Vintage Squares by Ruth & Anne

While visiting my Dad and his wife Ruth, I found a block in the pile Ruth had going "to the craft club." It was the one with yellow and orange. She told me it was an unfinished doll-house quilt.  She didn't remember when she made it, but maybe in the 60's?  When I said I'd take it home and make it into a table runner, she rustled around and found a few more unfinished blocks.  They were in various stages of finished, colors that had nothing to do with each other, related only by the fact that she made them many years earlier.
So here they are!

I added a few strips from the scrap bin, looking for circa 60's things. I love what it is now!  Do you?

Ocean Berry Half Square Triangles

I WANTED to buy some charm packs, solid collections from Connecting Threads named "Ocean" and "Berry."  But I was on Lent Fabric Diet, so I didn't.  Then WHAT DO YOU THINK?  I found a box labeled "solid charms" and there they were!  I already OWNED these charm packs!

So I sewed them right up into HST's.... Half Square Triangles.  More or less I paired a light and a dark charm, and made each set of 2 charms become 4 HST's on the bias.  Nice technique.  And they go together well, since you can slightly stretch or contract them to come together sharply!

I made 2 sets:  Ocean, and Berry.  Then I went to the design table and started playing around.

I really like it! Each block is around 3", so the quilt is around 36 X 45. Dark blue, mottled binding, also a clearance find at Connecting Threads.  I quilted along the diagonals.

Happy with my little quilt!

Update: In 2021 I started selling quilts from my collection. Time to make more room to make more quilts. This quilt sold to another artist who remade nit into a gorgeous jacket! 

Economy Blocks

Square-in-a-square, or economy block. Solid, traditional blocks, made with charm squares as per a tutorial on Missouri Star quilts.  I simply sorted my dots/stars charms into "light" and "dark" piles.  Each block has 3 charms, so I alternated centers, one was light-dark-light, the next dark-light-dark.  Then the idea was to place a dark centered one next to a light centered one.  Uhhhhh, oops.  Somehow I mixed them all up by the time I carried them to the sewing machine!  So their placement is truly random.  By design, YEAH! I meant to randomize them!

I made enough blocks till I ran out of charms.  (I think I had 3 odd-numbered charm packs.) and then decided to place them in an asymmetrical light grey border.  Light grey......... I KNOW I had a piece of ligh grey in my stash!  Oh well, this sagey green says "SPRING!" nicely, so I used it!  I did diagonal stitches and in-the-ditch between blocks, then I just sort of quilted the border as I went along,

Since it's Springy, I used a very light weight polyester batting, so it has nice fluffy cuddle-ability!

I have not yet decided who this quilt is for, but I have someone in mind!  

Baby Ryan's Quilt

A special modern quilt for a very special baby boy.  I actually chose a quilt kit for this one, bought online at clearance from one of my favorite clearance fabric shopping places:  Connecting Threads.

The hardest part about this quilt was the uneven placement of the sashing strips, with their stripes that make a pattern, but I STILL have trouble seeing the pattern.  Otherwise, the blocks are all the same, just placed in different directions.

Graduation

I made this quilt for my nephew's graduation.  I wanted something masculine, modern, unique, striking.

Black and white with red accents is always striking.  The hashtags felt very current. Square in a square allows featuring really unique prints.