Sew-along inspiration

Are you looking for some inspiration for your 100 Day Summer Sew-along project?

I've put together some examples below of current quilt patterns and block ideas that might help you decide on a direction for your project. I know some people might prefer to have a set block or pattern to work with, but consider this an opportunity to freely create, or set yourself some guidelines to follow.

When creating my Naive Melody blocks earlier this year, I started with a set palette of very saturated, bold colours for the background blocks, and then cut extra strips of the same fabrics and pulled a few scraps of similar saturated colours from my stash and placed them all in a large ziplock bag. I worked exclusively from that bag and didn't add any additional fabrics; this ensured that my palette remained consistent and all of the blocks would "work" well together when it came to the final layout. 

Here are some examples I pulled and linked from the Interwebs on blocks or quilt patterns that could be incorporated into a 100 Day project, or made into stand-alone blocks. 

The flower blocks in the Folk Flower Quilt pattern by Anna Maria Horner is a great example of appliqué shapes as single blocks.

Folk Flower Quilt Pattern – Anna Maria Horner

Ebb is one of my favourite needle-turn appliqué patterns (by Carolyn Friedlander) and they'd look great with one or two shapes overlapped on a block. And the gradient of shape colours on the neutral background work well for this project! Also, Carolyn has tons of great needle-turn appliqué patterns on her website that could be used on single blocks.

Ebb Quilt Pattern – Carolyn Friedlander

Do you have any blocks laying around in your WIP pile that you haven't used yet? Would adding an appliqué shape on top of it help push you to completing the quilt top? Below is an example of how Anna Maria Horner added an appliqué shape to a pieced quilt block. 

via Anna Maria Horner's Instagram

Is appliqué not your thing? Not a problem! A wonderful skill building project (and very fun at the same time) might be Jen Carlton-Bailly's Itty Bitty Hand-Sewn Curves!

Kits available here – via Jen Carlton-Bailly

Temperature quilts are also an excellent example of making one block per day (following your own set rules for how each block should be created). Anorina Morris hand appliquéd these orange peel shapes onto her blocks (and pre-quilted them as well) before putting the final quilt top together.

via Anorina Morris' Instagram 

Jo Avery has also recently made a temperature quilt using free cut circles.

via Jo Avery Instagram

Feeling adventurous? Jo Avery has some of the most adorable needle-turn appliqué bird patterns! 

Bullfinch needle-turn appliqué pattern – Jo Avery (photo via her Instagram)

Wainwright by Carolyn Friedlander is another block based needle-turn appliqué quilt pattern that would be perfect for this project!

Wainwright pattern found here - photo via Carolyn Friedlander

And lastly, my blocks are simple squircles! I took 6.5" low-volume background squares, and 4" bright scraps. I free cut all of the corners off the squares - the beauty of squircles is that they're not perfect! This also helps if you're new to needle-turn appliqué - there's no stress to make them any perfect shape. I'll be posting a tutorial on how I needle-turn appliqué before May for those who want to try the technique. Its pretty addictive!

I hope these gorgeous quilty examples have sparked your imagination and creativity and have helped you to determine how you're going to complete your 100 hand-sewn blocks! As always, feel free to leave a comment or email me at jenn(at)sewfine(dot)ca if you have any questions.

xo – Jenn