Omni arc Rotary Cutting Ruler and January Free Quilt Block Patterns

Greetings Quilter -

There's nothing like enjoying a cup of hot tea on a rainy day as you are sewing a quilt.

And last week here in Southern California was the week for tea. It seemed like the rain would never end.

Plus this storm included thunder, wind, hail, mudslides in areas that had been burned out last summer, and even a dog resuced by a firefighter who had to be lowered from a helicopter into the Los Angeles River.

In all it was an amazing week for the weather. But here at How-to-Quilt.com, we stayed toasty and dry, enjoying our hot tea.

After all, this is Hot Tea Month and time to party. Our quilt block is the Tea Party block, and you'll see a video demonstration below showing how to sew the block.

An additional video demonstration shows how to use a special rotary cutting ruler that cuts circles.

Nice!

This ruler cuts several different sizes of circles, and you begin by folding your fabric into quarters, so you don't need to go through many contortions to get all the way around the circle. Just cut 1/4 of a circle, unfold your fabric and you've got a perfect circle.

You can make yo-yos or add the circles whole to your quilt blocks. Or, cut quarter circles and make a Drunkard's Path type quilt block.

And now for the rest of the news - -

Happy Quilting!

penny halgren

It's not often that you can have Tea with the Mad Hatter!

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A Quilt Idea - Dresden Plate

Later this week, you'll learn a little about the history of the Dresden Plate quilt block. To give you a little preview, I thought it would be fun to see a couple of different styles of Dresden Plate quilts.

Dresden Plate Quilt Block

This Dresden Plate quilt block is an appliqued quilt block from an anitque quilt.

The blades were probably sewn together by machine, and then hand appliqued onto the background, and attached using a hand embroidery blanket stitch.

Likely the green center was appliqued after the remainder of the "plate" was secured to the background.

Dresden Plate made from silk ties.

In this style of Dresden Plate, the blades are pointed instead of round.

Because it is made from silk ties, I chose to hand sew the blades together.

And, wanting to keep the tie shape, the blades are pointed instead of rounded.

The center is a hexagon which has been hand sewn on top, covering up where all of the blades meet.

These "platess" will be sewn onto a background at some point in the future. The raw edges will be folded under and hand stitched.

This quilt has been years in the making, and is still a work in progress.

I had a very limited number of silk ties, and have supplemented them with ties from thrift shops.

Cool Quilting Tool - Omni-arc Rotary Cutting Ruler

I'll admit that this has been sitting on my cutting table for about a year now.

Circles aren't one of my favorite shapes to cut or sew, and sometimes trying new things isn't at the top of my list, either.

But, my friend, Rosie, was going to teach a class where they were going to sew circles in order to make a fun quilt.

As she was telling me about her class, I remembered this ruler and decided to do a demo so her students could see how easily they could cut different size circles - not freehand - but using a rotary cutter. Easy and perfect.

You'll also see how to use a new tiny rotary cutter that you guide with your fingertip.

Rosie has these in her online shop: Rosie's Calico Cupboard

Featured Quilt Block of the Month - Tea Party

tea party quilt block

This month is Hot Tea Month, so I thought it would be fun to demonstrate how to sew this Tea Party Quilt Block together.

It is fairly simple, since it only has squares and half-square triangles. And if you are making more than one of these blocks, you can easily use some speed piecing techniques.

You can download the free pattern at: www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

Watch how to sew the block:

January Quilt Block Patterns

The January selection of free quilt block patterns includes a variety of 4 patch quilt blocks, ranging from the easy to make to some that are a little more complex.

Click here to download your January FREE quilt block patterns