Everything Old Is New Again!

I love experimenting, especially making quilt blocks that I have not made before. I have become more adept at making blocks that are 12" square finished.  I really don't like 12" blocks, but lately every time I do a challenge block I make a test block first.  I do this to make sure it works, but then I have test blocks I can put into a 'test block' quilt, so to speak.  I have chosen the brightest fabrics I can locate in my stash, so when the quilt is complete, I can give it to my favorite aunt.  She loves bright, especially neon, colors.  At this time, I am in a moratorium for purchasing fabric of any kind, so I have to work with what is in my stash.  Should I come to a bright fabric dead-end, I will have to wait to complete the quilt top after the end of November, when said moratorium comes to an end.
I am at no loss of excellent ideas for quilt top designs.  My husband checked out a book, at the library, the other weekend.  He is so thoughtful.  The book is America's Glorious Quilts, edited by Dennis Duke and Deborah Harding, Park Lane, NY, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1987. It weighs 15 pounds! It is really big!  So it has great photos and tons of excellent historic information.  It has distracted me immensely.  I have a paperweight magnifying glass, I have been using to get a closer look at some of the blocks.  I have pieced my 2019 interpretation of two quilt blocks that I really like from this book.   

A close up of #52, Friendship/Sampler Pieced quilt, C. 1940, Mt Vernon, OH

Collection of Shelly Zegart's quilts, Louisville, KY

This is the block I made last Friday night, that I will be including in my favorite Aunt's quilt.This block is pieced, and I chose these colors to make it really pop.  They are not neon, but next to the other blocks, it really rocks!

A close up of #194, Around The Corner, Yvonne M. Khin, 1986, 

her own collection, Bethesda, MD

I love, love, love this quilt!  Just this bit of it looks like a painting! It is so phenomenally scrappy and the fabrics are a pure delight!  I made two of these blocks.  One for my aunt's quilt and the other is for a donation quilt.

This is the knock-your-socks-off version. I made it Saturday night.  The one below is a tad bit more traditional.  I made it Sunday morning.  I was on a roll. Understand this is my version, made to be 12 1/2" unfinished (not pieced into a quilt top yet). It has a row or so less going around the outside, than the one in the book.

I really like this one the most.  I used the challenge fabric to make this block, so I had to piece the upper right corner square out of the last bit of what I had.  This block will go into one of the quilts for donation that the Kuna quilt group is making.   This was so much fun! Now I have to get back to the 30 or so other projects I am in the middle of!