This is my favorite quilt pattern. It is a pattern from Quiltmakermagazine called, Warm Wishes.

I have made this pattern enough times now that I know how the quilt goes together with very little reference to the pattern. It is a favorite because I know just how much fabric I will need to buy, just how many pieces of fabric to cut and what widths. I know how this quilt pattern is going to turn out and I can easily reduce or enlarge the size to fit the recipient–fewer number of blocks for a crib quilt, increase the number of blocks for an adult lap quilt. This pattern has become an old reliable when I need a quick gift–I just choose a novelty fabric as my focus or theme of the quilt based on what I know the recipient will like and then I pick three contrasting colours from the focus fabric as my rail fence blocks. The border can be more of the focus fabric if I have enough on hand or as in the case of this quilt top, a narrow strip of the print with one of
the contrasting fabrics as an outer border.

In this case, I have used up all of what was left of the butterfly fabric from a previous quilt–The Simple Life Quilt. The small trimmings that were left when I was cleaning up my sewing area have already been sewn into some colour catcher string blocks so there truly is no usable remnant of this fabric left.

I finished putting this top together on Saturday.

This is another Warm Wishes quilt–the one that featured the colourful frogs. Quilting this top was today’s project. The quilting pattern is accomplished with Circle Lord’s Swirls template. The quilt is shown in this picture while it is still on the long arm machine. The quilting is now finished and the quilt has moved on to the binding pile.

Last weekend, I was looking through my quilt patterns for a pattern that would be suitable for just three fabrics. I wanted to make a quilt that fit Judy’s July Stash Challenge. I came across this pattern by Lissa Alexander called “The Simple Life Quilt”. As it turns out this pattern is a 4 patch variation–referred to as a 4 by 4 by 4 patch by Lissa.

If you double click on the picture, the image should become larger and you should be able to read the writing. At the bottom of the pattern, there is a note that states, “Assemble quilt in a Trip Around the World design refer to photo for placement.” All I have of this pattern is this single sheet. I do not have a photo to refer to as mentioned in the instructions. Since I am a visual person, I went to my quilt software, Quilt Pro, drafted the block and played with block placement variations.

This is my block.

This is the version of the block placement that I liked the best. I like this version better than the Trip Around the World placement. This is 16 4 by 4 by 4 blocks.

I added a 2 1/2″ border to the outside of the quilt. After quilting, I am planning to put a “flap” of pink on the edge of the border, tucked under a green binding. This will bring the pink and green colours back into the quilt on the outside edge, framing the quilt.