Classic Stitches--Lime and light green

Hi all, and welcome to the last row of the Classic Stitches quilt!  Isn't this exciting?  As soon as this row is done, the quilt will assemble in no time!

The color for this month is lime green, but I don't have a lot of lime, so most of mine will be light green.  Here is the block for this month's row:

This is the Peace and Plenty block, a classic block that is undated, but has variations that date to 1877.  It looks complicated, but don't worry!  This block actually goes together very easily and fairly quickly.  The secret is all in the cutting and chain piecing. (And no hsts or quarter-square triangles to make!)   Really, you'll have these done in much less time than you'd think.

Let's get started. . .the steps and measurements shown are for a 6-inch block.  As always, other sizes are given at the end of the construction directions.

Cutting:

From the green, cut 1 4-1/4 inch square, and 4 2-3/8 inch squares. From a background color, shown here in white, cut the same--1 4-1/4 inch square and 4 2-3/8 inch squares.

Now take the green and white 4-1/4 inch squares and cut them corner to corner twice, making 4 smaller triangles.

Take the 4 smaller squares of each color and cut them in half diagonally once, making a total of 8 small triangles of each color.

That's all the cutting!  Let's make this block!

Construction:

Take the triangles made from cutting the larger squares and stack them as shown:

Stitch all of these together along the center line.  You should end up with 4 units like this:

Put these aside, and take the triangles made from cutting the smaller squares.  Stack them like this:

Stitch on the center line, making 8 units like this:

Take the units that you just stitched, and lay them out like this, in 4 pairs:

Stitch and press. You should end up with 4 of these units.

Take the larger triangle units and lay them out with the smaller triangle units like this:

Stitch and press.  You should have 4 of these final units.

Lay out the 4 units as shown and assemble your block!

That was easier than it looked, wasn't it?  Ten of these will make a 60-inch row, and 6 will make a 36-inch row.  Measure to be sure your row is 60-1/2 inches, and then you're ready for the final assembly of the quilt!

Variations:

Use two different greens for the block, one for the larger triangles and one for the smaller ones. A picture of this variation is below.  You could also use two completely different colors.  Blue or yellow might be good choices to go with the green.

Reverse the colors for a different effect.

For a very cute (but very fiddly) 4-inch finished block, cut 1 square of each color 3-1/4 inches for the larger triangles, and 4 squares 1-7/8 inches for the smaller triangles.

For a 9-inch block, use 5-3/4 inch squares for the larger triangles and 4 3-1/8 inch squares for the smaller triangles.

For a 12-inch block, use 7-1/4 inch squares for the larger triangles and 4 3-7/8 inch squares for the smaller triangles.  Or make 4 different 6-inch blocks and combine them into a 12-inch square.  I opted for the larger pieces in two different greens for my 12-inch block:

That's it for this last row!  Once this is finished, the rows are all done and it's time to assemble the quilt!  Be sure to come back on Tuesday, December 1, for the finishing instructions (or at least to take a peek at some glamour shots of my finished quilt top!)

Happy sewing, everyone!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social,  WIP Wednesday, and at soscrappy for RSC15.

Scrappy dilemma

Hello everyone!  How are you today?  It is raining and wet here, and quite gloomy.  Plus, I have to compose an exam this afternoon, and that can make anybody a little cranky.  On the upside, can't go out walking, so I might as well sew.  Or do laundry, but who would rather do that?

Today I have to share a little problem I'm having.  First, though, a pretty picture for the top of the blog:

Okay, maybe not so pretty but at least it's not a mess.  It was raining when I took this, but I think that makes it look extra bright and happy.  This is the first row of a new quilt, and here's how I got to it.  It all started with this mess:

This is not even close to being all of my scraps, most of which made it to the condo with us.  I have at least one more big white bag and a smaller clear bag, also stuffed full.  When we had the house, I had these all nicely sorted by color and type--solids over here, batiks here, prints there--in their very own boxes, all nicely stacked.  It didn't look like quite so much then. Well, that system wouldn't work here because there is just not enough storage space. (Really, I'll be thankful for closets forever.) So the boxes are in storage, but I pulled out the fabrics and brought them with me.

Folks, this is just overwhelming me.  I have too much!  All the space that is taken up by the scraps means that I have no room for yardage.  And I really want some yardage!

Anyway, I have to use these up and clear them out, so I've started cutting them up into manageable pieces and I have a couple of patterns in mind for them.  First, there is this one:

This is a pattern by mamaCJT, and I got it at Patched Works a long time ago. (Pretty sure they still have some in stock.)  She shows it all in a single solid, but why does it have to be done that way?  It doesn't!  So I've pulled out some of the bigger pieces to make rows and put them together into a cute little quilt.

