Saturday, August 8, 2020

To Give and To Recieve Swap Block

The latest issue of American Patchwork & Quilting is hitting the newsstands and mailboxes this week.  I'm sure subscribers are anticipating this new issue, especially considering the times we are living in right now.  It's jam packed with great projects and I'm thrilled to be part of this issue.  I can't imagine all the puzzles the staff had to solve to get this to your doorstep.  I hope you enjoy every page of it!

 I first blogged about this project here.

Photo courtesy of American Patchwork & Quilting Used with permission © 

 First I must give a big shout out to Barb,  from Fun with Barb, who hosted this fantastic swap. I also have to thank my stitching pals who offered up their scrap bags so I could get such a variety of prints and colors for the 16 patch blocks.  Even Jody (editor of magazine) sent me a goodie bag of scraps.

The best part of participating in a swap is getting that envelop in the mail, and anticipating all the different colors and prints that will become part of a quilt.  I knew I could not let these star blocks get tucked away in a box or bag so I got busy right away.  Here I am testing out the 16 patch blocks with swapped star blocks.  Look at all those prints and colors!


Testing out more 16 patch blocks and realizing that I need to keep the lighter squares away from the corners of the blocks.
Once I had all my blocks made I started playing with the layout.  One challenge is balancing out both color and value.  The other consideration was spreading out the blocks based on whether they were all one fabric or two toned.

Using the black and white setting on your cell phone is the best way to work out the values of all the star blocks.

I love the name the team at American Patchwork & Quilting gave this quilt.  It's perfect for this swap block quilt.
Photo courtesy of American Patchwork & Quilting Used with permission © 

 

When deciding on the quilting, I wanted to keep it very simple and clean.  The fabrics are the star of this quilt and I didn't want to detract from the huge variety of prints and colors.  Straight lines and neutral thread did the trick.



The cover quilt is pretty fabulous, along with many other patterns in the issue.  "Meet the Maker" is also a great section to introduce you to quilters that might be 'new to you'  There is a lot going on in the design world right now, and AP&Q have captured a lot of it and packed it into this issue.

I hope that you take some time to enjoy this issue.  Maybe you will find a project of two that you can start prepping for and work on during the upcoming fall months.  All the staff at AP & Q have stayed hard at work under these challenging times.  A big thank you to them for always making my work look so good!  

Please share any projects and tag the maker.  Me, you can always see whats happening on my Instagram page #grassrootsquilting  Hop over there, follow along, and tag me on any of my projects.  I love to see how others interpret my patterns.

Stay safe, mask up and keep stitching.  We are all in this together!

Sharon

 

10 comments:

Beth French said...

A fabric lovers delight! Beautiful

cityquilter grace said...

wow gorgeous quilt...can't wait for my issue to arrive...

Karen said...

This is such a beautiful quilt, Sharon! I love the story that goes with it! Looking forward to my AP&Q magazine! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Mimi said...

Beautiful!

Janet O. said...

Congrats on another beautiful published creation, Sharon. I do love this quilt!

Barb said...

Looks like lovely photos and styling.
I am supposed to receive a comp copy and I hope I do.
I'll share a link to your blog once I get my copy.
It is a fabulous setting for the star swap.
congrats on the publication

Fabric-Etc said...

Congrats! It's really a fabulous quilt!!

Mego said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Saw this earlier this morning on some site and said 'Self? MAKE THAT!!!' Good job!

Unknown said...

Just wondering if anyone has a copy of this pattern please? I’m unable to find it anywhere 😭

Mary Douglass @ historical-matters.com said...

My swap group on Conquering Mount Scrapmore with Brenda Logan would like to get the pattern. Who holds the copyright?