krafty14, love you Warm Wishes variant! Makes an interesting pattern. Thanks for the details.

Was thinking the same about the new color placement, so different from what I usually do. Have the thread saved to come back to for the next WW's.

Love the Warm Wishes design - Do you think it would affect the look too much if the block sizing was changed to utilize charm packs and jelly roll strips - I have a lot and would like to use them without cutting them up (I am really cutting challenged ! ) :o

Shortcake2012
Here is a more detailed explanation of my warm wishes variation.

Warm Wishes Variation

This quilt is 9x13 blocks. That's 117 blocks.
With 4" borders it finishes at 48.5"x66.5".

Depending on your arrangement, you will need approximately

1 ½ yards of red print
*Cut into
3 - 5” strips (wof) cut into 5” squares (24)
8 – 2” strips (wof) for rails
5 – 4.5” strips (wof) for borders
5 – 2 ¼” strips (wof) for binding

1 yard of black print
3 – 5” strips (wof) cut into 5” squares (18)
8 – 2” strips (wof) for rails

1 yard of floral print
3 – 5” strips (wof) cut into 5” squares (17)
8 – 2” strips (wof) for rails

Take a 2” black strip, a 2” red strip and a 2” floral strip, sew together into a set. Be sure that the RED strip is in the middle. These sets should measure 5” wide. Double check your ¼” seam!!
Cut into 5” squares (58)

Below is an exploded view of the layout of the quilt. Hopefully you can see the layout easier this way.


Start with a black square. Then a rail with the black touching black. Then a floral square touching floral.
Start the second row with a rail with the black up, touching the black square. Then a red square. Then a rail with the floral up, touching the floral square. Then a red square.
Black always touches black, floral always touches floral. The red squares go at the end of the rails to match the red in the center of the rails.

When done, the center should measure 40.5”x58.5”.

Cut 2 of the 4.5” strips to 40.5” (or whatever your quilt measures across. Sew on top and bottom.
Sew the remaining 4.5” strips together, then cut to 66.5” (or whatever you quilt measures top to bottom). Sew on sides.

The only thing necessary is that the focus squares and the sewn strip sets are the same size. If your charm packs are 5" and the jelly roll strips 2.5" then it won't work.

You might want to do a test block. Maybe with the decrease in size of the block, maybe just take a 1/4" of each of the sashing strip to keep the proportions intact. Try drawing it out if you don't have EQ. I make the focus fabric bigger cutting it 8.5". I keep the sashing size the same only cut the length also to 8.5". Here is a couple of tops I have pieced:

Wow. This is so much different and so much better! I usually loathe Warm Wishes (I'm in the minority here) because it's so often squares of focus fabric plunked down and connected in some wimpy way that doesn't create a cohesive design. It usually screams "focus fabric" and "filler blocks" to me. But the way you've done it, it's ao much more artful. Thanks for sharing it.

hugs,
Charlotte

Thank you krafty14 this helps so much! Thanks for the more detailed explanation.

This is a great variation! I can think of some of my Asian fabrics that this will work with!