Carson's Courtyard

In January, 2013 I posted about a block swap I was doing with five friends. The pattern is from the Summer 2012 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects and is called Carson's Courtyard. 

This is the picture from the magazine. It's made in much darker colors. We made our blocks in 1930s reproductions fabrics and I love the way they came out. 

I had so many blocks that I decided to make two throw quilts out of my blocks. Since each block is 11" square and I have 60 of them, 30 per quilt in a 5X6 setting is already a 55X66" quilt. Add borders and its a great size throw. 

I divided my blocks into pastel and primary colors. I finished the pastel one first. I decided to do something new and different for the borders on these two quilts. I have never done prairie points before, so on the first quilt I have added them between two white borders. They are not perfect, but I think it came out pretty cute.

Now I am working on the border for the second quilt. I'll show pics of it when I get the border on it. I am enjoying finishing these tops-but I know the quilting awaits me! 

Happy sewing! 

Grammy

2014 Block Swap Update

This year my friends and I have been swapping nine patch blocks. I first posted about it in April. We have been sewing and swapping since January-five blocks per person per month for a total of 25 blocks each month. 

I have been putting my blocks up on my design wall in random order as I receive them. They are all gorgeous and I can't wait for our final blocks in October! I have now run out of space. I guess the rest of my blocks will just have to go into a stack until I am ready to lay them all out and sew them together.

In case you are counting and I seem to be short blocks~one of the ladies in our swap lives in England and because the postage is so high, she has opted to mail us all of our blocks from her at one time in October. 

Happy quilting!

Grammy

2014 Block Swap

For the last few years I have done block swaps with several quilting friends far away. We love staying in touch with each other this way and always enjoy the resulting quilts. This year we are doing a simple nine patch. 

Last Fall some of us attended a quilt show and all really liked this quilt. It's our inspiration for this year's swap.

The black line across the quilt near the bottom is the "barrier" to keep us from getting too close to the quilt-it's not part of the design of the quilt. :)

There are five of us swapping this year. We are making five 9-patch blocks for each person in the swap each month. It really goes quickly because we are not cutting up 225 individual squares-but rather cutting strips, sewing them together and then cutting them into sections. It makes the piecing go really quickly and who wants to spend all day cutting 225  2 1/2" squares when they could be sewing, right?

We started our swap in January and I was tickled to get my first five blocks finished and in the mail.

Now we have been swapping for three months and I have 60 blocks, so far. One friend lives overseas and only mails to us a couple times during the swaps to save on postage, so I haven't received any from her yet. 

I am loving this quilt so far! I think it's going to be another success story.

Happy Quilting!       

Grammy 

Carson's Courtyard Block Swap

My friends and I had so much fun with the Summer's Last Bloom block swap we did last year that we are doing another swap this year. We decided to do a pieced block (less time consuming) and something that is not Civil War. We love Primitive Quilts and Projects Magazine and found a great pattern in the Summer 2012 that is scrappy and would lend itself well to a swap. It's called Carson's Courtyard. The blocks are 11" finished and easy to make. 

When we were together in September we all discussed the "rules" for our swap and decided to use 1930's reproduction fabrics and white for this quilt. Since we were together, we purchased the same white fabric so that it would be consistent throughout the quilt. We chose to begin mailing in January and are going to make and swap blocks for 10 months-getting together again in September or October. There are six of us swapping this year, so we will have 60 blocks when we are finished. 

I have cut all of my white fabric into the 6 1/2" squares that I need and also cut the reproduction fabric for the first eight of the months. I am going to decide what colors I want to do for the other two months later on. I stacked them all and put them back into the cabinet-ready to come out and be sewn at a moment's notice. 

This is going to be a fun swap and I will post pictures of my blocks periodically.

I have been working a lot on my 5th block of When The Cold Wind Blows and am getting close to finishing it. I will post pictures of it when I am done.

Happy Quilting, Grammy.

Summer's Last Bloom-the plums

I have my plum blocks sewn together for Summer's Last Bloom. This quilt is going to be SO gorgeous when it is put together. This is such a fun swap!

I have one more set of pumpkin colored blocks to receive and I will post a picture of them. We are all currently working on dark tan blocks. 

Quilting with Friends

I love a good block swap.  Quilting with friends is the best! Right now I am trading blocks every month with 4 friends.  None of these friends lives nearby.  One is in South Carolina, one is in Michigan, the third is in Illinois (and moving to Washington) and the fourth one lives in England! Every month I get 2 blocks from each of them in the mail. The beginning of every month I start stalking my mailbox.  I love getting quilting mail.  :)

We are making this quilt from the cover of the Fall 2011 Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  It's called Summer's Last Bloom and was designed by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters. 

If you've never done a block swap with friends, you don't know what you're missing.  Before we started we decided on our "swap rules" and monthly mailing dates.  We are now into our 7th month and have 5 more to go.  We will finish our last blocks in August and swap them when we all get together in September. We are doing needleturn applique and everyone is doing a great job!

Summer's Last Bloom 

This is the picture of the full quilt from the inside of the magazine.

The first 2 months we swapped blocks with red blooms.  Here is what they looked like  on my design wall when I sewed each of them together.  I am "auditioning" buttons, so these  are just pinned on.  

I will show more of this quilt as it progresses.  In the meantime, I am hanging out at the mailbox these days. :)