Kaleidoscope Quilt and Schnitzel & Boo (R4) Mini Quilt Swap Re-Cap

November 19, 2015December 26, 20155 Comments

The Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap was the first swap I followed on Instagram. I was pouring over the hashtag #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap and trying to figure out what the heck was going on! This swap has the claim of being the original swap where you are blind partnered (the recipient doesn’t know who is the maker) to make sweet mini quilts and thus, it had over 1000 participants…wow!

I had the pleasure of making a quilt for someone that liked V & Co fabrics and happened to have charm packs of the newest Simply Colorful and Simply Colorful II lines. With the popularity of this swap, I felt some pressure to make something pretty nice….so I thought a Kaleidoscope design would be perfect. It’s very striking and is perfect for some rainbow action 😉

The Kaleidoscope is a traditional paper-pieced pattern I got from Quilter’s Cache. This is an amazing website with tons of FREE patterns! The original pattern finishes at a 6″ block. In order to fit the parameters of a mini, I shrank the pattern to 47% of the original to create a 3″ block. (I don’t know why 50% reduction didn’t work, but a little playing around helped me get to the size I wanted.) To plan out the colors and layout, I used this coloring sheet I found by Debbie Kratovil. I think every quilt designer should have coloring sheets with their patterns. They make life SO much easier!

TIP: When piecing together the blocks, there is quite a bit of fabric that ends up at the center. It is quite thick and can be a nuisance to quilt over later. Initially, I tried to grade the seams and by luck, saw that I could make a little rosette by opening my seams back a 1/4″ and tuck the seams under as shown above.

To finish, I used gold thread to quilt (insert heart eyes emoji!!!) I just love using metallic thread whenever I can. It just adds that extra “something” special and matched with the gold dot backing. For the binding, what else would be better than MORE V & Co…and in Teal Ombre?!? The ombre was fun to use and made this design really pop.

Kaleidoscope Quilt – Completed

In return for sending off the Kaleidoscope, I received this beautiful mini with extras from @amandafech. Isn’t it so fun with the primary palette and appliqué work? I am 3 for 3 with great swap experiences….all delivered on time with amazing work! Hopefully, all of you have had positive swap experiences or will decide to join your first one 🙂 They are lots of fun!!!

I’m going to be a swap mama soon so I hope these good vibes carry over 😉

#MakeAQuiltMakeAFriend

Cristy

Dwelling Quilt {Pattern Testing}

September 28, 20154 Comments

I was holding onto my Hello Bear fabric for awhile, waiting for the right quilt pattern (and baby) to come along. Well, both happened to coincide recently! A dear childhood friend recently had a baby boy and Holly Gets Quilty was getting ready to release this Dwelling Quilt Pattern. You can find this Mug Rug I made using the smaller block from the same pattern.

I just love the modern whimsical palette of this collection. The teal and mint play so wells with the grays and browns. This is just a beautiful collection for babies and children. I mean, who can resist these woodland creatures???

For this quilt, I used the larger of the Dwelling Quilt paper-piecing templates. It creates a 8″ x 9 3/4″ unfinished block. I went for a scrappy house look with some fussy cutting for this baby quilt. Who knows what kind of mess this will be exposed to…so the various colors and patterns works to camouflage any potential incidents 😉

This was a 5 x 5 block design which created a 35″ x 43 3/4″ finished baby quilt.

As you can see, I added embroidery to the blocks with Valdani Perle Cotton Size #8 Thread in 171 Rich Brown . It was fun to add some extra texture and of course, that personal touch. Hopefully, Baby Axel will love this quilt and appreciate the extra love put into it 😉

To get the embroidery lines, I printed the letters on paper in the Return to Sender font. I like this font because it was masculine and wide enough to work with this quilt. The letters were traced onto the fabric using a water-soluble fabric pen along with a bright light source so I could see the letters from underneath the fabric.

The quilting was straight-line in a diamond configuration with Aurifil 2310 Light Beige for the top and 2615 Aluminum in the bobbin. Timberland Green was used for the binding with some fun Adventure Springs accented in to keep with the scrappy feel.

Buck Forest Mist was the perfect backing. It’s a very masculine print and the gray lends to easy baby management…er….laundry 😉

I can’t wait to see Baby Axel wrapped up and enjoying this quilt 🙂

Happy Stitching,

Cristy

***This post may contain affiliate links for which I do receive a very small commission. They help keep this site up and running 🙂

Make a Mugrug from the Dwelling Quilt Pattern

September 19, 2015September 20, 20151 Comment

When Holly Gets Quilty asked for pattern testers for her newest Dwelling Quilt pattern, I couldn’t help but get involved. I first became familiar with Holly’s patterns through her Squash Blossom pattern I used in the Squash Blossom Bouquet mini. She makes the most gorgeous quilts and I love how her patterns are so nice and clean…as well as beginner friendly. And this paper-piecing pattern does not disappoint!

