Have you found your favourite quilt block yet?

I think I should really call this post my Current Favourite Quilt Block.

In the past I would say there is no question that my Simple Bricks pattern was my favourite. I have done tutorials for it and one can be found (here).

Picking a favourite quilt block is really challenging.  Each and every block has something to offer. My current favourite block is Broken Dishes. There is a reason for this. Actually there are a couple of reasons. First of all I hate wasting anything. So those lovely bonus triangles that so many quilters generate need to be made into something.

Secondly, somehow I have acquired a reputation at my Quilt Guild and people give me baggies filled with bonus/waste triangles.

These are just the very tip of the iceberg. So I have an endless supply and I need to do something with them.

Enter the Broken Dishes Quilt Block.

This is a finished broken dishes quilt. It is small, doll size in fact and was donated to the toy drive locally last year.

The Broken Dishes block starts with many, many half square triangles. Since I find I am usually working with bonus/waste triangles that need to be turned into Half Square triangles many of my Broken Dishes blocks are small blocks and I need a lot of them to make something usable. I did once start with yardage and made a table runner with larger components but the picture for that is long gone.

The steps and outtakes for a Broken Dishes quilt block

So for a Broken Dishes block you start with triangles. These are then stitched together with another triangle (background) to make a Half Square Triangle. Once you have four HST's you are going to stitch them together in pairs. The way I remember the orientation of the components that I am stitching together is I say "down and up" So the pattern portion of the HST is facing down and then up. These are stitched together and then pressed open.( I press these to one side myself).  This is a place where you can make an "error".  Note the direction of the seam in the middle of the green and white HST. If you consistently place this facing in the same direction before pressing then the resulting block, when all is said and done, will nest with the next block. For the light green one you can see at the bottom of the first column the seam is at the top and the angle of the seam inside the triangle is moving from upper right towards the lower left. When you press them open you get two segments that look the same (the pink ones). One needs to be rotated as shown in the pair of blue segments. Once stitched together they will give you a wee little block like the black and white one.
On the final column of components I show the "wrong" way to press and the result when you open it up. You can still make a Broken Dishes block but it won't nest nicely with your other blocks. Unless of course you do them all this way.

And finally a photo of three Broken Dishes quilt tops waiting for something to happen to them.

As I look at the photo I am not certain it shows what I am after. The grey top has added sashing between the blocks. The white top I tried to grade the colours from light to dark and the black background shows that they don't always work out the way you think they will. The red print had a lot of black in it and the black and red  sort of blend into each other.

I hope my little explanation has given you enough to go on and that you will look at your bonus triangles in a new light. Thanks so much for dropping by.  Piecefully, Joanne


Be certain to stop by the other participants in the blog hop this week for lots of quilt block ideas.

Monday, September 9th

Just Let Me Quilt

Words & Stitches

VroomansQuilts

PamelaQuilts

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Quilted Delights

Tuesday, September 10th

Quiltscapes

Melva Loves Scraps

Stitchin At Home

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Mary Mack Made Mine
Just Because Quilts

Den syende himmel
Selina Quilts

Wednesday, September 11th

MooseStashQuilting

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Kathleen McMusing

Karrin's Crazy World
April Grace Quilts
Hazel’s Daughter
Seams To Be Sew
Limeleaves

Thursday, September 12th

Websterquilt

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Nutz 4 Redwork
Quiltsbyjoanne
Ms P Designs USA
Pampered Pettit
Hill Valley Quilter

Friday, September 13th

For the love of geese
Life in the Scrapatch

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Alycia Quilts - quiltygirl
Domestic Felicity
The Joyful Quilter
QuiltFabrication
Creatin' in the Sticks

Time for the success stories for the Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge 2019

It is really hard to believe it is time to wrap up this year's Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge. The last few months since this year's information was provided have just flown by.

Thanks again to Sarah for all the incredible work she does behind the scenes to make this annual event run smoothly. The featured shape in the weeks of warm up was the humble rectangle. An oft unappreciated shape in the quilting world but one I happen to love. I had the opportunity to be a guest blogger this year and spent my time on the soap box describing my simples bricks quilts and focussing on what I call simple bricks 3 because it is the third variation of the basic design. If you missed my guest post and the instructions for the simple bricks quilt it can be found here.

https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2019/04/hands2hep-2019-meet-guest-blogger-joanne.html

This is my first completed and donated quilt for this year. It actually changed it's intended destination and went to a charity auction for the Senior's home where my Mom spent her final years. The quilt did well and that makes me happy.

