Hunter's Star Quilt in Fall Colors

It's unusual for me to go to quilt classes.  I generally like to work things out by myself.  But I am so glad I decided to take a class offered by my Guild and taught by Kathie Beltz!  It was a Hunter's Star class (that's the quilt pattern above) using the Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Tool created by Deb Tucker (no relation).

I ordered the tool ahead of time. Looking at the instructions, I knew going to a class was the right decision! The instructions look a lot more complicated than they actually are. Kathie Beltz did a great job teaching our class how to use the tool. If you get I chance to attend one of her classes, I highly recommend her!

The smart thing to do with a Hunters Star design is to pick 2 colors. It makes assembling the quilt much easier. Unlike most star designs, the star in the Hunter's Star pattern isn't in its own block.  It's created when 4 blocks meet at the center.

I didn't grasp that when I picked out the fabrics. The handout said we could pick up to 8 light and 8 dark fat quarters.  Thinking each star could be a different color, I picked out 8 dark colors. Fortunately, I picked cream solid yardage for my light color.

I had already pre-cut all my fabrics by the time I realized multiple colors might NOT have been such a great idea.  Well, chalk it up to a learning experience. It could always be a dog quilt!

Fortunately, Kathie wasn't the least bit fazed by my fabric choices and had great suggestions about how to build each of the blocks in my quilt. 

As the day progressed, it gradually became clear that my quilt was going from probable flop to totally fabulous!  How often does that happen??

I'm thrilled with my scrappy fall colors Hunter's Star Quilt top!  I was going to add a narrow border and then piano key border.  I have the perfect backing fabric, but there are only 2 yards. So, it's going to be borderless!

Now, I need a stretch of cool days to get this quilt sandwiched and quilted!

Washing a Quilt: From disappointing to awesome

If you read my post on June 28, Scrappy "Plus Surround" Quilt, you'll know I wasn't thrilled with the quilting in the negative space. Even though I choose the quilting design, the free motion loops just didn't do much for me.

With nothing to loose, I tossed it into the washer and then the drier. (I have to admit, I do that to most of the quilts I make--IF I'm not planning to put them in a local quilt show),  When I took it out of the drier, the quilting had a lovely nubby texture, the loopy design had essentially disappeared and the quilt was soft and cuddly! 

I was suddenly in love!!  I actually do prefer my quilts to have that antique-like soft puckering that occurs when the quilt is washed and dried. But I can't think of another quilt I've made where washing and drying made such a big difference in how I felt about the quilt!

Detail of the washed quilting

Here's a photo of the quilt prior to washing.  I think the change is much more noticeable when you can feel the quilt. It's harder to see the change from the photos.

Here's a photo of the quilt before washing.

Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017 Completed

It's (finally) done:  My 2017 year-long Scrappy Block Project!  Every month last year I sewed 2-3 improv blocks from two bags of odd scraps I had collected. At the end of the year I had 30 blocks that were 12 1/2 inches square.

I set the improv blocks between rows of blue and white blocks which were "orphans" from another quilt which I never made. The result is a bit wacky, but this is a quilt that is going to be used and definitely not too precious for the dogs for the dogs to sleep on it!!

The quilting is as improvisational as the blocks themselves!  I took my clues for the quilting from the composition and the fabrics in each block.  The quilting is a mix of straight line walking foot stitching and free motion quilting.  It seemed to take forever!!  But I had a good laugh when I was done and put it on a bed....I'd forgotten how big this quilt is!  I had thought I was quilting a twin size quilt, when reality it's a good size queen!  No wonder the quilting seemed never ending!!

Here are a couple of close-ups of the free-motion quilting in this project. 

Bear Party "Cabin" Utility-Style Picnic Quilt

Sharon Holland has written a fun book of large patch, easy-to-piece quilts. The log cabin quilt above was made using her pattern "Cabin" in Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living.  The quilt is her book is a play on the stripes of the traditional Hudson Bay wool blankets. 

This pattern immediately drew me in--I think it's the perfect quilt for a picnic!  But I wanted to use a different palate and green was was on my mind!

