Just an example of a tumbling block pattern. I didn't make this one.

I believe it was around 2002 or so when I was inspired to make a quilt. Like I needed another project….but I thought it would be fun and an interesting challenge. So I began to look for patterns and decided on what I affectionately call my ‘Qbert’ quilt. The design is like a Qbert board (I hope you have heard of Qbert unless I’m dating myself The actual name for the design is ‘tumbling blocks’. I love patchwork designs so that is when I went to town and really started grabbing any mix and match fabrics I could find. Wal-mart’s dollar fabrics was where I started, sales at local fabric shops, yard sales (where I was lucky to have gotten the batting when that time came).

Picture 1: Here is what I have right now.

Starting from the upper left in picture 1, you’ll see just diamonds cut out roughly.  They are cut about a 1/2 inch around my pattern which you’ll see going counterclockwise where I currently have some maroon fabric paperclipped to it. Then moving around the same way, you’ll see just a pile of diamonds that I have already sewed the angles on and ironed down.  These are aleady matched to two other diamonds that will make a whole block. Continuing around, you’ll see that a v shaped pile. Those have 2 ironed diamonds already together and ironed and the third laying on top. I found that I have to iron every step of the way to ensure that they fit together nicely and are easier to sew that way. Lastly you’ll see two piles with completed blocks.  The other pile that look like triangles are 3 color matched rough cut diamonds that count out to be the last amount of blocks I need to make! Which makes me glad there is ‘completion’ in sight!

Here are the numbers that I figured out:

- Block width: 6.25 in

- Block Height: 7.25 in

- I decided on a Queen sized blanket so that comes out to 60 x 80 blocks. 10 per row, 11 rows.

- Which total 110 blocks.

As of January of this year I had made 77 blocks. So I only have 33 more to go!

Here are more pictures of the process. Wish me luck that I’ll actually get it done this year!

Close Up of completed blocks and yet to be completed blocks.

Here is the pattern I've been using. You can imagine my horror as I thought I lost it at one point! You can see I'm using cream thread.

This is an example of one block and how I'm putting it together. To make the dimensioned look, you put the lightest block on top, darker on left, middle color on right.

This is how I'm tacking the angles down on each diamond.

You see I almost have to iron down each step of the way to ensure that they meet clean like this.

From front to back: step one pile. Step two pile. and completed pile!

You can see where the navy meets the middle color, the I believe it's a variation of the chain stitch along the edge.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Quilting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.