Category Archives: floating squares

August Anticipation

Once I finish a quilt top, I am always eager to piece a backing so I can get both top and backing off to be quilted by a professional longarmer. In the case of the Picnic Quilt top, based on the free pattern Ribbon Box and completed at the end of June, making a backing got put on the back burner while I bound and labeled At the Corner of Cheddar and Indigo. Because of gardening and other household duties, that took up most of July.

And now here it is August already! What do I have to show for it thus far? Nada. Zippo. Ah, but I do have plans . . . not for a backing for the Picnic Quilt but for another brand new version of Ribbon Box, this one featuring my precious horde of fabrics from Mo Bedell’s debut fabric line “Party Dress,” which came out in 2010.

I bought several pieces from the line when it first came out but these three fabrics are the ones that will appear in my newest Work-in-Progress (WIP):

The center fabric is obviously the main focus fabric. Isn’t it gorgeous? And the aqua fabric on the right has appeared in more than one of my quilts.

The pattern calls for eight prints. Here are the remaining five, all pulled from my stash:

Astute readers will recognize the navy and white print from my recently completed cheddar and indigo quilt. It was the only navy print in my stash that matched the navy of the focus fabric. It’s a vintage print and I will be very sorry when I’ve used the last of it.

Here are the eight prints all together:

Did you notice the green on white polkadot fabric the prints are  resting on? That’s my background fabric, one of Lori Holt’s “Seasonal Basics” for Moda. It’s one of my all-time favorites for quilt backgrounds. I have it in at least three colorways and love it for its versatility; it looks great in both traditional and modern quilts.

August is shaping up to be a very busy month. The Dear Husband and I have a couple of road trips planned, my twin sister Diane is arriving in one week for an extended visit, and the garden continues to demand attention daily (not just weeding and watering but harvesting!). I have also been working on a PowerPoint presentation for an upcoming quilt guild meeting that I’m excited about. All this to say that I may not get much sewing done this month — but it’s all good. If the best I can do is duck into my sewing room from time to time to pet these fabrics, I will be a happy quilter.

P.S. For those of you interested in making your own version of Ribbon Box, I haven’t forgotten my pledge to pass on what I learned while making my first version. Quoting from an earlier post:

“In my previous post I mentioned making changes to the way the quilt is constructed. It has to do with sewing the quilt together in sections rather than in strictly horizontal rows. It enabled me to eliminate 17 seams! I’ll tell you all about it in my next post along with some important considerations regarding fabric choices, cutting instructions, and arranging the ribbons. If I ever make the pattern again — and I just might! — I will surely be keeping these considerations in mind.”

 

 

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, family, floating squares, picnic quilt, Ribbon Box quilt, square-in-a-square, update | 4 Comments

It’s a Wrap: At the Corner of Cheddar and Indigo

Gosh, it feels good to report a quilt finish! I hope to be more productive when the weather turns cold and wet but for now I must be content spending time with the Dear Husband in the garden, which is benefiting from the TLC we are both bestowing on it. The tomatoes are abundant (though not yet turning red), the herb garden is glorious, and just this morning I harvested three zucchini that the squirrels have mystifyingly ignored.

But let’s get back to the quilt! First the front . . .

. . . and now the back:

The back was pieced very simply, containing only two small pieces from the “Cheddar and Indigo” line of Riley Blake fabric that makes up most of the front. That’s because I boxed up all of my remaining fabric from the line and sent it to my new quilting friend in Virginia who has been looking for that same fabric since she saw Scattered Stars, my first cheddar and indigo quilt begun in 2019 and completed in 2020. She couldn’t find much of the fabric then — most likely because I had scoured the internet and bought up every single piece I could find. Now my friend has more than enough of the fabric to make her own quilt, which makes us both very happy.

I made single-fold binding measuring ½” finished, referring to my March 23, 2021 post In Praise of Single-Fold Binding: A Tutorial of Sorts. That tutorial has been attracting a lot of visitors to my website recently so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Instead of making my signature round label, I opted to create a label echoing the square-in-a-square block design:

Here’s a close-up:

In case you can’t read the label, the quilt is based on the free pattern “Floating Squares” by Carried Away Quilting. I added sashing and cornerstones to my version. It was beautifully quilted by Karlee Sandell using the traditional Baptist Fan design.

