Delilah Quilt: Pinwheels and more...

I'm continuing on my Delilah Quilt journey with the last of the block piecing.  So far we've had twelve months of blocks with twelve, nine, and six inch finished sizes.  The final month included directions for piecing 31 pinwheels and cutting 34 squares to finish at three inches.  So off to work I went.  Here's where I started.

Then I moved on to these.

And a few more.

At this point, I realized that 31 pinwheels are a lot of the same thing.  So with the last set, I decided to put them together into a variation and here's what I ended up with.

I'm happy that I decided to add a little variety to the mix.  Here are a few close-ups of my favorites.

Next, I'll be working on my layout and adding the squares.  My plan is to use one fabric for the filler squares to keep things a little calmer. After all, there's a lot going on with this quilt!  Although I won't make this quilt as a finish for quarter 1 of the 2018 Finish-A-Long, I am happy with my continued progress.  How are you doing with your sewing goals?  

Linking up with BOMs Away.  

Modern Plus Sign Quilts Book Hop: Message in a Bottle

I'm so very excited to share my version of Message in a Bottle from the Modern Plus Sign Quilts book by Cheryl Brickey and Paige Alexander.  If you've headed over from Meadow Mist Designs or Quilted Blooms thank you so much for stopping by.  Cheryl and Paige have hit it out of the park with this exciting new quilt book based on the plus block.  There are so many great projects that you're guaranteed to find something you like as soon as you get your hands on a copy, which I recommend you do!

Photography by C&T Publishing

Message in a Bottle is a simple quilt that makes a big statement.  It's wonderful for using up larger pieces of fabric that you may have in your stash.  At 48 inches square it makes a perfect lap quilt or playmat for a baby.  You will love how easy it is to put together.  Below is the book version of Message in a Bottle.  The large center plus with the red border really pops against the background for maximum graphic impact.

Photography by C&T Publishing

For my version of Message in a Bottle I chose four fabrics from the Maribel collection by Annabel Wrigley and I love how they look together in the quilt.  Yellow is my favorite color and I was happy to incorporate it into this special quilt.

This pattern also gives you lots of opportunities for great quilting with all of the wide open space and its simple motif.  I decided to have this quilted with an allover edge to edge floral pattern by Allison at AB Quilting Studio.  I think this is the third quilt I've had quilted with this design...I love how pretty it is.   I like the way it mimics the floral background print.  Allison chose a matching aqua thread and the results are spectacular.

With such a simple design your piecing really shows in this quilt, so when you make this quilt (and I know you will!) it's important to pin carefully where the plus seam joins are.  I recommend that you sew a few stitches to secure them in order to ensure that when you sew across everything lines up perfectly.  Since it is the only piecing in this quilt, you'll really want it to be right.  My friend Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty has a quick tutorial on this technique, which works well when you want to match things up precisely.   

For other great versions of Message in a Bottle check out:

Tish @ Tish N Wonderland

Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

You can purchase a copy of the book here, or for a signed copy and a bonus pattern from Cheryl click here, and for Paige click here.   

Congratulations to Cheryl and Paige for creating a wonderful new quilt book.  You'll want to check out all of the book hop participants and their work here.  Happy sewing!  

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Busy Hands Quilts, and Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Delilah Quilt - Block 12

This is the final block for the Delilah Quilt and it's called Black Cockatoo.  This block was so easy compared to all of the other months.  The cutting did not require any reverses, the pieces were a good size, no curves, no y-seams, no seams to line up... the hardest part was picking the fabrics!

Kept this kind of simple, but I did use a few different fabric placements.  Some have all the same background, some have two different backgrounds which creates a little bit of a pinwheel effect.  On some I made it look like four different triangles with two on top and two underneath.  For others, I used the same fabric for each template piece.  It's always fun to see how you can make each block look different depending on how you decide on your fabrics and placement.

My next step for this project is to decide what blocks should go where within the placement layout that was provided in the pattern.  I have a few main color groups in my blocks so I'm going to start with a layout that keeps them grouped together and see how that looks.  Even though the original Jen Kingwell design is super scrappy, I'm going to try to dial it down a bit.  Wish me luck!  

You can see all of my blocks along with a few helpful tutorials for machine piecing on my Delilah page.  Also check out more great Delilah inspiration here. 

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts and Sew Fresh Quilts.