Ties to Liberty quilt tutorial + A Blog Hop

Have you heard of the “Give Me Liberty” Club hosted by Westwood Acres? Members of this club receive 10 pieces (either F8, FQ or F16) of Liberty Lawn fabric each month for the year.  It’s a fun way to add to (or start!) your Liberty collection. 


Maybe some of you are already members of the club or have a fun collection of Liberty prints and are just looking for some inspiration.  Well, Amanda has organized a Project Ideas Blog Hop!  Each day a different blogger will share their project using a bundle from the Give Me Liberty Club. 



Amanda sent me this fat quarter bundle to work with and after toying with a few different ideas, I finally decided on this:






I’m calling this quilt “Ties to Liberty” since it uses the traditional Bow Tie quilt block and (of course) these pretty Liberty Lawn fabrics!  This quilt uses only 10 fat quarters and the finished quilt measures 56” x 70”. 


 Fabric Requirements:

10 Fat Quarters of Liberty Lawn
1-5/6 yard background**
3-1/2 yards backing
1/2 yard binding
**For my background fabric I used “Soft Gray Mini Dot” from the Sorbets line by Quilting Treasures. 


Cutting:

From the background fabric cut 16 @ 4” x Width of fabric.  Then cut each strip into 10 @ 4” square.  You’ll need a 160 (4”) squares.

From each of the Liberty fat quarters, cut 16 (4” squares) and 16 (2”) squares.  (See the cutting diagram below.)



Step 1:  Fold each 2” square in half diagonally and finger press (or using a pencil draw a line diagonally through each).


Step 2:  Place a 2” square on one corner of a 4” background square. 



Step 3:  Sew directly on the folded/drawn line.
 

Step 4:  Cut about 1/4” away from stitching. 
 

Step 5:  Fold corner open and press.



Step 6:  Arrange block pieces as shown. 
 

Step 7:  Sew top two and bottom two squares together using a 1/4” seam.  Press seams toward the large Liberty square.
 

Step 8:  Sew top half to bottom half, matching center seam.  Press final seam open.  At this point I also gave the block a little spray of Best Press and pressed it for a few seconds to get it nice and flat. 



Make all of your bow tie blocks (you need 80 blocks).  Arrange blocks into quilt top.  The arrangement I used is below.  I love the secondary pattern this layout creates!



Sew blocks into rows.  Press the seams of all odd numbered rows to the left and even numbered rows to the right.  Then sew rows together.  Press your quilt top.  You’re now ready to baste, quilt and bind it!



For the quilting on mine, I did a new-to-me quilting design called Cabbage Roses.  It was a fast and very forgiving quilting design and it’s now one of my new favorites! 



Thanks for stopping by!  You can see more of the Liberty Lawn prints here at Westwood Acres, and also by following along in the blog hop – each blogger will use a variety of prints and it will be fun to see what everyone creates with their bundle!

February 24th: Kick Off! A Crafty Fox

February 25th: Astrid at Red, Red Completely Red 

February 26th: Svetlana at Sotak Handmade 

February 26th: Andy at A Bright Corner 

February 27th: Chase at Quarter Inch Mark 

March 1st: Emily at Simple Girl Simple Life 

March 2nd: Ashley at Film In The Fridge 

March 3rd: Lee at Freshly Pieced 

March 4th: Audrie at Blue is Bleu 

March 5th: Amanda at A Crafty Fox

No Sew Sachet tutorial

Recently I had the chance to try out a new product from Therm O Web - it’s called Liquid Fabric Fuse and it’s super handy to have around.  One afternoon I needed a quick gift to give and I was able to make a few no-sew sachets using some fabric scraps and the Fabric Fuse. 

You can find a quick tutorial for these no-sew sachets over on the Thermoweb blog today.  Here at our house, there’s a kiddo who is about to loose his first tooth.  I’m thinking he and I will use some Fabric Fuse and felt to make a little pocket tooth fairy pocket.  He’ll love it! 

Military Max

Hey friends!  Happy Monday!  I wanted to let you know I have a tutorial for this Military Max quilt over on the Riley Blake blog today. 



I had my boys with me at my local quilt shop when we first saw these prints and they both were quick to tell me how cool they thought these fabrics were.  It’s nice to see a military-themed line that’s skewed a bit younger than usual.  

The quilt is a fairly straightforward pattern, and uses my favorite Heat n Bond EZ Print sheets for the appliqued circle/stars.  These are pretty slick.  You can print right onto these sheets from your regular printer – no more tracing!



If you’ve never tried a quilt with applique before, this quilt pattern might be a great way to try it out!  The applique pieces are large and with both curved and straight edges this would be great practice before moving on to more complex and/or smaller applique projects.

For the circle/stars on this quilt, I used Featherlite fusible web, and finished them with a simple straight stitch- nothing too complicated here. 



The finished quilt measures about 48” x 60” – a nice throw size. 



I used a minky fabric on the back so it’s great for snuggling (and later for using in our trailer when we camp this summer.)  When I use minky on the back, I like to keep the quilting less dense – this time I did some gentle meandering with a few stars sprinkled in. 



Just for fun, in EQ7 I made a version of this quilt using Summer Celebration – an upcoming line from Riley Blake.  Wouldn’t this make a fun 4th of July quilt?  It’s just asking to be used for picnics, isn’t it?



