Showing posts with label arrowhead puzzles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arrowhead puzzles. Show all posts

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Arrowhead Puzzle (aka Garlic Knot) Finish

Arrowhead Puzzle
A lot of folks might know it by what Bonnie Hunter calls Garlic Knots.
It's also known here as Orphan Gertrude.
42 x 54

It's a finish!


Someone gave me 45 blocks and I made 18 more from 2 inch scraps. I finished the top October 2023 when I was making tops from orphan blocks and I called this one Orphan Gertrude. 

Quilted with spirals on my sewing machine. 

The morning glory backing and holly binding.

The theme this month in my sewing space is March Madness (Quilting) Marathon.  I'm going to concentrate on finishing up a lot of the small tops I have in the TBQ (to be quilted) pile.  They will then be donated to:




And sew on...


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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

March 9 - Received a small box of scraps. Oh joy! Of course I had to sort through them right away. 


 

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

It's A Top! Orphan Gertrude



It's a top! 
Orphan Gertrude
42 x 54

Continuing on from September the theme in my sewing space this month will also be "Orphans".  I may also throw in a few WITBs (What's In The Box) if I get tired of "Orphans". Of course I can always stray from the theme and do other things if I feel like it. 


The traditional name for this block is Arrowhead Puzzle. Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville) made the block more well known as Garlic Knots.   Someone gave me 45 of these 6 inch blocks and for this orphan block quilt I made 18 more blocks from some 2 inch scraps. 

And sew on...

 

Friday, April 22, 2022

It's a Finish!

Arrowhead Puzzle
in Autumn themed fabrics.

It's a finish!

60 x 80

This is one of five autumn themed tops completed back in November 2019 when I decided to clean out a bin of "Autumn Stuff".   This is the last to be quilted. 

The block is called Arrowhead Puzzle - a free pattern at Quilter's Cache.  A lot of these blocks were in the Autumn Stuff bin - orphans from a swap long long ago.  

The reason a lot of the blocks ended up orphans was because some folks didn't follow the swap directions and used a dark background in the blocks.   Well, I finally decided to use the orphaned blocks. I made a few more blocks to go with the orphans and added a border which is unusual for me. I wanted to make it large enough for a twin sized donation quilt. 

I quilted it with leaves on my DSM in a light brown. 

Backing and binding. 

I am filling several boxes with quilts to be sent to Lifting Hands International via Give Back Box. 
 I see "blankets" are on most of the LHI needs lists.    LHI partners with other organizations to get supplies where they are most needed and right now are focusing on evacuation efforts as well as distributing medical and food supplies. 



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Friday, April 3, 2020

It's a Finish!

 It's a finish! 
A donation quilt. 
64 x 88



 The traditional block name is Arrowhead Puzzle.  Bonnie Hunter made an eight inch version of the block popular and called it Garlic Knot. 
 Last year I used 2.5 inch scraps and made eight inch blocks as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. 
 When I sat down to quilt I had no idea how I was going to quilt it.  I first quilted in some lines on the diagonal between blocks and then just quilted some wonky lemon peels on the diagonal through the centers of the blocks but then decided that was not enough quilting so quilted in some of those wonky lemon peels on each side of the center lemon peels. 

You know it's not easy to wrangle a quilt this size through the 7.5 inch throat on my sewing machine but it is not impossible. 


 One of Murphy's Laws of quilting states that if you are going to accidentally zig or zag while wrangling large quilts it will be a zig with light thread in a dark space or a zag with dark thread in a light space. 

But if anyone is eyeballing a quilt for things like that and they aren't the quilt police then I say they have too much time on their hands.  After a good wash those things almost disappear and a recipient will never notice. 




 As I quilt I always have to put a pin where I need to bury knots. If I don't then I miss some places later on when I have a knot burying ritual. 

  

I take a long break after every bobbin is emptied in order to move around these old bones.

Oh...one last tip...if you have long hair be sure to wear it in a bun when quilt wrangling otherwise it might accidentally fall in front of the needle and get sewn into the quilt. 


 The backing came from a friend. 



Three cheers for finishes!




Friday, November 8, 2019

What WAS In The Bin?



And now I know...flimsies (or tops if you prefer) for a whole bunch of donation quilts. Or do you call them charity quilts? Or comfort quilts? I never know what to call them. 

 The forty-two Happy Blocks that finish at 6.5 inches were combined with some leafy yardage and set on point for this quilt that measures 67 x 77. 

 These blocks were from a long ago fall themed swap of Happy Blocks. I wanted to try a different layout for the blocks so set them on point alternating with squares of the same fabric. I don't have a lot of fabric that is of any length unless I purchased it on sale intended for a backing. Those leaves was one of those purchases. Since I used it on the front of a quilt instead of the back I then felt compelled to make a scrappy pieced backing for this one. 

 This is the scrappy pieced batting that will go with it. 

 I used those four large crumb maple leaf blocks that were in that "Autumn Stuff" bin and bits and pieces of other Autumn themed fabrics from the Autumn themed fabric box. 

