Design Wall Monday ~ 5 Inch Cake Stand Blocks

The weekend began with an ambitious goal of tackling 20 blocks. Clearly, that didn’t happen, but hey, no stress, there’s only so much cake one girl can handle!

Sewing these 5-inch Cake Stand blocks is just as tricky as you'd imagine.  There's barely any wiggle room for mistakes or sneaky fixes. Once the quilt is done, those little uh-oh's will probably vanish like crumbs from a cake! 

One of the small annoyances I'm embracing in the quilt is the clash of prints I think don't mix well. Case in point, the bottom right block on the design board. Plaid and stripes together—ugh! But it's staying put, like it or not.  We'll just call it giving the quilt character.

It's the little imperfections that gives a quilt a tale of its own. When this quilt gets passed down, someone will undoubtedly give it a thorough inspection, spotting the flaws and jumping to conclusions. 

For instance, most of the cake stand bases have matching fabrics, but a few don't because I ran out of bonus half square triangles that matched. Instead of stressing over perfect matches, I just went for coordinating colors and declared it good enough.  Anyone inspecting this quilt might assume it’s a mistake on the maker’s part, but you and I both know it’s just sheer laziness on my end.

In other news...

Take a look at my new Zinnia patch, it's like a rainbow exploded! This year was an experiment to see if these beauties could thrive in what can only be described as a weed jungle. Turns out, they're loving it! So, next year’s master plan... double the flowers, double the color!

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Nine Patch UFO = A Quilt Kit

Back in 2014 I had grand plans for a simple nine patch quilt.  For some reason the plan changed. 

Six months later I used some of them to make my Patriotic Picnic quilt.

Then a year after that I started another quilt to use up what I thought was the last of the nine patches.

In January of this year while sorting through the UFO's I found more of the nine patches.  This week a plan has been made to finally use the last of them.  It'll be a simple small quilt using the fabric scraps from the nine patches.  The large floral print will used for the backing.

Sadly, I was three pieces short of making the quilt.  No problem, that's why we have fabric stashes!  I pulled several fabrics to audition.  Only one made the cut.

In my opinion a floral print would have been better since all the other fabrics are florals but in the end the color of this print looked better than any of the other prints I pulled.

Before storing this project away as a quilt kit it was added to the design wall.  It took a bit of shuffling fabrics and patchwork until I was happy with the layout.  Then they were carefully removed from the wall in order from left to right. 

This quilt is small, 58 x 58.  So, it will probably be the next quicky quilt to be finished.  By the way the inspiration for this quilt was Cranberry Chain by Laundry Basket Quilts.  

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Lori Holt Fabric 2 Bucks A Block

 It's time to play catch up.  I'm six months behind on this Lori Holt fabric block of the month from my local quilt shop, Back Door Quilts.  

This block of the month is extra challenging for me since it requires Thangles.  The challenge is all in my head.  Silly reasons like...#1 the cost of Thangles...$7 is not going to break the bank. 

#2  Ripping off the paper...which takes almost no time.

Since I like working with starched fabric it took me a little longer to prep my precut fabrics.

But the magic happened after pinning the papers onto the fabric.  Within 15 minutes they were sewn, cut, papers removed and ready to be sewn into blocks.   WHOA!  That is quick.  I've never timed it before.  So now all I can really complain about is the cost which isn't much for 450 HST's.

  

Piecing the blocks took about 24 hours...HAHA!  I was in no hurry and had several interruptions.  My main goal for the week is getting the quilt on the frame quilted.  So, these blocks are just an added bonus.

There was some leftover fabric.  

I'm assuming it will be used for the sashing and cornerstones of the quilt top.  Below is the quilt shop sample quilt.  My quilt will be bigger because I'm making two blocks a month instead of one.  The yellow squares show are the blocks I've finished.

And here are my finished blocks.  The plan is to catch up before the last block is released in December.  This should be easier now that I've embraced the Thangles.

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A Few Cake Stand Blocks

Well as you can see my plan to lay this project away for a few days didn't last. You all understand, right?  After all the hard work of cutting and organizing how could I not piece together a few of the blocks.  So, Friday night I loaded up a design board of Cake Stand Blocks to be sewn.

Then a board of 16 patches.

And then I just kept making more in my spare time all weekend long.  Sigh...I love them.  

As I sat back looking at the design wall on Sunday evening, I began to think about my quilting journey and what it took to get to this point.

 Years of saving every little bonus half square triangle and triangle shapes to sew into HST's.   Thousands of them!  I would like to tell you it takes patience to get to this point but really it took a lot of half assed planning and procrastination.  It may not seem like much to some but for me it's a big deal.  A lot of things and people have come and gone in my life, but one thing has stayed the same, quilting.

I've been quilting for almost 40 years.  It's hard to believe. This hobby has been with me through all of life's ups and downs.  Some folks are emotional eaters, me too, but I'm also an emotional quilter.

As I sew the blocks together, I'm playing a quilters game of I Spy.  

I Spy a fabric...

...from the first quilt show I went to

...gifted to me from Beverly

...from the quilt I made dad when my brother died

...from a trip with Judy to Ben Franklins in Southern Indiana

...I bought last week

Someday I'll be gone, and the quilt will live on, hopefully with my family.  There's no way to share with them all the memories this quilt holds.  It reminds me of looking through granny's old photo album.  Black and white photos of people I'd never met.  No names, only faces but they all have a story that only granny could tell.

My newly made blocks were carefully placed into the storage totes for safe keeping.  You never know how long it will take for me to be in the mood to make more.  Who am I kidding, I want to make more now but I know there's a quilt on the frame waiting to be finished.  So, the plan is to quilt on the frame this week.  Should I need a break, I have a 2025 BOM project that is way behind. 

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