QuiltMaker's 100 Blocks, Vol. 16 - Heartbeat Block & Giveaways (now closed)

My work has taken me to a number of different states and towns within those states, much as a road trip when you go on vacation does.  I've been accused of being part gypsy because I've moved around so frequently, and in many ways my life has been a big road trip - a few yrs here, then a few years in the next place and so on.  I've enjoyed all of it (well, maybe not the 70-80 mph winds in the winter time in Wyoming) and have been privileged to make some good friends along the way. 

One stop of my life's road trip was spent teaching pre-engineering at a vocational school in a very small town in Wyoming.  While I didn't stay there for long because of circumstances, I was fortunate to make several very good friends at the school where I taught.  One of them, Barb (in the middle of the pic), is always on the go doing something - she is a nurse and works at the hospital, and she also teaches the CNA classes at the vocational school in where I taught engineering for 10 months.  The last several years her students have decorated the hallway leading to their classroom with garland that is shaped into the output of an EKG.   It was this display that the design for this block came from.


This is a shot of one of the sample blocks I made while testing the pattern.

I use red, white and blue fabrics to test my block patterns because then the blocks will always go together in quilts for injured veterans.













I've just set the blocks together, but with coloring reversed on alternate blocks so that the color bands flow across the quilt.   This quilt layout reminds me of the large cities where I've lived over the last 40 years of my road-tripping life - Phoenix, Boston, and the Dallas area.   All are busy cities with lots of buildings and traffic and the 'heartbeat' of the cities is very active and busy.

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Next up is a layout showing what can be done with the block when you play around with which sections of the block that you use.   This layout was designed to use a large scale print as the background and allows the maker to feature large sections in the solid white squares.

This layout reminds me of the slower pace of life in the towns of Lafayette and Fort Wayne.  Both are smaller than the big cities where I've spent so many years of my life, but I've made some really good friends in both of them.  And Lafayette is where I went to grad school at Purdue for my degree in education.   Both towns are unforgettable stops along the road trip of my life.

For this layout of a table runner, I played around with the sections of the block so that only one band of the color goes across the layout for a table runner or bed runner.  This simple layout reminds me of the time I spent in Wyoming and of living in the small town of Rawlins out in the middle of nowhere in I-80.     Again another unforgettable stop along the way of my road trip in life.

And finally, by once again using only part of the sections of the block, along with a few additional blocks made this 36" square table topper.    The additional blocks used in the setting were the 4 corner blocks (small green squares, small pink triangles, and large background squares), the green square in the middle of the quilt, and the pink/green rail fence blocks.  Fabrics for this all came from my stash.   I've named this one, "Heartbeat of a Friend" and it is in honor of all those that I've been privileged to call my friend over the course of my life's "road trip".

I hope you've been inspired by the sample layouts that this block allows you to make.  And I hope that the different layouts inspire you to experiment with the block and come up with a layout that makes you think of your "road trip" and friends.

And now for the giveaways to celebrate my 5th block published, the first giveaway is for a copy of the magazine QuiltMaker's 100 Blocks, volume 16.   This will be mailed out from QuiltMaker.  To enter use the rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the second giveaway will have two winners - One person will win a lovely assortment including a 1 yard piece of a rose print, a FQ of the same print and three coordinates.   A second person will win a 4-FQ set of green prints from Benartex.  Enter through the rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Gratitudes:

1. For all those that keep me inspired to keep on designing.

2. For the inspiration that comes from friends and all that I see and do along this road-trip we call life.