You might remember back a bit. It was the middle of July and I was thrifting. I found a bag of string blocks for $10 at the thrift store. In the bag were these….
and this…
I was so excited…It was spider web blocks.
I already have a spider web quilt top together and I loved making it so I could easily make another….
Then I remembered the cover of Bonnie Hunter’s upcoming book…That quilt on the cover is spider web blocks.
YAHOO!! I could start the quilt before the book is even out. So…I started trimming the blocks and I pulled the papers off the back.
I counted them up and this is what I have….74 triangles….1 triangle with a cut in it….one completely block.
Well that’s a nice start but I’ll need more…so I grabbed my reds. That’s when I realized I was in trouble.
There are not matching reds.
None. Zero.
That’s when I decided that -oh well. As excited as I was not going to get started on a quilt from the new book, that was not to be. I’d never find the matching red.
So…with some calculating, I figured I am pretty close to having 80 pieces. I have 74 plus the 4 from the finished block that’s 78. I need two more triangles. These two were with the group of pieces.
If you notice, the corners on the bottom are snipped off but I think I can make them work.
So I think I will finish these two triangles. I will sew these into blocks like Bonnie Hunter’s original Spider Web quilt. I’ll put them in a 4 x 5 setting. I’ll add a red border, then piano key border and then a red border again. The reds of the borders will be far enough away that it should be okay. This will only make a baby quilt but that’s okay. I hate for the blocks to go to waste…and besides, I always seem to need a baby quilt.
Now that I have a plan, I can get going….
What would you have done with the blocks?
I would probably have made a center with the red blocks, then added another row all the way around using some other color instead of red, kind of an in-kind border. Maybe navy, green, or purple. There would probably be some blocks left over, but I might use them in a table topper or in the corners of a border. But I do like your solution, Jo.
Hi Jo. I just found your blog today and liked what I saw so I am now following you. I, too, think I would add different colors and make it sorta scrappy. But that is me since I am really into scrappy. It will be beautiful however you decide to make it.
I read somewhere that if you use enough different reds, they go together. Could you make a bunch more blocks with different reds and put them together?
I have made the original and didn’t have all the same yellow – close, but a little different. I went ahead with it and it turned out just great! I think I would “unsew” the finished blocks, make more in whatever red you can come up with to get the required number needed, and mix them in.
I’m in the use a lot of different reds to make the rest of the blocks and scatter them throughout the quilt in true scrappy fashion group. I would probably even mix them into the blocks of 4 squares, but maybe not. I might try to keep the 4 centers the same. But definitely I’d just toss in whatever reds I have.
I would never have cared if the reds didn’t match – doesn’t every antique quilt have a couple odd pieces? That’s their beauty in my eyes!
I’m not sure how she put the quilt together, but I was thinking that you have enough for the 2 outer rows. For the 3 inner rows, you could use a completely different color or colors. I”m just quessing here, just a thought. Thanks for sharing.
Wow! I like your idea and there are some more great ideas in these comments!
If it were “old” me I’d probably be wanting matching red. “New” me would be wanting to let that go and there would be an inner struggle. Ha! Not sure which would win!
I would have made sure to mix up the reds in the stars by adding in at least 3 more different reds. Then I could make the quilt as large as I wanted with using 4 different reds in each star…isn’t that what Bonnie would do?? Love her quilts!
I agree with Susan, make more reds with other colors and mix them up.
I would use lots of different reds too but it will be cute as a baby quilt .
oh and I am completely happy with my wedding ring quilt and have loved the quilt along:)
It really hard to get different reds to play nice with each other, it might be okay to mix them all up if you some patterned reds….I like your idea and you will have another baby quilt ready when you need one. I like the idea of piano key border.
I probably would have made more blocks with a totally different color – like aqua or gray or white – then alternated the colored stars in a bigger quilt top. I rarely make baby quilts though.