This is a very special quilt, perhaps the closest to my heart! I started making it in February this year, as a Valentine’s Day challenge entry for my facebook quilting group, Desi Quilters. I had just managed to get the pieces ready for English paper piecing, when my daughter fell seriously ill.
She was hospitalized for 2 months, when there was someone very special who gave us faith she and we would come out of it, stronger than before.
“Cruel harsh winter
Ablaze with flowers of hope.
Summer’s in my heart.”
The unfinished pieces lay there forlorn and rolled up, to emerge in September, for yet another group challenge, ‘Flowers’. Finally completed, here it is.
Flowers of Hope – Small Quilted wall hanging
This piece is also special, because it is the first time I tried free motion quilting, quite successfully, I thought!
Back of Quilt
(The use of the lighter brown in the bobbin case was not intentional – I just ran out of the darker thread :-p)
I added a few French knots to give some dimension to the flowering trees.
Today we are faced with yet another situation where we need strength and hope, lots of it!
My faith continues to give me belief we shall overcome this too! “…but winter always turns to spring. Never, from ancient times on, has anyone heard or seen of winter turning back to autumn. ” Nichiren Daishonin
And so,
बीहड़ उजाड़ मन.
गुलमोहर अमलतास बन
झूमी आस किरन…
My online quilting forum Desi Quilters’ monthly challenge for January was to come up with a quilted wall-hanging for my sewing place with text in it! And the entries were to be anonymous too – for the group.
I thought long and hard and hit upon hippie art, very popular when I was growing up! And I had the perfect fabric for it, with bright flowers and paisleys! The text had to be pieced according to the challenge rules, and what word better than `PIECE’ to piece? I love playing around with words, so the first part of the quilt was designed with a peace symbol! I used Elizabeth Hartman’s (of Oh,Fransson!) method to piece the text, using lightweight stabilizer – the pieces are ready at 1/2″.
Peace / Piece Block 10″X 17″
For the pieced ring border of the Peace symbol, I did something I thought was super clever! I’ll talk about that later! I quilted this block with a kind of paisley pattern in contrasting yellow and pink , using the walking foot. I quilted as I went (QAYG), as I had long wanted to try this method ! (Also, wanted the quilt to be be in an almost- ready position to be submitted at the deadline, in case I could not complete all the blocks 😉 !)
When we were teenagers, a favourite doodle was a name or slogan written in a circle in this `font’! ( We were all in love with Rhett Butler of Gone with the Wind, so our rough notebooks were full of imaginatively decorated doodles of `Rhett’ in circles and hearts!) So this bit of art was a must for my quilt! After much brainstorming, I hit on SEWL – a play on SOUL! (DH thinks the word-play is incomprehensible; I am quite proud of it, sew there!) So in went the `SEWL’ into a circle with rays radiating from it.
Soul / Sewl Block 17″ X 17″
To construct the rays block, I used an 18″ square freezer paper. I marked the centre of the paper and drew drew three concentric circles, at 5″, 7″ and 9″ . A protractor was used to draw the rays – there are 24 rays in all, 15 degree angles. I pieced the block in halves, using the freezer paper technique, folding away each ray as I pieced it. I wish I had taken pictures 🙁
Now came the brilliant part (IMNSHO – where H stands for humble!) I cut out the smaller ring (5′ inner and 7″ outer radius) and used it to border my `PEACE’ symbol! This ring had to be raw edge appliqued.
The rays were ready to be used as the background on which I appliqued the SEWL circle, after turning in the edges. I fussy cut the highlighter fabric to decorate the block, using raw edge machine stitched applique. I quilted around this applique to highlight and raise it, but this was a disaster of sorts! It made the work look terribly untidy. 🙁
So I had PIECE and I had SEW, but wanted something more! After browsing through hippie slogans a hundred times, the brain wave struck…tranquility! So the final block was designed.
