Happy 2011 everyone. May it be a happy quilting year for each of you. You have certainly added to my quilting life in a terrific way during the past year. I have a couple of thousand cut 2 1/2" squares left over from previous projects. How can I best use them (some of them) in a new quilt top? What patterns would you suggest? I do only hand piecing and quilting, if that makes any difference for your suggestions. thanks in advance for your in-put.

You can check out the website www.quiltville.com. She has lots of ideas.
Bargello, trip around the world, 9-patch, etc.

Scrappy Irish chain.

My favorite childhood quilt is a 4 patch....2 squares white 2 square print. Hand pieced and hand quilted by my Mother and Grandmother.

I think sometimes the simple quilts are the most attractive of all. I'd suggest either making a 4 patch or a 9 patch. The quilt pictured just above looks great.

I have no suggestions for you, but that quilt pictured above is a beauty!

trip around the world or irish chain

pretty quilt

just a scrappy postage stamp quilt.

I use squares this size to "snowball" the corners of other peices or blocks, as in the quilt below. The reds and greens were all little squares placed over the corners of the base block, sewn across the diagonal, flipped back and pressed, the middle layer trimmed out.

Jan in VA

Mimom, love that quilt! Will have to put this on my to-do list.
Thanks for posting. :thumbup:

I agree.

I found that picture back in october, I started it in the past few weeks, I will post a pic of my version when its done, but so far its turning out nice. Having trouble finding a fabric that is comperable to the sashing though, still have a few shops to check out tomorrow.

Jan, your quilts are gorgeous!!

my aunt made this 4 patch - w/ 2 prints & 2 solids alternating. While it doesn't seem to work because nothing "matches", it really is kinda cool....

She made it in 1949/50 after she & my uncle were married - I quilted it last summer

Goodness, it's hard to decide which one to post sometimes :?: :roll:

I start by making 4 patch. Two lights and two dark. When I have a few done I make them into blocks.

Irish chain gets my vote. But centers for Cathdral windows works.

these photos are amazing.. beautiful work, and thanks for blessing up with the photos of them.

How about a watercolor quilt? The kind you lay the pieces on the background of squares, iron them on then sew the seams. I never tried one but have seen the background base. Just put them anywhere, don't need to make a design unless you want to.

CarolJ.

Such pretty pictures!

I have the iron-on backing for one of those. Someday.....

The suggestions on what block patterns to use are terrific. I just wanted to step in here and congratulate you on hand piecing and quilting - I was beginning to wonder if there were any hand piecers left.

I love hand work and will be doing a hand piecing program tomorrow at one of my guilds. Yes, they will be participating (I can already hear the grumbles!!). This is where I started in 1979 when I joined the quilting community - everything was by hand in the "dinosaur" days (lol). And hand work is much more sociable than machine work - hard to talk when your running that machine and watching out for fingers, 1/4" seams, etc. I do machine piece now although not as well as some - machine quilting is still eluding me and my hand quilting is pretty rusty.

So thank you for continuing the tradition in this day of hurry up and get it done.

Sandy in Mooresville, NC

Ditto and agreed. Lovely quilts.

Love, B.Hunter and quiltville.com....I was very lucky to hear her talk and see the trunk show a few months ago.

Jan, I love both of your quilts, especially the floral garden. I've never tried the square over the corner technique. but your quilts have inspired me.Thanks for sharing!
Karen in La.

My DH just sews them all together and his comes out beautiful. Sometimes he'll alternate with a solid color. Or sometimes he will put all of one kind in a row alternating with a solid. Good luck and happy quilting.

I saw one the other day that looked like one block was 10.5" (unfinished) and the next was 6.5" with 2.5"blocks around it to make a 10.5" block. These were alternated and looked really neat. Just something different. I want to try it soon.

If you have lots of different colored squares, I agree, a scrappy quilt would be perfect. I think they are pretty!

Love these quilts, and the technique. What pattern is the top quilt if you don't mind sharing.

I hand piece and quilt also, I use many of these small sq to make different sized blocks even. It works great. dont have a camera except on my cell phone and havent learned to put the pics on my pc yet. maybe some day. lol. Made a blooming nine patch with these also.

I love it, think it works great. Looks like something I would do but, I love the scrappy look :-)

I just received my newsletter from AllPeopleQuilt.com and the following was one of their links. Hope it helps.

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/sewscr...ail=1807353366

Becca - now that's my kind of quilt. After looking at all the beautiful quilts here - I've finally decided I really LOVE the old timey scrappy 4/6/ or 9 patch the best. Maybe it's because all my family used scraps in their strip quilts and it reminds me of them.

Good option for me. Thx, Leigh

I made a 16-patch (scrappy) Then large half square triangles with white and a scrap as points for star blocks. The half square triangles were equal in size to 1/4 of the 16 patch (or same size as a 4-patch).

I never fail to get loads of complements on this one. I like contrast so I used White. Obviously, any "solid-like" would do. Have fun! I love scrap quilts.

I like 9 patch with some squares with characters such as penguins, cats, dogs, and some solid colors for kids and something more sophisticated for the adults.

I did a cathedral windows quilt with 2 1/2" squares, had some left and started an around the world quilt-it is a UFO at the moment.

Trip around the world. Mine took 3111 2.5" squares.

I would do a simple scrappy quilt with all the squares..

I was going to suggest that too.

Colour wash, bargello or Eleanor Burns' cross stitch quilt.There's a video of Eleanor doing it on Quilt in a Day.

http://www.quilterstv.com/channel/video/0?video=1373