JP Knit & Stitch, a yarn and fabric store in Jamaica Plain, MA, recently changed hands. The new owner brought in a lovely selection of fabrics, including a number of low volume prints. The black prints on white (animal prints and floral prints) and the solid colors are all from JP Knit & Stitch.  I added a couple new colored prints and some fabrics from my stash.

The quilting is all straight line done with a walking foot.
This quilt is really fun and happy!

Emmy and Greg, Bamboletta Forever Friends, took the quilt out to the garden for a snack. Turns out this 'Bear Party' quilt is also great for tumbling when the picnic food is gone!

Happy Summer!!

Scrappy "Plus Surround" Quilt from 'Modern Plus Signs Quilts'

This is my completed "Plus Surround" quilt from the book, Modern Plus Sign Quilts.  There is review of the book on my March 29, 2018 blog post and discussion about making the quilt on the two subsequent posts.

There is straight line quilting on each of the plus signs which I really like. But I really struggled with how to quilt all of the negative space in this quilt (the yellow background). The quilt in the book has quilting radiating from the center of the quilt. I knew I didn't want to try to copy that. 

Because of the circular design, I decided to quilt the negative space with free motion circular loops. About half way done, I wished I'd done a misty soft linear/loopy fog-like design instead.  But it was way to late to do that!  The circular loops feel a bit too traditional for my taste, but it's growing on me! 

What's the best thing about this quilt? The great design of this quilt. It captures the viewer's attention!

"Flying Economy" Finished Quilt

And here it is:  The completed "Flying Economy" quilt that I designed in Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) using the custom set function. 

This quilt was so much fun to design, sew and quilt. It has fabrics by Alison Glass, Moda Fabric's Grunge, Westminster's Kaffe Fassett's Shot Cotton and even a bit of batik!  I wanted this to be a bright and colorful quilt and it was so helpful to see the colors in place as I designed the quilt in EQ8.  The placement of the final quilt does vary a bit from the original design. I changed some fabric choices will sewing and moved a few things around once the blocks were on the design wall.  I don't think I could have made this quilt without first seeing all the colors on my EQ 8 design.

Here they are side-by-side:  Design on the left, completed quilt on the right,

The quilting is all straight line done using a walking foot on my trusty domestic Bernina 440. It takes time to do straight line quilting but it was what this quilt needed!

Here's another photo of the finished quilt showing the peachy pink and white stripe binding and my neighbor's beautiful oriental dogwood!

At the beginning of June I had a stack of completed quilt tops waiting to be quilted. It was starting to feel like the take-off runway at Boston's Logan Airport!  So I set myself to the task of completing the four quilts before July arrived with its heat and humidity!

All four quilts are done!  The quilt above was one of them.  I'll be posting the other three in the coming weeks. I can't wait to show them to you!

Addendum June 22, 2018: Oops!! Cleaning up my workspace I found a quilt pattern way at the bottom of a pile.  Sam Hunter's "Fourteen on Point" was clearly an inspiration for the design of my quilt.  His quilt is different...he used 3 sizes of simple square-in-a-square economy blocks, while I have 2 sizes of double economy blocks (square-in-a-square-in-another square). The placement of my economy blocks is different than his pattern.  My quilt has 2 flying geese borders while his quilt has one narrow border and one slightly wider border on all four sides and it is wide and narrow.  While I had been thinking this was a completely original pattern, I can see a striking resemblance to the "Fourteen On Point" pattern. I had totally forgotten about having purchased Sam Hunter's pattern. Credit for inspiration for my quilt is definitely due Sam Hunter!

"Flying Economy": A Quilt Using Custom Set Blocks

And here it is: The quilt I designed for my Yankee Swap Fabrics (see May 31, 2018 post) using the Custom Set Blocks option in the Electric Quilt (EQ8) program.

The design is a combination of flying geese, economy blocks in 2 sizes and an assortment of rectangles and squares. The blocks sizes can all be divided by 4. That common denominator makes the blocks in the quilt all compatible and allows for piecing without odd seams.

It is important to check the design to make it actually can be pieced!! It is possible to design a quilt that is essentially impossible, or would be a nightmare, to piece!

The central panel of this quilt can be pieced in 4 strips--two wide ones and two narrow ones. Can you see how looking at the pattern? * The flying geese borders will be pieced and added after the central panel has been pieced.

