jelly rolls – Blue Bear Quilts

Posted on September 21, 2017September 22, 2017 by Reed — 14 Comments

Greek Isles Modern Quilt

For the 2017 Blogger’s Quilt Festival, I thought I would share Blue Bear’s most popular pattern, Greek Isles Modern.

This pattern is much easier than it looks. It is made with 2.5″ strips of white and 2.5″ strips of light, medium and dark batiks, that you may obtain from jelly rolls, or cut on your 2.5″ strip die with your Accuquilt Go! Cutter. The blocks are all constructed the same way, and placement is what determines the pattern. At 70 x 90,” it is the perfect quilt to curl up with on the couch for binge watching your favorite Netflix shows.

Here is a picture of Kim at Keep Me in Stitches in Largo, Florida, quilting this beauty; followed by a close up of her fantastic quilting.

Here are several more photos of the quilt out and about.

I have taught this class several times and here are some of my students interpretations of the quilt. Click on the links for short videos. They did a fantastic job!

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If you would like to purchase this pattern, it is available on our website here, www.bluebearquilts.com, or on Craftsy here- https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/patterns/greek-isles-modern-quilt/490532

Sharing at the Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side.

Posted on August 29, 2016September 6, 2016 by Reed — Leave a comment

Quilt Block of the Week- August 29, 2016

Week 3- August 29, 2016

Double Nine Patch

In order to create a double nine patch, we need to know what a nine patch is first. it is a block that contains a 3 x 3 grid. Normally there is a combination of light and dark fabrics. Here is an example of the basic nine patch block.

Notice how there are nine “patches” that are the same size. There is a combination of light yellow with the dark navy blue. The yellow is forming a cross and the navy is forming an “x” in the middle. All of these patches can be anywise, but typically they are divisible by 3, so the overall block size is usually 6, 9 or 12 inches. This block is popular with beginning quilters as it involves straight sewing and matching of a couple of seams. It is also an easy block to select color fabrics as you only need two, consisting of a light and dark. This block also makes a great scrap quilt as each of the navy squares in the example could be a different piece of fabric. This is also an easy jelly roll quilt as to contract the blocks, you sew 2.5″ strips of dark, light, dark together and strips of light, dark, light together and then cut them at 2.5″ intervals. Then you take two of the dark, light, dark units and piece them together with a light, dark, light unit in the middle. Here is what a quilt would look like using this block, and then using the block alternating with plain navy squares.

basic nine patch quilt — Basic Nine Patch Quilt

Continue reading Quilt Block of the Week- August 29, 2016

Posted on August 22, 2016September 5, 2016 by Reed — Leave a comment

Quilt Block of the Week- August 22, 2016

Week 2 – August 22, 2016

The Double Four Patch

The name comes from the fact that there are two smaller four patches contained in this block. While four patch is in the name, “four patch” also describes the type of block construction.

Notice that there are two four patches and two plain squares. When these four units are combined together, they create a larger four patch, containing two smaller four patches, and you notice a lovely chain effect happening. The smaller four patch units could be made from strips or jelly rolls. This is an excellent block to use up scraps as each one of the colored squares could be a different color fabric creating a wonderful scrappy look.

Due to its simplicity, this block is an excellent block for beginning quilters and it can create a gorgeous quilt as you can see in the diagram below. This quilt contains 64 blocks- 8 across and 8 down.

double four patch quilt — Double Four Patch Quilt

Next Week’s Block of the Week will be the Double Nine Patch.