Sudoku Quilt Pattern

This is a fascinating idea that my aunt and cousin cooked up–the Sudoku quilt, made up of Sudoku squares!

The premise: Each Sudoku puzzle is actually a geometric pattern, which doesn’t repeat in vertical or horizontal rows.

The execution:

1. Solve a Sudoku puzzle (or cheat and use the answer key if you’re not into Sudoku).
2. Pick a color to represent each number. They can vary or follow themes–all shades of one color, three shades of three different colors. Just remember Sudoku puzzles are 9×9.
3. Execute the 18-patch.

There’s some great chance for variety. For instance, you can use tiny squares and different puzzles so that every block is the same. Or you can make one large (or small) quilt out of one Sudoku puzzle and larger squares.

Here’s the conceptual image my aunt and cousin came up with. Click on it to see the full-size image, which takes a minute to load:

I’m not big on Sudoku, but my husband likes it. I may use some of his completed puzzles and my old scraps to whip something up.

My First Quilts

I mentioned in my intro post, I started quilting by checking out Quilting for Dummies and heading to the fabric store. I made two quilts from patterns in the book, both easy and both by hand.

The first was this wall hanging quilt. It’s small and lightly quilted “in the ditch.” It’s more out of the ditch, actually, because I followed the pattern in the book and quilted a good half-inch away from the seam. I think that gives a good effect. Sadly, I’ve never had a place where it looks right. Someday I may give it away to someone who’s got a color scheme that it fits.

This second quilt is something I might like to revisit in the future. It turned out nicely, but it’s not really quilted. Following the instructions in the book (I think), I only used dark blue thread to tie off the centers of the diamonds. Instead of actually tying off, though, I made some sort of eight- or ten-pointed star.

Every time I see it, it begs me for more quilting. But with so many other projects on my plate, I’ve neglected it. Perhaps someday I’ll borrow the quilting frame my mom is using (since it lives at her house) and go at it whenever I’m up there.

Stay tuned on Thursday for my projects this week!

Pink Baby Quilt – Completed!

Just completed a pink quilt for my cousin’s daughter’s first birthday. Based on pictures I’ve seen of her clothes, animals, and bed, I decided to make it pink-on-pink. The background is a light, solid color and the accented squares are pink with pink and red flowers and just a bit of green for the leaves.

I wish the fabric colors showed up better in the photographs below. If my cousin takes some pictures where the colors come out better, I’ll add them too. I think I need to start taking pictures in the sunlight and brush up my photography skills.

The pattern I used was very simple, based on 9-patch squares. I liked the effect that the star 9-patch (diagonals on the corners) had when placed next to a standard 9-patch.

It’s 6 x 6 blocks, I forgot to measure the final product but it’s bigger than your average baby quilt. I figured that since I put it off until she was 1, it should be a bit larger.

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Now I have to start planning for when my cousin’s sister has a baby this fall. Boy baby, parents are Nascar fans. I’m thinking a Nascar quilt, even if they don’t go with that for a nursery theme. I’m an enabler.

Starting Mom’s First Quilt

Because my mom periodically undergoes chemo treatments and the like, she has times where she’s stuck in bed. In hopes of breaking up her monotony, I whipped up a little green quilt top for her to quilt. She’d never quilted before, but my passion for it had interested her. We’d let it go for a couple years, but when I was visiting her this last weekend she asked about working on it.

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So we got out the bag of supplies–a small frame, a marking pencil, a couple stencils, and the needle & thread.

After looking at the stencils for a while, she decided that she’d prefer doing cookie-cutter hearts. So we got out her heart-shaped cookie cutter and laid it (sharp side up, so we didn’t hurt the fabric) on the quilt.

As it turned out, the cutter fit perfectly in the corner of the pattern. She traced along the inside and rotated the cutter back and forth as the dark cloth zig-zagged. She only marked one line of color, hopefully it won’t wear off before she’s quilted them.

While I was there, she quilted the first heart. (It was weird, since I didn’t have any sewing with me and kept itching to quilt something myself.) It was the first time she’d quilted something by doing more than tying at the corners.

Her stitches were a little uneven, but the heart was definitely a heart and it looked quilt good for a beginner. I’m looking forward to see how the quilt turns out!