Need help with ideas (and patterns)

Star, Christmas Tree, Wrapped up Parcel, Manger, Stable

All the above would be easy to do with Foundation paper piecing - and easy to draw; you wouldn't need to find an actual pattern. Or, you could find simple pictures on Google Images? . In message , Lady Aurora Selene writes

Do you do paper piecing? What about stars? You could use Christmas prints or not, depending on the colour preferences.

This is a great site, there are tons of links to go to. They have patterns for every theme imaginable, and every style and method of quilting. They have great paper piece links.

Marie

nzlstar* wrote:

OOOOO -- lots of neat ideas at that site! There are a bunch of 4" blocks and those could be joined together to make the required 12" block. There were also several 12" blocks, too! I have a paper pieced pattern of a tree which is VERY easy and you can make your own pattern. Draw your square the desired finished size

-- say the required 12". Then draw horizontal lines the width of each bough of your tree -- maybe 2" at the top and getting wider towards the bottom. The first section would be fairly narrow for the star (I usually appliqué a star to the top to make it easier) and the last section would be for the trunk. Then you draw diagonal lines in each but the top and bottom sections. The top bough would meet in a point and be maybe 4" wide at the bottom so your first piece would look something like this |______/\______| with a line along the top, of course -- the sides are background fabric and the /\ piece is tree fabric. The next piece would look something like this |_____/ \______| . Each subsequent piece would have a bigger center section done in "tree" fabric. The trunk piece would look like this |______|__|______| . The tree fabric could be any sort of Christmasy fabric that has toys, ornaments, holiday candy, Santa, etc. in the print as these are all things kids like. It's a VERY easy pattern and you needn't even use paper piecing if you are confident in your sewing skills. It's all straight line piecing, not much different from making a Log Cabin except for those diagonal lines. Lady Aurora, if you are interested in this pattern but don't feel you have the skill to make your own pattern, I'd be happy to make you one with appropriate cutting sizes and e-mail it to you. I do stuff like this all the time so it wouldn't take me long at all :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I found I needed

Wow, a 12" block for a row quilt seems rather large to me. But I think your idea of using kid themed fabrics is a good one. If that's in your comfort zone for making a well constructed block, I think you should do that. KJ

Replied privately as well.... but I"ve done a block before using my gingerbread boy cookie cutter (about 8" tall). Did fusible appliqué with blanket stitching. White rick - rack... and buttons / or thread for the eyes and buttons.... really turned out cute. You can give them personalities -- with ties, vests... aprons... whatever!

Kate in MI

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Cookies n' Milk - 9" paper pieced quilt block from Quilter's Cache

Check out the books BLock Magic and Block Magic, Too by Nancy Johnson Srebro. There are lots of things in there, Santas, a nutcracker, toys! presents, teddy bears, etc.

Thanks to everyone for the input. I wrote down all the suggestions, looked at all the links and started to formulate a plan of attack for this project. I was going to do five 12" blocks, four being Christmas present items (drum, train, rocking horse, puppy) and a wrapped package in the middle. I couldn't find anything for a rocking horse pattern. So I did a search for train and I found this:

Major thanks to everyone who responded. Sometimes my brain needs an inspiration jump start and I knew I could count on this group!

~Lady Aurora, Guardian of the Royal Bounty

Bookmarked--thanks.