Quilting Blocks Again!

This is the last batch of fun and fabulous quilt blocks from the beginning quilting class. Two new techniques this month - the first involved using freezer paper to create accurate/intricate designs. Yes, this is the paper sold in groceries for wrapping your salmon or other non vegetarian item before you freeze it. It has the useful quality of sticking to fabric (when you dry iron it on) but being easy to remove and leaving no sticky residue. So this is how it happens: You stitch your pattern onto the freezer paper with the sewing machine needle (no thread please!) and iron it onto the first piece of fabric (protecting both iron and ironing board from sticky stuff with an ironing cloth or pad). Then you put your next piece of fabric in place, peel the paper back just to the stitching line, and sew on the next piece right along that edge. Here's what I'm talking about: I know it looks a little sloppy, but you trim it up now and then, and trim to size at the end, and when you're done, you have a beautiful "Storm at Sea" block (samples above are the little corner squares). If you make a whole quilt out of these blocks, it creates a wonderful illusion of curves, waves, and/or circles!  

The other technique we learned was "flying geese" units - yet another way of creating triangles - little half square triangles stitched onto the sides of a bigger half square triangle (it's all done with squares and rectangles and a bit of wasted fabric). These pieces give you a block called Memory (could use more of that!) So here's the rest of the homework - using all the techniques learned so far - half square triangles, quarter square triangles, square within a square, flying geese, and even some freezer paper piecing. Sawtooth Star Summer Winds Broken Dishes Farmer's Daughter and Yankee Puzzle And here I've laid out all the blocks on an old sheet, and rearranged them until I have a first draft of what the finished quilt may end up looking like (with all kinds of fabric sashes in between the rows and columns, and borders around the whole shebang, of course). Of course, I may decide that it needs to be bigger, and so go off and make 5 more blocks of some kind, but that's another matter. I'll let you know. Meanwhile, the fractal stripe handspun sweater continues to grow.