Eastern Oregon Blocks Series - All 7 Quilts

The seven quilts are shown in the picture above. There was a bit of wind, so I was unable to take a photo with all seven sitting flat against the fence. I mostly wanted to show this picture to demonstrate the relative size of each quilt and the colors.

The quilt sizes are:

- kaleidoscope: 40"x 46"

- ladders to the stars: 59" x 60"

- star of Bethlehem: 43" x 43"

- sagebrush perspective: 43" x 45"

- willow: 43" x 50"

- crop circles: 34" x 46"

- which way: 42" x 56"

I have a bit of fabric left from the start - but, in general, I used the majority of the original fabric collection.

In the end, I think each quilt has its merits. I am happy to have tried so many different designs and surprised by the results. However, it does not seem possible that a person would look at any of the quilts and see Eastern Oregon.

Finished: The First Three Quilts in the Eastern Oregon Series

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Quilting eo-2 Ladders to the Stars

The preparation for all of the quilts is the same: tape back to the floor, lay out fleece onto the backing, and add a quilt top to the top. The stack is pinned together starting from the center of the quilt.

For the Ladders to the Stars quilt, I want to attempt to stitch in the ditch - forming a pattern that is diagonal to the quilt edges. I used a marker that fades over time to draw the quilt pattern.

The pictures I took of this process do not really show the overall pattern. I will post another image once I have the quilt completed. 

eo-2 Ladder to the Stars Top Assembly

To assemble the Ladders to the Stars quilt top, I  started by first laying out the blocks to try to get both a visible pattern and also a distribution of the dark colors.

I added the border blocks to the star blocks once I had a sense for the general layout. Then, I stitched the quilt together in rows. This seemed to work okay - because the pattern is so square.

Overall, the quilt top came together nicely. The tips of the stars in the square block are flat, because of the trimming I had to do on the individual squares.

The final quilt top is 60" x 60" - larger than a typical baby quilt, but close enough.

eo-2 Border Assembly

The border of the Ladders to the Stars quilt seems to be the easiest part. I have already put together the 40 triangle blocks. I just need 20 3.5" squares.

The border units use medium and dark fabric squares and triangle blocks with at least one light triangle.

I ironed the seam allowances toward the center of the block. This will make the top assembly tricky, but will also have a less bulky seam.

The final pieces needed for the quilt top are four corner triangle blocks. I made these earlier, as well.

eo-2 Star Block Assembly

The star block consists of four triangle blocks, four hour-glass blocks and a square in the center. I had made the triangle blocks when I put together the ladder blocks. So, all that is left is to cut 20 3.5" squares for the center of each block and to make the hour-glass blocks (80).

The hour-glass blocks start the same as the triangle blocks, but using the rectangles that were cut to 6" x 9". I paired medium and dark rectangles and drew the block details on the medium fabric.

I drew a rectangle (4 1/4" x 8 1/2"), bisected it to define squares, and added diagonal lines to bisect the squares. Finally, I drew in the seam guidelines. This lay-out had a great deal of fabric waste - but does have the upside of accurate block geometry. 

After generating 80 triangle blocks, I cut these blocks in half to form two right-triangles. The triangles are half dark and half medium. I then paired each triangle with a triangle of opposing alignment of the dark and medium fabric and stitched along the hypotenuse.

I trimmed each block to 3 3/8" and then assembled the star block:

In general, the blocks looked pretty good. However, I had some puckering along a lot of the seams. I think this might be a thread tension issue. I also ended up having the star points reaching the edge of the block. This means that, when the blocks are sewn into the quilt top, the points will be flat. Bummer.

This is generally the point where I have to decide if I will continue with the quilt or not. I am usually too lazy or money-conscious to start over. In this case, I also continued just to see how the colors worked out.

eo-2 Ladder block assembly part 2

The ladder block requires five 4-patch squares and four triangle squares. At this point, each square should be 3.5" on a side. A closer look showed that I am having the same difficulty I had with the Kaleidoscope quilt blocks - my seam allowance is coming in above 1/4". As a result, the blocks are closer to 3 3/8" on a side. I trimmed the blocks to all have this dimension.

To assembly the block, I had to take care (i.e. I had to redo a bunch of sewing multiple times!) to keep the correct orientation of the triangle blocks to the four-patch blocks. 

I sewed together 3 four-patch, triangle block pairs, and then added the remaining missing block for each row. Two of the completed blocks are shown below.

The finished block size was 9.25" on a side.

eo-2 Ladder block assembly part 1

The ladder block assembly begins with making the four-patches. There are 5 four-patch blocks each, with a total of 80 needed for this quilt.

I sorted out the 2" strips to match one light strip with either one medium or one dark strip. I tried to create as much variation as possible. I sewed the strips together and pressed the seam allowance towards the darker fabric.

Next, I cut the strips into 2" widths, paired each small strip with another - and the 4-patch blocks are complete:

The triangle blocks were trickier. With the extra fabric in the cutting list, I had to actually mark each block with pencil:

I paired two 5" x 9" rectangles (one light with one dark or medium). I traced a 7 3/4"  x 3 7/8" rectangle on the lighter fabric. Then, I added in a center line, two diagonal lines (bisecting each square) and added 1/4" seam guidelines. This final structure makes four blocks. 

The bummer for me is the extra fabric on two edges of the rectangle. I will save the extra but am pretty sure it will not be useful. If I ever make another Ladder to the Stars quilt, I will work out a cutting list with less waste.

I stitched along the seam guidelines and then cut out each block. I pressed the seam allowance towards the darker fabric.

I made enough triangles blocks for the ladder blocks (64), the border (40), the corners (4), and the star blocks (80). The light and medium combinations were saved for the star blocks.

eo-2 Cutting list and colors

The ladder and star blocks assigns the parts of the block by light, medium and dark. I am following a pattern from a book titled Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts by Patricia Wilens.

The blocks begin with:

• 2" x 22" strips
• 15 dark/medium
• 15 light
• 5" x 9" rectangles
• 16 dark
• 31 medium
• 47 light
• 6" x 10" rectangles
• 20 medium
• 20 dark
• 3.5" x 3.5" squares
• 20 medium
• 20 dark

At first glance, this cutting list appears to be pretty wasteful. I am going to follow the plan, though, in case there is a good reason for the excess fabric.

eo-2 Ladder to the Stars Quilt

The second quilt in the Eastern Oregon series is the Ladder to the Stars Quilt. This quilt is a combination of a ladder block and a star block with a border of two triangle blocks separated by a square.

Schematics of the ladder and star blocks are shown below. The finished block size is 9 inches.

With the intent of making a crib sized quilt, the layout will include:

• 16 ladder blocks
• 20 star blocks
• 20 border units 
• 4 corners (triangle blocks)

The full layout will be a square: