Hands2Help Comfort Quilt and Pantone Quilt Challenge May Progress

Our daughter (on the right) with her best friend who is 4 months pregnant!

We are leaving on Tuesday to stay with our 3-year old granddaughter while our daughter gives birth to her baby brother! In between laundry and packing, I am trying to stay caught up with two quilt-alongs and decided to combine my progress on both in this post.

First is May progress for the 2019 Hands2Help comfort quilt challenge, hosted by Sarah, who blogs at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. You can read the details of the challenge by clicking the "Comfort Quilt" gold badge in my sidebar. The second is the Pantone Quilt Challenge highlighting Pantone's 2019 Color of the Year, Living Coral, so click on the coral badge in the sidebar for more information about that.

For the comfort quilt I am using Yellow Brick Road pattern by Atkinson Designs (which I just used for this quilt) and making a quilt for a male for Mercyful Quilts, which is sponsored by Bernie, who blogs at Needle and Foot. Bernie collects and delivers quilts to Mercy Hospital for terminal patients, and you can find information about it here. The fabrics are about as masculine as I could muster from my shockingly feminine stash.

The blocks are pieced and ready for layout. I know this pattern goes together quickly, and that's good because the quilt needs to be finished by May 19!

For the Pantone quilt featuring coral, I will be using these glorious fabrics.

My inspiration for the Pantone quilt was a painting by Julia Hacker called Lolita, and I think Pat Bravo's Wonderlust in Bold captures the colors perfectly. This fabric is from her Legendary collection (click on the link for the full collection - it's gorgeous!). The quilt needs to be finished by June 5. I am considering going scrappy with a traditional block called Uneven Nine Patch. I'm drawn to Nine Patch blocks, especially disappearing ones, and am fascinated with the different patterns created by sewing, cutting, and sewing again the same nine squares. The Uneven Nine Patch is made with the same method but using a Four Patch. I decided to do a few test blocks, and here is a little tutorial:

Start with a four-patch. You can do any size, but I am using 5-inch charm squares in this test

Cut a 2-1/2 inch strip off the left side of the four patch

Move the cut strip to the right side of the four patch; sew and press

Now cut a 2-1/2 inch strip off the bottom of the block

Move the cut strip to the top of the block; sew and press

Completed uneven nine-patch blocks

I did a couple more blocks (they are addictive) to show the resulting little four patch in the center

I am liking this on-point layout

This post is linked to Sarah's Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge.