colors and had to have it! So now I was the proud owner of a panel and had to find a nice simple yet effective design for this panel. I didn’t want to get too crazy with the extra components. So I decided to add a column of small blocks to the sides of the panel to give a bit more width.

My panel was the full width of the fabric, 42” long and 21” wide. I decided that I should start by adding coping strips to the top and the bottom of the panel to increase the length to a length that would be equal to the multiple of the size of the border blocks.

Let me break that down for you. I knew I wanted a small sized block for the block border that I planned to place alongside the panel. I decided to use a 5” block for the border assembly. If I divide 42 by 5, the sum is 8 with a remainder of 2. Now I needed to round up to the next whole number and make it 45. When I divide 45 by 5 I get 9. So that means I will need nine blocks at 5” square for both block borders. Since there are two block borders I need a total of 18 blocks.

The coping border strips that I would add to the top & bottom of the panel would increase the length to match the 45” measurement I came up with. There is more information and an explanation of this calculation in the pattern.

You can use any block you want but I decided that since I was dealing with frolicking fairies, I wanted a ribbon border. I almost sure that the frolicking fairies were asking for a ribbon border and I was able to hear them. A mock ribbon border is created when you join what I call “envelope” blocks together as shown below. As you can see every other block is rotated 180 degrees so that the small light valued triangles meet.

I created my ribbon border to look as if it was a light and medium valued ribbon laying on a dark background. You can create an alternate look by switching the placement of the values in the ribbon. By rotating the blocks to have the small dark triangles meet you get the opposite result; a dark and medium valued ribbon laying on a light background.

The key to the success of an illusion of a ribbon is in keeping the values of the ribbon triangles close to each other and separate, visually, from the background. I’m working with three values; light, medium and dark. To give the ribbon visual continuity I needed to use the dark & medium values together or the light & medium values together as shown in the examples above.

If you try to make the ribbon from the light & dark values and place it on the medium background they fight with each other and you lose the visual illusion of a ribbon. Check out these examples below. They’re not horrible but I think the other examples above look better.

Now let’s play! I’m going to show you how this looks using a really cute Halloween collection called Creepy Hollow from Quilting Treasures. Here are two examples that demonstrate both ribbon border value placements. As with the original Fairy Frolic design I used fabric for the panel coping strips that matched the rest of the inner border fabric.

The panel for this collection does continue from one selvedge edge to the other but the main parts of the design fill a smaller area than the fairy panel. Therefore it looks as if another fabric had been added to the panel along with the panel coping borders to give it the right length. I think it looks really cute! If you like it too and are looking for Creepy Hollow fabric here is a link to Google shopping for the collection.

Continuing with this discussion of the coping borders, I want to point out that the fabric you use for that part of the design does not have to match the fabric used for the inner borders. Also, if your panel is shorter than my fairy panel you would resolve this by cutting the coping borders at a wider dimension. The calculation for this is included in the pattern.

The coping strips in these two examples are occupied by dancing skeletons on an orange background. In both of these the coping border is cut very wide to compensate for the lack of length in the panel design. Once again I’m showing two examples that demonstrate both ribbon border value placements. First the dark & medium values together and then the light & medium values together.

I hope you’re excited and feeling inspired by my post and the pattern I have offered you. I can’t wait to see what your version will look like! Please send me a photo of it when you have completed yours. And don’t forget to leave a comment. That way I know I’m not alone here. : ) You can find the link for this pattern below.

This pattern is available from download from my ETSY Shop. Click here to purchase this pattern.

I hope you have a happy day full of quilting! Namaste my quilting friend, Janice

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QUILTMAKER'S BLOG TOUR - 100 DESIGNER BLOCKS VOL. 15

5/4/2017

211 Comments

Block # 1412 Mock Maltese Cross

Hello Quilting friends! Welcome to my blog for the Quiltmaker Road Rally! Here's my block, Mock Maltese Cross. I’m very excited to have a block featured in Volume 15 of Quiltmakers 100 Block Challenge!

I'm super excited this time because my block is on the cover! You can see it to the left of the list of names, at the very top. To celebrate I will be giving away a copy of the issue. I'll also be giving away a second copy courtesy of the folks at Quiltmaker. I hope you're as excited as I am. Please read to the end to find out how you can get your copy. This offer ended midnight Sunday, May 7.

Congratulations to our winners Luiza G. from Brazil & Terri N. from Iowa, USA.

The folks at Quiltmaker will be featuring different blocks each day. They will also have some great daily prizes and a grand prize drawing at the end of the tour. Click here to visit their Quilty Pleasures blog and learn more.

I want to share the story of my block with you. I belong to a quilt guild called the Connecticut Piecemakers and every year we have a pot holder exchange at our Christmas holiday luncheon. We make either a holiday themed pot holder or one themed for everyday use. I chose to make a holiday pot holder. When I started to think about a design I thought of poinsettias.

