Block 9 Peace and Plenty

The center of this week’s block looks a lot like a Broken Dishes block set on point. It’s official name with the outer triangles is called “Peace and Plenty”. It is a simple block but is perfect for this row of blocks. Head on over to the QAL page and download the instructions.

There are two different ways to make this block. You can make quarter blocks or put the whole block together as diagonal sections. However, the instructions are for quarter blocks because that gives you fewer bias edges. Have fun with this one.

Block 9 Peace and Plenty
Block 9 Peace and Plenty

QAL Block 4 is a beautiful Chisel

This is one of the prettiest rows ever. It is made up of the chisel in two colors. It is very simple but a great one to know because it will add so much to many of your quilts. There are two ways to make it: one uses the AccuQuilt GO! Corners Companion Qube Shape 9, and the other uses a square and a rectangle from the AccuQuilt GO! Mix & Match Qube. Here’s a picture of the quilt with the Chisel row added.

QAL Quilt with Block 4 Chisel Row Added.

Block 3 Pinwheel 4-Patch is ready to stitch

The block for this week is a Pinwheel set in a 4-Patch and this will complete the first row of pieced blocks. Now we have a border row and a row of pieced blocks. It’s really optional as to whether you want to put this row together with sash or wait until you have more parts of this quilt.

Instructions for cutting all the parts are included in the instructions this week and also the same information is in the original instructions for layout and yardage. This is a picture of where you are right now.

Click a picture below or follow the links on the menu at the top of the blog page to find the instructions for download.

Block 3 Pinwheel 4-Patch
QAL showing Ribbon Border and Blocks 2 and 3 set in quilt

Tomorrow – 5/17 – AccuQuilt is introducing some new dies. I am excited because I got to try out one of the dies back in January and it is so much fun. Here’s a link to the signup.

Starting with a Ribbon Border

This is the first week of the new Pinwheel QAL and I debated whether to start with one of the pieced borders or a Pinwheel block. That beautiful pieced ribbon border won. It is a border that can be used so many ways and is a fun thing for beginners to learn and for experienced quilters to enjoy making. You will find the block on the QAL page by clicking on the menu link at the top of this page or click here.

These are the dies that I used from the 8″ Qube – a shape 4 Quarter Square Triangle and a Shape 3 Half Square Triangle.

Shape 3 HST and Shape 4 QST

These are the shapes after cutting. I stacked and arranged them in the order of stitching.

Ribbon Border Shapes Cut

It is so important to keep the light and medium quarter square triangle shapes in the same position in each block so I like to put them all together before I start stitching. See below how I use a pin to mark the side that will be stitched. I go ahead and put the triangles together with a pin in each one and stack them and then chain piece the triangles.

Marking the side to be stitched.

And once the triangles are stitched together, here are a couple of options for arranging them. I love both of these configurations, but can you come up with some different arrangments?

 

Here are possible configurations as you might put them into the quilt. But wait! You may want to see what the other pieced borders look like and use this one somewhere else – there are four possibilities for this one.

            

It’s Monday and Block 10 Pinwheel

Happy Monday to all! Block 10 is posted, and I think you will find that it has easy units – half square triangles and a four patch –  and is a lot of fun.

Here’s a picture of the block. Just click the picture and it will take you to the QAL page.

Block 10 Pinwheel

Some of the participants in the Quilt Along (QAL) had asked if I would post the rest of the quilt blocks as they want to finish this project and move on to a new one. However, as I started working on it, I realized that it was too much to do with the other projects that I have on the agenda that have to be done. I truly appreciate all the comments on the Facebook Page telling how much everyone has enjoyed the QAL and the pace of one block per week. This QAL has been fun for me because the blocks have not been as complicated as the ones from the last QAL.

For those who use Electric Quilt software, I added the EQ8 file to the Facebook Page group Files. My blog host would not let me add it to the Media files here.

 

Block 10 – Spin Class Qube Workout QAL

Block 10 of the Qube Workout QAL is ready for download. This block isn’t complicated, but offers some oppostunities for experimenting with color combinations and lots of practice for half square triangles mixed with other units.

This is the beginning of a new week and last week was just a little too much excitement for us. One set of grandchildren went on an outdoor Colorado vacation while the other set of grandchildren were home with very very bad colds. The colds were so bad that the children were tested for Covid – all were negative, but they were sick. Will they go back to summer school? Days after they went home with a cold, someone at the school did get Covid. The parents are making decisions. While the adults around here are all vaccinated, the children are not. It is interesting that none of the adults got the cold.

We had lots more excitement with a mouse in the house (which is now gone, thank goodness). That’s a funny story I’ll tell you later. But we ended the week with putting up a basketball goal. That is the final step from our construction last summer. The children have really missed the basketball goal. Ted did most of it, but I got up on the scaffolding with him to help hold the backboard while he put the bolts into it. That’s my pink water bottle.

And there’s a mailbox story too – LOL. I think we should all stick to quilting this week.

Block 9 – Sailboats Qube Workout QAL

It’s a rainy and cool July Monday in NC. The relief from the heat is truly welcome. And the block this week is called Sailboats and is perfect for a wet day. It is an abstracted version of the sailboat blocks that we usually see.

You can find Block 9 here in our 10th installment of this QAL.

 

Castle Wall – Block 8 of the QAL Sampler

Good morning! It’s Monday again and time for some new blocks. These blocks were fun to design. (you know my Dad and my husband have both always said, “if you’re not having fun, do something else”) But these blocks are fun. This design started with the chisel. And the block for the Mix & Match Corners Qube is all Chisels except for the center Square on Point subunit. And the Mix & Match Angles Qube uses the Kite shape which is just perfect for that block. And finally, we get to use Shape 8 which is the rectangle for the Mix & Match Qube. This is a link to the page with the new blocks.

Quarter Square Quest – Block 6 of the Qube Workout Sampler

This week’s block is based on the Dutchman’s puzzle and is made of half square and quarter square triangles with a shape from the Angles and the Corners thrown in for a couple of variations. In terms of piecing, this block is a less complicated than the last few blocks; however, the challenge on this one is getting the colors balanced. The examples given show some darker colors which may or may not be a good idea. Let your own sense of color guide you and have fun with your color choices. Don’t let yourself be influenced by the generic pictures in the instructions.

You will find instructions for this week’s block here.

 

 

Vortex – Block 5 of the Qube Workout Sampler

New blocks have been posted on the QAL page. This block is called Vortex because, again, it rotates around a Square on Point or Economy Block subunit. There are three versions – one for the Mix & Match Qube, one for the Angles Companion Qube, and one for the Corners Companion Qube.

This has been an interesting week. I thought that when school was out last Tuesday that it would be smooth sailing, but one of the days was spent getting Ezri’s covid vaccination. It took over half an hour on the phone to register her for the vaccination and then when we got there, they had no record of it. However, we had been given a registration number over the phone and also via text message so there was no problem with her getting the shot. Except that we were the only ones there and they wanted to wait to open a vial until more people came. After waiting quite a while and no one else came, they opened the vial and gave her the shot. Everyone was very pleasant and when Ezri came over the next day she seemed to suffer no side effects from the vaccination.

Ezri also came over every day last week because she wanted to sew. It is wonderful to see her stitching away and finally using the iron and pressing her own piecing. She still lets that right arm hang at her side instead of using two hands for things, but she’s getting the job done.

Have a happy quilting day!