When I received the pattern, I decided to first make the smaller of the two blocks offered. It measures 4 3/4″ x 5 3/4″ unfinished and I thought it would make for the cutest little mugrug.

As a single block on its own, I wanted to fussy cut all of the pieces and bring out the literal design to resemble a home. I dug back into the Cotton + Steel archives and pulled out some Homebody and Hatbox. These fabrics created the most ideal walls, roof, street and even a little garden!

1 1/4″ strips were added all around the block to give a little more area to the block. I wanted enough room for my larger mugs and even for a little snack 😉 Riley Blake’s newsprint is my favorite text print (out of print, of course…but if someone wants to share any, let me know!) and it goes with the whole house theme, right?

I used a scrap of cotton batting and more Cotton + Steel for the back to complete the quilt sandwich. Since you know I’m a straight line quilter, I just cross-hatched the mugrug a 1/4″ apart in a diamond pattern with Auriful 2030 and ….

To finish, you know C + S had to be using in the binding too. Since this was such a small project, I used Cut to Pieces glue binding method to secure the binding into place without the use of Wonder Clips. It was fast and I top-stitched the binding all around. I can never get even amounts of the back binding with “stitch-in-the ditch” method, so I sewed about 1/8″ inward to help me with my OCD…

This was a nice quick project you could have completed in an afternoon. Holly’s Dwelling Quilt pattern is simple and pre-cutting the pieces (measurements provided!) will help cut down on quilt time. Are you ready to make your mug rug?!?

Check out these Instagram hashtags for more inspiration: #DwellingQuilt #HollyGetsQuiltyPatterns

Hugs and Stitches,

Cristy

Fabri-Quilt New Block Blog Hop – Hanging Flags Tutorial

September 1, 2015September 10, 201526 Comments

What’s better than being part of the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers? It’s that, PLUS the chance to play with some beautiful Fabri-Quilt Prairie Cloth Solid Fabrics AND take part in a few charity quilts! ~~There are GIVEAWAYS happening today through Thursday!!!~~ (Scroll down for details.)

Our gracious hosts, Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs, Stephanie @Late Night Quilter and Terri Ann @Childlike Fascination, along with Fabri-Quilt have provided the opportunity for over 60 of us to develop a custom block with this gorgeous Summer Watermelon bundle of Coral, White, Aqua, Chartreuse, Turquoise, and Lapis Blue.

We were all challenged to create a 12″ (12.5″ unfinished) quilt block with only these 6 fat-eighths and use at least 3 colors. We needed to provide a full tutorial for all of our cyber quilty friends and make them in time for this hop 😉

The task seemed easy enough…until I had to settle down on my plan. Do I go simple or complex? Paper-piece or traditional piecing? Use all of the colors? Maybe not…but which ones then? I had so many ideas but only so much fabric…

But then I came upon this image of vintage dinnerware from a local upscale thrift shop downtown called Grandview Mercantile. It was screaming, “Make me into a quilt!” and…I said, “Yes.” 😉 I love the idea of stacking the geese (triangles) right on top of one another with the sashing. It is a simple design for a beginner (both for quilter and for author!)

For this exercise, I decided on a diagonal layout of the geese since this block was going to be one of many in the charity quilts. The spaced out color would be more versatile than my initial assymetrical idea. I still plan to make a full quilt like the dinnerware eventually…

Block instructions:

Gather the following fat-eighths: Fabri-Quilt White, Coral, Chartreuse, Lapis Blue, & Aqua ***It is recommended that you launder these fabrics BEFORE cutting to ensure accurate sizing on your block***
Print 2 Paper-piecing pattern sheets (4 Flying geese templates total) –> Hanging Flags Bock_Geese Template
Use 1/4″ seam allowance

Cut the following:

(1) 3.75″ HSTs of each color (4 total)
(2) 3″ x 8.5″ of white
(8) 3.5″ Half-Square Triangles (HSTs) of white
(2) 3 x 2.5″ of white
(2) 3″ x 6.5″ of white
(1) 1″ x 12.5″ strip of ea color

Paper-piece with flying geese template

Take one color triangle and place it behind the printed “1” so that there is 1/4″ seam allowance all around the triangle. *It’s ok if there extra which hangs beyond the template. It will be trimmed later.

Pin in place (This helps the HST from shifting)

Take a white triangle and match up to edge of color fabric. Sew into place on line underneath where fabric overlaps. Flip it out and press.

