Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[beautress]

Sun over landscape mosaic found online...

We are Family

 

[beautress]

On the last page, I found a quilt and had forgotten temporarily this nine-patch is called "Improved Nine Patch," since forever. The name just slipped my mind. lol. So if you want to see a lot more of this quilt, just go to your images search engine and type in "Improved Nine Patch Quilt" or "Improved Nine Patch Quilt Square."

The reason I liked this one is because someone redesigned it good by putting it in a wedding ring type of setting, and also, it's just cute.
I apologize for forgetting the name temporarily, then forgot to go research it. Today, It just came to me. lololol!!! Old age is not for sissies!
Here are some improved nine-patch blocks I found:

​

 

[beautress]

And some improved nine-patch quilts:

And for anyone who hates drawing 99 paper templates, you can buy a thick acrylic template if this is your favorite quilt to make.

It makes cutting accuracy a
near-certainty. Well, within bounds.
And for curves you need a very small rotary cutter as 45 mm blades are unweildy, and the 28mm are a huge improvement. Elf accuracy on the teeny tiny rotaries, just buy plenty of blades and cut through no more than 2 layers of fabric. The templates may cost more than 30 dollars, but if you divide that by the # of quilts (30) you plan on making with these, it comes out to less than a pattern would cost ($1 dollar) unless you luck out on Ebay or Etsy and find a used set that never got used or was used so infrequently the seller is trying to get her orphan improved nine-patch blocks sold too.
I know you can't read who made the templates, but I think it's a lady I met at a Pfaff convention back when whose name is Marti Michell.
Her website is here: From Marti Michell: Perfect Patchwork Templates
I noticed her products are also sold on Amazon
Amazon.com: marti michell wedding plate templates
Also, ebay:
Marti Michell Quilt Templates & Stencils for sale | eBay

If memory serves me right, Marti also designs some of the most beautiful floralesque quilt fabric I have ever seen through a Seattle or Portland company, or somewhere -- Maywood Studios. The company may be separate from the wholesaler I used when I was active in my quilt store. I don't know if she is still doing that, but consider yourself lucky if you ever get enough of her luscious prints to make a quilt with. Just sayin'.
​

Your very best bet is to ask your fellow quilt guild members if they have a double wedding ring template set to beg, borrow, or buy. I found one new price included shipping but they were asking $68 for it, whereas her website sells for less than half of that, and you never know when you're going to run into an estate sale to find Marti Michell templates, hopefully a wedding ring one so you can make your improved nine patch with the wedding ring template set. Quilt stores often do not sell template sets because the inventory is very expensive to offer everything, and unless they offer classes, they might not carry the template set you long for to make cutting a lot easier.

 

[beautress]

Improved Nine Patch goes by other names, too - curved nine patch, glorified nine patch, etc., but I found a lot of how-tos at youtube just by inserting "improved nine patch" in the You Tube search engine. They use all kinds of methods, too.

And another by Charlene Jorgensen, whose templates I also sold at my quilt store back when I was running it.





​

 

[beautress]

Wow hearts.

 

[beautress]

Patriotic Heart

 

[beautress]

Cabin heart row

 

[beautress]

Log cabins over nine patch centers

 

[beautress]

Just finished a blue quilt today that is about 45" square. It's done in all cabin quilas, using differing shades of blue from very light to very dark colors, and worked the 7th quilt to completion except for the border. It's another sailing ship, which used up another 48 blocks. I just got rummy of working and up and left when too brain-drained to go on. That always passes by the next day, but I just spent too much time in front of the sewing machine today, but 2 quilts all but done. Yea!

I also located a really pretty quilt in blues, It's not of my making, but of my admiration:

The colors are close, but I don't see a single print on that quilt that's like my cabins, which date back 30 years for a few fabrics, and up to today when I went into the quilt store to look around the the other day. Came home and lit into the cutting stage for hours, then sat down and sewed out one small square. It was fun.​

 

[beautress]

This is another, all blue quilt, but it reminds me of the Baltimore Album quilts except for color.

Someone did a nice job, and I love her corners and everything else, too.​

 

[beautress]

Finally! Someone did a log cabin star quilt, of which I've made literally dozens.. However, this one is huge, shows the makings of "Carpenter's wheel" and is dazzling.

 

[beautress]

My Stars! This one is 1" strips made into a nicely sized quilt. The squares are said to be 4.5".

That is seriously some spiffy work.​

 

[beautress]

Red Quilt Log Cabin

​

 

[beautress]

Flag made with uneven Log Cabin squares.
Long may she wave!

 

[beautress]

An especially lovely poinsettia uneven log

cabin work

 

[beautress]

I worked on squares for two quilts today. Log cabin, I know, boring. But the 16-square will be shaped like this one but the already-stitched squares are all-blue and white-with-lt. blue background (no red at all) and the blue is royal blue variations, many different fabrics, all cotton.

I may have a harder time finding this one in blues and whites, which is usually done courthouse-step style, but I controlled the usual round-the-world sewing method of the simple log cabin quilts, whereas courthouse steps works in opposites to achieve the same effect:
(I just couldn't find a blue and white one)

This lower quilt is a definite courthouse-steps-done-right quilt, and I am liking the idea of the border, which appears here as un-grouted bricks. The one I'm working on will only have 15 squares, but I may break down and use 8 red-on-the-outside and 7 blue-on-the-outside squares ... or not. I've already done 11 blue quilts, although 2 of them have red-stripes in the outer borders to put a touch of patrioticness into the equation, for the all-American mom who chooses a baby quilt. I guess I'll have to do one more quilt, because that makes 13, and I'm not delivering 13 quilts in the same batch to a beloved charity, nosiree. ​

 

[beautress]

Well, my work is cut out for me. Just one more picture to get in teh mood for cutting 40 or 50 bricks for the border...

 

[beautress]

Some more little quilts I like from here: 116 Best becki loves quilts images in 2020 | Quilts, Quilt patterns, Quilting designs

Have to run. Glasses pick up at the optometrists!

 

[beautress]

Today, I loaded "beautiful new quilts" into the search engine and had this fabulous result:

It takes a fine strength and good eye for design elements, color, and diversity to create a work like the above. The maker has my kudos.​

 

[beautress]

More "beautiful new quilts..."
As in "New York Beauty!"
It's those catch words we do not anticipate that brings on serendipity...