My second finished quilt for the Challenge is one I did as a test for Janet Barker a Canadian designer from Calgary. This one is going to Project Linus through my local quilt guild, the Kincardine Sunset Quilt Guild.

My final donation quilt for the challenge this year is simply titled Ambulance. It is a design done by Lisa at Counted Quilts (here). She has a interesting way of designing that produces a very unique result. This quilt will go to my local Scrap Bag quilters group for distribution in our town.

So overall I am happy with my results this year. Three completions and a couple of different destinations. This is probably the only challenge I do because to me it is so meaningful. If Sarah decides to continue the tradition next year I can say right now "I'm all in". Thanks to all the participants. Piecefully, Joanne

Working towards some finishes

This top has been languishing for some time now. Small rails, 1 1/2" x 3 1/2". The centre's a constant blue with a few reds thrown in, the side rails were shirting samples our Scrapbag group was given. I tidied them up and did this as a Leader and Ender project. Hubby has 4 more quilts pinned and ready for me to quilt so my work is cut out for me.
Of course now that we are in December one does start to look ahead at the coming year. Not certain yet where it will take me but I am signed up for the Fat Quarter Shop's Block of the Month. This is a fund raiser for St. Jude's Hospital. And Jen of Patterns by Jen is doing a colour block of the month. Each month will be different block featuring the colour of the month. It will happen on her blog (here). Piecefully, Joanne
Linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap! (here)

Mini Charm Chocolates QAL my project

I am slowly learning a few more things. I guess as we get older it takes longer. This post was supposed to be up last night but Old Man Winter decided that was not happening and we enjoyed a 16 hour power outage. We had the "good fortune" to be a very small pocket of town out of power and it did not matter as much to us as it did to the Tim Horton's or the only gas station in town. So now on to the quilty content.
I was able to ask for whatever mini charms I wanted to make this quilt. I love the Me and My Sisters designs and since it was for a small quilt I picked Red Dot...Green Dash. Here is where I made my first error. I should have selected something totally different for my background fabric. The overall design of the project gets lost when the background is similar to or matches a couple of your charms.

On the left are my fabric choices. The scale of the design was perfect it was just the too matching background that made the final project lack punch. On the right the first step was really fast stitching your charms together in three's. I had never worked with mini charms before so I can only speak for these but they were spot on 2 1/2" square and a delight to work with.






Once the background pieces are cut the assembly is even faster. Because of my fabric choices I have a lovely quilt but I also have a quilt that does not show the design. This has been washed and is ready to donate. It will go to Project Linus, through my quilt guild, the Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild. To see other examples of this quilt pattern hop on over to the Fat Quarter Shop's Blog (here). You will find complete instructions for a couple of different sizes for this project as well as a video to enhance the instructions and photos of some other fabric combinations that my fellow Quilt Along participants have used for their quilts. Piecefully, Joanne

Mini Charm Chocolates Quilt

New day, new things to do

Yesterday was a tough one but looking on the bright side I did finish my Book so I can go to Book Club and discuss it. I started the day with an email that my best friend had suffered a stroke and finished it with an email that my 100 year old Aunt had passed.
On to quilty things. I taught a Scrap Quilt workshop for my guild on Wednesday afternoon. Not sure I like an afternoon workshop but they were trying it this year. The workshop was just getting underway at nap time. Over the course of this year I have shown a different quilt that uses the brick shape at each monthly meeting. So the workshop was yet another brick friendly quilt. I had a table set up with one of each sample so participants could review the year's collection. And in my handout I provided a link to the source and some places for further exploration. Apparently the concept was popular and next year they would like me to do the same thing but with 5" squares (charms or nickels).
Today is a day for tidying up some scraps and stitching some bindings in place. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap! (here)

Looking forward to Quilt Guild today

Today is Quilt Guild in Kincardine and since the roads were bad last month and we didn't get there I am really looking forward to today. It is the anniversary meeting. I did not live in this part of the province when the guild was formed so do not know many of the people who started the group but I am certainly glad they did.
As part of the program today there is going to be a flimsy parade. Now that is something I could buy into. I have decided to take the flimsy shown here. It is a hexagon sampler I did as a test for Teresa Down Under back in the fall. she has it for sale now as a pattern. It was a lot of fun to put together and totally done from my scrap buckets. Over the summer we did some organizing and the purples and the greens did not get finished so they are each in a bucket. They seem to fluff up when you use something from the bucket as the total amount of fabric does not appear to be reduced.
Piecefully, Joanne


Linking up with Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts for  Let's Be Sewcial (here)

