Color Options from American Patchwork & Quilting February 2010

Border upon border provides structure for the central garden of appliqué in this medallion-style throw.

Blossoms and Borders

With wispy blossoms similar to Courtyard Garden's floral appliqué, the Arabesque collection by Sue Zipkin for Clothworks was a natural choice for quilt tester Laura Boehnke's version. To save time on cutting and appliqué, she used four borders instead of eight.

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Fifteen fat quarters, simple strip piecing, and careful pressing make this throw a snap to complete. Pieced segments left over from the quilt center enliven the border.

Four-Pointed Star Chain

Go country with muted, small-scale prints from the Folk Art Favorites collection by The Buggy Barn for Henry Glass & Co. Quilt tester Laura Boehnke created an Irish Chain effect with careful placement of the squares in the five star and four 25-Patch blocks. A two-color checkerboard border provides a neat frame to the table topper.

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Set miniature Broken Dishes blocks inside an asymmetrical frame for a contemporary setting of a traditional block.

Get the free quilt pattern here.

Broken Dishes Table Runner

When making miniature quilts, quilt tester Laura Boehnke suggests using small-scale prints. "Calicos from the Crimson and Clover collection by Jo Morton for Andover Fabrics are perfect for little blocks like the ones in Tiny Dishes," Laura says. She used just two prints in each Broken Dishes block.

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Flying Geese and hourglass units in 24 red hues ranging from tomato to burgundy pair with 16 light prints for an ultrascrappy take on the classic two-color quilt.

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Scrappy Table Runner

For her traditional table runner, quilt tester Laura Boehnke incorporated five colors into her still-scrappy version. To frame her three quilt blocks, Laura decreased the border from 6-1/2" to 4-3/4" wide. The multicolor palette creates an all-purpose runner to decorate the table throughout the year. Fabrics are from the Blessings collection by Brannock & Patek for Moda Fabrics.

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Whether improvisationally pieced or carefully planned, strip sets make it easy to piece rectangular blocks in myriad shades of blue.

Fussy-Cut Baby Quilt

Take Band Together from bed to baby crib by showcasing cute-as-can-be animal motifs in the setting rectangles. "This simple pattern is ideal for fussy cutting," says quilt tester Laura Boehnke, who used fabrics from the Nana's Garden collection by Arlene Neely of Rabbits Haven for Red Rooster Fabrics. Laura arranged four bunny print setting rectangles in the center of her quilt and cut the rest of the setting rectangles from a small floral.

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The perfect tote for the passionate quilter, this bag is roomy enough to carry all your quilting supplies. An appliquéd block forms a pocket for additional storage.

Heart Appliqué Wall Hanging

Swap out cotton for felted wool and cozy flannel to make a wall hanging that warms the heart. Quilt tester Laura Boehnke cut appliqué shapes from jewel-tone scraps of felted wool. For the foundation and border, she used houndstooth and plaids from the Woolies Flannel collection by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studio.

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Soft brown prints provide the structure for this scrappy quilt, neatly framing the Pinwheel units and clearly defining the Starry Lane blocks.

Starry Lane Wall Hanging

Brown not bold enough for you? Throw a lively fiesta by swapping the dark hue for multicolor florals as quilt tester Laura Boehnke did to create a festive framework for her Starry Lane blocks. Fanciful orange, red, and yellow prints from Julie Paschki's Folklorica collection for In the Beginning Fabrics make the Pinwheels and star points pop like colorful confetti against the black background of this nine-block version.

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Bold colors and prints bring this quilt to life. At first glance the geometric shapes appear to be Tumbling Blocks cubes. But they're not!

Black, White and Bright Throw

For a condensed version of Not Quite Cubes that packs a juicy punch, quilt tester Laura Boehnke pieced citrus-color and black-and-white prints from the Luna collection by Gail Fountain for Maywood Studio. The three colors alternate with the black-and-white prints in a single row of six blocks. To adapt the border for her smaller quilt center, Laura cut 4x44-3/4" and 2-1/2x33-1/4" stripe inner borders.

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The secret to creating this field of stars is not in the blocks, but in the sashing.

Get the free quilt pattern here.

Patriotic Prairie Points

Quilt tester Laura Boehnke selected prints feature stars and stripes from the American Patriot collection by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics for her version of Sweet Tea.

For this smaller version, Laura needed 14 prairie points, instead of 23, for each side.

Download instructions to make this table topper.

Create a colorful combination of twirling Windmill and eye-popping flower blocks with the greatest of ease using strip piecing and fusible appliqué.

Windmills and Flowers Wall Hanging

Quilt tester Laura Boehnke experimented with an array of prints from the Wild Thyme and Pop Parade 2 collections by Carolyn Gavin for P&B Textiles in her version.

"I used one multicolor and two tone-on-tone prints in my strip sets to make the Windmill motifs pop when I assembled my blocks," she says.

Laura blanket-stitched around each appliqué shape to give her version handmade appeal.

Download instructions to make this wall hanging.