I moved a number of blocks around as I was designing the quilt.  I found I could move one block off the work area, shift another block into that space and then move the first block back into the newly open space. It reminded me of those little plastic puzzles I had as a child where you move pieces around in a plastic square to put them into some sort of order to to spell words!

In the example below, I want to swap the location of the teal and gold rectangular blocks in the right side of the middle row. I lifted the teal block out of the quilt, moved over the gold block to the left and put the teal block in the place where the gold block had been originally.  How cool is that?  (I could also have just recolored them, but I wanted to show that you really can move blocks around very easily in this program).

The colors of the actual quilt won't be exactly the same as the colors in this pattern. But they are close enough so that I know I'll like the design and color distribution.

 Time to cut and start sewing!

* (The top and bottom strips are the wide ones).

Addendum:  I just realized today, June 22, 2018, that this quilt design was obviously inspired by a quilt designed by Sam Hunter. For details, see the addendum at the end of my next post, "Flying Economy" Finished Quilt.

Designing a Quilt with Custom Set Blocks in Electric Quilt 8

Electric Quilt has a blog that intermittently has hands-on lessons for using their revised program Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8).  The lesson posted on May 1, 2018 was exactly the tutorial I needed to design a quilt using the fabrics from last December's Yankee Swap...Custom Set Quilt!

This lesson teaches how to created a quilt with blocks of different sizes. This allows you to create a template all your own.  I've been puzzled how to do this in the past and have had only  modest success trying to accomplish this. Mostly I've given up because I just couldn't get the blocks to set together happily.

The key turns out to be a "Plain Block" that is written into the program. It existence of the Plain Block not readily apparent. You really have to know it's available.  I use EQ8 on my iMac. The drop down list with the Plain Block can be found by clicking on three light grey dots "..." in the bar over the blocks from the Block library.  (I gather that this drop down list appears in Windows when you click on an empty space between blocks the block tool bar).  

One of the choices in the drop down list is "add plain block".  This adds a plain square to the blocks you can choose from.  Once dropped on the quilt it can be moved around and changed to any size using the "adjust" button. When you have a block you like, you can copy and paste it as many times as you wish. Just brilliant...once you know how.  My design problems now have a very easy solution!

If you have EQ8 and are interested in designing quilts with custom set blocks, I highly recommend clicking on the link above and working through the tutorial. It's lots of fun and well worth the time.

I designed the quilt above working through the Custom Set Quilt tutorial.
Having worked through the tutorial, I now have the necessary skills to design a quilt that will use the Yankee Swap fabrics I showed in my last post on May 31, 2018. I'll show that quilt design in my post next week

PS: I did this tutorial in May.  Look what popped up on the May 13, 2018 Electric Quilt Newsletter!  It was fun to find my project quilt highlighted. I had shared this photo at the end of the lesson on their website. I don't have any business/financial ties to Electric Quilt--clearly they liked what I designed so they shared in their newsletter.  (The link in the photo below isn't active. But it is the same as the link in the first paragraph above).

Using Fabric from a Holiday Yankee Swap

Our quilt guild has a holiday party with a Yankee Swap.  It used to be a real high-spirited swap where you were guaranteed to have an awesome gift stolen away. But the guild now has over 100 members so in the past several years it has been musical chairs with packages. You get what you get when the music stops. No more stealing something you see on the far side of the room!

This year my package contained these 5 half yards of fabric. A creative, generous gift. One Alison Glass Handcrafted fabric, two grunge fabrics and one coordinating batik. Three of the colors are in my palette:  the maroon way out of my comfort zone!  What to do with them?

This is clearly just a head start on a fabric collection for a quilt. These 4 half yards need to be augmented with more fabrics. So I went searching in my stash. I found a whole stack of Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons fat quarters that are a perfect complement to these feature fabrics. 

Feature fabrics with stack of Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons

This looks like fun. So I'm off to my Electric Quilt 8 program to design a quilt. These fabrics are too special to be cut without a good plan!

Classical Waldorf Dolls in Two sizes

Classic Waldorf Dolls. They have simple bodies--a trunk and legs together without clearly defined feet, arms at reach out and a head. They typically stand up better than they sit down, but if stitched carefully at the top of the legs, they can sit.

