Nine Patched

Curt's family has a gorgeous stash of old family quilts around their house, and this one in particular has always been my favorite.

{Special thanks to Curt's little sis Cali for snapping this pic for me to reference!}

It's a simple nine-patch, set on white fabric. The fabrics are all different, but very cohesive. I've been wanting to recreate it for some time, and finally came up with the best answer I could find: use my beloved stash of Denyse Schmidt fabrics to make my own version!

All the blocks are the same - four printed squares, five white ones.

It made for very easy chain piecing.

I did a bunch at a time, working on them for a couple days.

And before I knew it, I had all the blocks I needed (56 if you are interested).

I laid it out to see how they looked and to make sure I had a good, even balance of color and such. It's still on the floor - I walk by it and move a couple blocks here and there. Once I settle on the layout I will get to work on the sashing. 

I love how Denyse's fabrics lend to the vintage feel of this quilt, as well as the old school pattern. And I can't wait to see it finished! 

Dream On

I lost my sewing mojo for a month or so there, but I think I've found it and I'm back. It was just a matter of forcing myself to stitch something, anything, together, and I now have one finished quilt top and half of another to show for it.

I've been hoarding a few charm packs of Dream On by Urban Chiks for Moda for quite some time now. The prints are all reproductions of vintage sheets and they are so charming. I had debated for a long time about what kind of pattern I wanted to use, but ultimately decided to just go with a simple patchwork quilt and left all the charms as squares. That also meant I didn't have to plan anything - I just randomly pieced the squares together. I also added in a couple pastel voile fabrics so I could have a nice lap size quilt.

I think I ended up doing 12X14 5" charms, resulting in a quilt that's approximately 54 X 63. 

I knew I wanted to find a vintage sheet for the back, and I really lucked out in my search and found that exact yellow w/green ribbon sheet on Etsy! The original is a larger scale and a bit brighter, but it will be perfect for the back. 

I'm still debating how to quilt this one. Straight lines on either edge of the seam? Straight lines going diagonally through the quilt? Tie it? Any suggestions are welcome! I have some batting stashed away, so I'm planning to get it basted and ready to go this week. Hopefully by that time I will know what I want to do about quilting it. 

What are you working on right now?