Ghosts and Goblins and Jack-o-Lanterns ... oh my!

Windmill quilt block

It's Halloween today and so I used shades of orange for today's featured quilt block, called Windmill. This quilt block uses the two most commonly featured patches in quiltmaking -- the square and the half square triangle. It's an easy block to construct so it is a good choice for all you beginner quilters.

Download the free quilt block pattern to make your own version, with instructions for three different block sizes.

Quotes about Halloween or other scary things

• "I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween."
  ~ Author Unknown


• "If a man harbors any sort of fear, it makes him landlord to a ghost."
  ~ Lloyd Douglas


• "Everyone is a moon and has a dark side, which he never shows to anybody."
  ~ Mark Twain

And for all you teachers out there, you have my sympathy today as you struggle with all the sugar highs going on ...

• " 'I'm so happy that Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year!' said no teacher ever."
  ~ Author Unknown

And finally, speaking of scary things ... is this idea still out there?

• "Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to."
  ~ Richard Harris Barham

_{'Windmill' quilt block image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
Jack-o-lantern image courtesy of franky242 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net}

Wheel Frame Quilt Block

Hi everyone,
I'm going to have to take a step back and focus on the quilt blocks for a while and include the quotes when I can. Believe it or not, it takes me more time to find appropriate quotes to go with the theme of the quilt block than it takes me to create the block pattern and upload it. And extra time is not something I have a lot of these days. I'm sure you can relate, as life just seems to take over sometimes, for all of us.

Wheel Frame

So, here and there I will throw in quotes that strike my fancy, but in the meantime I will bring your attention to more quilt blocks as I create them.

Now, having said all that, I used colours for the quilt block Wheel Frame to appeal to the gentlemen in your lives. Or maybe I just reverted to colours I like myself -- red being my favourite.

The Wheel Frame block uses both the half square triangle
and the quarter square triangle patch, but the end result, when using both of those units together, is to create a patch which is often called a three-quarter square. That name is a little misleading, but the resultant unit is a square made up of three triangles.The rest of the block is "easy peasy" as it uses only squares and rectangles.

Download the free quilt block pattern for this block, (instructions for three different block sizes are given) and create your own work of art.

_{'Wheel Frame' quilt block image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com}

'Mexican Star' ... and ... a Mexican Star

Mexican Star

Today's featured quilt block is called Mexican Star. I just liked the way it all went together and the resultant quilts you can make using just this one block. The making of this quilt block can be a wonderful learning experience if you are new to quilting, as it introduces you to several different quilt patches during the construction.

Download the free quilt block pattern.

And ... speaking of a "Mexican Star" ... how about some poignant words from another Mexican star?

Eva Longoria

• "I’ve always said I want a farmer, not a hunter. Hunters go for the kill and they move on. A farmer nurtures; he watches things grow."
  ~ Eva Longoria

Quotes from Other Celebrities

• "If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
  ~ John Lennon


• "Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can come together."
  ~ Marilyn Monroe


• "Life is hard. It's harder if you're stupid."
  John Wayne


• "I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex."
  ~ Katharine Hepburn


• "We owe a lot to Thomas Edison - if it wasn't for him, we'd be watching television by candlelight."
  ~ Milton Berle


• "I am a thing of beauty."
  ~ Frank Sinatra


• " 'I am' is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that 'I do' is the longest sentence?"
  ~ George Carlin

_{'Mexican Star' quilt block © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
Eva Longoria image courtesy clker.com}

He who dies with the most toys .....

Jack in the Box

And speaking of toys, the Jack in the Box quilt block pattern is an old and well established block. It is easy to construct and features large flying geese units and half square triangles. This is a wonderful four patch quilt block for beginners to get started in this addictive hobby.

The Jack in the Box is an old toy that you would be hard pressed to find anymore. But the image below might bring back some memories.

Download the free quilt block pattern for Jack in the Box.

Quotes about Toys

Antique Jack in the Box toy

• The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent.
  ~ Sam Levenson


• The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.
  ~ Author Unknown


• He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead.
  ~ Author Unknown


• I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw that my bath toys were a toaster and a radio.
  ~ Joan Rivers


• Be it jewel or toy, not the prize gives the joy, but the striving to win the prize.
  ~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

_{Jack in the Box quilt block image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
Jack in the Box image courtesy iStockphoto}

Jack of all Trades ... Master of None

Lots of men and women are pretty "handy" around the house or yard or just, in general. We all know many things that are not necessarily considered a talent, but are great skills to have. Hence we are called a "Jack (or Jill) of all Trades and Master of None".

