Quick and Easy?

This is the first 'thread' I have started since the changeover.

I am envisaging a scenario (the exact circumstances don't matter at all), when I would dearly love to make small bed quilts for two girls (7 and 4) and a cot quilt for the new baby brother. However, if I do embark on this project, I really need something quick and easy. Some of you might remember that I don't usually do quick and easy! But, if I let this idea take hold of me, I am not going to have time for a specially designed and exotically quilted -(not that I used to do that anyway >gg

5 minute block quilts by Suzanne McNeill. They go together VERY quickly and depending on how you lay them out everyone looks very different so the kids don't all think they have the same quilt.

Debbi in SO CA

I generally fall back onto central star patterns for fast and easy. There is a great deal of versatility in those. You can run the gamut from making your big diamonds out of little diamonds or blocks (easily strip pieced) to making them just single pieces each. For three quilts in a short time, I would probably make them stripey. You can make your stripes as wide as suits your inclinations, and run them in whatever direction suits your fancy. Doing something like a large single central liberty star, which is stripey to begin with, for the cot quilt, and maybe amish spinning stars or a star of bethlehem variation in coordinating colors for the other two, would be the sort of direction I would go. Fast, easy, but not so simple as to be mind numbing. YMMV, as I'm sure you must have a fairly simple or simplifiable central motif that you favor that could work similarly.

NightMist

I don't have any specific suggestions, but once I made a baby quilt that was a fence rail quilt, but I "specialized" it by making the blocks have stripes in the progression of: white, yellow, green, purple, brown, with the edging being black, in fact I think I have said something about this quilt before. The colors are the progression of belts in the karate school I was in at the time, which granted, was an interest of the parent's and not an interest of the child's yet.

I am not saying to make a "belt quilt" but perhaps you could make a quilt that is a quick and easy pattern that reflects the girl's interests, though I can't give any specific suggestions since I do not know the girls interests. In the case of the baby brother, who presumably does not have any interests perhaps you could get some printable fabric sheets and make an alphabet quilt.

Perhaps you could do the girls quilts this way as well, just changing the pictures that you print on the individual squares.

Doing this might make the quilts fairly expensive, but you know the old saying in project management: "Fast, Good, or Cheap, to pick any two."

One time I posted to a different group about this quilt, I know it was a different group because I tried to explain how to make a fence-rail quilt, which I would not do on this group since I am pretty sure that pretty much everyone here should know what one is.

Well, anyway, perhaps I should have just linked to a picture of what a fence rail is.

Brian Chrstiansen

Thanks very much for reminding me of Rail Fence. I had thought strips might be quickest, but had completely forgotten this one. I'm not sure when this will all come about, as they haven't quite decided when to go back to their country of origin; but I am fond of them and want to do something they can take with them, when they do go. So, if I have pattern and more or less fabric ready, I should be able to do it all as soon as I hear they are going. Thanks Brian

Pat on the green

Thanks very much for this NM. I hadn't thought at all of a central motif - sort of like a medallion quilt I guess. I will do a little work on this and see how I get on. Maybe I could use Brian's suggestion of Rail Fence for one of the borders. This has been a very fruitful question. Thank you for your contribution. How nice it will be to work on a quilt whose design is from my friends on RCTQ - at last!

Pat on the green

Thanks very much for this idea Debbie. I will look the pattern up - with my coffee in a minute! I will change the colours slightly - trouble is both little girls like pink >gg

Thanks very much for this, Barbara. They both like pink, so that will have to be there >g< but I can put in some shades of green and purple/lilac. I like the idea of different (and obvious) main colours.

This idea of three little quilts is really getting hold of me now - and I do have a lot of fabric I can use. I mostly collect for individual projects, so I can look in my fabric drawers and know I can use virtually anything!

This is now such fun!

Pat on the green

Hi Pat,

How wonderful to have a quilting discussion here again!