Thanks for stopping by!  Now time for me to get back to work - I have some prep work to do for Quilt Bliss.  Why do I always leave these things until the last few days? 

Storing Scraps

Ah, scraps.  Love them or hate them, they're inevitable.

You know how when you make a pattern that uses charm packs or jelly rolls you inevitably have a leftover charm or two or maybe just the ends of a a few of those jelly rolls?  Or you have several inches of binding leftover from a project?  Let me show you what I do with those.



These are the leftover bits from a project I just finished.  I set aside all of the scraps that were 2.5” wide.  When the project was done and I was cleaning up, I took a moment to cut them all down to be 2.5” square and then tossed them in this bin. 

(Any scrap that is 2.5” wide and more than 16” long gets set aside in a different spot – these are great to use in scrappy trip quilts!)



This is my 2.5” bin.  I keep most of my other scraps organized by color, but everything 2.5” square goes into this bin.  These are great for small sewing projects- like the needle book I made this past weekend. It was so handy to just pull out this one bin and dig through it to find what I needed for that patchwork backing!

Maybe someday I will make a quilt made from just these 2.5” squares.  Maybe a scrappy nine-patch.  Until then, I keep the bin stocked and I dip into it when I need little scraps.

A Little Needle Book

After tackling some larger projects lately, I just felt like doing a little bit of small sewing.  So this weekend I made myself a little needle book.  I used the tutorial written by Amy Sinibaldi (Nana Company) – it’s a great one!



For the front cover I did a simple single hexagon that’s been topstitched in place.  It’s just okay.  It works.  But the back of the needle book is what I’m in love with!



The back is made of 12 (1.5”) little squares.  They’re sewed together into a tiny patchwork piece.



I don’t do a lot of small sewing but when I do I’m completely smitten by it.  Small things are just adorable. 



Inside the book I have four “pages” to hold needles and pins.  I’ll add the rest of my needles when I get around to it, but for now I have just my favorites in there.  



That one needle on the right?  That’s my favorite binding needle.  She’s helped me bind countless quilts.  She’s fast and just the right size.  She and I work really well together.  I should give her a nickname.  What’s that you say?  It’s weird to name needles?  Ok never mind then. 
 

This was a fun little project for me.  It was nice to do something different than my usual quilt tops.  I think I'll be making a few more needle books in the near future.  These would make such a nice little gift!

Taking Stock

I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolutions type of girl.  In years past, the thought of setting a few goals that would apply to the entire year was just too overwhelming.  Either I would aim too high in my goals and then never reach them, or reach too low and achieve them by March.  Neither was an effective way of using the whole “resolution” idea, right?  So now my goal writing happens on a weekly basis.  After searching and searching (and testing and trying) I finally found an app/website that helps me keep my to-do list and goals organized.  And I must say that it has helped me tremendously!



It’s called Todoist and it’s an app AND a website – so I can access it from my phone and my computer.  My favorite part about it?  There’s these little check boxes by each item so I still get the satisfaction of checking something off when it’s complete.  So.  Satisfying. 

I also love that I can break down a larger project – say for spring cleaning the house, or writing a new pattern – into smaller, more approachable tasks. 

Here’s what else is great – I can put things in categories.  For instance, I have a “sewing & piecing” category.  So if I set aside an afternoon for some sewing, I refer to that category for the things that need to be done.  And likewise, if I decide I need to sit at the computer one morning and get some design work done, I can take a look at my “design” category to see the design tasks that are waiting their turn.  Pretty nifty. 



Alright.  So I didn’t intend for this blog post to become a commercial for Todoist.  I just wanted to show you my pile of quilts and backings that are waiting their turn to be quilted. 

This week I’ve been making a complete list of my WIPS (works in progress) and stacking them together depending on the state they’re in.  These are all 6 of the quilts & backs that are ready for quilting.  I have another small stack of quilts waiting for their backings.  One quilt needs a binding, and a few quilts are just a rough stack of blocks right now.  It helps me to have projects grouped like that- similar to the categories I use for Todoist.  So now if I decide one day to get some long arm quilting done, the quilts and backings are right there ready to go!



Time to get some of these projects done! How’s your WIP stack coming along?  Do you set quilty goals for yourself?

February Quilts

So after mentioning my two Valentine-ish quilts in Friday’s blog post, I thought I would pull them out of the archive and let them have their day in the spotlight again- since February is a measly 5 days away and all.



This first quilt is one of my favorites because it was mostly made by some friends!  We did a friendship heart block swap last year with a quilt group I attend and this was the result.  I originally blogged about it last February and you can read it here. 

Two of my favorite things about this quilt (besides the personalized hearts made by my friends) are the soft flannel on the back, and the wide ric rac I used as part of the border.  It was so easy to add, and I just love the look of it.  I had never tried that technique before!



My second Valentine-ish quilt is this one – called Sweet Talk.  I made it last year in March and blogged about it once but never showed the finished quilt.

 

This is made using my Sweet Talk pattern (available for purchase here and here.)  It’s my third Sweet Talk quilt that I’ve made, and my most favorite!  For this version I used fabrics from last year’s “Surrounded by Love” line from Moda. 



Right now it’s hanging in my local quilt shop for the month of February, but I get to stop by and visit it every now and then.  So now between my Cupid’s Arrow pillow and my friendship heart quilt on the quilt ladder, my home is starting to feel a bit more ready for February!