A Flimsie Excuse

I haven't FINISHED many quilts the past few weeks... my stock of batting was depleted so I mostly just made more flimsies (unfinished tops) that are waiting now in the wings.

The one quilt I HAVE completed, is the red flannel quilt below. I was given a box of little flannel scraps in kids prints, mostly on white or cream backgrounds, so I bought some bright red flannel to contrast against them so that I could use them up. I admit, it's not very "adult" in style, but it's soft and cuddly, and makes a great utility quilt. I was able to finish this one right away because I had a polyester batting that I wasn't using for anything else. Besides, on this quilt I think warm and natural cotton batting would have made it too heavy! I still have some flannel bits left in the box, but I may pass them on to other folks.. I do NOT enjoy working with flannel!!

RED FLANNEL SCRAPPY

Buckeye Beauty with sashings used for this one.

The first of my flimsies waiting, is from a kit called "Magnolia" that was gifted to me by a friend. She wanted to see someone complete it, and I enjoyed working with a kit.. my first experience in doing this! I hope to finish this one pretty soon.

MAGNOLIA

This scrappy was just some black framed scrappy bricks. I like the way black shows off various fabrics!

BRICKWORK

I'm calling this one "In The Box". I had a lot of postage charms that I wanted to use up, so I made 9-patch blocks of those and surrounded them in black. Then I added some other units to make the blocks larger, and set them with sashing. I like this one, myself!

IN THE BOX

This next quilt is made with blocks that I received in a Christmas BOM swap some years ago. I'm finally getting around to putting it together!

CHRISTMAS GOLD

Another swap I was in was this disappearing 9 patch block, done in Civil War fabrics. Not my favorite, but it will suit someone, I'm sure.

CIVIL WAR D9P

I was given a few baby size quilt tops to use for my charity work, so I took one apart and restructured it with some scraps of my own to make it throw size. I feel like the seams are more secure now, so it will hold up better. (In some places, the seams were only one or two threads wide!) The fabric was well worth saving, and ripping doesn't really take all that long! I think this will make a lovely quilt!

RESTRUCTURED GIFTED TOP

I tapped into my "orphan blocks" to make this sampler. I decided to set it using the attic windows design, so I think it's okay.. not a favorite, but not terrible.

ORPHANS IN THE WINDOW

So.... as you can see, I may not be posting finished quilts lately, but I haven't been totally lazy either. LOL!

Happy Quilting!

Jean MaDan

5" Charms Scrappy Tutorial

5" Charms Scrappy

I did several of these quilts years ago, and recently was reminded of the technique, so I'm offering you a quick tutorial on how to make them. It's very simple, and you can use up a bunch of those 5" charms you've been saving! You can do this totally scrappy, or control your color-way if you prefer. (For example, use various purple charms.) Feel free to share a link to this page with your friends!

First, decide what fabric you'll be using for your sashings. Cut a strip width-of-fabric X 8-1/2", then cut 2" strips from that.

Gather up your 5" charms, and cut them in half diagonally.

Place one half face down on the sashing piece, centering it so that the same amount extends on either end. Stitch 1/4" from edge. I used white thread so that you could see it clearly, but I would use a thread that matches the sashing as a rule.

Press away from the sashing.

Lay the second half of the charm face down on the opposite edge, and stitch it the same way.

Lay a square-up type ruler on the unit, using the 45 degree line SMACK IN THE CENTER of your sashing, corner to corner. Trim to square it up to 5-1/2" square.

This is what a trimmed unit should look like.

Four units together form an "X" and makes this a 10-1/2" unfinished block. Just sew your blocks into rows of whatever size you want your quilt to be. SO EASY!!!

Happy Quilting!

Jean MaDan

This is my finished quilt! Below is the other side.... 

I did this side with scrappy stars... I like the way this reversible quilt turned out!!

A lighter version made by Candace:

This is the quilt CANDACE WRAGG made using my tutorial! Good job, Candace!

Certainly Stars!

Since my "Bonus Bears" is on the longarm now, I decided to start a new project. This time I thought I'd better draw it up in EQ BEFORE I started sewing, to help me keep track of where I wanted to go. So, I got my pattern all designed and plan to start making it tomorrow!

Certainly Stars!

56" x 66"

Do it totally scrappy, or control your colorway... either way, these look gorgeous! I think it would look great with a black or colored background, too!



I was right! Here's my completed Certainly Stars with black background, and I really like it!

Bonus Bears

Bonus Bears

I decided to use up about 480 bonus 1-3/4" HSTs in brown and cream to make a new quilt. And yes, it does require a lot of additional background and border fabric to DO, but if you were doing a quilt WITHOUT those bonus HSTs it would take even more, not to mention all that wasted fabric! *grin* It's going to make a great Christmas gift to a guy in my family! (Always thinking ahead on that sort of thing!) Anyway, I'm really happy with the results.

Happy Quilting!
Jean MaDan

Jean's Choice

A couple of weeks ago I posted my new Tumbling Blocks quilt. When I made that, I ended up with over 1000 bonus HSTs. I was able to incorporate ALL of the BLUE ones in this quilt. I was calling this block "Sister's Choice", but I guess I was doing a variation... so we'll just call it "Jean's Choice" instead. LOL!

JEAN'S CHOICE

Scrappy Sensation

Scrappy Sensation 

Finished size 68" x 80"



Churn Dash Chains Free Tutorial

Several people have asked for details about the Churn Dash Chains quilt, and since it's fairly simple, I thought I'd share it here.
First, gather all your 1-3/4" bonus HSTs you've been saving! One side should be WOW or a consistant background color you like. The rest of the colors should be as varied as possible if you're going scrappy.

Next, cut 1-3/4" square of the background.

Now you need to make your divider strips. Cut from background and a scrappy print, rectangles measuring 1-3/4" x 1-1/8", and sew together as shown: (make 4)

Now put  your little parts together to make a churn dash block:

Your unfinished churn dash size should measure about 4-1/4" (finished size 3-3/4")

Your nine patch blocks will consist of 5 churn dash, and 4 background squares. You will make 7 of those. They should measure 11-3/4" unfinished size.

Your border blocks will consist of 3 churn dash, 1 background square, and one background rectangle that is cut at 4-1/4" x 11-3/4" You will make 10 of those.

Cut 18 background squares measuring 11-3/4" x 11-3/4", and assemble as shown below:

Happy Quilting!
Jean MaDan