Chocolate Box Finished!

Chocolate Box

It's a finish! 

63 x 75

I mentioned in a previous post that I was inspired to make this by a photo of a quilt called Baum Chocolate Box in my book "History Repeated" by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. 

The blocks are a Double Nine Patch. I made this quilt because I wanted to use a lot of brown scraps. There's a few red scraps in there too. 

I started making blocks and finished the top back in November 2021 when the theme in my sewing room was "Nine Patch November". 

The theme this month in my sewing room is "Brown Stuff" so this mostly brown quilt got quilted on my DSM with chocolate swirls. 

The binding is scrappy -- various browns found in my leftover binding box. 

I have to note that the sashing strips are NOT purple. It is actually a small print blue floral on a dark red background. I guess the camera combined the two to make it look like purple. 

The backing is tea dyed muslin with chocolate swirls.

And sew on...

 

Nine Patch November: Double Nine Patch

It's a top!

Chocolate Box

Double Nine Patch

63 x 75

That one light block right in the middle sort of bothers me. I was thinking I should swap it out with a darker block from the top row BUT then I remembered this is a comfort quilt and not something that will be hung on a wall. So I will probably leave it as is. 

It has been declared Nine Patch November at my house. I've been trying to use bins of both six inch and three inch Nine Patches I have in inventory. I used to swap three inch Nine Patches quarterly for years and although I've made a number of quilts with them I still have quite a few. 

For this quilt I used up most of the three inch Nine Patches that have brown in them. I didn't have quite enough for 30 blocks plus sashing  cornerstones so I did end up having to make more little Nine Patches. I have a LOT of brown scraps so that was no problem. 

I mentioned in a previous post that I was inspired to make this by a photo from my book "History Repeated" by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. 

I used a lot of dark browns and reds in the Double Nine Patch blocks. 

You can't tell from the photos but the middle strip in the sashings is an old red calico with blue flowers. I had just enough of it, thank goodness. I used a variety of dark browns for the other two strips in the sashings. I didn't have enough of any one fabric to use. 

I think this is the last Nine Patch top for the month. My next post will probably be about what happened to all the scraps left over from making this month's Nine Patch tops from scraps.

In December I think everything will be coming up roses. 

 

Before-I-Forgets

Sometimes one thing leads to another around here. And when I think of what I should do with these scraps or that and an idea pops into my head I make a few blocks of said ideas before I forget about those ideas.   I try a few blocks and then decide if said ideas were good ones or so-so ones. 

I call those blocks I make "Before-I-Forgets". 

You know I've been working on six and three inch Nine Patch reduction this month. You may or may not also know that I love vintage quilts and so have lots of pictures of ones I've come across that I would like to make.   

Above is a block I wanted to try with some civil war reproduction scraps. It has a nine patch center.   

I think the block above is called Kentucky Crossroads; however, the picture I found (sorry, I forget to save where I saw it) called it Cross and Crown.  Well, anyway, I could not find a good pattern for it so I made one up. I like how it turned out but it turned out a weird size - 8 3/4 unfinished. That's okay with me because I'd rather have a weird size unfinished block than cut weird sized pieces in order to make a standard sized block. 

Well, here's the photo of the vintage quilt and my notes on making it. I wish I had enough cheddar for the background but I don't so I will use muslin for the background. 

While I was digging around in the box of civil war reproduction scraps to make Kentucky Crossroads I thought I might as well see what I could do to reduce that box of scraps. It's a BIG box of scraps. 

There's a bag of 2.5 inch width scraps. I found another vintage quilt photo I've wanted to try and thought I could use the 2.5 inch scrap bag for the squares for these blocks that alternate the placement of Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs) and Squares. I used 1.5 inch scraps to make the 2.5 inch unfinished QSTs. I cut them using the EZ Companion Angle ruler. 

I like how these look so I'll continue on. I will call this QST Nine Patch. 