Using the design floor to arrange some bright strings

I do love making string quilts. This one has black centre strings and then every bright bit I could find. And there are enough bright bits to make at least one more just like it.
In a couple of weeks I am away for a few days sewing with my retired friends. I have missed the last two get togethers because I could not travel with my knee. So I am really looking forward to this get together. I arranged these strings and organized the rows so that this could be one of my sewing projects while I am there. Of course I think I already have enough projects packed to sew for a week and a half not four days.
September has been a busy month and it shows no signs of letting up. We had Quilt guild last week and it was great to see all my guild friends again. As usual show and tell was the highlight of the meeting. This year I have offered to do a different brick based pattern for a mini demo each month. I will show these on the blog later this fall. September went well and I am working on the October demo. I have a huge list to draw from and lots of bricks cut. I do scrappy and they expect nothing less. That and sometimes really small. So combining those two things is also expected. Piecefully, Joanne
Linking up with Cynthia at www.quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.ca

From time to time some things do get finished

These three little scrap quilts are ready to donate to the Scrapbag Quilters of Saugeen Shores. . The pieces for the small ones with the green borders came to me as scraps in baggies. They are finished doll quilt size now. The larger quilt is a nice lap size. It was all done as off white/cream with blues. Who knew there were so many blues.  I have four more tops done but do not see how they will get quilted in the next week and a half. The optimist would say it is always nice to have something to look forward to. I will take that rather than the pessimist pointing out they are not finished.
I have enough scrappy windmills completed to assemble another top. They are such addictive Leaders and Enders. I have also been doing some postage stamp squares as Leaders and Enders. They pile up quickly. I plan to link up with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! (here)on Sunday.
It is shaping up to be a busy week. I have a return visit to the hospital for my physio session, I teach a class for my Local Quilt shop, and have quilt guild Wednesday. That is in addition to the normal things that happen around here. Piecefully, Joanne

Thoughts on Leaders and Enders and the 200th post

This little quilt started its life as a leader and ender project. It was a bag of blue and green and white triangles. So first leader/ender task was to make them into half square triangles. That took a while. Then those triangles were grouped into likes and made into pinwheels. Then I looked at them and thought they were too small to do anything with them so added "sides" to make them a little bigger. Each additional piece was added as a leader/ender. I did have the nerve to go back to the person who had given me the original baggie and ask if she had any more pieces that matched to get enough of the right colours and then added from my stash.The borders came from my stash. Sometimes you are saving a piece for some unknown reason. I thought the outer border this time was just right. this is ready to give to Project Linus at our next Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild meeting.
And my thoughts on Leaders and Enders. I prefer not to leave home without them. I have several cut out and in small containers ready to take to workshops or group sewing events.
And if that is not enough excitement for the day according to Blogger this is my 200th post. I think I do repeat myself but my original intent was to record finishes. This year there have been fewer finishes than I would like but there are a ton of tops waiting for their finish. I have a list today for the Scrapbag Quilters to get batting cut. My Bernina has died and I am now learning to use my little Lotus by Elna for the machine quilting. It is not the same but I think we will come to terms with each other.
So thank you followers for taking the ride with me. Piecefully, Joanne
Linking up with cynthia at Quilting is More fun than Housework (here)

Two workshops in less than a week

I had the good fortune to attend a workshop given by Lorna McMahon of Sew Fresh Quilts (here) to the Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild. I was recovering from a bad gut so did not have my usual pep and did leave mid afternoon to drive home but what a fun day. In the photo Lorna and I are holding up a sample of the quilt we worked on. Her original was done in blues and of course with my stash habits blue it was to be. I have all the pieces cut out and two rows stitched together. Lorna did a great job of circulating and making sure everyone was comfortable sewing all those triangles together.
Now with winter  approaching my workshop outings will be limited to my personal sewing room and getting some things finished over the winter. Piecefully, Joanne

Finally something gets finished

This wee little quilt was a paper piecing test for Janeen at Quilt Art Designs (here). I finished it up with a couple of borders and it is now a good enough size for a small Project Linus donation. I was disappointed in my central yellow star because it rather disappears so I stitched around it with a dark orange and it shows up a little more. The border was a scrap piece donated to the Scrap Bag Quilters that I thought was perfect...oranges, limes and lemons.
The daughter of one of the Kincardine Sunset Quilters is quite technically talented and she made labels for us to use on our donation quilts. All we have to do is add the year.
My two other finishes this week will have to wait. One is a pattern that will debut in the Timeless Treasures booth at the spring Quilt Market and the other project will debut as part of the Stripology2 book that is coming out at Spring Market. I merely tested the patterns for the designers. Piecefully, Joanne
Edited to Link up with Cynthia at Oh Scrap!http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.ca/
Edited again to link up with Janeen at Quilt Art Designs http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.ca/

Paducah...what can I say?

