Hot and Cold {do. Good Stitches May}

Finally, a finish! I tend to work in cycles where I work on lots of WIPs then finish them all at once, and this week was full of finishes.  First up is this bright and happy quilt from the NURTURE circle of do. Good Stitches.  This blocks is called a Four Patch Charm Square, you can find my tutorial and links to the original here if you are interested.

I am thrilled to say that this is the first quilt my group has made which will go to Covered in Love, my pet charity giving quilts to the families of patients who pass away in the hospital where I work.

For quilting I did FMQ with ribbon candy-type squiggles in the cool colors and a stipple in the hot colors.

The ladies in my circle did a great job getting their blocks done right and quickly. It's amazing how a quilt made by 10 people can look so cohesive.   The quilt finished at 50"x62".

For backing I used a really bright blue-green print that looks like coral and a strip of bright red. Binding is a crisp, sort of sour-apple green, except for one strip of yellow where I ran out.

So satisfying to see both those label sewn on together. Thank you to the NURTURE circle ladies for supporting Covered in Love, I promise these quilts will be well used.

Linking to CrazyMomQuilts Finish it Friday.

400th Post! (and it's scrappy!)

 My design wall has been humming!  The do. Good Stitches hot and cold blocks were still up there (I am lacking one set to put it together).  I'm still enjoying playing with the design possibilities, too!

I took the hot and cold blocks down so I could start putting up the crumb slabs as I sash them.  I am using my white-ish crumbs mixed with a little of the focal color in each block to border them. FYI the layout will be more random than this, just throwing them up on the wall here.

 
Hoping you have a fun, productive week! I'm linking to Oh Scrap and Design Wall Monday.

do. Good Stitches Design Wall

May is my month again to host the NURTURE circle of do. Good Stitches and the blocks have been coming in!  You can find my tutorial for these hot-and-cold blocks here.

I just put the ones I have so far up on the wall last night to play with different design options. The ladies in my circle are doing a great job with this block, can't wait until I have the whole set to arrange and rearrange!

Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Hot and Cold {May NURTURE circle block}

Hello Good Stitchers! May is my month to create the next block for the NURTURE circle and I completely forgot! Thanks to a couple of you for reminding me!  This month's block is an easy one. Since I forgot and had to make these in a hurry this morning I can tell you from personal experience, it takes less than half an hour to make the whole set.

(edited to add: See the finished quilt here!)

Pic from Tamarack Shack

This month we are making the Four Patch Charm Quilt from Tamarack Shack. You can check out another tutorial for the same block here at Sew Preeti Quilts with a lot of different layout options! There will be a couple of small modifications to the size of blocks, so I am going to adjust the tutorial below.

To start you will need (2) 10.5" squares in cool colors (basically blue and green and their variations) and (8) 5.5" squares in warm colors (red/yellow/orange). Try to choose bright rather than subdued shades and keep it unisex: no purple or pink.

Sew the warm color squares into (2) 4 patches. Whichever fabrics share a seam will end up next to each other in the final block. The fabrics on opposite corners will not be in the same block so you don't need to worry about them playing well together. The final blocks will have bias edges so if you ever use starch now would be a good time. (You can make your own by mixing a little cornstarch in water.)

Place each of the four patches right sides together with one of the cool squares and sew around all four edges. I find I get better results by sewing one edge at a time rather than sewing in a square. Once you have sewn all the way around use a long ruler to cut the blocks corner to corner on both diagonals, making 4 HSTs.

Press your final blocks toward the cool fabric and, yes, use starch again if you have it.  The blocks should finish a right about 7" but don't stress if yours aren't perfect. Once I get them all I will probably trim them down a bit for consistency.

(edited to add: See the finished quilt here!)

You should finish with (8) hot/cold HSTs. With so few blocks it's hard to see the potential design, but you can get the idea. As always, feel free to comment or email me with questions. Thanks ladies!