12 winding staircase block (and a mini-tutorial).

6.21.2011

This weekend I put together a block for Jan of Daisy Janie.  Are you all familiar with her gorgeous organic fabrics?  Shades of Grey is one of my favorite fabric lines ever... I need to buy some soon!  Anyway, Jan chose 10 quilters to make blocks for a Project Linus quilt made of her first fabric line, Geo Grand.  She sent us each eight charm squares to be made into a finished block, any size, any style.
It was a bit of a challenge for me to come up with this block.  I always feel so limited when using charm squares, simply because of the 5" length/width restriction it puts on any design.  I also almost always incorporate solids into my designs, so making a block with all prints was a little out of my comfort zone.  I did my best to alternate the brown and white prints with the colored ones throughout the block as places for the eye to rest.

I was inspired by the shapes in the Hip Squares print, which kind of reminded me of an aerial view of a winding staircase.  I fussy cut one of the squares for the center of my block.  
Then I cut out several strips of each fabric (3/4", 1", 1-1/2", 1-3/4", and 2-1/4") and sewed the equal sized rows together for all but the largest strips. 
I pieced together the strips in a log cabin, using smaller strips in the center and cutting larger widths from each log building out from the center.  It was very much an improvisational block, I just kept sewing strips together and building it out until I ran out of fabric strips in each appropriate size.
I hope you like the block, Jan!  I'm looking forward to seeing the finished quilt.  Thank you so much for the opportunity to make a block for you!

12 comments:

  1. Oh I love the colours and textures in this block! Very inspiring!

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  2. This block has blown me away! It's just stunning!

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  3. Do you get tired of me coming here and telling you how amazingly talented you are? Because I'm going to keep doing it again and again and again...

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  4. I love your block and those fabrics are great!

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  5. beautiful!! I can't wait to see how this quilt turns out. It's going to be gorgeous!

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  6. I love the way it looks, but unfortunately, I still have no idea how you put it together. Due to the graphic prints on your fabrics, I cannot see from your photos what's going on. I wonder if it would be too much to ask for you to make a block with fabrics that have more contrast. I can't tell where one fabric ends and the next begins.

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    Replies
    1. Im having the same truble and would love to no how this block goes together too

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    2. I am having the same trouble and would love to how this block goes together too.

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  7. I think this is an exciting block. I am also looking forward to seeing the whole quilt.

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  8. This is, as she said, a simple log cabin block. There are five rows after the center block is made. She listed the size of the width of each block for each row. While the length of the blocks will vary, the width is the same for each row. Also expanding the width with each row. I hope this answers your questions.

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