Community Bow Ties

Cut-Ups is a small 12-member group within the Amador Valley Quilters guild. I belong to Cut-Ups. Each month a member proposes a block that everyone makes. All these blocks are pooled and the member who proposed the block assembles them into a quilt. This becomes a community quilt that is donated to a local charity. A recent month, I proposed this block for a Bow Ties quilt. The colors were donated from another member's scrap de-stashing effort and I supplied the whites cut in fourths from a layer cake I had.  Here are the directions for an 8.5" block.

These are some sample blocks prior to trimming, shown at the meeting where the instructions were distributed.

When the blocks were turned it at the next meeting, I had 50 of them. Here they are laid out randomly on my dining room table.

With that many blocks, I could have assembled a 7 x 7 configuration but decided that a 6 x 8 layout would be more useful. The finished quilt would measure 48" wide by 64" tall. I found the perfect checkered fabric for the backing, batting was provided by the guild, and the sandwich was quilted with a loopy star pattern by a daughter-in-law of one of the members.

As a final step, I affixed a label from our guild and took photos. We Cut-Ups hope that the recipient of this quilt will be pleased and that the person will feel loved.

Christmas Celebration Wreath Row

Say “Wreath Row” several times fast! No, it is not an airport in London. It is the fifth row in my Christmas Celebration quilt from the Shabby Fabrics Christmas Celebration Row Quilt series. There are six blocks to make in this fifth installment. Wreaths are made out of these six green fabrics and these two red fabrics from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater line for Moda. It is always a nice surprise to see the new additions each month. This month the fabric not revealed before in previous rows was the cream background one with the mini Christmas trees, fifth from the left. I mistakenly made the red bow four times for a wreath out of this fabric. Details later.

 

I cut the six green fabrics three layers at a time, to assure cleaner cuts. I cut the two red fabrics at the same time and labeled my pieces with letters. The pattern does not assign the pieces letters, but this is a habit I use that helps me keep organized. I write my assigned letters on the pattern and then lay the corresponding Alphabitties on each stack. During assembly, a letter is easier to reference than the dimensions of a piece.

This is the first wreath I made. From the triangles I cut off each of the four corners, I made a pinwheel.

Then I made the inside of the other five wreaths all at the same time. These cut off corners were too small to make a pinwheel, even for pinwheel obsessed me. 

Next I decided to make all the bows at once. They are fussy and tiny and I was on a roll This is the bow for the wreath of mini Christmas trees. I made it once. I took it apart because I wanted the center knot fabric to face the same was as the loops of the bow. I reassembled it…wrong a second time. This next time I got it oriented the way I wanted. When I went through my stack of wreath centers to add the bow on top, I found, stacked between the layers, a bow I had already made…and correctly, too! Oh, well. Now I have an extra.

Here are the six wreaths all joined in a row. Above them is their corresponding bonus pinwheel. I now have an extra bow for the wreath second from the left. The row measures 8½“ high by 50½“ wide. I am excitedly awaiting the shipment of the sixth row near the end of July,