Pineapple Quilt

 Have you ever fallen so much in love with making a pattern that you just couldn't stop? Earlier this year I took a class on making pineapple blocks using a wonderful new ruler that makes them easy peasy. In fact, they are so easy and fun to make that I actually ended up making 80 blocks. Yep, 80! Without borders, my quilt measured 80 x 100. I don't even own a king sized bed!

 

Of course, the quilt needed borders desperately. I had pulled all of the colors from a wonderfully colorful border print that I already had, but I had lots of choices on an inside border. Here are a few that I check out.

 

Each color completely changed the look of the entire quilt. So I called in a couple of consultants, Sinbad and Spook. They were charged with selecting the perfect color to complement both the blocks and the border.

 So they looked at it from one perspective...

and another...

 

and finally chose the green. The quilt is at Mom's right now waiting to be quilted. I'll take some pictures when I get it back.

 

In the meantime, I have a very ugly quilt to play with over the summer. I have LOTS of African fabric scraps (I LOVE African fabrics!), so I decided to throw them all into a pineapple quilt of their own. I have two different background fabrics - the sandy looking fabric in the blocks in the top left and bottom right and the blue/purple/black fabric top right and bottom left. I'm going to alternate them. Isn't it wonderfully hideous? I'm loving it already! African fabrics come in such a wide variety of colors and color combinations that it was impossible to find a workable background. I wanted black, but too many of the fabrics themselves had black backgrounds. The same for white. So I'm going with clashy-clashy. We'll see how it turns out.

 



We'll just leave Spook contemplating his next fabric choices. He hates it when the floor is bare of quilts, so I had to give him a lone block to sit on. Silly cat.

See you later,
Debbi

Pineapple Trim Tool

What a tremendously fun day I had Saturday at Sager Creek Quilts and Yarnworks in Siloam Springs! Thank you again, Pam and Cliff Goggins.

 

As a full-time teacher, I don't get to take very many quilt classes - maybe one or two a year. I'm only available on Saturdays, and I like to spend those with my husband. So when this Saturday Pineapple Block class came along using a new easy-to-use Pineapple Trim Tool by Creative Grids, I had to think long and hard about it. Hmmm, do I want to give up one of my precious Saturdays for a quilting class? Who am I kidding? Yes!!! Get outta my way!

 

As it turns out, I am so happy I took this class. This block is traditionally pieced using paper piecing, but I refuse to paper piece (blah!), but this version does away with the paper and just uses a trimming ruler. The block looks like this (the blue blocks - ignore the quilt top backdrop). These gorgeous blue and cream blocks were made by a very good friend of mine. Aren't they great?

 

 

Well, here is how my project has progressed. Last week I showed you the sorting and selecting portion of the project - supurrvised by my able assistant Callie.

 

After I selected my border fabric (the fabric at the top of the photo below), I pulled the appropriate fabrics out from under my napping fabric guard and began to cut. I cut many strips at 1 5/8" and some at 2 1/2' (for the corners). I still didn't have the light background fabric that I needed. And, as it turns out, I didn't cut nearly as many strips as I needed to even get a good start. This pattern requires a lot of strips of a lot of different fabrics cut into a lot of different lengths to provide a good selection for each block.

 

One quick trip to Sager Creek on Friday for a light background fabric and I had everything I needed. All of my light background pieces are a pale green that matches the pale green in my border fabric. The dark fabrics are a selection of about two dozen fabrics. The next day, surrounded by my far more talented friends, I began to sew. And sew. These little blocks come together surprising quickly, but boy do they seem to take a lot of fabric!

  

Here are four completed blocks (simply laid side-by-side, not sewn) next to the border fabric. It has promise. I have completed several more blocks this week, but since I need about 80 total blocks, I see myself sewing for quite a few more evenings. It's a good thing this is so easy to do. We used Creative Grids' Pineapple Trim Tool. It lets one make a 6", 8", or 10" block. With its trim-as-you-go technique, each block come out perfectly. I LOVE THIS TOOL! Mom and I were going to share one since my class was last weekend and hers is this Friday, but I decided that I don't want to share. I don't want us both wanting to use the tool at the same time, so I bought Mom her own. Hands off my new ruler, Mom!

 

Maybe by next week I'll be able to show you the finished quilt top (ha, ha). I doubt it, but I can always hope. : )

 

Later,

Deb