After taking these photos, I sent At the Corner of Cheddar and Indigo on its maiden voyage through the washer and dryer. Here’s another shot of the quilt in its post-washing soft crinkly goodness:

After laundering it measures 60½” x 70½” — a perfect size for a throw.

Edit added August 3, 2024: After my twin sister Diane wrote a comment demanding to know why I hadn’t included a photo in this post of Princess Cordelia (aka Coco), who is well known for photobombing my quilts, I laid At the Corner of Cheddar and Calico out on the carpet and waited for her to notice. It didn’t take long:

Such a regal pose!

 

 

 

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, family, floating squares, single-fold binding, square-in-a-square, update | 11 Comments

Cheddar and Indigo Quilt: Quilted, Trimmed, and Ready to Bind

It’s always a happy day when I get to pick up a quilt from my longarm quilter. Karlee of SewInspired2Day does such nice work. Because this quilt features a very traditional block (known as Economy and Square-in-a-Square), I chose a very traditional quilt motif: Baptist Fan. I love the look of the curved quilting lines on the straight edges of the diamonds and squares.

Here’s a look at the entire quilt after trimming:

The trimmed quilt measures 62½” x 71½”. I cut the border strips extra wide (6½”), giving me the option of trimming them after quilting if I wanted them narrower but I find I like them just the way they are.

Although the prints from the “Cheddar and Indigo” line by Penny Rose Studio for Riley Blake Designs are traditional, I did sneak in a couple of modern prints, most notably the cheddar in this block:

It’s called Barcelona City Map from the “Barcelona” line by Zen Chic by Moda. I used some of it in 2020 while making Scattered Stars, my first indigo and cheddar quilt, and liked it so much I replaced it in my stash — and bought the same print in three other colors!

The indigo print in this block was a vintage find, produced back in the day when selvages carried little or no information at all about the fabric designer or manufacturer:

The selvage on this fabric reads “© Springs Ind., Inc.” Out of curiosity, I googled that just now and much to my surprise a website popped up with a brief but fascinating history of Springs Industries, a cotton textile company founded in 1887 by Samuel Elliott White of Fort Mill, South Carolina. You can read about it here. The website is run by the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina.

Here’s a look at the back of the quilt . . .

. . . and a detail shot:

I’m going to bind my quilt in an indigo blender by Maywood that reads as a solid. It’s a fabric I use so often I buy it by the bolt.

The only decision remaining is what to name this quilt. The quilt is based on the free pattern Floating Squares by Carried Away Quilting. The only thing I have come up with so far is “Diamonds and Squares Afloat” which is descriptive but not very clever. If any of you have suggestions, I’m all ears.

 

 

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, floating squares, square-in-a-square, update | 3 Comments

Cheddar and Indigo and . . . Calico?

There you have it: 42 cornerstones attached to my Floating Squares quilt top:

I’m loving the look but what a pain it was getting those seams lined up. I daresay it will be a while before I opt for 1″ square cornerstones again.

One more thing to do: add borders! Here is my finished quilt top:

Right now the top measures 63½” x 73½” — a good size for a lap quilt. I can envision napping under it. Coco is apparently ready to nap on top of it:

 

 

 

Posted in cats, cheddar and indigo, economy block, floating squares, square-in-a-square, update | 7 Comments

Floating Squares Update

The final 10 Floating Squares blocks have been made and added to the previous 20 to complete my 5 x 6 layout. It took several days of wandering in and out of the Annex (the room across the hall from my sewing room) and rearranging squares on my design wall to get to this point:

While I’m very happy with the balance of blocks in terms of color and scale, the feeling remains that the blocks need to be separated to tone down the cheddar factor.

If you’ve been following my progress on this from the beginning, you’ll recall that my options to achieve this were to 1) turn the blocks on point and alternate with plain cream blocks, 2) separate the blocks with sashing strips, or 3) add another round of triangles to each block using indigo or cream fabrics but not the cheddar.

I was predisposed to setting the blocks on point and alternating them with plain blocks but surprised myself by deciding on a simple 1″ lattice between blocks and rows. To test it before cutting and sewing strips I separated the blocks on my design wall:

This is so much more pleasing to my eye!