I only recently started making Classic Waldorf Dolls. I have to say, they are fun to sew and they have charming character. I use the patterns in the book Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey.

I made Douglas, shown above, simply because I have been collecting fun doll clothes made by Bamboletta for a for a while now. I was planning to purchase one of their 15 inch Sitting Friend dolls but boys that size have been few and far between. So I decided to make a doll myself. Douglas is wearing all Bamboletta clothes except for his shoes (and undies)!

I was reading about hair styling in the book mentioned above. It said you can create curls by knitting yarn, dampen the knitting and let it air dry and then undo it. That sounded like fun!
 

I decided to just use straight yarn on the lower two layers of the hair and put the knitted curls on just on the outer third layer.  It gives Douglas a cute, sort of un-tidy, free-spirited boy look!

Here he is sitting. I managed to sew in decent leg folds on this doll.  He's wearing clothes made by the Bamboletta Sewing Mamas! (I made the shoes). 

NOTE:  Notice the difference in his hair in these two photos. The first humid day we had, Douglas lost most of his curls!  I used merino superwash yarn and it just relaxed in the humidity. Next time I think I'll use yarn that felts and smaller needles than the #10 US needles I chose this time!

Douglas in the crab apple tree wearing the red overall shorts and firefighter T shirt I made for him

Clementine is the another Classic Waldorf Doll I recently made. She is smaller at 11 inches.  If you have never made a Classic Waldorf type doll, 11 inches is a great size to start with.  it is easier hold and sew a smaller doll. And the finished doll is a great size for a child to take places.

11 inch Classic Waldorf

I used heavy weight loose mohair boucle yarn by De Witte Engle for her curly hair.  Unlike most of my dolls, I only used one type of yarn for her hair. I love how it turned out!

Here area a couple more photos of Douglas in his Bamboletta made clothes taken at the beginning of May when it was still chilly.  He is one super cute little dude!!

15" Waldorf Type Dolls, getting the neck right

You've probably noticed that I've been posting fewer quilts this year while there have been more posts about dolls.  I've been on a quest! 

I usually use doll patterns that I draft myself when I make Waldorf type dolls. But I've had trouble with nodding heads . Nodding heads are loved by some, but the best Waldorf dolls don't nod. So my goal for the year was to keep making dolls until I solved the nodding problem.  Making more dolls really does improve doll-making skills.

My initial pattern was cut with a neck that was about 2 inches high. That turned out to be the cause of the nod. While I turned it under when I attached the head, the neck was too long to hold up a heavy head of solidly rolled sheep's wool roving. Gradually as I cut down the neck length each doll got better. I've learned that NOT having a raised neck in the pattern results in dolls with very steady heads.  Just having just enough fabric at the top of the body to turn under 1/4-1/2 inch gives the best results. Finally figuring that out was really exciting.

Here are my three newest girls.

All the 15 inch dolls I've made have been gifts or commissions. That meant I never had one on hand to show as an example or to use to draft new clothes. The doll with the reddish brown boucle hair and the green shoes is going to be my sample doll.  I finished her on Patriot's Day (a Massachusetts-only holiday in April) so she is named Abigail after Abigail Adams, one of the true patriot women in Colonial New England.

Next week I'll share two classic Waldorf Dolls I've just made which should conclude the dolls posts for a while!

Quick Charity Quilts using Strips

Variation of Modern Textiles' Strip Quilt, approx 42 x 50 inches

The quilt guild I belong to, Proper Bostonian Quilters, makes dozens of quilts for charity every year. Quilts of all sizes and shapes are collected but quilts for toddlers and preschool children are especially welcome.

I was so excited when I saw the free tutorial and pattern for the Strip Quilt on Modern Textiles website. It's perfect for a small quilt that works up quickly. I especially love the way the wide strips can feature a special fabric. (The pattern has options for a variety of sizes. I made the crib quilt).

The pattern calls for 5 1/2 inch wide strips. I added 2 1/2 inch strips of solid colors to widen 38 x 50 inch pattern to that takes full advantage of a 42 inch backing.  3 extra strip seems perfect.  (The quilt above has 4 solid strips because the patterned strips were cut 5" wide).

I chose to do linear quilting and used some of the fancier quilting stitches on my machine. But free motion quilting would also be great.

