The No Patience Block

Supply List  No Patience Block

This timesaving pattern was the first class Anita offered. Her Square Cut Method is a new cutting technique that saves time without wasting fabric. Work entirely and efficiently from 11" squares of fabric. Participants must have sewing machine and rotary cutting experience.

No-Waste Windmill

The No-Waste Windmill:  Ease, Economy & Exuberance 
Technique class or multiple day Quilt Workshop  All levels
General Supply List No Waste Windmill Correction

The No-Waste Windmill. Harmony with Thrift

You may have seen a WINDMILL quilt before, but it wouldn’t have been made with Anita’s streamlined steps:

Four identical patches are cut out with only 2 rotary strokes using a disposable Cutting Lines™ pattern; there is no measuring and no wasted fabric. The 6” tessellating blocks are assembled from those patches.

Intentionally made slightly oversize, the block is accurately squared because the cutting pattern doubles as a true-up guide. There are no corners or points to match when sewing the blocks together. The construction is easier than an ordinary four-patch and the block angles contribute to the dynamic layout.

Since it’s possible to cut and sew a perfect block in 2 - 3 minutes there will be ample time to focus on the arrangement and composition of the quilt top. However, ALL the patches must be arranged prior to sewing the top.

The Windmill is usually a two-day minimum workshop because a person can't begin sewing the top together until all of the blocks are sewn and not one block can be sewn until all the pieces are laid out. Make the quilt any size you wish.

Alternatively, a brief technique class is available as seen below with Daughter and Mother getting down in Cincinnati at Quilt Festival 2013. The technique class calls for only five different fabrics :
Four 8.5" squares of different fabrics for Windmills and five 8.5" squares of same fabric for Background

The Old Italian Block

Old Italian Block

Supply List

“Old Italian Blocks” are a whiz to cut and sew. In 2004 I devised a way to cut 4 triangles, 4 rectangles and one square with only four rotary cuts and without wasting any fabric. This is such a remarkably simple technique that you’ll wonder why it hadn't been done previously. Make 2 blocks in 10 minutes.

The blocks can be paper pieced for perfectly matched intersections, practically with your eyes closed, using my simplified method of paper piecing. Paper piecing experience is not necessary but sewing machine and rotary cutting experience is required. These blocks are so incredibly easy it's almost cheating.

Though the surprising cutting and paper piecing of this block elicit murmurs of "Wow" during class, you may elect to sew the block conventionally (not on paper) and Anita will gladly contribute specific pointers for that as well.

Quilt Festival  Cincinnati 2012

Road to California Festival   Ontario California 2013

Japanese INDIGO Fabric Kits for this quilt are available from The Cotton Club

2005 Simply Quilts video featuring Anita's Old Italian Block

The Scrappy Pineapple: Working Your Fabrics

A Multiple Day Quilt Workshop

Set On-Point

Set Horizontal

This classic Pineapple on-point quilt is conventionally sewn, not foundation pieced. Mesmerizing circles appear by happenstance from square blocks.

Anita teaches her “why didn't I think of that?” techniques including how to cut 64 trapezoids and triangles to size, in only 14 rotary strokes, without using a ruler to measure and without wasting any fabric.In other words, in minutes the fabric is cut to shape in size, ready for you to orchestrate into blocks.

This quilt is made from square blocks; there is no need to piece corner or side triangle blocks. Every aspect of this quilt is absolutely made Simpler.

In addition to the many tricks up her sleeve she’ll show how fabric selections can elicit an artful quilt from a traditional pattern. This workshop embraces those who can’t say no to fabric.  The multiple day workshop is packed with individualized design and sewing techniques.

This clever girl chose Christmas fabric

The Self-Mitered Log Cabin

Supply List Self-Mitered Log Cabin

In progress, Detail 2016

Reality Check, 1997

The unique Make It Simpler® Self-Mitered Log Cabin Quilt below is a fabric lover’s jewel box. Anita developed a streamlined technique based on her prizewinning entry in Jinny Beyer’s 1997 “Basic Realities” contest. The 6" finished blocks are simple to sew and the quilt construction is straightforward.  Without using pins, 1 1/2" strips of fabric intersect on their own to form a precise miter. Expect Anita to have a trick up her sleeve. The book Rotary Cutting Revolution is required for the Self-Mitered Log Cabin.  It is a paperback available from the usual sources. It's also included free in my Craftsy class as a downloadable bonus eBook (PDF)

Advance preparation (cutting 16 different 1.5 x 8 inch fabric rectangles: 6 light, 4 medium, 6 dark) is necessary for the workshop. There are always some students who are able to bring more than 16 selections. Please cut the rectangles from starched fabric for class.

Don't over-think the fabric. A student once told me it didn't take her very long to gather the supplies for my class. She explained "I just grabbed whatever was on top of the pile."

When offered, a kit contains vellum and opaque foundations for the workshop.

