Block of the Month: Garden Walk

I first saw this block on an episode of simply quilts. Boy I sure do miss that show. On the show is where I first saw Eleanor Burns and her magical methods of piecing and ironing.  I have since become quite a fan of hers. I would love to visit her San Marcos Store and if I ever get the chance to meet her in person I just might fall over with excitement. Anyways back to the block. I was so in love with her methods that I purchased her book Egg Money Quilts which features the pattern Garden Walk or as some know it 54-40 or fight. Below are some examples I pulled from EQ7.

It's always interesting to see the different color variations. Sometimes the color variations are all that's different. Like below the first one is 54-40 or fight and the second one is Garden Patch. All of the pieces are the same but the colors and their values are different. Eleanor's garden walk is slightly different yet from these variations. 

These next 2 are just variations. It's always interesting to see the breakdown of the block. 

I have been working on my own Garden walk blocks using Eleanor's templates and I just love it. I can't wait to see the finish product!
Thanks for reading♥ Olivia

Bats!

I know it's way late for anything Halloween but I have a friend who loves Halloween and this is perfect for her birthday. I saw this tutorial and had to try it, she has great instructions. The only thing I changed was the amounts of fabric for group A and B. I wanted to have my color groups checkerboard so I did 14 for group A and 13 for group B Here's a photo of my finished block.

My only nit pick is that my block didn't square up to 18½" as she suggests in step #10. My block fell just shy and I'm not sure if this is from some of the stretch in the fabric or perhaps each vertical seam should be sewn with a scant ¼" seam. I prefer a little wiggle room to square these things up.
I was planning on making this into a pillow for my friend and an 18" pillow form would have worked perfect but now I'm not sure I can make it fit. I will most likely make another one of these blocks and I will definitely adjust my seam allowance.
Thanks for reading♥