Do the same on the other side of the color triangle

Trim excess fabric. Flying Geese should measure 3″ x 4.5″ (including seam allowance)

Assemble the block as shown:

Attach the sides to the geese to make (4) 3″ x 12.5″ strips. I still have the paper intact at this point. You can remove at anytime, but I kept them on to sew the sides to keep the geese more stable.

Add the matching sashing to geese strips. *Go slow and stead to ensure nice straight lines

Sew all strips together. Iron seams in toward sashing. Give the block a final press.

Voila! You have made the Hanging Flags Block 🙂

vAriations:

For more information on the Fabri-Quilt New Block Hop:

*~~There is an additional Giveaway on Fabri-Quilt’s block today~~. Check them out by clicking the image below.

To see more blocks using this same bundle, head over to the following blogs:

(These are all amazing designs…Enjoy the block hop and the chance to win some of this fabric on Cheryl’s page!)

Host – Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs

Josi @Avocado Quilts
Stephanie @Quilt’n Party
Cristy @Love You Sew
Sarah @Sarah Goer Quilts
Shelly @The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts
Jayne @Twiggy & Opal
Sharla @Thistle Thicket Studio
Adrian @Making It – Family Food Quilts Crafts
Julie @Pink Doxies
Sarah @123 Quilt
Jane @Jolly and Delilah Quilts
Carrie @The Zen Quilter

***The blog hop was sponsored and fabric was provided by Fabri-Quilts. All opinions and block design are my own and have not been influenced by outside parties.

“Jacks” Quilt is Complete

August 19, 2015August 19, 20159 Comments

Remember the “Jack’s Quilt” Pattern I posted a few weeks back by Bryan House Quilts? I’ve finally quilted and bound it…plus, I have a bonus project using scraps from the paper-piecing!

With the strong fuchsia colors in my quilt, I wanted to balance it out with more black and white. Carolyn Friedlander’s Widescreen in white fit the bill perfectly. The gridlines play well with the graphic piecing and who doesn’t love a wideback?!? I MUCH prefer a single wideback fabric panel than piecing a few together.

Did you know when you purchase this quilt pattern, it comes with a coloring sheet? I LOVE having coloring sheets to help me pick out colors and fabrics. Best of all….it helps with figuring how I am going to quilt everything together! I’m all about straight-lines and I wanted to follow the star spokes. I tested a few designs and settled on this purple one. I wish coloring sheets came standard with ALL quilt patterns 🙂

This simple quilting was exactly what I wanted…something to extenuate the pattern design without being too busy AND with lines that could continue from end to end of the quilt. I am definitely not a fan of burying threads, so I try to avoid it whenever possible!

We had a family trip coming up while I was working on this quilt, so I knew I needed to quilt it quickly and attach the binding so I could hand finish it while we were vacationing. I don’t know about you, but I always like to have some hand-sewing around whenever I’m away from home. You never know when you have some free time…and I was able to sew on the binding right on this hammock watching the sunset! {Heaven}

For the binding, I initially thought I would use Carolyn Friedlander’s Architextures Grid in Black. But since the lines are more “free-hand,” the irregular lines didn’t go together with all the strong shapes of the quilt and backing. I played with stripes and dots, but ended up with Cotton and Steel’s Netorious basic in Black Cat. The lines in this pattern are graphic and matched the overall feel of my quilt. The black binding really made the fuschia pop as well! I really love how it all came out.

If I’m working on a quilt, I like to take that along in case any perfect photo opportunities present itself as well…you just never know. It’s turns out I didn’t have to go far to find some great backgrounds and props. This is the exterior of my in-laws cottage and they had these great bright yellow “vintage” inspired chairs. The sharp color contrasts with my quilt were just stunning!

As mentioned above, I have a BONUS project from the quilt pattern!

The paper-piecing of the spokes produces a good bit of triangular scraps. I used them to improv a pincushion. I just alternated the direction of each triangle of similar sizing and then trimmed the piece to a rectangle. There was plenty of scraps from the backing as well, so I used the Widescreen to back these and filled them up. You could make the improv piecing larger and also make mug rugs and even pot holders!

What fun secondary projects have come out of your quilt scraps?

Happy Quilting,

Cristy

The pattern was provided by Bryan House Quilts as part of testing. All material was purchased and selected by myself. All opinions and comments are my own and have not been influenced by 3rd parties.

Love You Sew

Handcrafted from the Heart

Category: Paper-piecing

Kaleidoscope Quilt and Schnitzel & Boo (R4) Mini Quilt Swap Re-Cap

Dwelling Quilt {Pattern Testing}

Make a Mugrug from the Dwelling Quilt Pattern

Fabri-Quilt New Block Blog Hop – Hanging Flags Tutorial

Block instructions:

Cut the following:

Paper-piece with flying geese template

Assemble the block as shown:

vAriations:

“Jacks” Quilt is Complete