Thursday, September 29, 2011

2-4-16 Patches - Pattern Chosen

I went back to my original pattern choice to use up some of the 2, 4 and 16 patches I've been making as leaders n' enders - Sunny Lanes.  I have a couple of patterns by that name ripped out of magazines, so I must like the look. There is a free pattern at Quilt Blocks Galore.  I've linked directly to the pattern page here.  The patches I'm using are completely and randomly scrappy, built from 2" strips / scraps given to me by numerous quilters.  I pulled out some of my brights (yellows and oranges) but thought it was a little too bright and I didn't have enough yardage of the yellow I would have chosen.  So I decided to go with some brown and blue for the sashing corners.  Each block will be 12.5" unfinished, laid out like this pic (which will form blue stars and brown squares).



Or like this one (which will form brown stars and blue squares).


Now I just have to decide if I want the stars to be brown or blue.  I made enough sashing to complete four blocks and laid it out on the design wall so that the blues formed a square and the browns formed stars.


Then I switched it all around to see if I liked it better with blue stars and brown squares.


I had pretty much decided on brown stars until I looked at the pics.  Now I'm thinking blue stars.  This pattern is going to produce over three hundred new 2.5" Half Square Triangles because I'm a fan of double-sewing my sew n' flip corners to create bonus HSTs.  I've learned my lesson about tossing them into a bag or box for future trimming though, after finding the box with over 1,000 HSTs during my stash reorganization.  I originally blogged about those here.  (I'm still trimming those little suckers up in batches of 30 a day and may finally be done in another couple of weeks.)  As I make the sashing for my Sunny Lanes blocks, I will be trimming the bonus HSTs as I go.


I cut all the strips and squares today and will start drawing sewing lines on the remainder of the brown and blue squares while watching television.  A double bed sized quilt will only use half of the 4 and 16 patches in my stash, and I have a few more patterns I've found that I'm looking forward to making with the remainder.  After all the low-key brown and blue, I may go wild and bright in the next one.

2 comments:

  1. I was so surprised to find that you were making this pattern. I have never seen anyone working on one or seen a completed one. I downloaded the pattern from Quilters Cache a few years ago. Every now and then I take it out and look at it longingly. Lately I have been making little four-patches as leader/enders and had the thought that maybe they would work in this pattern. I have never seen it with the different colors in the "lanes" before. The pattern I have just has yellow and white. I really like this look. Thanks for posting it.

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  2. WHOA! That is a lot of half-square triangles. I look forward to seeing what you make with them.

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