Tranquility / Tranquilty block 27″ X 11″
For this block, I was inspired to attempt Chenille quilting, explained so beautifully by by the talented quilter Vani Roy in a Chenille Quilt Along on the Desi Quilters’ facebook forum. The block was designed as a long narrow horizontal panel below the other two blocks, to give a feeling of expansiveness. The oversized full moon linked up the three blocks. I also wanted to add a bodhhi tree, but TRANQUILTY is a huge (pseudo)word! I quilted the whole text, and fused the letters QUILT on it. I did minimum quilting on this block, because I did want it to look to busy. The wall hanging is now a perfect size for my sewing corner!
Hippie Art Quilt – ready for my sewing Corner
Do feel free to make your own wall quilt inspired by my quilt! But I would love it if you would link back your quilt to me 🙂
The four- patch block is certainly versatile! I recently had the occasion to make several 9 square patch and 4 patch square blocks…
I saw and followed from YouTube an easy and quick method for the basic nine patch block and decided to adopt and adapt it for the four patch!
This method gives you perfect four- patches, points matched just so! and a pair each time! It is also great to use with pre-cut squares, such as charm squares or layer cakes.
So here we go!
Since I had several 4-patch blocks to make ( ready 2.5 ” square) so I started with two strips, one black and one white, which were 3.5″ wide. Remember, cut your strips just one inch wider than the size of the ready block.
If you want a single pair of 4 patch blocks 2.5″ square, begin with squares 3.5″…
Begin with strips 1′ wider than your ready block
2. Join the strips along the longer edges ( both sides!)
1/4″ seam along both long edges
3. Cut the joined strips at 3.5″ intervals. ( size of ready block plus 1′)
Cut into 3.5″ squares ( or ready plus 1″)
If you wanted a single pair of blocks, you would have this at the end of the first step! That is, you would have started with 2 squares of 3.5″ and sewed along opposite sides as above…
Similarly, if you were working with pre-cuts, this is where you would be after joining a pair of charm s or layer cakes along opposite sides.
4. Slice through each block as shown, parallel to the seams.
Cut each piece along centre, parallel to the seams
Here instead of measuring 1.75″ from the edge of the fabric, measure 1.5″ from the seam to find the centre!
5. Open and press towards the darker fabric! Or the light! (Just be consistent about which side you press them on) Or, press open your seams, if you like. (I don’t! 🙁 )
Seams pressed towards dark fabric
6. Place the pieces in pairs, right sides facing. Black on white and white on black!
Pair the pieces, right sides inside and opposite colours facing each other
7. Pile them, dark piece away from you, and seam towards the machine. This helps the seams of the top and bottom pieces `butt’ against each other, and you get a perfect corner!
Join the pairs as shown.
Stitch all the patches on one side, without cutting the thread!Flip over, sew along opposite side! Chain piecing makes things move fast!
8. Now snip the chain links to separate the pieces, and we are almost there!
Cut along the centre line of each piece
9. Abacadabra! We are there!
Open to reveal perfect four patch blocks!
Impossible for the blocks not to be perfect 🙂
You shall have two sets of blocks. With the seam on the right, one set shall have white on the top and the other shall have black on the top. This is unimportant, except the slight adjustments required when making larger blocks from these.
Two sets of blocks
11. One little step more, my favourite! 🙂
Flip the block to the wrong side, and use your ripper to rip those few stitches in the centre. Finger press the seams in a whirl …this reduces bulk!
Whirl in the centre
And here is your 4-patch
Done!
This method is particularly useful when you have several 4-patches to make as in a border. It prevents fabric from getting distorted along the longer edge and is great if you like working on minis!
Here are a few quilts where I have used 4-patch blocks!
Four patch border on a queen size quilt4-patch on a miniature QuiltSixteen 4-patches were used to make this chessboard.
And how many basic 4-patches in this work in progress?
And this – it was foundation pieced! I did the y-seams by hand. Probably need to rip the bottom right corner, and re-sew it! The pieces were already cut and yet it took more than four hours to construct! I am tired 🙁 And I hate paper foundation piecing – keep getting confused how the next piece will be sewed on! Next time, shall English paper piece. Equally accurate and less taxing on my ageing brain.
Just takes 2 Block 40
Decided to clean the blocks of stray threads and iron them when I am ready to join them!
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