There’s a wonderful article and lots of great photos in the Spring edition of Arts and Crafts Homes about our house.

I’m always saying, “Make it your own!”  When you make a quilt from a pattern, do you want it to look just like the pattern or do you want to “make it your own?”

Our quilt guild had a block of the month last year, and the ladies really did a great job of making each quilt individual while still following the pattern.  These quilts were on display at our quilt show earlier this month, and I  just had to share them with you.

I love when quilters do something unique with the border, like this one from Merri.

Carol not only did fun little cabin blocks in the corners, she limited her palette to mostly blacks and grays with touches of red and gold.

Wow!  Check out this picket fence border that Melinda made.

I love Joe Ann’s use of stripes in her quilt.

Lynda incorporated a great novelty farm print in her border.

Gloria, who was the designer of the quilt, hit the mark with her homespun border.

Bev’s use of pastels adds an interesting twist.

Nellie really surprised me by using all polka-dot fabrics!  As a lover of polka-dots, I thought it was superb.

Nancey’s cheery, bright colors look great and I love the piano key border.

Audrey’s clear colors make for a crisp looking quilt.

Loretta loves blue and she did a fine job of working some blue into her quilt.

Ann stuck with traditional colors in this version of her quilt…

…but she wasn’t satisfied with just one—she made two!  They couldn’t look more different and both are terrific.

The reds in Marian’s quilt really pop.

What a talented bunch of ladies.  I’m so glad to be a part of this group with them.

It’s the beginning of a new season and that means a new block for my Facebook page A Quilt Block A Day!  The page is fun to follow.  The idea is that even if you’re too busy to make a new quilt, you should be able to find time to make at least one quilt block a day.  At the end of the quarter, you’ll have about 90 quilt blocks!  Not everyone makes a block a day.  Some do seven a week, or a handful when they find the time, but it’s still fun.  I always do a tutorial for the new block and during the quarter I post lots of inspiration—and so do those who follow the page.  So, click on over to the Facebook page and click “Like” so you can follow all the fun, too!

This time, the block is the Chevron.  There are many ways to make a chevron quilt.  You can do it with triangles or rectangles, it can be scrappy or planned, the rows can be the same width or different widths.  This is my favorite way–with a skinnier accent row and triangles, and it couldn’t be easier!  It’s easy to do with scraps or yardage.  I had a lot of Halloween fat quarters that I’ve collected over the years, so that’s what I’ve used here, and that’s how the tutorial is written.  At the bottom, I’ll give additional instructions for scraps.

You will need an assortment of fat quarters and an accent fabric.

From the fat quarter, cut a 4-1/2″ x 22″ strip.

From the accent fabric, cut a few 2-1/2″ x 44″ strips.  Cut them in half to match your fat quarters.

Stitch them together with a 1/4″ seam.  Press.

Cut into 6-1/2″ segments.

Lay your blocks out so they form a zigzag design.  That’s it!  I told you it was easy!

Since these blocks are set on point, you’ll eventually need side-setting and corner triangles.  This can be the same as the accent fabric or a different fabric.

For the side setting triangles, cut squares 9-3/4″ and cut them in half twice diagonally.

For the corner triangles, cut squares 5-1/4″ and cut them in half once diagonally.

You can make your zigzags vertical, like I did in my Halloween quilt, or horizontal, like the quilt below that I did for our local Loyalty Day celebration.  You’ll also notice that the Halloween quilt is “controlled scrappy,” meaning I used many different prints, but kept the colors the same in each row.  The Loyalty Day quilt uses the same fabric in each row.  Oh, the possibilities!

I hope you’ll try this, join the Facebook group and post pictures of your progress!

If you’re not using fat quarters, cut your accent pieces 2-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ inches and your main fabrics 4-1/2″ x 6-1/2″.

For the Loyalty Day quilt, I used two 4-1/2″ x 42″ strips for each row.

The embroidery on my Christmas Morning blocks is coming along!

Block 1 was mailing a letter to Santa and Block 2 is Santa reading it!

When my nephew, Cole, was a about 12, we decided it would be fun if he visited every town in the state of Washington.  To document his travels, he has his picture taken in front of the post office in each town.  He’s now 16 and he isn’t finished yet, but this has been lots of fun and meant lots of trips to different parts of the state.  Recently, he and my sister, Sally, did a loop through the southeastern part of the state.  As you’ll see, post offices vary greatly.  Here are some highlights!

Pullman had a huge post office, with covered parking—covered by the building!

Some cities have lovely, old buildings like this one in Walla Walla.  I love the arched windows.

Clarkston’s was very nice, too.  For those of you who don’t know, Clarkston lies at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, and is opposite Lewiston, Idaho.  The towns were named, of course, for our friends Lewis and Clark!

Here’s another classic post office—this one in Colfax, population 2800!

There are a lot of post offices that look like the were built in the 1960′s and 70′s.  I’m not too familiar with Royal City, but every time I go to Five Guys Burgers it seems like the white board announces that potatoes for their fries are from Royal City!

Too bad those 60′s and 70′s government buildings weren’t as architecturally interesting as the earlier ones.  They commonly have these applied letters identifying the building as the post office, listing the town name and the zip code.  Sally pointed out that they must have only given Rosalia one “1″ for their zip, since they had to use and “i” or and “l” on the sign!

