Easy Arch

 This has been an unusual year to say the least. All of us has had changes in scheduling and activities. Dealing with the ongoing pandemic has been a challenge in many ways, and we all hope it will come to an end soon. Staying healthy is our main focus right now, and with suddenly having all that extra time available has been a little hard to handle at times. Usually I will complain about not having time to explore some directions with my quiltmaking, and then I find myself with all this time,  weeks of time in my studio. What to do with that has been more challenging than finding fabric and get to work. Knowing that I do better with some structure, I set goals for every week, working an something I want to explore, finding information about a technique I had been interested in, and working through the ins and outs of it, till I feel I know everything I can. I will share some of this in a few post in the next weeks and months. Lots of different fabric/surface treatment have been tested, leaving me with stacks of dyed , painted and otherwise manipulated fabrics, which I hopefully will use in new projects in the near future.

Early  spring I worked for several weeks on one of my favorite piecing technique, the Easy Arch block.  This has always been my to-go-to block when I feel very uninspired. Just choosing some bright and colorful fabrics will improve the mood! Making the stylized leaves is my favorite variation of this block, and adding some curved piecing, it was a small fun piece. I like it so much I think I will use the rest of the blocks to make a bigger piece or a table runner. Because it is so fast I sewed six blocks in each colorway, so many extras to play with. Black background could be nice too.

It has been years since I took the time and made a bed quilt for our bed.  Again the Easy Arch block is perfect for larger quilts. When you put four together, you can have a "diamond" shaped or a 'circular" shaped center. Adding sashings and cornerstones breaks up the blocks and gives them somewhat of a traditional look. It also adds a little to the size. The brown variation I made for my sister, and the purple variation I made for me. I am not a very "purple" person, but this will change the look in the bedroom, and I am in the mood for a change right now.                                                                                            

I will buy all kinds of 5" charm packs when I go to shows. Especially batiks, so after collecting many different one, I finally made a full size bed quilt for a grandson. I was left with several black/white and neutral colored batiks. this is the basic block using those colors, and with a red and black setting. Fun and easy to make.

Next on my list was doing something for the youngest grandsons, twins. Of course they will have to get full size quilts too for their 3rd. birthday too. First time ever that I am ahead of schedule with two finished tops, similar but different. Different sizes of the basic Easy Arch block, set together with filler strips. These will be machine quilted as I am sure they will be washed many times.

Just another picture of my own new bed quilt. I am very happy to have this one done.

I plan to share a few more projects coming up, just trying to stay busy!

Please stay safe!