BluePip Designs

What a month! It was all about the quilt-alongs and boy did they keep me busy!  I started the month with two tops ready for assembly and one top that needed a back, and ended the month with two finished quilts and one that is half-quilted.  I'd been feeling like I didn't have very many finishes this year and that's certainly not the case anymore! Quilt Tally WIP List at beginning of month: 12 WIP List at end of month: 11 Untouched in 2022: 5 Active QAL Projects: 1 Quilts Finished Macaron Mystery Quilt (October 2021) Blue Zephyr (February 2022) Quilts Started Meeple Pillow - Test project for my 6" Meeple blocks. Quilt Progress (5 WIPs touched) Harry Potter POD - I almost didn't have a block for this month, but then I decided I wasn't going to skip two months in a row.  Instead of making one of the more complicated blocks for the sides of the bookcase, I made this mug of Butterbeer, which Harry has plopped down on top of the bookcase bef...

A big THANK YOU to everyone who sewed along with me on this quilt-along.  I get a thrill every time you share your work with me - it's so exciting to see what you make with my patterns!  I'm going to kick off the parade with my quilt-along version of Zephyr - the fourth one I've made.  This pattern has been working hard to clear out my stash, but there's still plenty of fabric in there! The back of the quilt is the Stonehenge Flannel wideback in Navy (no longer available from the website I bought it from) - once I started backing quilts in flannel there was no looking back.  My family loves these extra-heavy, extra warm quilts.  The quilting pantograph is Woven Wind, done by Lauren at Tekstil Crave ; it's the same quilting I had done on the original Zephyr and still a favorite!  The binding is a navy solid that I found in my stash; probably a Kona although it wasn't labeled. And now for the exciting part of the post - your Zephyrs! My mother-in-law, ...

This week we are sewing our finished blocks into rows and then a quilt top!  This is the final and easiest part of assembly - it's just square blocks being sewn together into rows.  All the sashing and on-point blocks you see are just a clever illusion (my Chalk Stars quilt is constructed in the same way)!  Here's an expanded diagram from last week's post:  Step three is the only place in the entire quilt where it matters how you press your seams - press towards the blocks with the horizontal rows.  This will ensure that your blocks nest when you are sewing the rows together.  Sew all the blocks in each row together, then sew the rows together and your Zephyr quilt top is done! I can't wait to see your finished quilts!  I want to make sure everyone has time to finish and photograph their quilt tops, so I am moving the quilt parade from next Sunday to Thursday, April 28th.  Please send me a photo of your finished quilt by T...

It's time to start assembling your Zephyr quilt!  Gather up all those rails you've made and start laying them out.  The pattern has several pages that explain how to put the rails together, but I find it easier to look at my coloring sheet (or the cover quilt if you are doing the rainbow throw) and go from there. Start with the first full pinwheel in the upper left corner and arrange the rails so that the triangles are on the outside and the rectangles are on the inside - be careful that your directional prints are all pointing in the same direction!  This pinwheel looked correct when I first laid it out, but after I started sewing my rail pairs together I noticed the rails weren't all oriented the same way.  I'm probably the only person who would notice this in the finished quilt, but since I had gone through the effort of making one rail in each direction I did get out the seam ripper and fix it. I had a few rail sets...