Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 14 Blog Tour

Welcome friends! It's one of the most wonderful times of the year - Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks blog tour! Twice a year I relish sitting down with my computer and a hot cup of tea and blog hopping to read about the creative inspiration behind the blocks that appear in Quiltmaker's new issue. I bet you love to do the same thing and that's why you're here :o)

I am so thrilled to have my block, Order in the Court, included in Volume 14. Can you see how it got it's name? It should look like a cousin to the block known as Courthouse Steps.

Order in the Court

Order in the Court came about as the result of a challenge I put together during Quiltmaker's Volume 12 blog hop this time last year. I asked visitors to tell me their favorite quilt block when they left a comment, and said I may use that as a jumping off point for a new design. Far and away the favorite block of most was the log cabin. I previously submitted a block, Flowers for the Cabin, to Quiltmaker's Volume 13 designed around the log cabin block; you can read more about it here if you're interested. In keeping with the challenge I tried everything I could think of for another design with a log cabin block, but just couldn't come up with anything. I was starting to think I'd have to move to something else for inspiration. Then, I got to thinking about the Courthouse Steps block, and how it's a sister to the log cabin block. Ahhh...Courthouse Steps. Now this block showed some promise.

After sketching out some ideas I started cutting fabric. I knew I wanted my block to have a fun little center, but wasn't sure just what it should be. Here are a couple variations I tried:

My first attempt included a small friendship star in the center with contrasting fabric

Since star blocks came in a close second to log cabin I thought a simple friendship star might work for the center. I also thought I'd like to use contrasting fabric to really draw attention to the center, but this just wasn't speaking to me.

Second option was to use a small shoefly as the center; still using high contrast colors

Next, I thought a small shoefly in the center would be cute. I do like this, but the colors were just not right so I set the block aside to ponder more options.

Final version with a square in a square center - just right :o)

Home one day because of a snow storm, I pulled some pretty fabric scraps in softer colors, and sat down to play with them. The always versatile square in a square came about, and seemed to be just the right center for this Order in the Court block. Although, I bet if I changed out the fabrics any of these three options would work fine.

Order in the Court as a quilt top

Here's a picture to give an idea what Order in the Court would look like as a quilt top. Pretty fun! Rather than looking like courthouse steps it turns out more like chunky plus signs. Don't you love how the look of a block changes when you combine them? I don't have any special software, so this picture was made in Google Drawings by just copying and pasting.

How about a giveaway?! Quiltmaker's is generously giving one of my blog readers a free issue of 100 Blocks, Volume 14. For a chance to win leave me a comment telling me about your holiday sewing - do you enjoy making homemade gifts? Are you an early starter, or a last minute crafter? Any good go-to gift ideas you want to share? :o) If you suspect you may be a "no reply" blogger please make sure to include your email address in your comment. I'll draw a random winner on Saturday morning, November 19.

Well friends, thanks so much for stopping by and letting me tell you all about Order in the Court. I hope you soak in a lot of inspiration as you visit all the blogs on the tour. You can read about the tour and find links to the featured blogs on Quiltmaker's blog, Quilty Pleasures. 

I hope you've enjoyed stopping by :o) I'd love to see you back here again. If you'd like regular updates from Shadows of the Blue Ridge consider signing up for an email subscription (top right of your screen), or you can find me on Bloglovin'.