I have a lot of wider 4.5 inch civil war repro scraps so looked around in a couple of books for ideas. I've made a couple of these Spiraling Flying Geese in the past and like how they turned out. So thought I would make another. 

Found in the book "History Repeated" by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. 

These are a quick make and I'll have 90 Flying Geese made in no time. Not sure what I will use for the "spiraling" fabric. I'll figure that out later. 

I also use the EZ Companion Angle ruler to cut fabric for the Flying Geese body. When I do that I first cut the beginning of the piece with the EZ Easy Angle ruler so it can be used to make an HST later.  The Flying Geese wings are cut with the EZ Easy Angle ruler. 

I went ahead and used those cuts to make 4.5 inch finished HSTs I will just put in the Parts Department for now. 

I also made little HSTs left over from making the QST Nine Patch blocks and then sewed them into strips of five.  I'm not really concerned if they end up wonky. I don't like trimming all that much and just snip of a few dog ears. 

I've been slowly sewing together waste triangles into strips for a quilt like the one above. 

While I was browsing through my "History Repeated" book I saw this photo of a Double Nine Patch quilt. Goodness gracious...I have a LOT of brown scraps. And I have some little 3 inch brown Nine Patches. Maybe I should make a quilt like this. 

I made a few "Before-I-Forgets" with some of the Nine Patches I had on hand. More to come. 

Still with Nine Patches in my mind I decided to try the Buckeye Beauty variation that combines little Nine Patches instead of Four Patches with HSTs.  How about I look at what I have for '30s reproduction scraps.  (There's a LOT of them). I made a couple of blocks but can clearly see I need to add in some solids, ginghams, polka dots and shirts or I will go cross eyed. 

Since these blocks uses 3.5 and 1.5 inch pieces I pulled out some '30s scraps that were at least 5 inches wide to use to make these blocks. 

In the '30s scraps I found a bag of 2.5 inch width scraps and a baggie of 2.5 inch squares. In the bag was the Ocean Waves pattern from Quilter's Cache I used to make my Ocean Waves quilt that is still in the hand quilting pile. That was started in 2014 and the top was finished in 2018 so these scraps are pretty old. 

I made a few HSTs and then made a Carpenter Star that finishes at 16 inches. I probably have enough scraps in that bag and baggie for 12 blocks so that's what will happen to those scraps. 

There's also a bunch of 3.5 inch width scraps. 

How about some 8 Patches?  I have been making some of these with the general population of scraps when I have them so I'm not sure if I'll combine these made with '30s with the general population or not. I'll use up the scraps and see how many I end up with. 

Depending upon the length of the 3.5 inch scraps if there is not enough for an 8 Patch then I just will make Four Patches for the Parts Department. 

And finally, while looking through the '30s repro scraps I came across a little pile of prints with animals and kids. I thought I would combine them with a little pile of solids and make these blocks that finish at 5 inches. Sixty-four of them should make a cute little baby quilt. 

Of course I had a photo of a vintage quilt or what I think is a vintage quilt. Anyway, I figured out how to cut pieces if I made blocks of 1.5 inch strips or 2.5 inch strips and opted for the 1.5 inch strips because I just have little bits of solids to use to make these blocks. 

 

Odds and Ends or Bits and Bobs?

Nine - 9 inch Double Nines for Block Lotto

I didn't realize I had so many black and white prints. 

I hope I win this time. Wouldn't these look nice with some turquoise, raspberry or lime green blocks? 

Six inch Pentland Cracker blocks. I'm getting ready for a swap with Block Swappers Yahoo Group.  And, I'm making more each month from scraps as one of my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

3 inch mini bow ties for a swap with some ladies with the Quilting Bee Yahoo Group.  I'm also going to make more of these each month from scraps. 

Making parts of Sunny Lane blocks from civil war reproduction fabrics for a a swap with Block Swappers Yahoo Group. 

Two red 12 inch Ohio Star blocks for Lorene as requested for her birthday.