Thursday, July 24, 2008

Four Patch Quilts

Cut some 4½ inch strips and 8½ inch squares and make a quick 4-patch quilt. Or 2 or 3.

four patch quilt

The quilt top above and the one below are made from the kit I started stitching at our Project Linus group last Sunday. Almost. The kit only had 4 border strips, which I used on the quilt top above. I dug into my Project Linus stash to create a border for the quilt top below. Which border do you like best?

four patch quilt

Each fabric strip for the 4-patch blocks was eight inches longer than needed for the 20 blocks. An extra 40 by 4½ inches of 2 fabrics. Too much to waste. With a little extra piecing it was enough for 4 more 4-patch blocks. Or half of 8 blocks.

I went digging thru the stash and found a cute frog print with lots of primary colors and a red-orange tone-on-tone. Yellow in an appropriate shade was slightly harder, but I found a nice pale yellow. 4-patches with 4 different fabrics.

four patch detail

There are only 16 blocks in this quilt top. From 2 strips of the frog fabric, I got 8 squares and two 7 x 8½" rectangles. Too frugal to waste half a strip to cut 2 more squares, I split the rectangles, cut 4 light yellow rectangles, and sewed the rectangles to the ends of the rows. I still had scraps, but less than the kit had. And I created a pretty great top. What do you think?

four patch quilt

2 comments:

  1. Very creative on your part. I like the 2nd border best I think.
    I want to get "good enough" to make quilts for Project Linus. You inspire me.

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  2. Danetta, Don't worry about being "good enough" for Project Linus. We welcome all skill levels. Contact your local chapter and find a group to work with. They'll teach you.

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