One for the Money....

Have you seen this block or quilt popping up on various websites?  It's called One for the Money and I am very conflicted about it.

I love the block...I love the impact of the design with the right fabrics....I love the complexity of the pattern...but the instructions are complicated at best.  I appreciate the brains that put this together because it's not nearly so simple as it appears.  As this quilt gets bigger and bigger, the stripes match up in every direction and I cannot figure out how. Thank goodness there are quilters out there that can.

I had seen this on a few blogs and am so appreciative that our guild asked JAO to teach a class on this.  She has made a number of quilts using this pattern, knows how it goes together, is extremely patient, and was willing to redraft the layout in a way that made it easier to follow.  

I knew what fabric I wanted to use as soon as I saw the pattern.  I wanted a stripe that had a controlled color pallet and a variation on width of strips.  The trick with this pattern is that you cut your blocks from strips that run length of fabric (about 4 yards) and not WOF.  So until the block goes together, you have no idea what it's going to look like.  It all depends on where that first cut is made and then you are forced to follow it.

Organization is the key and so is a good cutting area.  Seriously, JAO had us cutting from 9:15a until 1:00p with a half hour for lunch.  You have to cut this completely before you can even begin to sew and she strongly recommended we bring cookie sheets of some kind to keep our blocks sorted.  You have to lay these out in a way that is precise so you can pull the right half square triangle as you follow the template.  With good cutting techniques, the stripes match up easily when you assemble.  But there are oodles of biases to watch out for.

My pix don't do JAO's quilts justice.  They were hung with skirt hangers and weren't flat and I completely screwed up the pix of her queen size floral quilt that she had fussy cut.  It was amazing.

In my case, I lost patience and made a baby quilt.  I needed one rather quickly for a boy and like the non-traditional look of this for a baby's quilt.  Thus -- I have a lot of fabric left over.  In fairness to the designers, this pattern uses a lot of fabric but the quilt doesn't.  You have to cut it all and there are plenty of blocks left over that can be used for a back or charity quilt or less organized quilt.  But, I have even more left over as I only made nine blocks and I think we were to make 12.

If you are thinking about this -- and it's a dynamite quilt when finished -- I'm suggesting a class or personal coaching by someone that has made this and knows the tricks.  If you're interested in contacting JAO to see if she's available to teach a class, send me an email and I'll connect you up.  It is worth it to have someone guide you through this and she knows this pattern!

I do love stripes and am happy to have extra fabric in my stash....I bought 8 yards of this on sale and only needed 4 so I'll be able to use it somewhere else along the way.

I hope you are finding time to be creative as the holidays approach!   Jan