Erica's Stitches

Up till now, all the blocks in the quilt I'm reproducing have been popular blocks that I had no trouble recognizing.  But not these next two.  I've looked through pages and pages of quilt blocks and haven't seen anything similar so I don't know what to call them.  No made up names are jumping to mind so I'm going to leave them unnamed. These blocks are also different in that they appear to be pieced by a less experienced quilter than the others:  points are cut off and corners don't line up.  Perhaps they are early effort or perhaps they were done by someone younger.  They use the same pink and purple fabrics that appear elsewhere in the quilt so they were made from the same stash of fabric as the rest of the quilt. They were placed in opposite corners of the quilt .  So, I've also used the same color scheme for both blocks. The first block is above and below.  It finishes out at 10 inches and is really just a 4 patch but two...

What quilt sampler would be complete without some star block? These are 2 classic stars.  These stars can be found in samplers, alternated with a different block and used as the sole block in a quilt. Both the blocks will be 9 inches square. The first is my very favorite star:  Ohio Star. Look!  I got all the stripes going in the same direction.  You may recognize the points of the star.   One of earlier blocks is a larger version.  This block is so popular that tutorials abound and here is a good one - it even has the cutting directions for the 9 inch block. Usually when I make the 2nd block I use really bright, wild fabrics.  Here the fabric is wild but the block is low contrast and doesn't jump out at you.  I don't think it hurts to have a few blocks like that in a quilt. The next block is easily my second favorite star:  Sawtooth Star. This is another really popular star and the points are ...

These 2 blocks are some of the most time consuming easy blocks that there are.  There's no shortcuts, each strip has to be sewn on individually.  Between cutting each strip to size, organizing so that the right strip got sewn on to the right side at the right time, sewing and pressing I could have made dozens of other blocks.  I'm not sure that I'd have the patience to make a whole quilt of blocks like these but I do love the way that they look. The first block is Log Cabin and it finishes to 10 inches and there are 19 pieces of fabric in the block.  The center is cut 2 3/8 inches square and each log is 1 3/8 inches wide.  This is one of the reasons it took longer.  It is harder for me to cut to eights as it is quarters.  I have to concentrate and triple check before cutting. I would alternate blocks.  First, sew a strip onto block A, then block B.  Then iron block A and sew on a strip.  Then iron block B and sew on a st...