Waterwheel Quilt

This quilt is made with a block called Waterwheel. The alternate block is the same block, except that the half square triangles in the waterwheel block are replaced by solid squares.

The quilt has a chain pattern in the alternate blocks but because the chain is white, it’s not obvious.

Because the block is supposed to be a waterwheel, I hand quilted a circle in the middle of each of the wheels. I thought it would take me a quite a while to do the hand stitching but it went quickly. I drew around a mason jar with a chalk pencil for fabrics and then did a running stitch over the chalk line. I ran a 1+ inch of thread through the layers to start the stitching, did a tiny first stitch to lock the thread and then started stitching over the lock stitch. At the end took another tiny stitch, ran the thread back through the layer a couple inches, pulled the needle up and cut the thread. That’s how I was taught to do hand quilting.

Looking through my stash, the fabric that matched best is a Christmas tree and bird fabric. So here’s a quilt that can stay out from Advent to Valentine’s Day. I do like a multi-season quilt.

Economy Block Bird Quilt with a Broken Chain--WIP

I've got the body of the Economy Block Bird quilt completed.  That's Tipper, my English Springer Spaniel, in the corner of the photo.  He's from a hunting line of Springers.  Springer Spaniels flush and retriever birds when used in hunting.  He is very "birdie"--it's in his blood.  
Note how he is keeping his eye on this quilt.  Must be all the birds the center of the Economy Blocks!!

The alternating block in the quilt is a chain bock.  Rather than have the chain track in parallel lines across the quilt, I've broken the chain by turning the direction of the chain block in each row.  I think it gives the quilt a lot of motion. 

With one more vertical and horizontal row of blocks, this would be a twin size.  I'm going to use 2 borders instead, the more traditional look in a quilt. Why?  Because one of the border fabrics is the reason why I chose the Economy Block pattern!  

One border is on.  One to go.  I'll post the finished top next week. 

Economy Block Quilt with a Chain--WIP

Here's a quick peek at one of the quilts I should be working on!!  I've gotten distracted doing other things this week--like cleaning the cellar so that dogs have a play area in this super cold weather!

The focus unit in this quilt is the square-in-a-square block, also known as the Economy Block. This was the "hot" block of 2014!   I made 2 wall hangings using this block but this is the first time I'm using it for a bed size quilt. 

As you can see in the apple wall hanging I made last year, putting the Economy blocks next to each other can create a star secondary design.  

Economy Block wall hanging 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches square, Economy blocks finish at 4 3/4 inches

I didn't have quite enough of the bird fabric to do a whole quilt of Economy blocks.  So I'm alternating the Economy blocks with a chain block.  

This is all I've done so far!  Hopefully I'll get back to the sewing machine in the next few days!