Here are the first three rows with sashing strips added between the blocks:

Totally on the right track. But it turns out I wasn’t quite finished tinkering with the design. What would it look like, I wondered, if I added cornerstones between the blocks? And what if they were cheddar? They would be tiny — only 1″ finished — so it might work.

I cut some 1″ test squares out of scraps and stuck them up on the design wall:

Oh my! I love this look. Isn’t it funny? I changed the layout of the quilt to soften the effect of the strong cheddar and then turned right around and added cheddar back into the mix.

 

 

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, floating squares, square-in-a-square, update | 6 Comments

Next Batch of Blocks

I’m popping in to show you blocks 15-20 in my current WIP (Work-in-Progress) based on the pattern Floating Squares and my stash of cheddar and indigo fabrics:

Here are all 20 blocks, arranged to spread the cheddar, indigo, and cream fabrics more or less evenly across the surface of the quilt:

I’ve decided to make 10 more blocks for a 5 x 6 layout. I’ll have to be very careful in selecting the remaining fabric combos. Four blocks will have cheddar in the outer triangles and the remaining six blocks will be divided between indigo and cream outer triangles. My goal is to get a mix of prints in such a way that neighboring blocks will not share fabrics. My problem is that I have a plethora of cheddar prints and several indigos but only two cream prints remaining from the 2015 “Cheddar and Indigo” line by Penny Rose Studio for  Riley Blake Designs.

While I haven’t decided on a final layout yet — blocks as laid out in the pattern? blocks on point? blocks separated with lattice? — I’m definitely leaning in one direction. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind when I have 10 more blocks.

Block production has slowed as the weather has improved. The Dear Husband and I are in full weeding/planting mode at the moment. Is it okay to hope for rain?

 

 

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, family, floating squares, square-in-a-square, update | 4 Comments

A Value-able Lesson

Here are my two latest Floating Squares blocks:

Aren’t they pretty? You’ll notice the one on the right has a fussycut center from the same print as an earlier block but in a different colorway. I wish I had more of the one dark and one light outer triangle fabric but I only had enough scraps to finish those two blocks.

When I first started making these Economy blocks using leftover indigo and cheddar fabrics from a previous quilt, I quickly realized that the cheddar fabrics were dominating the blocks. Remember my first six? Here they are again:

You’ll recall I thought of turning the blocks on point and alternating plain blocks of a creamy white background to lower the cheddar factor . . .

. . . but I wanted to make a few more blocks before coming to any firm conclusions about what direction to head.

Well, now there are 14 blocks:

Let me say first that I love these blocks individually. But collectively? They still feel a bit overpowering. And I’ve figured out why. Yes, the cheddar is dominant but there’s something else:  my palette of indigo, cheddar, and cream represents dark, medium, and light values. Nothing in between! No medium lights, no medium darks. There is nothing in the overall palette to soften the sharp contrast between dark, medium, and light.

Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing — but it is something I hadn’t considered when I chose the fabrics. If you take a look at the fabrics Taunya of Carried Away Quilting used on her pattern cover quilt . . .

. . . you’ll notice that the overall effect of the quilt is soft because of the variation of values used across the quilt. I see several medium lights and medium darks in addition to the usual dark, medium, and light values.

I will not be able to achieve that softness with my fabrics so I need to consider my options. I’ve already considered putting my blocks on point and alternating with plain blocks of creamy white. If you go back to the first photo, you’ll notice the block on the left includes a creamy tone-on-tone paisley print in the first set of triangles. I believe there’s enough of that fabric from my stash to make alternating blocks as well as setting triangles.

Another possibility is to separate the blocks with sashing strips of the same creamy white. Not a bad idea. Certainly worthy of consideration.

Yet a third is to add one more row of triangles to my floating squares, using indigo or cream where the cheddar triangles would normally go. That would relegate the cheddar to the center squares and first set of triangles. Also not a bad idea because it would tone down the cheddar factor considerably. But it would also create a larger block, one that finishes at around 13″ rather than 9″. Of course putting the 9″ squares on point would do the very same thing.

