Wonderland Quilt + FQ Giveaway

Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to my stop on the "Late for a Date" blog hop.  The blog hop is featuring the Wonderland fabrics designed by Josephine Kimberling for Blend Fabrics (you can see more of the fabrics here.)  

Update: This pattern is now available in my shop as the Make Believe quilt pattern. Shops can order through distributors. Read more about the Make Believe pattern here.

This fun fabric line is inspired by the world of Alice in Wonderland - with cards, clocks, teacups and more.

You know, my one and only experience with Alice in Wonderland is the old Disney cartoon from waaay back in uh, like 1951.  Oh, and I've ridden the (slightly strange) Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland.  I think maybe it's time I get around to reading the book, do you?   Have you read the book?  I'm hoping it's better than the movie.  

When I first designed this quilt, I imagined it with a white background.  But the Wonderland fabrics just didn't "pop" enough.  So I next tried a solid black and got the result I wanted.  I always find it interesting to see how a quilt changes just with a change of background.  So if you're working on a quilt and you just don't love it, try swapping out the background for another color, or maybe for a print (like swiss dots, or a linen-look print).  

And now are you ready for the giveaway?  I'll be giving away this stack of fat quarters - simply leave a comment below telling me your favorite character in Alice in Wonderland.  I'll randomly choose a winner and announce it here next Friday, October 14th.  

Giveaway now closed - thank you!

There's only one more week left on the blog hop!  You can find links to the past posts and projects below.  And you can find the Wonderland fabrics here at the Fat Quarter Shop very soon!  

• Veronica – SewVery – Chair Pocket Tutorial
• Tina – Emily Ann’s Kloset – Heart Quilt
• Jen – Tie Dye Diva – Heart Pocket Tutorial
• Caroline – Sew Can She – Patchwork Bench Cushion
• Amanda – Jedi Craft Girl – Alice’s Crossroads Quilt
• Bev – Flamingo Toes – Time for Tea Pillow
• Andy – A Bright Corner – Wonderland Quilt
• Charlie – CapturedThreads – October 14

Jolly Bar Quilt Fun

[pssst...are you looking for the giveaway?  Click here ]

A couple of weeks ago I got some fun mail from The Fat Quarter Shop.  They have a new book out called The Jolly Bar Book.  (And look - it says "vol. 1" on it so that must mean they plan on future volumes!)

The book has 20 patterns in it and most of them call for only one Jolly Bar.  See the shapes in the photo below?  Each one goes with one of the patterns in the book.  You can see that there's a fun variety of quilts.

I decided that I needed to make one of the quilts out of a Varsity Jolly Bar (designed by Sweetwater for Moda).  Honestly, I don't think there's a Sweetwater line that I haven't absolutely loved.

And it didn't take me long to decide which pattern from the book to use - the pieced border on the Tree Lined Street quilt is what got me.  

The quilt was a quick one to make!  There is very little cutting, so you're sewing right away.  I had the quilt top done in one evening.

The finished quilt measures 42" x 58" and I quilted it in one of my favorite designs, geometric lines (you can read more about that quilting design in this blog post.)  

You can find copies of the Jolly Bar book here at The Fat Quarter Shop, as well as their current selection of Jolly Bars.  

There's a group of us quilting bloggers who have all made quilts from the Jolly Bar book today  - go and check out which quilt the others made!  

Melissa from Happy Quilting
Tina from Emily Ann's Kloset
Amanda from Jedi Craft Girl
Connie from Free Motion by the River
Afton from Quilting Mod
Pam from Pam Kitty Morning
Heidi from Buttons and Butterflies
Renee from Sewn with Grace
Remona from The Stitching Scientist
Andy from A Bright Corner
Angie from Gnome Angel

A Fall-ish Finish

Fall is just around the corner.  I can feel it in the air!  I know a lot of people love fall, but I'm more of a Spring kind of girl.  Fall is just ok.  I kind of tolerate fall.  All the pumpkin flavored stuff is great, and I LOVE wearing sweaters, but it just makes me sad when the trees lose their leaves!

I've been working on a fall-ish quilt lately - this is made from my Hello Washi quilt pattern and a layer cake.  I think out of all of my patterns, I've made Hello Washi the most.  By far!  It's super precut-friendly, using either charm packs, jelly rolls or layer cakes.  And I seem to always have some of those on hand.

This is the twin size version, and the fabrics are from an older Moda line called Late Bloomers.  I actually made a throw size version of this quilt with the same fabrics last year (it lives at my parent's house now.)  You can see more of that quilt here.  Isn't it interesting to see how changing the border print can alter the look of the quilt?

You can find the Hello Washi pattern here, here and here - all available for immediate download. 

So, are you a lover of fall?  What is it that makes people love it so much?  

