It started with this.....

..... mini art quilt that I made back in 2010 as a result of winning Marjorie's giveaway of some lovely batiks.

This came about because I wanted to use up the scraps that came about from putting together this....

There were a lot of bunting quilts around at the time but all the ones I saw were applique. I decided that there had to be a way of doing a pieced bunting quilt that would appeal to people who knew that the quilt would be in and out of the wash a lot, as one would expect with a quilt made for a child. (I know we all love bunting but in my head this design is for babies and children).

I wanted to keep the movement of the applique quilt so I designed a left and right facing block, and as you can see in the above photo. I took the bottom point to the edge of the block and then added a strip along the bottom.

The addition of some blank blocks and some stitched string makes this a wall quilt.

But how to make it into a bed quilt?

For my next attempt I adjusted the block to not need a separate strip between rows, although I did put a vertical sashing between blocks, because I found the kona cotton that I used for this slightly thicker than other cottons, and I was afraid that I would have problems matching up the points.

I hand quilted around and between the pennants with cotton perle, and machine quilted the background.

I still was not happy though I wanted something that would be a lot quicker to put together.

So finally I did this.

A baby size quilt that was very easy, and quick to piece and machine quilt.

So why have I spent so long on this project?

Well I did have a plan to make a pattern for this and sell it in my Etsy shop, but for some reason I just could not motivate myself to get it finished, but knowing it was there was stopping me from getting on with anything else.

Well last week I had a light bulb moment and I realised that the reason for not getting on with it is because although I personally love making the odd quilt and enjoy seeing all the other wonderful quilts that are out there,  producing patterns that have to be exact and precise are not really my thing and it is not really what I am trying to do here, with my fabric painting and art quilts.

Okay, as you can see this has taken lots of twists and turns but it is....

Now available to download free from my

Craftsy Pattern Store

It is a 6 x 9 inch block (the size I used in the baby quilt) but feel free to reduce or enlarge it to suit.
There are no fabric requirements but if  people are keen I can work out a few different sizes using my EQ7 and post them here.

It is a very simple block to construct, only three simple seams. It is foundation piecing to make it as accurate as possible.
Don't be put off if you haven't done any foundation piecing before. Whenever I am making a traditional block I will always try to do it by foundation piecing as it helps me to get the accuracy that somehow eludes my otherwise!

There are different ways of foundation piecing and I now almost always use the freezer paper method since watching Judy Mathieson demonstrate it on The Quilt Show (Episode 707).
There is also a great tutorial here from Twiddletails.
I also always use this 1/4 " ruler when doing foundation piecing.

Go here if you would like to make this.

Please let me know if you make anything with this block. I would love to see.
Happy Stitching!