focus quilt-the beginning

So far in my quilting journey, I've made 3 hand stitched quilts. They are really time consuming, but they are also extra special! Two of the quilts shown below are made from hand appliqued blocks, (which are then machine pieced) and the third one was English paper pieced, which means that it was all hand stitched, except for the binding. The first one is apple cake (center), the second one is oh my stars (right), and the third one, which is one of my most recent finishes, is called dot your i's (left). I love having a photo of all 3 of them together!

Why would someone want to hand stitch a quilt? Well, it's portable, for one. It's relaxing, (at least it is to me!) and it's a great way to slow down, but still have my hands occupied. Plus, it keeps me off my phone.

 

Earlier this month, I started a new long term project that I'm quite excited about! This quilt was actually my husband's idea. One day while he was at work, he texted me a photo of the bottom of this memo pad. It has a little focus logo thing (inspired by a camera lens) and he told me that he thought it needed to be a quilt! My first reaction was, "oh, my, we are in DEEP!" If my husband is seeing quilts in everyday places, we just MIGHT have a problem. Hahaha!

I held off on starting the quilt for several months, because I already had one long term quilt in progress. Even though it should have been easy, it took me several attempts to draw up the templates correctly. Then, I did some testing to see if I wanted to hand piece it or English paper piece it. After trying both, it was an easy decision to choose English paper piecing.

Here's my first block! Isn't it cute??? I decided that each block will start with a fussy cut center. It's a great way to use all those cutesy fabrics that I collect, but don't use all that often. (The only thing is, fabric selection kind of causes a fabric explosion. Ha! But it's totally worth it!)

Here are my first 6 blocks. I am already having so much fun making this quilt! Since it was my husband's idea, he has a vested interest in this quilt, so he gets to see each and every block. (He's already asked me if he gets to keep it, but I'm not sure that will be happening!)

It's way too early to determine the layout of this quilt, but it's fun to play around. I like them all nestled together like this. I don't think I will start stitching them together until I have A LOT more of them finished. Right now, it's fun to pick fabrics for a few blocks at a time and stitch them up, then repeat the entire process.

As I mentioned earlier, I tried hand stitching a block together with traditional hand piecing methods, but I was SO frustrated. It did not work AT ALL, but at least I tried. Since I didn't want to waste the fabric from my failed test block, I turned it into an itty bitty pincushion. Naturally, right!?!?!

I'm offering the templates for the focus quilt block for sale in my shop. (Available here.) The introductory price is $2.50, good for this week only. Next week the price will increase to $4.

 

This isn't a full blown pattern, but it includes 4 pages:
-one page of the quilt block assembled [2 up]
-one page of the trapezoids [16 up]
-one page of 1" hexagons [22 up]
-one page of step by step diagrams to illustrate block construction

Here are 3 more blocks that I completed over the weekend. I've already got fabric picked out for the next 3!

 

Happy Monday to you!