The Self-Mitered Log Cabin, Boulder 2010  exhibited on "The Quilt Show" episode #905

Laura Yellen Catlan, Huntington (NY) Quilters Guild Blog Post, May 2012:

“Anita demonstrated how the Self-Mitered Log Cabin block is assembled using her Make It Simpler methods. She emphasized the importance of color and value when selecting fabric for this block, and we spent a good part of the morning sorting our colors and moving from one station to another to watch Anita analyze the scraps and strips we had brought. Anita used her own Log Cabin Quilt to illustrate the importance of the color concepts we were learning about. 

We used the afternoon to construct two sample blocks, learning not only the MIS self-mitering technique, but also applying the color concepts Anita taught us earlier. Quilters were up to their elbows in fabric, enjoying the many possibilities that this block presents. It was another wonderful day spent with Anita. HQ members hope to build on what we learned, so we are planning a strip exchange and quilting day to work on our newly learned self-mitered log cabin blocks.”

Houston Quilt Festival 2016 Everyone's class block set on tabletop in Barn Raising layout

Square-on-Point

Supply List Square on Point

Cut It, Sew It, Love It.
I demonstrated my original Square-on-Point method for the very first time on Simply Quilts in 2005. From two different equal sized squares of fabric I made two square on point blocks without wasting any fabric. A surprising NEW version debuted in my 2010 book Rotary Cutting Revolution. It uses my versatile Cutting Lines™ pattern, which is also a top-piecing foundation. There is no need to mark a rotary mat as done in the original version.

You do not need to measure anything. You do not need to read the measurements on a ruler.

Simply put, constructing this basic block is effortless and a fabric lover’s pleasure. The Anita dictum is “Two  squares of fabric yield the equivalent of two blocks.” You needn't look at the lines on a ruler when following Anita’s unique Cutting Lines™ pattern. This one pattern, a line drawing, is used in three different steps to cut, sew and true up blocks.

Streamlined piecing is Zen-like allowing workshop participants the luxury of time for color (selecting fabrics from stash), design (arranging the blocks into interesting layouts if in a two day class) and sewing under Anita’s tutelage. The finished 6” blocks can be made up into any size quilt which may be started in class.

This blog post of mine from spring 2011 has two videos, that happened to be created six years apart, about the Square-on-Point.

Beginners are welcome. All Participants must have sewing machine and rotary cutting experience.

LAZY STARS WORKSHOP

Lazy Stars Supply List

You will be absolutely gob-smacked.

Learn Anita's own innovative methods to construct a variety of  at least 13 simplified star based blocks. Cut streamlined Square-on-Point blocks into components to form 8” finished star variations. Anita’s method eliminates the need to sew any Geese or triangle square units (HSTs).

If you are in an extended workshop you’ll have luxurious time to explore compositions and create a traditional or modern work from your quickly made blocks and subunits.

All it takes to make these assorted blocks are 11 inch squares of fabric. There is no waste! If I had 50 squares of fabric, I (or you) could make 50 blocks. When time permits, in addition to  Anita's Lazy X, and the Evening Star,  Road to Berlin is an optional block

Click to enlarge images

Lazy X

Road to Berlin

Lazy X

Lazy X

Examples from Workshops Below

Star Workshop at "Road to California" Workshop

Student Work John C Campbell Folk School 2018

Student Work John C Campbell Folk School 2017

Student Work John C Campbell Folk School 2017

Student Work John C Campbell Folk School 2017

Student Work John C Campbell Folk School 2017

Only Smaller Blocks.  Antique Star quilt from the collection  of Anita Grossman Solomon

The Xcentric

Stripe City

The Make It Simpler Xcentric block is available as a day-long or half-day* workshop

Supply List Full Day

  The City Quilter, Manhattan  
How many triangles were cut to make these blocks? None

How many seams were used to make this 40" square REVERSIBLE quilt the children are holding?

Four

How much fabric was required? 

Two and one half yards

How many triangles needed to be cut? 

Not one. Just cut two identical (large) squares of fabric. 

This fun quilt is actually a Super-sized Reversible Xcentric block

Additional images are in this Picasa album

Below- The Quilt Show trailer

*Half-Day workshop:
Supply List Short Day

This will be a special short class, under three hours, so not much fabric needed. It’s process oriented. Following the workshop, having learned the method, you’ll be in a better position to select fabrics for a future project. Everyone will benefit by example – seeing what happens with the variety of fabrics used by everyone else.

Follow the supply list.  Bring enough yardage of one stripe fabric from which you will cut, in class, FOUR identical 8.5" squares of fabric. If you have other stripe fabric at home bring that as a back up or if you are undecided. Best to not launder the fabric.

It’s a quick and unusual class, suited for a group. Part technique, part design and always interesting.

This is the Xcentric I'm currently making with Alexander Henry fabric