I began by doing a block search for a poinsettia block in my Electric Quilt software (EQ). I found ten choices in my search. The one I chose comes from the Block Base software I purchased from Electric Quilt Company. The block reminded me of Iron cross. The only problem was I was not about to attempt to piece it with a square in the middle as it was shown. No way! I haven't got that kind of patience. I figured I could find an easier way to do it. I really like foundation piecing because of the accuracy that can be achieved. So I altered to the block to suit my needs.

To convert the block I started by setting up my worktable drawing set up with a block size of 6 inches and 48 snap points. I then set the grid to 2 blocks horizontal and vertical. For Snapping Options, I made sure that the “snap to grid points on worktable” button and the “snap to nodes off drawing” button were on.

I selected the block for editing and then clicked the “Easy Draw” tab to edit the block. I then deleted the square in the middle that I didn’t like. I’m only going to work with one quarter of the block so I converted the rest of the lines into guides. Next I converted two of the lines in the point to guides.

I then used the “shape” tool to extend the remaining line to the edge of the block while trying to maintain the same angle as the original point. To do this turn off the “snap to grid points on worktable” button. The reason I did this is because I needed the pattern to be compatible to foundation piecing.

Next I connected the nodes with a line to create the other side of the point. I also added a diagonal line across the points where the square used to be. I then used the “shape” tool to stretch one of the lines on the point heading towards the center. This was also done to facilitate foundation piecing.

Now it was time to complete the block. I clicked “select all’ and opened up the “Symmetry box”. Next I clicked “Clone” and rotated the selection 90 degrees. I then carefully placed the selection so that it connected with the previous image at the node.

Then I zoomed in to center of the block so that I could make sure that the two images had indeed connected at the node. I repeated this step two more times to fill the remaining two quadrants. To complete the block add a horizontal and vertical line to delineate the four quarters. Then I colored the block. I started with a value placement similar to the original block.

Next I played around with the placement of values. I tried out a few variations before making my final choice.

Now that I had made my final decision about value placement it was time to pick out colors.

After I was done I started to realize that my block looked like an Iron cross. I decided to look up the Iron cross on Wikipedia to find out more about the symbol. While reading about its origins I came across a statement that said “It was ultimately derived from the cross pattée occasionally used by the Teutonic Order from the 13th century.” Well what the heck is a “cross pattee” I said to myself? Of course being the history geek that I am, I had to look up “cross pattee” and find out more about this symbol. It was pretty interesting so I’ll attach links for both web pages to the images of the crosses below.

As I was trying to think of a name for my block decided against using the name “Iron Cross” because it has negative connotations. As for calling the block “cross pattee” I wasn’t too keen with the idea either. If a history geek like me had never encountered the word before I didn’t think it would resonate with folks. So I went out on a limb and named it Maltese cross variation even though it doesn’t look exactly like a Maltese cross. My block is a bit of a mix between the two. Just like the cross pattee, on my block, the ends of the four cross points are flat. Yet instead of the sides of the cross points being concave, the sides on my block are straight, just like a Maltese cross.

I have a couple of books that are great resources for quilt block information and ideas; 1000 Great Quilt Blocks by Maggi McCormack Gordon and the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns by Barbara Brackman. The poinsettia block I started with came from the Brackman book. EQ used this book as a reference for their Block Base software. In the 1000 Great Quilt blocks book my block resembles their idea of a Maltese cross. It seems that my interpretation isn’t that far off.

Getting back to the quilt block I want to show you a layout in a queen size with four different color variations. I used a 12” block, in a 6 block x 7 block layout, with a 1.25” inner border and 4” outer border. It finishes at 82.5” x 94.5”.

Well, I hope you found this blog interesting. For one chance to win a copy of Quiltmakers 100 Block Challenge Volume 15, please leave me a comment below. Let me know what you like to read about and or what you think of my post. I always try to respond to comments but there are so many during the blog tour that I don’t always accomplish my goal. So please forgive me in advance.

For a second chance to win a copy of this issue you can sign up for my emails and/or visit my Facebook page and click like. I really appreciate your support. I promise that the email list is my use only. I send out emails when I have something exciting to share with you, like a new blog post or a free pattern. This promotion will run until midnight on Monday, May 8, then I will pick two names at random. Thank you for visiting!

Happy Quilting, Janice

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Block # 1412 Mock Maltese Cross

Janice Averill
West Haven, Connecticut, United states

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N.Q.M. B.O.M. ROUND 3 - Block 2

N.Q.M. B.O.M. Round 3 - Block 1

Quilting with Jose – A New Perspective on Quilting

Block # 1553 Crossroad Pyramids

Block # 1412 Mock Maltese Cross

Janice AverillWest Haven, Connecticut, United states

Categories

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Janice Averill
West Haven, Connecticut, United states