The Winter Blues?

I mainly make quilts to be donated and most of the time I am pleased with the out come, but this last month I completed 2 that left me feeling blue. The technical part was correct - it's the combination of colors that I do not like.  The first one was made from all donated fabric and .......
The blocks finished at 8 inches - making the finished quilt 48.5" x 64.5". The pattern is called "Hour Glass", and a how to video is available on youtube.

The second one was fashioned after a pattern by Jaybird Quilts called Radio Way and finished at 49.5" x 69.5".  I started out making the strip blocks from my 2.5" box of strips and had trouble finding the correct color to  tie it all together.  I ended up using a light lime green after trying off white.  The thirty year old green colors are grayed and just lack the spark that todays colors have.

 

Hidden Wells

Two weeks ago I stopped at our local Book Mobile and found a quilting book by Pam & Nicky Lintott titled "Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts"

To my great surprise one of the quilts included was Hidden Wells that was created in 1989 by Mary Ellen Hopkins.  With her permission these instructions were adapted to use a jelly roll - some cut some not - in different widths 1.25 to 2.5".  My strip set started out looking like this before cutting both diagonals.

Once the technique is figured out you can make any number of variations by changing the number of strips and widths. My quilt with 3.5" borders measured 59" x 72" after quilting and binding.

Bow Tie 

This is another Bonnie Hunter inspired quilt made with a cheddar solid, or I should say as close as I could find - "Cat Paws" by makower uk.  Each bow tie is made with 2 cheddar pieces cut 2", 2 print pieces cut 2" and two -1 1/4" pieces for the snowballed corners.  Each square finished at 3" making my 16 x 16 square quilt finish at 49".

Boston Commons

The quilt was made from 3.5" cut squares and finished at 55.5" x 72.5".