Checkerboards, Potato Chips, and BOMs – Blog Readers Share

Today’s blog post is a veritable smorgasboard of quilts and quilt blocks submitted by blog readers. Enjoy feasting your eyes!

First up is a Checkerboard quilt made by Becky B. She used scraps of brown, green, and blue fabrics, making the project appropriate for a man. Becky has a charitable organization in mind that will welcome her donation.

Karlene made her Checkerboard from a half-jelly roll of Kim Diehl’s “Quiet Grace” line. She paired each 2 1/2″ x WOF strip with an off-white background strip, and, after sewing and pressing them, cut them in 2 1/2″ increments. She sewed the resulting sixteen two-patches into two Sixteen Patch blocks, keeping the same color in each block. This idea for constructing a Checkerboard quilt appeals to me just as much as the random blue and white quilt I made. (Click here to view it again.)

After completing my Checkerboard quilt which used most of my blue scrap 2 1/2″ squares, I began making Potato Chip blocks from 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ scrap rectangles. When I showed my blocks to Colleen, she jumped on the bandwagon and cut rectangles for a boy’s quilt and more rectangles for a girl’s quilt. She has already completed the boy’s quilt top. The novelty prints she used make it a fun “I Spy” quilt.

Jan emailed me a picture of her Tulip Star, April’s assignment for the “Barn Star Sampler” block of the month. I love the subtle shading of the fabrics she selected from her fat quarter stack!

I am also facilitating the “Blushing Blooms” BOM at Sew There! Quilts and More in Angier, NC. Perhaps you have noticed the picture of the pink and burgundy quilt in the header of this blog. The header picture shows some of the blocks included in this sampler quilt designed by Kaye England. The assignment for April was making five Tulip blocks, and Terry did a wonderful job sewing hers. (Click here to see a picture of the entire quilt. Bonnie at Sew There! has month-by-month kits if you are interested in making this gorgeous quilt.)

Thanks, ladies, for sharing pictures of your quilts and blocks. Seeing your progress and creative ideas inspires us!

Checkerboard Challenge Update

Twelve of the twenty Checkerboard blocks I’ve completed are pictured above!

It is gratifying to see them side-by-side on the design wall. Some of the rows are strip-pieced, but most are constructed of squares from my container of 2 1/2″ scrap squares. I’m also dipping into a stack of 5″ blue print squares to add variety. While I anticipated making Checkerboard blocks as a leader/ender project, I didn’t reckon on an additional perk. Some days I want/need a simple project to complete. What could be simpler than sewing squares together? So some blocks are assembled just because I want to make a block, not as leaders/enders while chain piecing another project.

Having made twenty blocks, I’m considering how large to make the quilt. Just how many more blocks do I want to make? If I make ten more blocks, I can arrange them in a 5 x 6 grid, and the quilt will measure 60″ x 72.” That’s a nice throw size. To make a queen size quilt, I would need at least 56 blocks total (36 more to add to my 20 . . . that’s more blocks than I care to make). I am going to go with making 10 more blocks for a total of 30.

Click here to see the blog post in which I issued the “Checkerboard Challenge.” For more inspiration, check out #checkiequilt on Instagram, a QAL hosted by Melanie Traylor.

Comment below with an update if you are also making a Checkerboard quilt.

Checkerboard Challenge

Several scrappy “Checkerboard” quilts have caught my eye recently on social media. Pat Sloan is currently finishing a bed size teal/light-neutral quilt, and she also displayed a red/white version on her sofa for Valentine’s Day decorating. Amy Smart (diaryofaquilter.com) included a red/white “Checkerboard” in her blog post of red and white quilts. In addition, Pattymacmakes is using her 4 1/2″ colorful scrap squares to make “Sixteen Patch” blocks. I found more inspiration on Pinterest.com under “Checkerboard Quilts” and “Scrappy Checkerboard Quilts.”

I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and make a “Checkerboard” quilt as a leader/ender project. The next decision is the size of squares to use. Since my container of 2 1/2″ squares needs whittling down, I will work with that size. On a recent car trip, I sorted my 2 1/2″ squares by color and found blue to be the most plentiful. (No surprise there as it is my favorite color!) I matched each blue square, right sides together, with a neutral square and have placed the stack near my sewing machine. When I finish a seam for my primary project (currently the Barn Star Sampler BOM), I sew a set of blue/neutral squares together as a leader/ender secondary project.

I am making blocks of 36 squares: 6 rows with 6 squares each. Working with an even number of squares like 16 or 36 means the dark/light alternating pattern will work when the blocks are set side by side in the quilt. Within the rows, the seams are pressed toward the blue squares. After joining the rows together, I pressed the seams in one direction. I’ll be able to turn alternate blocks 180 degrees when joining them together, nesting seams.

Would you join me in the challenge of using scrap squares to make a “Checkerboard” quilt? There is no finishing deadline or size requirement. Comment below with the color and size of squares you’ll be working with.