If you have a good focus fabric how about Warm Wishes? Bed size:

Cot size:

This is the one I made for my dad:

Looking forward to seeing what you decide on and the finished quilts.

Lizzy

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Lizzy in State College, PA, USA 
formerly Heywood, Lancs, UK

My go-to pattern for something quick, especially for children, is "Warm Wishes". This pattern started as a free project Linus pattern on quiltmaker.com. It is now a free bed size pattern at . It's easy to modify the block size and number of blocks. It adapts well to kid's novelty prints. Sometimes I use borders, sometimes not. I've got pictures of some I've made on my website (which has not been updated for several years, unfortunately).

Julia > This is the first 'thread' I have started since the changeover.

Thanks very much for this, Julia. I enjoyed myself browsing your website for a little while! Problem, for Warm Wishes, is that I have so few patterned fabrics any more. Yes, I could buy some with a childlike theme; but I thought this was an opportunity to use up quite a lot of my stash - albeit mostly pink! I have made a couple of Warm Wishes (before my not buying any more patterned fabric phase!).

As I said, if and when I get the three quilts finished (the girls are in proper beds now, so a bit larger quilts are needed).

My 7 year old niece loves purple and butterflies, both of which I just foun d at an estate sale. I made the butterfly material the central focus of a Warm Wishes block. I used purple, bright green and black, which were all in the butterfly fabric, as the extra colors needed for the striped blocks. It came out really cute and was super easy to make. I hadn't told her I wa s making it and it was all folded up under something else on my sewing tabl e. She came over for a visit and immediately ran over to the as yet unfini shed quilt and started patting it, but said nothing about it. She's not a g irly girl, she's a soccer star and a tomboy and has never, ever shown any i nterest in my sewing room. An hour or so later, she was patting it again b ut still said nothing. When it was time for her to go home she shyly asked me if this quilt could be for her when it was finished. I told her that I had made it specifically for her and she got all teary eyed. She now has f allen in love with sewing and made a cute flannel baby huggy for her brand new baby brother. She wanted it to make noise when he played with it so sh e put a noisy crinkly piece of cellophane between the layers. Her older si ster has been sewing at my house for years, but I think I've roped in anoth er one.

Warm Wishes is super easy. Denise in NH

ewing and made a cute flannel baby huggy for her brand new baby brother. She wanted it to make noise when he played with it so she put a noisy crinkly piece of cellophane between the layers. Her older sister has been sewing at my house for years, but I think I've roped in another one.

What about just doing squares or rectangles/squares together which wo uld be a no brainer and quick to do. You could graph out a simple quilt of your own design. A 4 patch, then a print square the size of the 4 patch, so every other square different but in the same color scheme. Just a couple o f thoughts. Sandy$

Ah-Ha! Something different - squares. I had wondered about doing some half-square triangle squares. So maybe I could do a combination of just square/rectangles, some with simple pattern, some plain, with a border - even sashing. If I knew whether/when the family might be going, it would be less of a time factor. I'm imagining something like them saying 'well, we're going back to Poland next month!! I don't mind if I finish before they go - even a lot - or if they don't go >g< Looking out at the weeds in my garden, I'll have to wait for there to be a few rainy days! Mind you, it is so dry, that I can't get the weeds out at the moment. England in April - a drought??? How can that be?

Thanks for the suggestion Sandy.

Pat on the green

My favorite pattern for a quickie quilt is Railfence. Especially if it's a scrappy and I don't care what lands where.

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Whahoo! 
Dreamweaver

Hello Pat on the Green, I have also made string quilts to use up all my left over fabrics. It does make a very pretty quilt. I used white sashing between blocks and hav e gone as small as 6 inches. You would have to use a foundation block to h ave something to sew the strips to. Hope you find something you like. Sandy$

I know I am a bit late but I like Chinese Coins. I can be a good way to use left over strips in you have some in the right colours.

Dee in Oz