Stitch Talk #1 Bricks

Today's post is about the quilting designs on the Blue Hearts quilt.

I'd like to go through each block, showing how I did them.  The first one (because they're alphabetical!) is the Bricks block.

Now, in figuring out the designs for these blocks, my favorite tool to use is a piece of clear vinyl, about 30" wide by 5' long.

It can be found at Walmart, and Joanns.  I put blue Painters Tape around the edge, so I know where to stop drawing.  Learned my lesson after marking two quilts with dry erase ink that DOES NOT come out!!

Laying the vinyl on the top lets me draw with the dry erase pen until I'm satisfied with a design.  It's also a great way to practice the design.

With this design, I started in the corner, working with one continuous line, backtracking where needed.  I also used the heart and the block edges to help me travel.

Start in the corner, at the arrow

Make one brick, and continue along adding bricks of different sizes and orientations.  It's the size and orientation that adds the interest.
Follow the little white lines (ie stitches) in the pictures to get the idea.  Backtrack when there's nowhere else to go!

 

Stitch a brick, traveling along the block edge to get to the next brick

Stitching along the second brick (double white lines) is necessary to continue along

Continue until the whole block is filled with bricks

 And here's a picture of the back.

 Happy Quilting!