Brick by Brick for a Wedding Gift, Christmas Gift and for Fun

I am in beautiful sunny (and very windy) southern Alberta this week visiting family and was able to attend the wedding of my nephew David Passey to Hayley Rice yesterday.   I delivered their wedding present to the reception but will not get to watch them open it.  Just as well.  What if they don't like it?  It's not very fancy but I'm hoping it will be perfect for two to snuggle under on those cool Hawaiian nights.

The pattern is called Brick by Brick and was designed by Rose Mason of Lake Oswego, OR.  This is the third time I've made this pattern that I first borrowed from my friend Lisa Peterson.  The bricks are cut 4" x 7 1/2" and then are assembled into the larger blocks that finish at 14" square.

I delivered this quilt to June my "quiltmaster" in Brownsville, OR on May 23rd along with the other two flannel quilts I had just finished up and asked if she could possibly have this one back to me by Monday, June 11th so I could get the binding on before the wedding on June 16th.  I was amazed that I got a notice from the postal service on May 31st letting me know it was on its way and it was on my doorstep on June 1st.  Well, I was able to get the binding sewn on before we left on Thursday, but I did all the hand sewing in the car on the drive up.  Nothing like finishing just in the nick of time.

The quilting pattern is called "Circles" and is the perfect compliment to all the rectangles and squares created by the cutting and piecing and gives the entire quilt a youthful and more contemporary flair.  Of course they will like it.  It should never even be in doubt.

And the happy couple are on their way to Jamaica today.  They have no idea that this great surprise is waiting for them when they get home.

So now for more of the same, except not quite.  This is the second version.  I gave the quilt below to my sister, Larene for Christmas in 2008.  I made it mostly from scraps but remember buying some of the browns and tans new.

 

I did the quilting myself on Larene's quilt.  It's just all over stippling but I really like it.  Stippling is fun to do and I feel like I'm getting pretty good at it.  This lap-sized quilt is not too hard to manage in my little Pfaff. 

And here is my sister who brought her quilt to Magrath this weekend just so I could take a picture of it (and because she hasn't quite figured out how to load her photos onto the computer).  I told her it looks like she doesn't use it.  To me it's the perfect TV blanket but Larene keeps it folded at the end of her bed.

Are you with me still?  The quilt below is the first version, likely made in 2004, and it was a way to use up some scraps.   It was a windy day in Corvallis when I took this picture last March but you can see it has borders that the other two do not.  The actual pattern shows a narrow inner border like the brown one here but the outer border is pieced using random lengths of 3" strips.

I didn't make this quilt with the idea to give it to David (my son), but somehow he ended up with it.  And I'm happy about that.  I think his apartment was cold and he just needed more covers at night.  It's quilted in a leaves and loops pattern but I'm not sure of the name.

I figure that since I've made this quilt three times I must really love the pattern.  Maybe it goes back to my teenage years when I would use a cardboard pattern and trace squares and rectangles on fabric scraps left from clothes I had made or old jeans.  Whatever the reason, I hope the people who have them now enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.