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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Tinker, Tailor, . . .

@frecklemama gave me a copy of her new pattern #tinker via @jaceynotjc Got it last night, and am going to try it out with some leftover #madronaroad with the blocks resized to 9" so I can end up with a 45" square wheelchair lap quilt for charity

About a month ago, Chris Warnick (aka frecklemama) came out with several new patterns for some lovely quilts.  I was particularly drawn to Tinker.  All of her patterns are available on Craftsy for immediate download, but I really wanted an actual physical pattern.  Knowing Chris was going to be at Quilt Market and that my friend Jacey was, too, I asked Jacey to buy me the pattern.

What a surprise when Jacey texted me to let me know that Chris had gifted me the pattern!  Then I just had to wait until the next time I saw Jacey to get my pattern.

Saturday night I got my hands on the pattern, and Sunday I pulled out my leftover Madrona Road fabrics from last year's Modern Quilt Guild Challenge and got to work.

First, the Tinker pattern has sizes for quilts ranging from baby sized (36" x 36") all the way up to a Queen/King size.  I wanted to make a wheelchair lap quilt for the Houston Modern Quilt Guild charity project, so I really needed a size between the baby and throw.  What's a girl to do? QUILT MATH!  I resized the block so that I could use the layout for the throw size, but end up with a 45" square quilt.

The quilt has twenty-five (25) blocks, and after picking fabrics for each section and cutting all my pieces, it only took 62 minutes to sew all 25 blocks.  that's a mere 2.5 minutes per block!  it took another 45 minutes to lay out my blocks on my design wall and sew the blocks all together.

Tinker quilt top

Last night I pieced a really scrappy back to use up most of my Madrona Road leftovers, and prepped a scrappy binding so that, literally, all I have left of the Madrona Road is scraps, aside from a FQ each of the text print in black and white.

scrappy pieced backing for Tinker quilt

Binding for Tinker quilt

I love how the top and back turned out, and can't wait to get quilting!

So, now for my review of the pattern:  The instructions are very clear, with good diagrams for block assembly.  I love the way the pattern gives you diagrams for every imaginable size quilt you could want to make with the pattern.  Also helpful is that each block is easily divisible into thirds, which makes re-sizing the block either up or down pretty easy!  Overall, this is a super simple quilt that would be great for beginners, but also looks great no matter what your level of quilting expertise!  I'm already plotting a second quilt from this pattern to work on later this week.

2 comments:

Hilary said...

Looks great!!

smazoochie said...

Really cute pattern & love it in Madrona Road. And tiger-striped help is always good.