A few weeks ago we had a quiet weekend – Ray was up working on our house in Downieville and Julia and I stayed home. I pulled out my pile of Christmas fabrics, trying to think of an easy project. I wanted something that would come together easily and could be made entirely from my stash. After spending some time looking at ideas that I have collected on Pinterest, I made my decision. I would make a mini that consisted of one large swoon block.
I have been drooling over pictures of quilts with swoon blocks and minis made from swoon blocks for a long while now. I am not sure what it is about them, but I love them. The pattern for the swoon block was developed by Camille Roskelly over at Thimble Blossoms. She really started something when she created this pattern. The pattern makes a quilt with nine swoon blocks that measure 24″ square. For this project, I decided to just make one block and use it as a mini.
Using only minimal quilting, the fabrics and the pattern shine.
It turned out so festive.
I was able to make the quilt using only scraps I had on hand. The backing is a green and cream plaid that a neighbor gave me a long while back. I didn’t have enough of any one the fabrics to bind it so I made a scrappy binding.
Because it is made of rectangles, HST’s and Flying Geese blocks, the block was a breeze to cut and piece. Making a large quilt with them would be very easy. I love the oversized look of the block.
There you go. A really satisfying finish that was so fun to make and used up some stash.
Linking to Freemotion by the River, Let’s Bee Social and Finish It Up Friday. Links to all of these are located at the top of the page under Link Ups.
Oh I love this, and I love that backing fabric and the scrappy binding. I’ve been drooling over Swoon quilts for a long time too. I have a whole folder of Swoon bookmarks. I found that Swoon is a variation of a Carpenter’s Wheel, but I think Camille uses less pieces, and I find hers more visually appealing. I still haven’t bought the pattern. Are the instructions good? I guess they are since you said it was “a breeze”! 🙂
Linda,
This is SUCH a simple pattern. I am so glad I bought it. I will make another one, at least, for sure. You would love it.
B.
OK, after researching and calculating to see if I could reproduce the pattern myself, I finally told myself I was a terrible cheapskate and broke down and bought the pattern! I got the PDF and I have to say, I can’t wait to try a block. :))
How funny. I find myself doing the same thing. Debating if I can figure it out. But lately I have decided that I feel better paying for the pattern. Firstly, someone took the time to figure out the match and dimensions, etc so they deserve to be paid for it. Next, I stink at figuring that stuff out, so why knock myself out trying and then likely coming up with an error somewhere. When I bought my last two patterns – the Swoon pattern and the Tokyo Subway pattern, it was so great to have all of it right there in front of me! They are great patterns and well worth the money paid.
I hope you have fun with the Swoon project. It is a satisfying project. Post about it, ok??
B.
It’s lovely and a great idea ! 🙂
Thank you! I love a project that required no trips to the store!
The scrappy binding works so well with it, too! Quick finished can be so satisfying, and the swoon block is definitely a lot of fun – somehow the design reminds me of poinsettias, so Christmas fabrics work great with it!
Sure, I can see the pointsettia in this. I love it. I still need to put a sleeve on it. I think it will be a fun one to hang each season.
Ohhh, pretty! It reminds me of poinsettias, too. Such a nice size for doing a lot of things with, too. You can hang it, put it on the table, drape it on some furniture, whatever you want. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
So far my house is very un-Christmasy. I am hoping to get in the decorating mood this weekend. Julia wants to get our tree on Saturday. But I have to clean up the house before I can bring myself to pull out the Christmas decorations. That means I better get cleaning tomorrow. 🙁 I don’t want to! Life’s rough.
Have a great weekend Mari!
It looks great! I too have admired so many swoon projects. I really had fun making the Halloween swoon mini (18″) and I’m looking forward to having my giant swoon (24″) quilt done. I’m in progress on blocks 2 and 3, but they’ve been set aside for a while. Seeing yours makes me want to get them back out, but as you know I have a million other projects that I’m working on at the moment. 😉
No…. don’t get out another project! You will surely put yourself over the edge. 😉
Have a great weekend Sarah.
Hi Sarah:
Yes – we have a wedding to look forward to. It will be interesting since I haven’t been to Eastern Canada before and the wedding will be in Toronto.
ALYOF has been a good way to force myself to look at what I really want to get done. I was better about that in the first part of the year. I have two things I really want to accomplish asap – the row quilt and the Kaffe Fassett jelly roll quilt. Those two are nearly done so I don’t want them to languish in the closet. I have three quilts that have partially pieced tops – none of which are even half way done. So those will hopefully get done in the new year. (One of them may become a mini or a baby quilt because I am not wild about it.)
Happy Sewing!!
B.
It looks great and the fabrics are beautiful!
Thank you Connie. Thanks also for the weekly link up. Happy Holidays!
Swoon indeed! I’ve wanted to make a mini of a swoon block for quite some time. Love that yours is holiday colors. Great finish!