Cherish Nature - Jelly Roll Quilt

64"x80" - Jelly Roll Friendly!

So Rachel Griffith (psiquilt.com) made a gorgeous quilt which was featured in Quiltmaker last summer. I drooled. I wanted one of my very own! And I thought: I really REALLY want to buy a jelly roll of Deb Strain's "Cherish Nature" fabric collection by Moda - 2.5" strips. The original pattern used a different size, and different blocks as well. Something had to be done! I got my quilter's math cap on and set to with paper and pencil and figured out the measurements to use up a whole jelly roll.

Ta-Da!

Download my instructions here if you must have a jelly roll top finished lickity-split :)

Farmer's Wife Quilt - A few blocks finished!

Working my way through the blocks in Laurie Aaron Hird's book "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt" seems to be as close to taking a quilting class as I can get and still wear pajamas! So for the last few days that is exactly what I have been doing.

Let's try this one ..

The book comes with a disk that includes PDF files for each of the 107 templates used in the blocks -- a separate PDF for each?! Now I'm no publisher but you would think that someone in the disk-making-department would use a bit more common sense. Because no quilter in her right mind is going to want to print 107 pages, especially when some of the templates are 2 1/2 inch blocks or 3 inch triangles. I think they really let the author down on that aspect. I'd scream bloody murder if I put all that time and energy into writing a book and the disk included looked like a 7th grader's geometry project.
 
{Of course, the publishers & EQ seem to be angling for some extra cash since there is an EQ companion CD you can buy separately. No wonder they put no effort into the free disk!}

Luckily the ones who have gone before me in making this quilt were of like minds, and they rearranged all the templates into a single PDF file of 14 pages. I thought "Woohoo, this I can live with!" and downloaded that baby right away.Then I set to work with my ruler and worked out measurements for quite a few of the simple shapes - even down to 16ths in some cases. Cause there is nooooooo way I am cutting & piecing twenty or more one-inch HSTs the hard way just for one block:

Tiny HSTs .. no problem! Chain em up

The project is definitely helping with my piecing skills (as intended!) I'm primarily working from scraps/stash fabric, so right now the blocks I have made don't look like they will play nice together in a quilt ... But I'll figure something out at the end!

Day 1 Blocks - Err, nice effort but I will remake some of these!

Day 2 Blocks - Now we are getting somewhere!

*Marking the name and number of each of the blocks on a square of masking tape might be a little over-organized, but ... I like it that way :)