Emily's Baby Quilt

I have another grand niece on the way, so time for a quilt. I made this one from some left over blocks from my Japanese Cross and Plus Quilt. Used a slightly different layout. I also used some left over batting and backing I already had. I like to think this process is what patchwork is all about!!

Here is miss Hattie modelling the finished top.

Some closeups. Nothing fancy with the quilting. This is made to be used, on the floor, whereever and then thrown in the washer and dryer.

 

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Repro Cross and Plus Quilt

So, I have always resisted Instagram, but last week I signed up for it and now I'm hooked. A couple of quilt-a-longs have been running on there and I sort of got hooked on the Japanese Cross and Plus one - #xplusalong! But I wanted to do it in something I actually had enough fabric for. So I started one in 1930's Repros, which is actually a good fit I think, as this is when the block is first dated to.

I have to say, I got a bit carried away. Most people are doing scrappy versions. This becomes a lesson in sitting down and thinking first, before cutting. I decided I liked the look of red crosses. I normally don't like the red in the repro palette. I tend to find it jarring against the pastels, but I am growing to like it and I think the contrast works really well with this block. Anyway...I cut up all the pieces, as you can see below.

For the most part this was not a problem. But I realised way too late that I could've saved myself alot of time cutting and ironing if I had strip pieced the red and white two patches that I needed. Lesson learned!!

The corner blocks produced many, many offcuts, which have now become little HST (used as leaders and enders in the string piecing!!). I think these will become several mini-quilts!!

Rather than joining the blocks straight to each other, I am using sashing. This sashing will then create secondary crosses between the blocks and make an all over pattern.

This is what the rows look like sewn together.

This is the completed top. No border is planned. The blocks are 10" finished. I had hoped to start quilting it this week but various things came up. I am determined to get it done this weekend!!

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Japanese X and + Progress

I finally bit the bullet and sewed these blocks together. Cause I'd run out of the background green, I only had enough fabric to put four blocks together. I have two others left over.

I have plenty of the Gatsby fabric left, so now I have to decide what colour to use for the background. I'm thinking a bone or taupe? Any comments? What about something completely left field? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This is the construction. If you put a strip between each block, you then get a repeat of the overall pattern. Good bang for your buck!!

Each of the blocks had the same green background, then the cross done in various fabrics from the Gatsby range and the plus done in a dark brown (one of which was from Gatsby).

This one has be matching Gatsby brown.

This is Cleopatra making sure it's comfy!!

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Japanese Cross and Plus Test Block

I saw this block on Pinterest a while back and loved the look of it, both the pattern and the colours. At the same time, I bought a FQ bundle of Gatsby fabric. I wanted to use the fabric for something that would reflect the Art Deco nature of the designs. I went through a few ideas and then saw this block.

This is the test block I did, using some of the fabrics and a light khaki plain I bought from Spotlight. The plan is to do the Plus in dark colours and use the mediums for the Cross and the khaki for the background. Still deciding on how to set - either with or without sashing.

Now there was one small problem - I only had half a metre of the plain fabric. I thought I'd have no problem picking up some more, I should've known better!! I will keep trying to find it or I will have to come up with another solution, possibly start again with a different background fabric. I had intended originally to go with a beige or light tan, but the green worked OK as well. So I have options.

The image below shows the corner blocks and some little, teeny HST I made with the off cuts. Normally, I wouldn't keep off cuts so small, but since they were already together and there are going to be heaps of them, I figured I'd sew the together and see what happens.

So here are some of the ideas I played with. Once I have made the blocks for the whole quilt, I should have enough HST to make a few mini-quilts.

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