Cotton Club Wall Quilt

Here is a picture of part of the top of the quilt I made using the Triangulations foundations.  The pattern is by Bonnie Blue Quilts and has the exciting title of "Cotton Club Wall Quilt".  I bought the kit at a LQS (local quilt store) on sale for only $25 for a 49" x 49" quilt top, binding, and pattern.


Half Square Triangles

Half square triangles are everywhere in quilting.  They are not my favorite thing to cut and sew; I seem to stretch or otherwise warp them while making them.  

Years ago (2005-ish?) when I worked at a family-owned local fabric chain, I spied the Triangulations (TM) 2.0 CD in our catalog and ordered a copy.  It is a Mac and PC-compatible CD that allows you to easily make HST and quarter square triangle foundations in a variety of sizes.

You choose the size you need and print as many foundations as you need.  It makes the cutting and sewing so easy!  You cut out rectangles to fit your foundation, pin everything together, and sew on the arrowed lines.  

Then you cut them apart on the remaining lines.  Everything is accurate as well.  The only time-consuming part is removing the foundations after cutting.  In my opinion, it's worth it to have such accurate HST.

I checked the Bear Paw Productions website to make sure this product is still available.  It is, and it has been seriously upgraded!  It's now version 4.0.  Same price, more than double the content.  I am totally considering purchasing the upgraded version.  Note:  I am not a paid reviewer of this (or any) product.  I just share things I am interested in that I feel are good buys.

I will be sharing the quilt top I made using Triangulations in the very near future.  

Civil War Quilt Block 13

2023 update: I no longer have this pattern. It is still commercially available from the designer. Please do not ask me for the pattern; please go honor the creator and purchase a legal copy.

Just when I was appreciating how easy block 12 was, I remembered that there was a block 13.  Not so easy.  This block of the month program was template-based with the exception of block 12.  Many of the shapes had very odd measurements, especially this one!  It came out pretty wavy, but it's done, and luckily I only had to make one.  It is called Swing in the Center.


Now I just have to rework the month 10 blocks to make them fit together properly, cut all the sashing and corner sets, and sew the thing together.  Oh yeah, and quilt the behemoth.  Each block is 15" finished and the entire quilt is king sized at 110" x 110".  I'm not a fan of the fabric for the sashing, but I'm also not in love enough with all the blocks to go buy 3 yards of something else.  Ugly fabric it is!

Civil War Quilt Block 12

2023 update: I no longer have this pattern. It is still commercially available from the designer. Please do not ask me for the pattern; please go honor the creator and purchase a legal copy.

I've been on a roll getting these blocks done!  I was so happy to see that block 12 was just a Courthouse Steps block--an easy one after the Mrs. Cleveland's Choice blocks.  I wasn't especially wild on the colors of this one.  I feel like the light green doesn't have enough contrast with the background.


I'm Getting Social

Ha ha!  Maybe not.  I'm a pretty shy person.  I have, however, added more social media buttons to my blog--Pinterest and Instagram.  Facebook and Etsy were already there.  All of the buttons are in the right column.

I've been on Pinterest for four or five years now.  I have all sorts of pins on there, not just sewing things.  I like to cook and we are major DIYers, so you will see food, home and garden, and just things I like or am interested in.  I have a board for my doll clothing patterns too.

I joined Instagram this fall because my son's teacher was sharing photos from their class on there.  I started following Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet because I like her quilts and I think she is a marketing genius!!  From there I discovered quilt swaps and signed up for a few.  Right now there are only quilt pictures and things related to swaps on there.  You won't ever see faces since my account is public and I'm not a selfie fan.  (Well, maybe if infants could take selfies I'd be a fan of those.  Everyone else, sorry.)

Civil War Quilt Block 11

2023 update: I no longer have this pattern. It is still commercially available from the designer. Please do not ask me for the pattern; please go honor the creator and purchase a legal copy.

I finally started working on the Civil War block of the month quilt again.  I last worked on it last fall, when I got frustrated with my inability to get block 10 to fit correctly and gave up.  I still haven't fixed block 10, but decided to get the rest done to psych myself up for it.

Block 11 is called Mrs. Cleveland's Choice.  I really loved the unusual color combination of this block.  These blocks took FOREVER!  Especially when I discovered I sewed eight of the triangle units together with all the HSTs upside down!  But I got them done and I do really love how they turned out.

I totally love this block.