I've also been cutting pieces into 1-1/2, 2-inch, and 2-1/2 inch squares.  There are tons of patterns for squares this size.  There may be a Bonnie Hunter quilt in my near future, but for now I've chosen this one from Wedding Dress Blue.

It looks simple enough that even I can't mess it up, and the directions are really good, so I grabbed some 2-inch squares and started putting them together:

So far it's mainly stress-free, but we'll see as we go on.  I have a couple of other ideas, and I even thought about cutting some of the bigger pieces into triangles and making an all-triangle quilt, but after working on the Roman Floors quilt for a while now I'm pretty tired of triangles.

Put them all in a bowl and toss like a salad!

That's it from here!  Let's see how much progress I make this week.  Pretty sure I'll be cutting like a crazy person. And if anyone has any good suggestions for patterns for using up those scraps (or the vast majority of them), be sure to let me know!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, and  WIP Wednesday.

The Brown family

Hi everyone!  Are you ready for a lovely fall weekend? I sure am.  The last couple of weeks have been really busy and I am ready to settle down and enjoy some down time this weekend.  Here is the happiest part of renting the condo: the leaves are falling and we don't have to rake them!  Let's hear it for landscapers!

This week I spent some time with the girls, making up the brown dolls.  Here's the family:

Aren't they adorable?  I had my doubts about the browns, because I personally don't own very many brown clothes, but I think they turned out great.

And can I just say that they have an amazing sense of color?  I couldn't wear those dresses nearly as well as they do!

There is one more member of this family to show off, although she is quite shy:

Yep, she's the sister who joined the convent and became a Carmelite nun!  If you don't know (or care) what that means, just know that it made me really, really happy to make this one.  It took a while because the dress is fairly complicated (lots of layers) and I really wanted to get it right, but I think she turned out really well.  And she'll certainly fit in to what is turning out to be a global sisterhood.

Now that we're nearing the end of the rainbow scrap challenge for this year, I think I have come up with a setting for the dolls.  I'm really getting impatient to put it together because I really think it's going to be great.  I'm also trying decide if I should put eyes on the dolls, and if so, just how I should do that.  I know they aren't getting full faces, because there's no way that I could do that without really messing it up, but eyes might add something nice.  I know I don't want to use beads or French knots, but I'm not sure how else to do it.  Any good suggestions?

Hope all of you have a great weekend.  I hope to get some sewing in and maybe bake something.  And I'm just now getting back into the full swing of my usual exercise, so I'll definitely get some walking in since it should be cool and perfect for a nice couple of miles.

The last picture from our house!

Happy fall!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict,  soscrappy, and Finish it up Friday.

Fall forest

Hi everyone!  How was your week?  Ours was very, very busy.  It was so busy that I was surprised that today is Friday.  If you know where all my time went, let me know, because I definitely need it back!

So this is my big finish for the week:

A "fall forest" table runner!

There is a semi-entertaining story behind this piece.  It was inspired by this post from Amanda at crazy mom quilts. I love the Bright Birch Trees pattern and have been intending to make one for a while.  I had these pieces left over from the bargello table runner I made for my sister-in-law:

These were big pieces!  At first I thought I'd make a pillow out of them, but then I decided to use them in a version of the bright birch trees.

These worked great!  Except for two things: 1) even though they were big pieces, there was only enough for 5 blocks, and 2) there is no pattern so simple that I can't mess it up.  And mess it up I did, friends.  I kept getting the pieces turned around and swapping parts of different blocks.  (This would not have happened if I had used different background colors, like the pattern.) It was a hot mess. At one point I gave up, but I hate to waste fabric, so the next day I picked up the seam ripper and went to town.

Yep, I'm going to have to cut that again!

Eventually I worked it out enough that I could have a long table runner.  The blocks are not trimmed the way they should be, but they were going to be a table runner, so I think that's okay.  I actually didn't measure almost anything and just eyeballed the blocks when I trimmed at the end.  I know this is wrong, but I just couldn't help myself!

Whirr!

At the end, I had one strip left over and I didn't want to let it go to waste, so I made a small block and just attached it like any other block.  I don't think anyone can tell, and I didn't waste that strip!  That always makes me feel like I've won.

Overall, I like how this turned out.  I think it looks like trees with the leaves just turning in the fall.  It was also a good learning experience for me.  Really, there is not a pattern I can't mess up, but I can usually make it turn out okay.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  Once again, we will be busy as all get out.  Stitch a few seams for me, because I know I won't be able to!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish it up Friday.