A Fast Quilt for Charity!

I'm happy to be making quilts for Sarah's Hands 2 Help 2023. And, once again, writing a blog to support Sarah's efforts and give you some ideas of what you can make. 

As I was thinking about what I might write about 2 things happened in my life. One was the APQ UFO Challenge for April was #4 which for me was a set of huge flying geese.  Yep, huge - 8.5" by 16.5". I had made them for a block drawing for a retreat years ago and they were wrong. No, size was fine, I just didn't notice it said use batik fabric.  I probably have another group that I won that were batiks but that's for another day.  It was time to do something with them. 

My friend Sharon had cut hers into smaller half square triangles and made some other blocks from them. Hum, could I do that too?  I had two goals -- use the blocks and make a fairly big quilt.  Well, big blocks make big quilts faster. So I trimmed these blocks into 6.5" half square triangles.  I was able to make one 12.5" pinwheel block from each set of two. (I didn't use the white flowers for this project as they didn't go well with the other two.) 

Here's how I cut them up.  I saved the two strips from each triangle for another day. (I see a string quilt in my future.) Then all that was left was to sew the 4 - 6" blocks together. Easy peasy to make a simple block. 

To make a big quilt I needed a lot more blocks. Another benefit of making the blocks 6.5" was I have an AccuQuilt die for that size half square triangle. I started pulling fabrics that were mostly light and darks to go with the existing pinwheel blocks.  And, next thing I know I'm cutting triangles and then I'm sewing them together. Four 6.5" HSTs make a 12" finished block.  At first I thought of this as my "squirrel" project, something that was interrupting my weekly goal lists.  Eventually I figured out it wasn't really a squirrel project because it was listed as "use the big flying geese blocks." A week and a half later I have a finished top. 

My 12.5" blocks made up quickly, made a dent in several different colors of fabric and is a fairly large quilt.  I set the blocks 4 x 5 which makes the quilt approximately 48" x 60".  I have to admit I was tickled that I could get this top made in less than 2 weeks. Quilting is another matter as my long arm is still out for repair.  

Remember I mentioned two things happened? The other was my guild was collecting 12.5" blocks to use for charity quilts. Off to the orphan block box  I went.  And I found several blocks I could pass on. (Check out the picture of 4 blocks from last week's blog.  The two on the left were orphans.) 

And, look what else I found: 

What a great idea -- another fast, easy way to make a 12" block -- made from four 6.5" blocks sewn into the 12.5" block. I'm pretty sure I'll be making some more batik bow tie blocks to be able to put this block into a quilt.  I also found a bunch of other bowtie blocks. So, shouldn't I make some more to go with them? Of course!

Here's what you need to make one 6" finished bowtie. 2 - 3.5" squares of light fabric, 2 - 3.5" squares of medium or dark fabric, and 2 - 2" squares of the same medium or dark. Draw a diagonal line down the center of the 2" squares.

Place a 2" square on a corner of each of the light squares.  Sew on the diagonal line on both squares. Trim the excess fabric leaving a quarter inch seam.  Then flip the triangle over and iron.  I tend to trim up the light triangles after flipping just to make sure they stay at 3.5". 

Lay out the blocks to form the bowtie. 

Sew a purple square to the white with the purple triangle. 

Sew the two halves together. Voila! You have one quarter of a 12" finished bow tie made.  Make three more. These blocks are great for using up smaller pieces of fabrics and are really fast to sew.  

While I was trying to decide on which blocks I would make as 12" blocks I came across this nice web site for blocks. Many times 12" blocks are made from 6" blocks.  You can find various size blocks here with good directions. Here's the link for a 6" finished Pinwheel block. Do you want to print the directions?   Yes, there are a lot of ads but look for the note about how to print (or save) the information without having a lot of ads. It's a separate site but it drops the ads for you and allows you to drop out some of the instructions or pictures if you don't really need them. 

Poke around the web site and you'll find all sorts of interesting info. They even have a section on patriotic quilt patterns. 

Another great web site with LOTS of quilt pattern is Quilter's Cache. As stated on the main page this site has "a gazillion patterns." You can spend days picking and making blocks from their directions. Find the drop down menu on the main page and choose "Quilt Blocks Galore." Then you can look at them either by name or by size. In some ways this is a bit clunky but oh the number of standard blocks and original blocks is amazing.

Here are a few I think would be fairly easy to make: A Dandy, Antique Tile,  Arrowhead Puzzle, Box Kite, Buckeye Beauty, Calico Puzzle and Churn Dash.  Do you get it?  I gave up after "ch" titles because I had way more than I needed to share!  

As you plan your next charity quilt or a quilt for your family, consider using  an easy 12" block. A 3 x 3 setting will yield a 36" square quilt. That 36" square quilt would make a cute baby quilt.  A 3 x 4 block setting would yield a 36 x 48" quilt, a perfect size for a toddler or elementary age child. The 4 x 5 set makes a great lap quilt for teenagers, seniors and most anyone.  And, think how much easier an easy 12" block would make a twin, queen or king quilt! 

If you are trying to make quilt tops quickly pick a 12" block that is easy to make and go to town!  

I'm linking to these parties.  I hope you have some spare time to surf the web! My normal Monday Meanderings will be posted Tuesday, hopefully. 

Oh Scrap 

Monday Musings 

Design Wall Monday

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie