Smarty Pants Dance
Back in July, the Lincoln and Omaha MQG's met in Ashland for our sister guild Sew Day/Mini Quilt Swap, which was a lot of fun! I do enjoy going to sew days because I get to sew and be social but most of the time I don't have a project ready to take with me. This last time was no exception. I had spent the days prior working on the mini for the swap so I didn't have anything ready to go. I did what I usually do, I dug through my project bins to see what I had already started that I could maybe work on. Nope. None of my WIP's looked interesting. I kept digging and found my X-Blocks Basix Ruler that mom had given me as a gift. I had only tried it once, so I thought, why not play with it at sew day?
My ruler works with 2.5" strips, so it's pre cut friendly and this particular version makes 5" blocks. It is pretty cool to see the different patterns that can be created with the color placement in a simple nine patch block! The ruler comes with two free patterns inside but I had seen this Smarty Pants Pattern on Pinterest and decided to give that a try.
I figured I better plot it out on graph paper if I was going to get everything sewn together correctly. Sew days can be noisy with lots of chatting and I usually lose my focus pretty quickly! My graph kept me on track.
After the blocks were together, I decided that it needed a little something more. I added the colorful skinny strips around in the border. Once I did that, I thought it sort of looked like legs in a kick line. Do you see it?
For the matchstick quilting, I used variegated thread in yellow, pink and green because that's what I had on hand. If I was more talented at machine quilting, I may have done something more circular, like a spiral coming from the center. I really like the clean look of facings, so I did a facing instead of regular binding.
I really love how this one turned out! There are a couple other patterns I'd like to try with this ruler, so stay tuned.
Smarty Pants Dance Mini Quilt
22" x 24"
Pieced and Machine Quilted by Me
Linking up with
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
This is spectacular! I've not heard of the this ruler but you have used it well. I don't see the legs kicking but I love the lines! Great photos, too. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI love this. At first glance it looks like a painting.
ReplyDeleteHehe, I love your kick lines!!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, those little strips totally add to it and make it look more like a piece of artwork!(not that quilts aren't artwork in of themselves, but you know what I mean;))
What a stunning design, I would never have guessed you used that quirky ruler, great planning and colour placement!
ReplyDeleteYou are getting caught up on posts. I love this and it just is wonderful sparkly goodness! Those extra skinny strips takes it to the next level. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love this quilt, Jennifer! I may just have to make one of my own.
ReplyDelete