 This quilt measures 63 x 84 and consists of 21 inch Bear Foot blocks as they are called in the Ladies Art Company Block Tool.  Bear Paw is a different block in the Tool.  
 I used 48 of those 88 - 6.5 inch squares that were in the "Autumn Stuff" and used a variety of different leafy neutrals for the backgrounds and HSTs. 


 Fifteen more 6.5  inch squares from the "Autumn Stuff" were used as Sawtooth Star Centers. 
This quilt measures 40 x 60 and stars finish at 12 inches. 
 I picked the more tone on tone or geometric squares to use in this quilt so was not confined to using just autumn themed fabrics for the backgrounds and star points. 

Other squares with pumpkins I put in a drawer with some Halloween fabrics to be made into a quilt later for my granddaughter who was born on Halloween and just celebrated her 15th birthday. 

 Next up is the top made with those Arrowhead Puzzle blocks left over from a long ago swap. swap. I had thirteen of those Arrowhead Puzzle blocks and pieces cut for 10 more. I cut pieces for one more and ended up with 24 blocks. I set them 4 x 6 which gave me a very odd sized 48 x 72 quilt. I have been trying to make more twin sized donation quilts this year so added borders to make the top 60 x 80.  I had almost enough of a  leafy light colored batik that I used because I thought it would help make the colors in the blocks and the block pattern stand out a little better than a darker border.  
One of the reasons some of those 13 swapped blocks were orphans was because some swappers just didn't follow directions. Background for the blocks was supposed to be light neutral and that wasn't always the case.  I stuck those down in the bottom corner but now I'm kind of thinking they would have been better up in the middle. But that didn't happen and so it goes...

And that about used up the "Autumn Stuff" bin but I was on a roll and had the box of Autumn themed fabrics open so dug through the Orphanage (orphan blocks, if you prefer) for blocks in autumn colors. 
 Four rows of six inch-ish blocks and three rows of eight inch-ish blocks and a few 2.5 inch strips of orange leafy fabric later... 
 ...I had a 40 x 60 quilt top. 


The "Autumn Stuff" bin is now empty except for a few odd 6.5 inch squares I'll probably cut into smaller squares. 

For now I've added them to the scraps left over from all this quilt making. Most are 3.5 inch pieces destined for the 3.5 inch scrap bin but there are ends of fabrics probably destined for the string box and other small pieces in there too.  I will deal with that stuff later in the week.

I also ended up with a pile of scrap chunks that will go into a milk crate of scrap chunks to be used in current and future Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. 


Oh, and this is all that is left in the Autumn themed fabric stored in a big old desktop computer box. These all have trees and I will probably use them as a backing for a Tree of Life UFO or Improv Tree UFO.  I can now put them in a much smaller box. 

 Most of the other fabrics in that computer box now are on the shelves with other fabrics in the same colorway - greens, yellows, oranges, browns, reds...
...and neutrals.  No need any longer to keep them separated by theme. And I have several pieces of that seedy looking brown fabric I think I can piece together for a backing. 

Empty boxes and bins, oh my! 
And the UFO list grows. 
That was a fun Autumn Adventure! 
Now back to my regularly scheduled piecing...



My One Monthly Goal (OMG) for November was to make at least one flimsy from the bin of Autumn "stuff". 

One Monthly Goal Finishes at Elm Street Quilts


Saturday, October 26, 2019

More Rainbow Scrap Challenge Projects - Two Flimsies and a Finish


Strings  - A flimsy
40 x 60

These are 10 inch finished blocks. I started them a long time ago as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge Project - strings in the color of the month plus a 2 inch strip of a black polka dot.  I haven't worked on them for awhile because I ran out of strings that were long enough. Well, long strings have magically appeared again so I dug through them to make more blocks. I think I had to just make six of them and now I have a small donation quilt top. 

 And the good thing is that I have enough of that black polka dot print for backing and binding. 


 Arrowhead Puzzle (or as Bonnie Hunter calls them - Garlic Knots)
It's a flimsy!
64 x 88
 This will be another donation quilt. 
 I sure like how this top turned out. 
 Cats in the Cradle
Baby Quilt
It's a finish!
44 x 44
Its a finish! And a pretty busy one at that. I tried to tone down the busy-ness with some gray sashing but it is still pretty darned busy. 

Getting this to the finish line was my October One Monthly Goal (OMG)    at   Elm Street Quilts

 These blocks started with a bunch of 3 inch nine patches I wanted to use somehow. Sally (Objects of Design) had made some micro kittens I thought were cute so I asked her if she would share the instructions.  She did. By the way, she has a tutorial for a larger kitty on her tutorial page as well as many other cute critters. 
 Anyway, while the kitties alone were cute I think they didn't combine all that well with those nine patches and I probably should have alternated them with plain squares instead (which I may do in the future).   
 Maybe baby and parents can get a game of I Spy out of it.   I spy a kitty, basil and lettuce...
 ...a chicken...
 ...a flower, snowflakes, elephant...
 ...a fish.  
 If baby thinks the front too loud the back could always become the front. 
The back also has a rainbow clowder of cats. 

Batting was pieced (with wide zig zag stitch) and I quilted it with some spirals.