Handy Andy

So, today I thought you might like to see a quilt block called Handy Andy. This block is built on a five grid and it can be made in many different sizes -- most commonly as a 10" quilt block, but I have given you the instructions for several different sizes.

Download the free Handy Andy quilt block pattern.

Quotes about being handy / successful

• "When one must, one can."
    ~ Charlotte Whitton


• "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."

  

  A Handyman's friend

  
  ~ Mark Twain


• "The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary."
  ~ Thomas Edison
  
  and finally ...


• "No. Try not. Do ... or do not. There is no try. [Star Wars IV]"
  ~ Yoda

_{Handy Andy quilt block image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
Utility knife image courtesy of posterize at FreeDigitalPhotos.net}

Isn't every quilt a mosaic?

Mosaic quilt

Mosaics are everywhere. They are created from bits of a certain material (and often many materials) and then arranged and put together in such a way as to make a design. That's what making a quilt is all about. So when you think about it, every quilt is actually a mosaic.

The featured quilt block today is one I have named Mosaic -- for the simple reason that I do not know its real name. (An aside here -- if you happen to know the real name of this quilt block, please let me know). The block could not be simpler to make but the fun starts when you have made many blocks and then start playing around with placement.

Download the free quilt block pattern.

Since quilts are an artform, and the quilts you will see today displayed at shows feature some magnificant artwork, I chose to use Art as my topic for today's quotes.

Quotes about Art

• "Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art."
  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson





Street Mosaic

• "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
  ~ Thomas Merton


• "The big artist keeps an eye on nature and steals her tools."
  ~ Thomas Eakins


• "Art is not to be taught in Academies. It is what one looks at, not what one listens to, that makes the artist. The real schools should be the streets."
  ~ Oscar Wilde

_{Mosaic quilt image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
Street Mosaic image courtesy all-free-download.com/}

Celebrities, Wisdom and Feathers

For some reason, feathers came to mind today, so I went looking for an appropriate quilt block to feature and Indian Plume fit the bill.

Indian Plume

I have categorized this quilt block as at an intermediate level, not because it is difficult, but because there are quite a few pieces making up the block. This requires that you are precise in your sewing and that is the only difficulty you will face. The patches themselves are easy to create, so the only problem you will have is in choosing the colours that are right for you.

Download the free quilt block pattern.

And speaking of feathers, what would a series of quotes about feathers be without a reference to a peacock?

Quotes about Feathers

• I don't know if it's animalistic or what, but men become like peacocks with their feathers up when women are around.
  ~ Bradley Cooper


• I'm always in favor of more glamour. I embarrass my children, I think. I am the lady in feathers in the car pool line.
  ~ Mia Sara


• It was a meditation on life, love, old age, death: ideas that had often fluttered around her head like nocturnal birds but dissolved into a trickle of feathers when she tried to catch hold of them.
  ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez


• The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing.
  ~ Jean Baptist Colbert


• Now cut that out boy, or I'll spank you where the feathers are thinnest.
  ~ Foghorn Leghorn

_{"Indian Plume" image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
"Peacock" image courtesy of Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot at FreeDigitalPhotos.net}

"Kitty Corner" - Where did that term come from?

Kitty Corner quilt

After working on the quilt block called Kitty Corner, I then began to wonder (as is a frequent occurrence for me -- I'm always wondering about some mystery in life --) about where the term originated. Apparently, the term "kitty corner" (also interchanged in some regions as "catty-corner") was first used in the 16^th century and it means something that is "directionally diagonal from a certain point" according to the website Today I Found Out.

Download the free quilt block pattern for Kitty Corner.

 

Quotes about Cats

• "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."
  ~ Robert Heinlein


• "If stretching were wealth, the cat would be rich."
  ~ African Proverb


• "If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much."
  Mark Twain


• "In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats."
  English Proverb

"After dark all cats are leopards."
~ Native American Proverb

_{"Kitty Corner" quilt image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
Leopard image courtesy of khunaspix / FreeDigitalPhotos.net}