Season of Love quilt

Well, school has started around here and we're slowly getting used to a new routine.  I'll admit it's been a rough transition this time from summer schedule to school schedule - both boys have been tardy already several times.  Sheesh!  

With the boys back in school, I do have more time for sewing and this quilt is one of my recent finishes.

The fabrics in this quilt are from the Season of Love line designed by Ana Davis for Blend Fabrics.  The prints are Indian-inspired, full of elephants, peacocks, and lovely details.

You can see more of the prints here on the Blend website.  

The quilt finishes at 49" x 62" and it was a fun one.  A pattern for this will be coming soon.  The whole pattern writing process is sure sped up when school is in session ;)

On the back I used a cozy mint colored minky.  I have to tell you that the day after I finished this, I found it on my teenage boy's bed.   He did NOT care that it was very, very pink - the only thing that mattered was that it had a minky backing.  I can bribe my boys with oreos and minky backed quilts!  

For the quilting I used a new-to-me pantograph called Swift.  Pretty one, isn't it?  You can find it here at Urban Elementz (one of my favorite places to buy pantos!)  

Oh - and if you missed my episode of the American Patchwork & Quilting podcast last week you can listen to it here at this link.  Each Monday Pat has on a new group of guests!  You can find the list of all past guests here.  It's fun to load up a podcast or two and listen in while I sew.  I've learned so much and gotten to know some talented quilters that way.

Have a great Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Kitsch Quilt + Giveaway

Hooray for Fridays!  We've had a busy week here at my house, with our summer winding down quickly and the first day of school not far away.  We're trying to squeeze in as much fun as we can these last few days of vacation.

Today I'm sharing a quilt made from the new Christmas Kitsch fabric line (designed by Anna Griffin for Blend fabrics).

There's been a blog hop going on all month showing all sorts of inspiration - and I get the honor of being the final stop on the blog hop!

The Christmas Kitsch prints are so fun!  I just love that Santa print on red, and the retro Christmas trees too.  They bring back memories of spending Christmas afternoon at my Grandma's house.

(You can see all of the Christmas Kitsch prints here at the Fat Quarter Shop)

I wanted all of those fun prints to be the real star of my quilt so I kept the design straightforward - can't go wrong with simple squares set on point, right?  

Hey - you want to win a fat quarter bundle of Christmas Kitsch?  Blend Fabrics is generously giving one of you a FQ bundle of the full line of Christmas Kitsch!  To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below.  Giveaway closes on Thursday August 11 and I'll announce the winner here on Friday August 12.  (Open to US addresses only)

Be sure to stop by the other blogs that have been on the blog tour - there's been some great projects, and a lot of variety!

Amanda – Jedi Craft Girl – July 1

Tina – Emily Ann’s Kloset – July 8

Jen – Tie Dye Diva – July 15

Caroline – Sew Can She – July 22

Bev – Flamingo Toes – July 29

Andy – A Bright Corner – August 5

Layer Cake Checkmate

Hey everyone - today I have a fun new layer cake quilt pattern to share with you!  It's called Layer Cake Checkmate and the pattern is from the Fat Quarter Shop.  

You can find (download / print) the free pattern here from the Jolly Jabber blog.  And for those of you who learn by watching, there's a helpful video too!

For my fabrics I chose to mix and match two different Moda Layer Cakes - Basic Mixologie (by Studio M) and Behind the Scenes (Jen Kingwell.)  I think these two lines were just MADE for each other, don't you??

This is a great pattern for a beginner quilter.  It requires some easy rotary cutting, and it's great for practicing those 1/4" seams as well as matching up seams when sewing rows together. 

The Checkmate pattern goes together super fast, and it makes a nice sized quilt - 66" x 84" 

My friend Melissa (Sew Shabby Quilting) did an amazing job on the quilting.  The design is called Spring Thing, and you can see all of Melissa's available designs here on her website.  

You can see some other Layer Cake Checkmate quilts from the bloggers listed below.  And be sure to stop by the Jolly Jabber blog to grab the free pattern!  

Peta from She Quilts a Lot

Melanie from Mostly Crafty

Connie from Freemotion by the River

Melissa from Happy Quilting

Heidi from Buttons & Butterflies

Amanda from Jedi Craft Girl

Tina from Emily Ann's Kloset

Sherri M. from A Quilting Life

Andy from A Bright Corner

Anorina from Samelia's Mum

Sherri F. from This & That Patterns

Brooke from Silly Mama Quilts

Little Ruby Quilt Along week 4

Hi everyone!  It's time for the week 4 installment of the Little Ruby Quilt Along with the Fat Quarter Shop.  And guess what?  This is the best week because we get to see everyone's finished quilts!

Here's my finished quilt - with the Moda Crossweave in grey as the background.  I chose to make mine a baby size, which uses just one jelly roll and 3 yards of background fabric.  (If you have questions - keep reading!  I give all the details below.)