Connell was overrun with bronze critters.

Apparently the most noteworthy event in Connell was the flood of 1907, commemorated with a mural.

Hmm, the Dayton post office is also identified as a “Federal Building.”  Aren’t all post offices federal buildings?  Do you suppose they hold court there, too?

They had a charming courthouse in Dayton, the Columbia County seat.

Pomeroy is also a county seat, and while the post office is rather average….

…they, too, had a great court house.

Wallula didn’t even get individual letters for their sign.  This seems to be the new trend in post office signs.

This was the view across from the post office – the Columbia River.

This area is called The Columbia Basin and produces a lot of grain.

Poor little Starbuck really got cheated in the sign department!

This is the post office in Eltopia, not to be confused with Utopia!

I think Touchet’s post office is very cute!

So is the one in Anatone!

Welcome to Anatone!

No gas today.

Dixie has a tiny post office, but then, it’s a tiny town.  Population 197.

Kahlotus isn’t far behind with 193 people.  I don’t know how many dogs, cats, etc.!  It does have adorable, small buildings, though.

The tiny city hall was open…

…but the jail was empty.  No crime in Kahlotus, perhaps.

I’m not sure if this was the church or schoolhouse—perhaps both!

They even had a tiny library!

Their book mobile drove up as Sally and Cole were leaving.  Isn’t it wonderful?

For a little perspective, here’s a long view with a grain elevator in the background.  If the building didn’t look small before….

Uniontown…

…had the best city government buildings!

I think the Mesa post office may have been converted from some other use.

Steptoe had a combination post office/antique/new and used store!

Poor Beverly didn’t even get their name on their post office!

Oh no!  The post office was totally missing in Washtucna!

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Woo hoo!  I got a package from Sweden in the mail today!

I want to make a heartwarmer to wear with my Swedish folk dress.  So, I need to turn this…

…into this!

Nope, I’ve never crocheted a stitch in my life, so with me luck!

I found a wonderful site describing Nås dräkten.  Here’s the link:

http://alltomhemslojd.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/nåsdräkt+…pdf

The descriptions are very detailed, and the photos wonderful!

I like the variations in the apron and shawl.

I don’t know which is cuter–the hat or the little girl!

This woman’s hat is crocheted.

Here are a couple of purses and a belt.

I’m hoping to learn to crochet well enough to make myself a heart warmer.  As a little aside, the Swedish for heart warmer is “hjärtvärmare.”  It’s not too much of a stretch to translate “hjärt” to “heart” and “värmare” to warmer, but when I was using Google Translate for this article, the translation came out “cardiac heater!”  ;-)

These gents are looking dapper in the suede knickers and wool vests.

Here’s a closeup of the back of the man’s vest.  I love how the fabric is cut on the bias and the stripes matched.

Too bad these beautiful suspenders are hidden under the vest.

The men have a green wool jacket with beautifully crocheted sleeves.

But I’ve saved the best for last–these adorable children’s “dresses” worn by both boys and girls.  The “bib” is reversible–sounds like a good idea!

 

As many of you know, we have trolls that live in our woods.  We’ve even provided them with a little house near our Swedish log cabin.

They can be very mischievous, but they are also quite industrious.

They are farmers and their main crops are mushrooms….

…and moss.

 

 

They’ve grown mushrooms on their “back porch” before, but I noticed they are growing a different variety this winter.

Very clever little chaps, our trolls.

Last month the Longview, Washington library had a red and white quilt show.

It meant a snowy, 150 mile round trip drive from here, but I’m so glad we went.

I’ll just be quiet and let you enjoy the show!

 

It’s time for another Quilt Block A Month.  You can join the fun by ‘liking” the page on Facebook.

The block for this quarter is the Spool Block.  It offers a lot of options and is quick and easy to piece.  If you do just one block a day, you’ll have a 78 blocks finished before the first day of spring!

 

This is a great way to use your scraps.  All you need is: 2) 2-1/2″ x 7-1/2″ brown rectangles, 4) 1-1/2″ light squares, 2) 1-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ light rectangles and a 5-1/2″ center square—either plain or pieced.  I like using a stripe because it looks like thread wrapped around the spool.

 

Some people like to mark their squares with a diagonal pencil line when doing sew-and-flip corners, but I just finger press them–quick and easy!

Add a square to opposite ends of the brown rectangle.

Stitch, trim and press.  Note:  I didn’t trim the background fabric away.  It makes it a bit bulky, but I also think it stabilizes it.  Your choice!  Do this with both brown rectangles.

Add the white rectangles to the sides of the 5-1/2″ square.

Now add the brown rectangles to the top and bottom, making sure the light areas match up.  Voila!  You have a spool block!  The unfinished block is 7-1/2″ x 9-1/2″.

Now, here’s where the fun comes in.  You can do all kinds of things with the center square.  You could sew 5) 1-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ strips together to make it look like thread wrapped around your spool.

 

How about using random width strips on an angle to represent the thread?  I foundation pieced this.

 

Do you save selvedges?  This is a great place to use them!

Here are the four sample blocks I made.  I’ll play with setting possibilities when I have more finished.

 

They do make an interesting design when set next to each other.  You get some secondary action going on!

 

I hope you’ll join us!