Here's a another Strip quilt I recently made using a fabrics from a single collection. Sewing quilts using this pattern is such a happy activity! I really had fun.

Lavender Floral Strip Quilt Variation, approx 42 x 50 inches

Raw-Edge Dog Applique Pillow Cover

One of my friends has an adorable English Springer Spaniel. I've been squirreling away patterned brown fabrics for a long time with the plan to make some sort of Springer project some day.  That day arrived recently! 

Here's the drawing I made from a photo of my friend's dog.

Springer drawing, folded in 4 quadrants to aid placement of the components on the pillow cover

I scanned this to my computer and then flipped the drawing horizontally.  For fused applique, pattern pieces need to be a mirror image of the original drawing.  I made 3 copies of the inverted drawing so I could cut up the pictures to make patterns to cut pieces to make a raw-edge applique. It's important to have multiple copies as it's not possible to cut out all the parts from one copy. 

Here's a list of the patterns pieces I cut from the drawing: separate ears, muzzle with the white forehead blaze, tongue, nose, eyes, freckles, both halves of the face and a triangular neck piece. With raw-edge applique, the pattern pieces don't need any seam allowance.

I used Thermoweb Heat'n Bond Medium Weight to fuse the components.  I had the medium weight on hand, but Lightweight would have also been fine for this project.

First fuse the Heat-n-Bond to the BACK side of each fabric. (This product includes excellent directions for its use). Then using a pencil, trace around each pattern piece on the paper side of the fused Heat'n Bond. Cut out each component of the applique.  Remove the paper and fuse to the pillow cover. Stitch around each piece using either a narrow width zig-zag stitch with a very short stitch length or use a blanket stitch if your machine has one.  Before you start sewing:  Practice the stitching on some scraps of the fused fabric to see what works best on your sewing machine and which type of stitching you prefer. I used a zig-zag on this piece.

The sparkle in each eye is an embroidered French knot, and the lips were also embroidered using a back stitch. 

I added a border to my appliqued square. The back of the pillow is the same fabric as the border. I chose to use an envelope closure, but lots of other pillow finishes would work too.

Back of the pillow with an envelope closure

Little 8" Waldorf Type Dolls, revised design

In my April 5, 2018, posts I promised to show a couple revised 8" Waldorf type dolls. These two dolls have larger heads than first 8" doll I made. I think the slightly larger head, 5-5 1/2 inches looks a lot better on this size doll. The first one I made had a head just under 5 inches in diameter.

The pattern is the traditional limbed doll found in Maricristin Sealey's book, Making Waldorf Dolls, Creative Doll-Making with Children. I copied the pattern and decreased it to 70% original size with the scanner on my printer. The author does give very good information about the head size for the patterns in the book. But when I decreased the pattern size, decreasing the head size by 30% was just a tad too much. That's why I increased the head size when I made these dolls.

Here's another 8" doll I made. This doll has her arms sewn on with the seams top and bottom on the arm. Her arms are always outstretched. The doll above has arms sewn on with seams medially, front and back. Her arms hang more naturally. It's interesting to see what a difference that small change makes. I happen to like the arms both ways.

The pink hair is a mix of a variegated pink/natural/lavender yarn and two other pink yarns. This was fun, but I'll probably stick with more natural hair colors!

8" Waldorf type doll with pink hair and fair skin

Little 8" Waldorf Type Doll

My brother gave me a gift certificate to Weir Crafts for Christmas.  One of the items I purchased was a bag of doll skin scraps in assorted skin tones. I've only used skin fabric imported from the Netherlands and I wanted to see this American fabric.   I also wanted to have some fabric to experiment or practice with that wasn't so precious as the rather expensive brand new tubes of imported knit fabric.

This doll was all made with just the palest skin scraps.  I still have some pale skin fabric left as well as lots of other skin tones from light tan to dark brown.  That little bag of scraps was a great value!

One the things I have really needed to practice is making heads.  On my larger dolls I tend to get mixed results...sometimes they are perfect, other times the heads nod a bit (endearing but they aren't supposed to nod) and the neck is sometimes a bit wrinkled. So I've been making little heads and things have been looking up!  (No pun intended)!!