I’m going to make a few more blocks (because it’s so much fun!) and continue to ponder my options. Lest you think I’m disappointed at the possibility of changing course with the quilt design, let me assure you I am not. Even experienced quilters can be caught off guard. This has been a valuable lesson for me in considering fabric values — and sometimes these kinds of lessons result in quilts that surpass original expectations.

Regardless of the outcome, I am going to love this quilt.

 

 

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, floating squares, square-in-a-square, update | 5 Comments

Jacks, Anyone?

Making their appearance are three more cheddar and indigo blocks made from the *free* Floating Squares pattern by CarriedAwayQuilting:

As I showed you in my last post, two sets of squares of three different fabrics yield six blocks, none of them the same. I only had enough of the light background fabric to make one set of squares so my yield is only three. No matter; I have plenty of other fabrics to keep me going.

The design in that light fabric reminds me so much of the game of jacks. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you’re probably not a Baby Boomer like me (born between 1946 and 1964). The game of jacks was a favorite of mine as a kid; my twin Diane and I would play for hours.

As I was happily sewing these blocks today, I wondered if anyone born in subsequent generations would even knows about jacks. Out of curiosity, I googled “game of jacks” just now and — wonder of wonders — you can actually buy new sets. This is what jacks look like:

The object of the game is to bounce the ball and pick up a jack before the ball bounces again. I’m tempted to buy a set to have on hand when Diane comes to visit next.

But I digress. I have one more block to show you:

This one was made with a fussycut center. The blossoms are oriented so that they’ll still look good if I wind up putting the blocks on point:

I’m having so much fun playing with these cheddar and indigo fabrics! Several sets of squares have already been cut and are just waiting to be transformed into quilt blocks. Although Floating Squares is a simple pattern, there’s a bit of a challenge in finding just the right balance of small, medium, and large-scale prints in each block.

More anon!

 

 

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, family, floating squares, square-in-a-square, update | 7 Comments

Floating Squares

Earlier this month Taunja of CarriedAwayQuilting released a free pattern called Floating Squares:

As you can see, I downloaded it.

It’s a fresh and clever take on the traditional Economy block, also known as Square-in-a-Square. Each block is made up of a center square surrounded by triangles. By making the triangles that surround the center square a bit larger, the square “floats” in the block because its points don’t touch the next seam.

As Taunja notes in her pattern, this means you don’t have to match points when the squares are sewn together, and you also avoid the possibility of cutting off points. I don’t have a problem with either of those things because I pin and sew carefully. Still, I was drawn to the design because of its ease of construction and slightly airy look.

Her pattern calls for 21 fat quarters. I don’t have many fat quarters in my stash (because I seem incapable of buying pieces of fabric less than a yard in length). As I was pondering what fabrics I might use for some test blocks, my eye fell on one of my very favorite quilts, Scattered Stars, made in 2020 from a collection of fabrics from the “Cheddar and Indigo” line by Penny Rose Studio for Riley Blake Fabrics:

After finishing Scattered Stars, it was plain to see that there was enough fabric left over to make one or even two more quilts.

Although not fully committed to making another cheddar and indigo quilt, I decided to make a few blocks anyway. Three fat quarters yields six 9½” blocks. I started with these three fabrics . . .

. . . and here are the results:

Oh my! That’s a lot of cheddar. Too much cheddar?

Let’s see what putting them on point looks like:

Imagine that with a creamy white fabric in the alternating blocks. Oh yeah!

Before making any final decisions about settings, I’m going to make another set of six blocks using three different fabrics. The blocks go together easily, and Taunya’s pattern is beautifully written and illlustrated.

There is one change I will make in constructing the next six blocks, though. To maximize the use of fat quarters, Taunja’s instructions call for four triangles to be cut from one square, meaning twice on the diagonal. This results in the outer edges of each triangle being on the bias. (Because of this, I starched each block after the second round of triangles was added before squaring it up to 9½”.) Since I’m cutting my fabrics from yardage, I’ll use squares that have been cut only once on the diagonal, which will make the outer edges of each triangle on the straight of grain.

To see more photos of the beautiful quilt on Taunja’s pattern cover, read her blog post here. The post includes a link to download the free pattern.

 

Posted in cheddar and indigo, economy block, floating squares, square-in-a-square, update | 8 Comments