Quilts

Criss-Cross Finished!

October 15, 2014 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

It all started with a request to join the Friendship X and + Swap, me digging out one lonely block from the back of the closet, marooned there from when I’d started to make the blocks but abandoned the project, and an invitation from Krista. And now I can show you the finished quilt.

Lounging around on my new gate in my re-done landscape.

To go with this scrappy quilt, I used up odds and ends of binding ends, plus cut a few more pieces here and there.

The back: IKEA music fabric.

Some days you make a fancy printed label, but when the fabric is so fun with lines and notes, I think some days you should write the label. So I did.

The stained glass effect of the front showing through the musical back. It’s done!
For more posts about this quilt, type “cross” into the search box on the right; you’ll get several, including one that has a diagram of the pattern I used.

This is #136 on my 200 Quilts List.

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Quilts

Friendship Swap for the Cross-X Block

September 26, 2014October 15, 2014 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Criss-Cross

Today is the day we reveal our quilts made in the Friendship Swap of the Cross-X blocks (some call them the + and x blocks). I got started on this through an invitation from Krista of KristaStitched, who is now found more commonly on Instagram. She wrote and invited me to play along, and since I’d always wanted to try out this block, I agreed. Susan of PatchworkNPlay and Carla of Lollyquiltz set us up a Flickr Group and we were in business.

I’m sure you remember these photos, as we kept track of our progress. Well, all of a sudden we were done, and then all of a sudden there was a deadline of today to get the quilt done. So, what you see up there is my quilt top (or flimsy), as the quilt is at the quilter, and since I was a bit slow in getting the top done, I don’t have the final “finish” on the quilt. Soon, very soon.

However, I don’t think I have to worry about my partner Krista finishing her quilt top before I will. She was working on a better and bigger project, which arrived several weeks early! Congratulations, Krista! Having Baby Rita here safe and sound is waaaaay better than a quilt top. Many thanks to Krista, Carla and Susan, for inspiring us to a Cross-X quilt top.

Thought you’d like to see what the inspiration was for these blocks, in the early days:

This quilt by Setsuko Inagawa, which used an old block by Nancy Cabot, caught everyone’s eye. The pattern diagram and the current origins (from Badskirt) are *here.*

UPDATES: Here are some thumbnails of the completed quilts or quilt tops, with links to their blogs.

Carla, from Lollyquiltz

Carla, from Grace and Favour

Susan, from Patchwork N Play

Cindy, from Live A Colorful Life

Heidi of Libellen Quilts

Jane of Jane’s Fabrics and Quilts

Quilts

March Cross-X Blocks

February 28, 2014October 15, 2014 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

It’s Cross-X Blocks time again! The last Friday of every month, Krista of KristaStitched and I post about our swaps that we’ve done. Above are the eight blocks I made for February, four for Krista and four for me. Our Flickr group is *here* if you want to see what everyone is doing.

Here’s mine, all alone after sending my blocks off to her.

My organizing fetish surges to the front at times like this, as I like to see our progress. Krista’s ahead of me, having sent me two March blocks. I have to get going to keep up with her!

And here they are, all together. I can’t believe the number of blocks is growing this fast.

I like playing with the blocks because I get to look more closely at what Krista’s been up to. Here are four of my recent favorites of hers (above and below).

And one last shot of the blocks, made up in Madrona Road (with a few oldies). I hope Krista has her sunglasses!

Quilts

Friendship Cross-X Block Swap, January 2014

January 30, 2014October 15, 2014 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

Since it’s the last Friday of the month, it’s time to post our Friendship Cross-X block swap blocks. Say that one five times really fast. Our Flickr group is *here* and you can grab a quilty pal and start anytime! Above are my four blocks, and no, you’re not seeing double. Well, you are, but it’s supposed to be that way.

Krista, of KristaStitched, is my quilt-swap buddy, and I sent off her blocks and received some in return:

Look how nice they play together. We began to notice some variation creeping into our blocks, and took the time to really study what was going on them.

I did a search on these blocks and found this display (not our blocks). I’ve circled the different blocks; can you see why? It’s the weensy little background triangles. As Krista and I talked we noticed that most of these tiny triangle blocks, or as I refer to them, the backiest-of-the-background triangles, are from the same fabrics. I don’t think others in the Friendship Swap run into this, because all of theirs seem to be controlled colors and hues. But Krista and I decided to go for it, and make ours scrappy, so are discovering things about the block that we hadn’t noticed before.

We now plan to make sure our backgrounds (our backiest-backgrounds) are all the same, and to keep with our two basic rules: 1) add some text somewhere in the block and 2) keep a strong contrast between the X and the + parts. Sometimes the littlest changes can have big impacts.

And here they all are together!

Come back tomorrow, February 1st for the reveal of our second challenge of the Urban series: Structures. There are eight of us doing this Four-In-Art Art quilt challenge (so named for the four challenges we have a year), and I’ll present mine as well as link to the other quilts.