Josie, the doll above is 8" tall. She is a very small classic Waldorf type doll with straight legs and outstretched arms. I used a pattern in the book Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey but decreased the pattern size 70% to match one of the heads I'd made.  Her head is stable and they aren't any wrinkles, but when I make this doll again, I'll make the head a little bigger and the arms a bit shorter. But I do love that you can put this doll's arms over her head like a ballerina!

8" Josie's long arms!

Josie's hair is a brownish-auburn Victorian boucle from Halcyon Yarns that I purchased from Weir Crafts. I love how it glows in the sunlight!  Her dress's fabric is a reproduction 1930's feed sack. It suits her perfectly!

Love the light bouncing off her auburn boucle hair!

In a couple weeks I'll show two other 8 inch doll make with the revisions I discussed above.

Work in Progress: Scrappy "Plus Surround" Quilt with Cutting Instructions for Scrap Plus blocks

Isn't this scrappy version of "Plus Surround" from the new book, Modern Plus Sign Quilts by Cheryl Brickey and Paige Alexander, a great quilt top?  I had so much fun making it!

The pattern calls for all solid fabrics.  I had the solids, but looking at my stash I realized I had enough small/subtle fabrics  of similar color and shades to make a scrappy quilt. I thought it might be more interesting to see some slight color gradations in the finished quilt.  But that made the quilt significantly harder to make!  Fortunately, only one of my fabrics had clearly directional design.  I chose to turn that directional fabric 3 ways intentionally so it wouldn't matter which way this square quilt is used.

The plus signs directions in the book are all strip pieced. Obviously that won't work if you chose to make a scrappy quilt.  I'm sharing the cutting instructions to make a scrappy quilt but you will need a copy of the book to make the quilt. You need to really pay attention when piecing this quilt. I was really trying to be careful but I still to do a bit of un-sewing!

These cutting instructions are only for the plus signs, not the finished blocks.

Each of the middle size blue plus signs in my quilt are a different fabric so the plus signs will be pieced individually, not strip pieced.

• for the colored portion plus sign, cut one strip 3 1/2 x 7 inches and two 3 1/2 inch squares
• for the background of the midsize plus sign, cut 3 WOF strips and divide that into 3 1/2 inch squares

I made two identical small plus signs from each of the blue green fabrics in the quilt. These can be strip pieced.

• for each pair of plus signs, cut cut 1 strip of colored fabric 2 x 16 inches and two 2 x 5 inch strips
• for the background, cut 3 WOF* 2 inch strips. Cut those into 2 x 16 inch strips to make a strip pieced set with the colored fabric.
• Strip piece the 2 x 16 inch colored strip with two 2 x 16 inch background strips.
• Cut the strip pieced sets into 2 x 5 inch segments as shown in the book's diagram

Assemble the blocks per the instructions in the book.

Hope these cutting instructions are helpful if you make your own scrappy "Plus Surround" quilt!

* WOF is width of fabric

Work in Progress: "Plus Surround" and a Color Study

I've been working on the "Plus Surround" quilt, a pattern in the book I reviewed last week, Modern Plus Sign Quilts. The instructions for the quilt are excellent and it's really exciting to sew this project.

Check out the situation above:  Can you see what is coming?  Pictured are 2 straight rows of square blocks...but the pattern is circular!  That's so great!

The pale yellow background fabric is Kona® cotton "meringue" and the plus signs in the photo are an assortment of mostly small pattered blues and blue greens.

There is a central plus sign in this quilt. I have a beautiful marbled blue and yellow fabric that is a perfect match with this soft yellow and the blues. But when I made the block the sameness was okay but frankly, boring.

Quilt with the blue and yellow central marbled block

So I went looking through my stash for an orange which is the complement color to the blues and an analogous color to the yellow background. I found a hand-dyed cotton that adds just the right pop. The design went from flat to fun!

"Plus Surround" with complementary orange central block

The quilt pattern calls for solid colors.  I chose a scrappy look. That made both cutting and assembling the quilt significantly more complicated. I'll show the finished top next week and will share cutting instructions for making scrappy plus signs like the ones in my quilt. 

Book Review: "Modern Plus Sign Quilts"

It's been a while since I've seen a new quilt book with really exciting patterns, so today I want to share a bit about this great new C&T Publishing stashBOOKS, Modern Plus Sign Quilts by Cheryl Brickley and Plaige Alexander.

