Garden Path Tips & Tricks
In March 2001 I published a 32-page booklet, jam-packed
with information about Garden Path, my all-time favorite scrap quilt block.
See the photograph opposite page 119 of Scrap Quilts
UsingFast Patch.
That big book gives calculations for 5" blocks for a baby
quilt (below) and a chart for other projects with small blocks.
This new booklet emphasizes large blocks for big quilts.
Among the topics I cover are:
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Choosing fabrics
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Using real scraps for economy, fat quarters for speeder a
combination of the two.
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Using a "Tic-Tac-Toe" trick (avoid having the same two fabrics
next to each other, and keep the seams alternating for smooth assembly)
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Finding good arrangements (Start with Barn-Raising and flip
some blocks)
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Making borders of blocks
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Adding inner borders (or sashing)
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Adding Easy Extra blocks
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Using the Two-Square method (this is on this web page at
Triangle Techniques, but the booklet gives
special calculations for the larger blocks.
The booklet has step-by-step directions for 64 blocks, 8"
blocks for large quilts. For large blocks use 2 x 4 checkerboards to make
the strips of triangles (see Triangle techniques).
Here's how blocks are assembled.
The booklet gives lots of arrangements you can try, whether
you use small blocks (from the big book) or large blocks (from the new
booklet):
An example of the new ideas in the booklet is this: use
"Easy Extra" blocks. These are blocks that don't have triangles, just dark
and light squares in several different arrangements. They are even faster
to make and let you expand a few extra Garden Path blocks into an interesting
arrangement. For example, here are 8 Garden Path and 8 Easy Extra blocks:
Getting your copy of the Garden
Path booklet
I worked hard on this booklet. I found so many great ideas
to add that I am thinking of expanding them into a large book. Meanwhile,
how can you get this valuable, information-packed Garden Path booklet?
That depends on whether you have Scrap Quilts Using
Fast Patch. Here are the options:
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If you already have Scrap Quilts UsingFast Patch: Send
$3 for printing and $1 for postage to the address below.
-
If you order Scrap Quilts UsingFast Patchnow: The
booklet is free. (Go to the Scrap Quilts Using
Fast Patch link.)
-
If you want just the Garden Path ideas, not the book: Send
$6 for the booklet and a colored photo in a plastic bag. (It has complete
step-by-step instructions for making the blocks and lots of ways to arrange
them. This booklet has about 20 times as many creative ideas as a typical
pattern-in-a-plastic-bag!)
To order: Send your check
to Anita Hallock, 740 North 21st, Springfield, OR 97477. Sorry, I don't
take credit cards.
This page was created March, 2001.