What an amazing week! Many highs and a few lows. The Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild left early Wednesday April 22 for Paducah Kentucky. It took us two days to get there. We left the snow behind after the first couple of hours of driving and were treated to beautiful flowering trees, roses in bud, irises, and all manner of spring flowers. (Of course we did return 6 days later to no leaves on the tress, no flowers in bloom and the ice back in at the shoreline).
The group attended the National Quilt Museum (unfortunately my bad gut decided that was a good time to make an appearance). But after that episode I was able to take in most of the rest of the experience. For the quilt show itself I found there were so many amazing quilts it was overwhelming. As any of my blog followers know I am not an art quilter so really felt out of my league. The quilts were beautifully displayed and you could get a good look at them. We went early in the day before it got too crowded.
I got to meet Marie Bostwick at a book signing booth. She was a delight and I purchased her latest book, The Second Sister. I met Shannon of Fabrics 'n Quilts. We were in the same tester group for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine a couple of years ago. She now runs a Scrap Quilt Challenge. Visit her blog or her store web site for further details (http://fabricsnquilts.blogspot.ca/)
Our bus driver was a quilter so we had not trouble convincing her to make a couple of stops at Hancocks of Paducah. Our hotel was actually quit close to Hancock's. Our hotel was the worst thing about Paducah. Our entire bus was made up of non-smokers so it was a horrible shock to find out that our travel company had signed a contract permitting the hotel to put us in smoking rooms. Our poor tour guide was totally blind sided. 10 women from our group went to another hotel altogether for the second and third nights of our stay.
This was likely my last big trip of this kind. I am getting older and the knees don't want to wander around as much as they did a few years ago. The younger ones on the bus were talking about Houston in three years so never say never. Piecefully, Joanne

Leaders and Enders a continuing battle to use up the little bits

I am back to making windmill blocks. This time I decided I should be a little "controlling". So the background pieces are various neutrals in the beige range of colours and the blades for the windmills are blue. Any blue, just need 4 the same, although when I was talking to someone on the weekend she was going to try scrappy blades. I am not certain I am there yet. All my pieces are cut 1 1/2" by 2 1/2". I do have some L&E that I am working with that are 1 1/2" square but I can't bring myself to go any smaller. To do this effectively you need the pieces ready to sew and you must be patient. A few at a time while the main project is happening. Otherwise you have two projects that you are trying to complete.
Today I am packing my suitcase and picking up a few last minute things at the store. Tomorrow the Kincardine Sunset Quilters bus trip to Paducah leaves town. The weather here is looking yechy so I hope we drive out of that. Have checked the Paducah weather and it looks like some rain is in the forecast but milder temperatures than we are having. Looking forward to this great adventure. I just hope my knee holds up. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking with A Quilting Chick for her leader and ender project

Oh Scrap! for the end of March

At the last Sunset Quilters Quilt Guild meeting one of my "regulars" handed me a bag of scraps. Inside were all these lovely triangle pieces. Stop me from myself. I pulled them out and set them beside the machine to sew together as leaders and enders. She had just cut the pieces off  so they were not all uniform in size nor did they have a smooth cut edge. I had been sewing some 1 1/2" squares together and making them into little four patchs to set in the middle square of a square in a square block and the light bulb went on. If I made little pinwheel blocks, squared them up to 2 1/2" then  I could do the same thing. So the sequence above shows the few remaining triangle pieces, a few HST's, One pinwheel block that has been squared to 2 1/2" and then a contrast set of triangles to make a final square in a square block. I will admit I did have the nerve to ask her if she had any strips left that I might be able to use for the outer triangles. I needed 2 2 1/2" squares for each block. She had a couple and I rummaged through my stash. I think I will end up with a nice little quilt out of this exercise.
I taught another class for the new quilt shop this week and took in a sample quilt for another class that will be happening in April. Probably just a little busier than I really need to be these days. Piecefully, Joanne
Linking up with Cynthia at quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com  on Oh Scrap! Sunday afternoon