I originally was going to make the throw size, exactly as in the pattern, but then I decided to give the quilt away to a young friend instead of keeping it for myself.  The baby size (48" x 51") was a better fit for this little girl.  

If you want to make a baby size too, here's the info:

First, download the free pattern here.

You'll need

• 28 jelly roll strips
• 3 yards background fabric
• 3/8 yard binding (5 binding strips cut at 2.5" wide)
• Creative Grids Hexagon Trim Tool and Creative Grids 60 Double Strip Ruler OR you can also use the Hex N More Ruler if you already have that.  

From the 3 yards of background fabric:

• cut 28 strips @ 2.5" x WOF  (use these with the jelly roll strips to make the "Star Block Strip Sets" as in the pattern)
• cut 6 strips @ 4.5" x WOF and cut these into 28 half hexagons as shown in pattern.
• cut 2 strips @ 4.5" x WOF and cut these into 24 (4.5") triangles as shown in pattern.

Follow the pattern instructions, and use the diagram below for the layout.  The image below shows the full quilt from the pattern, and the black lines show the edges of the baby size.  

The baby size quilt will measure 48" x 51"

For the binding I chose the sweet little bows from the Little Ruby fabric line, and I quilted it with some loops.  I'm thinking the loop design must be my favorite - my last three quilts have the same quilting!  It's quick to do, and hard to mess up - I've done it so many times I don't have to think much as I quilt.  It's quite relaxing.  

A big thanks goes out to the Fat Quarter Shop for hosting the quilt along!  Have you been quilting along with us?  Here's a list of other bloggers who have been participating in the quilt along.  I can't wait to see their finished quilts too!

Melissa from Happy Quilting

Angie from Gnome Angel

Erin Cox from Why Not Sew

Andy from A Bright Corner

Heidi from Buttons & Butterflies

Pat from Pat Sloan

Peta from She Quilts a Lot

Heather from Quilt Story

Megan from Quilt Story

Amanda from Jedi Craft Girl

Gerri from Planted Seed Designs

Sherri from A Quilting Life

Rebecca from Bryan House Quilts

Sherri from This & That Patterns

Jemima from Tied with a Ribbon

Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts

Stephanie from Modern Sewciety

Brooke from Silly Mama Quilts

Carrie from Moda's United Notions

Quilt It Modern

Hi all and welcome to my stop on the Quilt It Modern blog tour with Riley Blake Designs.  The tour is just getting started, and we have almost two full weeks of fun projects ahead!

I had the chance to choose any of the gorgeous Riley Blake solids - called Confetti Cottons - that I wanted to work with and it took me awhile to choose a color palette.  It really was tough to narrow it down!  I finally decided on these lovelies:

(L to R: Peacock, Grass, Daffodil, Aqua, Clover, Sunshine, Melon)

These calm, refreshing colors just remind me of the beach - sand, surf and sun!  I paired them with my favorite Swiss Dots in gray and created this Raindrop baby quilt (47" x 47").

I recently bought this set of Drunkard's Path rulers from Bloc Loc and I was itching to use them.  The set comes with three rulers - two to cut out the pieces, and one to square up the block.  My set is the 6" set - you can see all sizes available here.

I love that I can use my regular size rotary cutter to cut all of the pieces -- nice and quick!

I was able to make two raindrop blocks from 1/4 yard of each color.  

To sew the curved pieces I used this technique:

In the video above I used a different template to cut my pieces, but the stitching technique is the same!  

Once that curved seam was sewn, I used this ruler to trim it.  Pretty slick.  It sure made piecing my quilt so much nicer!

For each raindrop block I made three curved pieces, and one "point" piece.  When the block is sewn together it measures 12.5" square.  

With a total of 16 raindrop blocks, you'll have enough for a baby quilt!

I quilted this one with some organic straight line quilting that's about 1/2" apart.  I love the texture of the finished quilt!

You can see all of the Riley Blake Confetti Cottons here, and follow along with the rest of the Quilt It Modern blog tour.  You can also follow along on Instagram with the hashtag #modernquilttour.  It will be fun to see what pretty colors the other bloggers have chosen to work with!  And I'll be back tomorrow with an update on how my Little Ruby Sew Along project is coming.  

Monday June 27:  A Bright Corner (here!) / Salty Oat

Tuesday June 28:  Trillium Design  / Allison Sews

Wednesday June 29: A Quilter's Table / Bonjour Quilts

Thursday June 30: Euphoria Jessica / Material Girl Quilts

Friday July 1: Samelia's Mum / Sassafras Lane

Tuesday July 5:  Quilt Matters / During Quiet Time

Wednesday July 6:  Sometimes Crafter / Modern Handcraft

Thursday July 7: Orchid Owl Quilts / Piece and Quilt

Friday July 8:  Sew Katie Did / Tumbling Blocks / Leigh Laurel Studios