Double Dutch Random Sampler Quilt Along: my Crazy Quilt Block

The Double Dutch Random Sampler Quilt Along is a very relaxed Quilt Along. There's no pressure, no deadlines and anyone can join in. That's my kind of Sew Along :)  Every two months or so one of the ladies of our local Double Dutch Quilt group posts a new block suggestion on their blog. All of these posts are in English (just in case you were wondering...)

Previous Double Dutch QAL blocks

The first one was Lotje's House Block (very cute, I made several). Next was Muriel's Diamond Cross Block (made several of those as well) EvaMarie chose a very appropriate Windmill Block and the most recent block was Mari's Improv Curvy block (I haven't tried that one yet, sounds intriguing though). Today I'm adding a 'Crazy Quilt Block' to the lot!

What is a Crazy Quilt Block?

While I was researching Crazy Quilt Blocks on the internet I saw two different types of 'crazy'. One is where you use a pattern, well that's not 'crazy' enough for me and sounds rather restricted. So I'd rather do the improv version where you simply start and built up your own block. When I made my block (the one pictured above) I didn't use a tutorial, I just started sewing one scrap to another. Later I found out that it's far more common to use some sort of foundation for your improv Crazy Quilt Block, like paper or muslin. My block is doing fine without foundation but I can see the advantages of using foundation paper or fabric. Some quilters even add some batting to make a 'Quilt as you go' type of block.

How to make a Crazy Quilt Block

I was going to make a tutorial to show how to make a Crazy Quilt Block but I noticed there are already a few good ones out there. My &Stitches colleague Julie has a tutorial for a Crazy Quilt Block with foundation. She has even added some decorative trims and stitches to her block, something I'd love to try too! On Completely Cauchy I saw another Crazy Quilt Block tutorial in which paper from the Yellow Pages (or is it a phone book?) was used as foundation! Aneela's Crazy Scrappy Block tutorial is for a block without foundation and pretty much sums up how I made my block. So there's lots of different options: sew with foundation or not, add embellishments or keep it simple. Use lots of different colours or a limited palette. Make it 6, 9 or 12 inch. It's all up to you. :)

I started with a very cute Charley Harper fabric and as you can see I roughly followed the shape of the bird and started with five sides. After that it's much like sewing a crazy log cabin block. You keep on adding strips all around and -important!- cut them at interesting angles after you've added them. Continue until you have reached the size you want. I made a 9" block using a limited palette of blue, grey, orange and red as these are the colours I chose for my Sampler Quilt.

On Flickr I found this lovely 'Bunny Vortex' block Maritza Soto made for a Quilt Bee. Julie Frick made the Bee Blocks into this amazing quilt. If I didn't already have more than 5 (possibly nearly 10 I lost count/am in denial) quilts 'in progress' I'd start my Crazy Quilt tonight! Hope you will enjoy making this block as much as I do.

Don't forget to join our Double Dutch Sampler Quilt group on Flickr if you want to sew along with us and share your progress with us.

Double Dutch Quilt Along plus Spin-off

I really enjoy the Double Dutch Sampler Quilt Along. So far I've made several blocks based on two tutorials by my fellow Quilt Along-ers: the House block (second on the right in the photo below) and the Diamond-Plus block (second on the left). All the other blocks are things I improvised, blocks I enjoy making and there's even an 'orphan' X and Plus block I found in my stash that fits the colour scheme!

This is just a small selection of the blocks I made, there wasn't any room left on the little improvised 'washing line'. :) Anyway in the Double Dutch QAL group on Flickr I spotted some so called 'Economy' blocks. I had heard and seen Economy blocks before but hadn't made any myself and a Sampler Quilt is perfect to try out blocks you haven't done before! So I made three for the Sampler Quilt but didn't stop there and started a new quilt. An Economy block spin-off of the Double Dutch Sampler Quilt!

Again this is just a small selection (I think I have about 35 to 40 blocks now), just to give you an idea of the Happy Colour Scheme and fabrics I'm using. There's lots of Heather Ross' Briar Rose in the blocks and a lot of stash and scrap fabrics too. The Heather Ross fabric is really lovely to work with and has lovely bright, sunny prints of bees, clover, frogs, flowers etc. I saw some on sale here and here if you are interested.

I used the Red Pepper Quilts tutorial for the Economy block and you can find links to the House and Diamond/Plus blocks and more Quilt Sampler inspiration here.

As it's quite summer-y over here I guess progress on these quilts will be a little slow in the next few months. I have already taken my huge English Paper Piecing Project with Hexagon flowers from the WIP stack. A great hand sewing project when you are out and about and not in a hurry to finish :)

Double Dutch Quilt Along

About a month ago I wrote about Lotje's 'Everything but the Kitchen Sink Quilt'.

A delightful random and scrappy sampler quilt  (see photo below) which inspired us to start a Double Dutch (the name of our quilt group) Quilt Along. You can find the first block and further details about the Quilt Along on Lotje's blog. There are few rules and you can make as many or as few blocks with us as you like. You can add 'orphan' blocks from your stash or make lots of extra blocks. And you don't even have to be Dutch to join in!  I had a lot of fun making the first block, a 6" block with a house and I'm looking forward to what the next challenges will be. :) 

In the past few weeks I already made a few try out blocks which you see pictured (alongside the house block) above. As you can see I'm using a fairly limited palette with grey, blue, orange, white and red. These are colours I associated with Holland. Grey skies, clouds, rain, Delft Blue, the Sea etc etc. I'm definitely going to use some 'typical' Dutch elements too like Windmill blocks. So I hope you feel inspired by this and want to quilt along with us! Or maybe you just would like to see what we're up to in this Quilt Along on our blogs and social media. Look for #doubledutchqal on Instagram and Twitter and you can find the Flickr group here.

Double Dutch

Double Dutch is the name of the quilting/sewing group I regularly attend, we meet about once every three months for a day of chatting and sewing and to show each other our best quilting efforts. So yesterday I travelled to Leiden, a lovely old town in the western part of the Netherlands, to attend our Spring meeting. Despite the fact that I went to uni in Leiden I can never find my way around town. I graduated in 1996 and the town probably didn't change much in the past 18 years but neither has my sense of direction. ;) 

I didn't have much to show in the meeting as the last time I worked on a quilt was in January and I'm not exactly the most talented quilter of the group anyway. The other ladies brought some pretty impressive stuff with them though. Muriel (top right) brought a Pippi Longstocking quilt top she and other quilters made in the Cocorico Patchwork Bee. Fabulous theme and all the blocks were so well executed and original. You can check out this and other wonderful patchwork projects in the Cocorico Bee Flickr Group. 

Lotje made the 'Everything but the kitchen sink' (which I just found out is actually called 'Funky Garden') quilt on the left which consists of a delightful random collection of different quilt blocks. There was so much to see and admire and we all felt really inspired by Lotje's quilt. So there and then we decided to start a Double Dutch Quilt Along to make a similar (yet different) quilt for ourselves. Everyone is welcome to join in and details will be announced soon!