It's That Time of The Year Again....

Hi, all!

Yes, it's getting to be that time of the year again - time to start thinking about the Hands2Help Challenge for 2016!  I know some of you have been working on your quilts since the end of last year's Challenge - I love your excitement and enthusiasm!  

If you'll remember, last year we started preparing for the Challenge with the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along, an exploration of ways to use the 16-patch block in quilts...

...and in the same vein, this year we will be exploring the versatile nine-patch block!  I hope you'll join me for the Nifty Nines Quilt Along - I'll be sharing quite a few quilt designs using the nine-patch block in hopes of inspiring you to create some beautiful quilts for the Hands2Help Challenge this year!  The Quilt Along will start on January 31st and appear each Sunday night through March 6th.  Pick a design you like or come up with your own - it's all good!

The Hands2Help Challenge will start the following week, March 13th, with the reveal of our charities for 2016 and a chance to sign up and participate in the signup giveaway.  You can always sign up later, but there will be a giveaway for those who sign up the first week.  

An H2H quilt from past years...

As usual, we'll have guest bloggers and check-in dates, link parties along the way and a chance to meet the sponsors before the final link party the week of May 22nd.  Giveaways will be announced on March 29th, along with the final count of quilts!  

Quilts from Middle TN for H2H

As you can see, you've got plenty of time to pull a quilt together for the challenge! If you're like most, you've got some tops or UFOs tucked away that could be finished in time, and wouldn't it feel good to know that you've given someone in need a warm quilt-y hug?  I do hope you'll join in the fun!

Another beautiful H2H quilt!

FYI, I have six guest blogger spots open this year, so if you'd like to be a guest blogger, let me know!  You can post about pretty much anything - your own charity quilt efforts, a favorite pattern, how you juggle quilting and life, tips for a great quilting experience - the sky's the limit!  Just drop me a line at salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com if you are interested.

Are you excited?  I am!  Just a couple more weeks and we'll get this party started!

Hugs!

Sarah

FYI:  Hands2Help posts are always on Sundays.  If you want to be sure not to miss anything, you might want to sign up to follow by email (located in the upper left sidebar of this blog).

Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along - At The End, Something Traditional!

Hi, all!

Wow, can you believe it!  We've made it to the final week of the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along.  One week of instruction, then eight different ways to use the sixteen-patch blocks you create...

Sixteens and pinwheels...

A modern take on the 16-patch quilt...

A one-block quilt using 16-patches...

A low-volume postage stamp quilt...

Setting 16's on point gives a totally different look...

16's and snowball blocks...

Checkerboard 16's using a new technique...

And now it's time to see the final quilt in the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along!

This quilt is made using two different color variations of the same block.  I chose to make it with a sixteen-patch block using various red and beige fabrics to give it some depth.

Isn't that pretty?  I love all the different shades of red!

And the quilting was fun, too!

So here's a quick tutorial of a fast way to make these blocks...

My version of this quilt has 49 blocks set into a 7 x 7 grid.  There are 25 red blocks and 24 white blocks.  I used fat quarters cut into 2.5" x 22" strips to make the strata sets (four strips sewn side by side).  In the directions below, R stands for red and W stands for white.

For the white blocks, you will need 6 sets of strata assembled WRWW, and 6 sets of strata assembled WWWR.

For the red blocks, you will need 7 sets of strata assembled RWRR and 7 sets of strata assembled RRRW.

Once your strata is assembled and pressed (I pressed my seams open to make it easier to assemble the blocks), crosscut each strata into eight pieces, 2.5" wide.

For each white block, you will need two pieces of WWWR, and two pieces of WRWW.  Arrange them as shown below.  For each red block, you will need two pieces of RRRW, and two pieces of RWRR, arranged in the same way.

Once your blocks are assembled, arrange them alternating red and white blocks.  Arrange the diagonals of the red blocks from upper left to lower right, and the diagonals of the white blocks from upper right to lower left.  I added a red border to finish off my quilt, although you don't necessarily need it.  My finished quilt measures about 60" square.

I cut my strips from sixteen different reds and sixteen different whites to get a wide variety of shades in my quilt, although you could do it with fewer colors.  You will need 56 red strips and 50 white strips, 2.5" x 22", to make this quilt.

 And just because it's pretty, here's one last shot of this quilt!

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So that's the final quilt in the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along!  I hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as I have  - and if you've been working on a version of a 16-patch quilt, I'd love to see your creation!  Please link up below and show off what you've been making - because you guys are so creative!  It's exciting to see how many MORE ways there are to use these versatile blocks.

And one final thing - as many of you already know, my daughter at son-in-law are in the process of adopting Nathanael, a 3-year old boy from China.  They are in the final days now, just waiting for their travel authorization from China so they can go over and complete the legalities there.  And as part of their final fundraising efforts, some of the quilts I made for the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along  are being auctioned, along with other fabulous handcrafted items, on Facebook this weekend.  The auction ends Sunday, March 8th at 8 pm CST.  If you'd like to check it out and help us #bringNathanaelhome, just click on this link to be taken to the Facebook page.

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Next week, I'll feature some of the sixteen patch quilts you all have linked up over the past eight weeks.  And then the week after, I hope you'll join us for the beginning of.....

Signups for the Challenge begin Sunday, March 15th - I hope you'll come join in the fun!

Hugs!

Sarah

Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along - A New Technique!

Hi, all!

I hope you're enjoying the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along as much as I am!  I've really been amazed at all the ways I've seen to use sixteen-patch blocks - and I'm enjoying seeing the ways you are taking the inspiration and turning it into beautiful quilts!  