Another fun Guild meeting and my Project Linus donation for this month

The Kincardine Sunset Quilters guild met this morning. In the winter it is always a worry whether or not we will be able to get there. It was my turn to drive and the weather was OK. It was snowing a little and the plows were out but nothing really bad.
For today, participants were asked to bring their largest quilt or a picture of it. I knew that was not going to be me. I have made about a half dozen queen size quilts but prefer the more manageable sized lap, baby and even up to a double bed size quilt. There were some stunning quilts on display. One member brought a Cathedral window quilt all done by hand while she and her hubby traveled. We broke into small groups to talk about the largest quilt we had made and tips and tricks for doing that. It was very informative. Last fall we were supposed to bring our smallest quilt but that had to be postponed so maybe next year.
Pictured today is the quilt Churnplus that I tested for Jan from the Colorful Fabriholic (here). She does not have a pattern available for this one yet but it is in the works. The directions were very good and there were a few very minor suggestions that I made to help clarify certain portions. I donated this one to Project Linus at the guild meeting today. The daughter of one of our members made us beautiful labels to put on our Project Linus quilts. So I picked up a couple. I am aiming for 10 donated over this guild year. Five done, five to go. Piecefully, Joanne

Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild

The Kincardine guild met this week. I was certainly happy that the highway was not closed the way it was for several days last week. I donated this quilt to Project Linus. Some might call it a scrappy quilt. I was just looking for lights/mediums and darks that would "play nicely together". One of my quilting buddies gave me several of the pieces I was able to incorporate into this quilt. I felt this had a slightly more modern look and might be suitable for a teenager. Project Linus in our area supports children up into their late teens. I have been busy trying to get caught up on things around the house so that when we go on vacation there won't be any nagging things for me to worry about. Piecefully, Joanne
PS Don't forget to stop by Cynthia's blog(here) Quilting is more Fun than Housework, to see what other blogs are doing with their scraps this week.

My recent retreat adventure was productive

My local guild, the Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild, held a retreat last week at Crieff. From past experience I know that mindless is my best option. So I took several bags of blocks that were ready to be assembled into quilt tops. My efforts are shown pinned to the design wall. We had show and tell Wednesday evening. In total I got 7 scrap quilt tops assembled.
Crieff is south of Guelph. The work room is spacious and very well lite. The accommodation is somewhat spartan but the group that runs it makes up for that in the dining room where the food is delicious, plentiful and nutritious and they provide options for most know food allergies and conditions. So whether you are vegetarian, need lactose free or are diabetic they provide for you. Needless to say when the list went around for next year I signed up. Piecefully, Joanne

Sometimes Lightening Strikes Twice

This beautiful display of fabric is the new Tidal Lace line for Windham textiles, coming to a quilt shop near you in January 2015. Why you might ask is it in a photo on my blog??? Well I was, for the second time, allowed the opportunity to make a mini quilt for their display booth at Quilt Market. My little mini is almost ready to leave home. FedEx is coming tomorrow to pick it up. The fabric is wonderful to work with and the design is stunning. If you check Windham's web site you will see that there are 17 fabrics in the line. I got a fat quarter of each piece. The challenge was to make an 18" square quilt that showcased the fabric. Once my little quilt has had it's debut at Quilt Market then I will post a picture.
I am now trying to pack for a few days away with the girls for a little sewing time. I probably have enough projects to work on for a two week retreat and not just four days. but it is always better to have something in reserve. Sadly I will miss the Kincardine Sunset Quilters meeting for the second month in a row.
The physiotherapy is helping my knee and that's a good thing.
Have a great week. Piecefully, Joanne

I just haven't had it in me

This is the quilt I made for our friend Ray. He is under going cancer treatments again so this is a hug from his friends north of the border. We have had a busy month, that included what is becoming our annual trip to Stratford. We saw 4 plays starting with Midsummer Night's Dream on Tuesday, then Beaux Strategem, then Crazy for You and finally The Man of LaMancha. We do the matinees and then go out for a nice dinner. Crazy for You and the Man of LaMancha were AMAZING.
I have been to the orthopedic surgeon and it looks like a new knee is in my future but not quite yet. I presented a workshop to the Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild on Scrap Quilts with a focus on 5" squares (charms, nickels). It went well. Then the next day it was my turn to do the workshop at Scrapbag Quilters. I did simple string quilts. So prepared the foundations and then cut the centre strings. And brought 4 huge bags of scraps. Each sewer had a presser and the day went well. I am back to some of my testing for The Quilt Pattern Magazine. And I did a baby quilt for Shelley at Cora's quilts. That pattern is due for release some time in October. So one way and another I have been keeping busy. Piecefully, Joanne

Is that yellow with blue or blue with yellow?

I love the simple geometry of the bento box pattern. There are so many different ways to combine the blocks. This one is approximately 30" by 42" and will be for Project Linus. I used 1 1/2" strips for this one. I think I have finally used up the baggie of 1 1/2" pieces that were given to me at a Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild meeting. As the saying goes, so many scraps so little time. Piecefully, Joanne