This book has something for everyone.  There are pieced quilts, appliqued patterns and foundation pieced patterns. They range from a simple table runner which would be great for a new quilter to complex geometric designs.

There are 3 quilt patterns in this book that I really want to make. My favorite is "Plus Surround", a quilt with concentric circles of plus signs. Because of the circular design, it looks complicated but all the but all the blocks are square!  It's a really fun quilt!

Another of my favorites is "Celestial", the navy an white quilt shown above on the cover of the book. This pattern makes a queen size quilt, using large blocks, so it go together quickly.

My other favorite quilt is "Transparency Chains".  It uses a single Irish change with pieced plus signs that appear to float inside the chains.

These are modern quilts with deep roots in classic patterns. They have lots of negative space with many of them using 3 to 7 plus yards of background fabric. I often guesstimate yardage when purchasing fabric but I recommend you make a list to take to the store if you are going to make these quilts!

I can't wait to start sewing...but first, a shopping trip!

Back cover

Tiny knit hat for a Waldorf Type doll with a 4 inch head

Tiny Knit Hat for a Waldorf Type doll with a 4 1/2 inch head circumference.

Supplies:

• US 6 - 4.00 mm double pointed knitting (DP) needles. Set of 5 DP needles.
• Mochi Plus or similar yarn with 4-4.5 sts/onch on 9-10.5 US needles
• Yarn needle

1. Cast on 20 stitches on 1 DP knitting needle
2. Divide stitches evenly on the 4 DP needles (5 stitches/DP needle)
3. Knit stockinette (Knit. Purl) for 3 rounds (rows 1-3)
4. Knit for 5 rounds (rows 4-8)
5. Row 9- Knit 3 stitches, knit 2 together at the end of needle. Repeat on each of the remaining 3 needles. (16 stitches)
6. Row 10 Knit around
7. Row 11 Knit 2 stitches, knit 2 together. Repeat on the each of the remaining 3 needles. (12 stitches)
8. Row 12 Knit around
9. Row 13 Knit 1 stitch, knit 2 together. Repeat on each of the remaining 3 needles. (8 stitches)
10. Row 14 Knit around
11. Row 15 Knit 2 together around. Decrease the number of needles to 2 as you knit. (4 stitches)
12. Row 16 Knit around
13. Knit 2 together until just 2 stitches remain
14. Cut yarn leaving an 8-10 tail. Using the yarn needle, run the tail through the 2 remaining stitches. Pull tight.
15. Weave in the 2 loose tails

Now your tiny Waldorf Doll will have a warm head!

If you use finer yarn (such as a #4 yarn using US 5 - 3.75mm needles) or want a slightly larger hat for a 5 inch circumference head, cast on 24 stitches and divide them, putting 6 stitches on each needle.  Starting in step 5, knit 1 additional stitch before knitting the last 2 stitches together at the end of each needle. Continue with knitting with cast-off row, followed by 1 knit around row until just 2 stitches remain as in step 13.

Little Soft Waldorf Type Dolls

Above are two little Waldorf Type Dolls. I drew the pattern for the doll's body but it is possible to find patterns for very similar dolls.

Both dolls were made with essentially same body pattern (with a slight tweak in the arms) but the larger doll has a body of knit fabric and the doll on the right has a body of woven fabric. I was surprised by how much smaller the doll was with the woven fabric body!

After living with these two dolls for a couple weeks, I revised the pattern a third time. This final pattern works very well. He's a tad taller, has a slightly larger head, the arms have a larger circumference and they come straight off the shoulders.

6 1/4 inch soft Waldorf doll with the snowdrops

These little dolls are fairly easy to make. Their only hair is a few strands of scrap yarn and the knit hats are sewn on.  I'll post the pattern for their tiny hat next week.

The three dolls below are 4 inch Pouch dolls. The pattern for these little dolls are from Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey.  I added the ribbon around the waist.  The little bows in back are so cute! The prop holding up the dolls is a cheerful pot of artificial light pink roses I picked up at Ikea which they call Fejka.

These tiny pouch dolls are fun to make...and I got to practice making 3 little heads!