If this is your first time stopping by the quilt along, here's what's happened so far.  The first week, we learned some techniques for making sixteen-patch blocks (beyond your basic "sew sixteen squares together"!)  Then we started exploring some ways to use those blocks...

The second week we saw a quilt using pinwheels with 16's.

Then a modern take on the 16-patch quilt.

Week four showcased a one-block quilt...

...and week five revealed an old favorite, the postage stamp quilt.

Week six was a quilt made by a tutorial from Amanda Jean Nyberg, originally written for the 2011 Hands2Help Challenge.

And last week's quilt was a riot of color using 16's and snowball blocks.

So now we come to this week's quilt - a checkerboard quilt!

Sorry about the pictures - I have to take my sun when I can get it, which in this case was late afternoon so the pics are kind of golden...

What I'm most excited about with this quilt is the new (at least to me) technique to make 16-patch blocks from layer cakes or 10" squares.  I've not seen this technique anywhere else.  I got the idea from a recent tutorial paired with the release of Jolly Bars (5"x10" precuts).  They used two jolly bar precuts to make one 16-patch block. Well, I didn't have any jolly bars, and truthfully was too cheap to go out and buy one. But I did have a layer cake on hand, and thought I would just cut it in half.  But then I started thinking a little bit more, and did a little experimenting, and came up with a cool method of making two sixteen patch blocks from two 10" squares.  Tutorial below!

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So here's how you make these blocks.

To start with, choose two 10" squares from your layer cake.  They will become the two colors in your checkerboard block, so be sure you like the contrast between the two.  Draw a line down the center of the lighter colored block.

Now lay the squares directly on top of each other and stitch a 1/4 inch seam from the right and left sides of the squares.  Then stitch 1/4 inch to either side of the line you drew in the center.

Now you will cut the sewn piece on the line you drew (between the two lines of stitching) and then 2.5" from the edge of each of the two pieces.  You will now have four pieces, measuring 2.5" x 10", and seamed down one side.

Press the seams toward the darker fabric.

Take two of those strips and draw a line down the center, five inches from the edge.

Now take one of those strips and one of the unmarked strips and lay them right sides together, with the colors alternating.

Match up the seams carefully so that when you seam across the middle, you'll have a nice neat intersection.

Pin with three pins - right, left and center.

Stitch 1/4" from the right side, the left side, and on each side of the center line.

Now you will cut the sewn piece on the line you drew (between the two lines of stitching) and then 2.5" from the edge of each of the two pieces.  You will now have four pieces, measuring 2.5" x 5", and seamed down one side, for each of the two strip sets you sewed together.  Eight total, which will give you two identical finished blocks.

Press the seams.  I use this technique (see tip #3).  Not only does it give you a cool pinwheel effect in the center, but it makes those intersections much easier to quilt.  You will notice that my pinwheels go two different directions - if you press this way, you will have four that go clockwise and four that go counterclockwise.    Use four of one type to make each block.

Sew your four matching 4-patch blocks together to make a sixteen-patch block.  Easy peasy!!

A layer cake will give you forty-two blocks, which I laid out in a 6 x 7 grid.  One inch sashing (cut 1.5" wide) and one inch cornerstones (cut 1.5" square) and a two inch outer border (cut 2.5" wide) yielded a 59" x 68" quilt.

I also think these blocks would look great set on point.  Give it a try!  And if you do, be sure to link it up at some point so we can all see it....

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And that's this week's offering!  Only one more week to go, and we'll have eight great ways to use 16-patch blocks.  Make one of each and you'll make a huge dent in your scraps stash!!

Next week's quilt is on the sewing table but it's still in small pieces so no teaser.  But I think it's going to be beautiful!  Be sure to check back next Sunday and see if I'm right.

And link up below to show off your progress - we'd love to be inspired by what you've done!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along - Summer Days, Drifting Away...

Hi, all!

It's week seven of the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along!  I am really enjoying this experience and I hope you are too.  If this is your first time to visit the Quilt Along, here's a quick recap of what we've done so far...

The first week we discussed several different ways to make the very versatile 16-patch block.  Then in the following weeks we discovered different ways to use that block in quilts...

16's and pinwheels...

A more modern version (it takes fewer 16's, too!)

A one-block star quilt...

A classic postage stamp quilt...

And a bright kids' quilt with on-point 16's.

This week I've got something bright and sunny to share with you - a pleasant change from the snowy cold days many of us have been experiencing!

This quilt is made with a combination of 16's and snowball blocks. Now, if you've never made snowball blocks before, here's a great video tutorial, short and sweet, that will show you how.  

My 16's are made with 2.5" squares, and my snowballs are made with 8.5" squares with 2.5" squares for the triangles on the corners.

Some vital statistics for this quilt - it is made using some beautiful hand-dyed fabrics I had been hoarding, paired with a beautiful spring green from Kona.  Twenty-five 16-patch blocks and twenty-four snowball blocks, and a border made of 2.5" squares.  

The backing is my favorite IKEA print with a strip of purple hand-dyed fabric for interest and to stretch it out.  Binding is scrappy hand-dyes.  It measures about 60" square.

Bright colors make me smile!!

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So there's one more way to use your sixteen patch blocks!  Are you feeling inspired yet?  If you've come up with a cool and unique way to use your 16's I'd love to see it! I hope you'll link up below and show off what you're making.  And just for fun, here's a sneak peek at what's coming up next week - an easy quilt with a new-to-me, fun and surprising block construction method!  

Be sure to check out all the quilt-y inspiration below!

Hugs!

Sarah