My friend Sarah who blogs at Confessions Of A Fabric Addict does an amazing charity quilt challenge each year. Its the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge and this year prior to the start of the challenge she is hosting a quilt along. For the quilt along Sarah is having us make 16 patch blocks and then over the next several weeks she is showing us different ways to set those blocks in a quilt top. I (think) that I have always participated in the H2H Charity Quilt Challenge and I have always enjoyed the process and paying it forward with quilts. So when Sarah announced the quilt along I had to jump on board.
For the 16 patches I went digging through my stash. Like many quilters out there I am trying to sew from my stash as much as possible this year. For my first set of blocks I decided to use up some of my pinkish fabrics. They range from the notorious paper doll fabric to some floral fabric. LOL
Sarah's instructions for the various methods of constructing the blocks has you using 2 1/2" squares or strips. The same instructions can be used for any size of squares or strips and so based on my fabric I decided to cut my strips at 4".
These 16 patch blocks go together quickly especially when using the strips of fabric method to construct them. I made a couple of strip sets cut them up and made some blocks to see what they looked like.
I sort of flew by the seat of my pants putting this one together. No real plan. I sewed up some strip sets. Made some blocks and put them up on the design wall.
I love my design wall. I played around with the layout of the blocks. I don't have the greatest light in my sewing area but it works for an overall layout.
I decided on this for the final layout. Just putting the blocks together side by side. Sarah has a layout on her blog using pinwheels. I love how the 16 patches look with the pinwheels and I think that is what I will do with the fabric below.
I got most of this fabric from a friend who was cleaning out her fabric so its fitting that it ends up in an H2H quilt. I think that I will cut 2 1/2" strips for this quilt.
I encourage you to hop over to Sarah's blog and check it out. The 16 patch blocks are fun to make and its for a great cause. Its also a good way to sew your stash.
Happy Sewing
