Happy Friday! Hope you’re having a wonderful week and a great summer! Earlier this week, I had an email from Missouri Star Quilt Company saying that they had a Christmas present in July for me. I almost deleted it before opening, but am so glad that I didn’t. Their idea of a present is more like a free pattern bonanza and I wanted to share my luck (in not deleting the email) with you.

MSQC has generously made six of their BLOCK quilt magazines (digital format) available for FREE!! Of course there’s a small catch – you have to sign up/log in in order to gain access to this archive, but I think it’s well worth it for the number of patterns that you get in the downloads.

MSQC uses a lot of more traditional fabric colors which don’t speak to me, but the magazine does include a layout that is in solids so it is much easier to imagine your own fabric choices.

Of course, in the context of a post with LOTS of free patterns to show off, I suppose that lots of these blues does become slightly repetitive, but just look at all of the free patterns that you are getting!  And dream of the quilting possibilities!!

Have any of these quilts inspired you? If not, don’t worry – I didn’t present all of the patterns available in the six issues of BLOCK magazine and there are lots more quilts to choose from.

Click HERE to go to MSQC to gain access to the magazine and instructions to all of these quilts. (If the link does not work for you, go to www.missouriquiltco.com, log in/create your account, then click on “Account”, then click on “Your Digital Downloads”)

Have a great weekend!
Becky

Happy Friday! I hope you’re having an excellent week!

This week’s free pattern is a fun one from Karen Lewis, the brains behind Blueberry Park’s wonderful fabric. I love the patterns and the colors (although don’t recommend using it as a backing if you’re free motion quilting on a domestic machine!!). This quilt is called Diamond Stripes and finishes at 46″x55″, which is a little small for my taste. The quilt can easily be increased in size by adding more blocks or increasing the size of the piano keys around the border (although you will also have to upsize the corners as well).

Lots of options, but what a great, colorful, quick quilt!

Have a great weekend!

DiamondStripes

Becky

Happy Friday! I hope you have had a productive week – I have not been sewing (again!) but there are a few other things on my list that have been taking precedence.

Fortunately I have been in a few waiting rooms and have had time to cruise around the internet. I haven’t been on Robert Kaufman’s website in a while, and a few of the patterns that were previously “Coming Soon” are now available!

Check out Tangled, by Red Pepper Quilts! How cool is this?? It’s all in Kona Solids, and while I love all of the colors that she has chosen, I don’t think that you need to go out and buy each and every one of them – substitutions are possible. If you look closely, not all of the colors really even look all that great together, so matching not required! I don’t even think that solids would be required, although if you were to have prints that didn’t have a strong primary color to them, it would be difficult to see the quilt pattern emerge.

The construction method looks complicated, but it is not. There are two types of blocks – a donut block and a connector block. The real trick is keeping everything organized – making the right blocks and then putting them together in the correct order.

Tangled

Have a great weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday! Hope you are having a great summer and having tons of fun. I still haven’t been doing much sewing but I have good intentions of starting (and finishing?) a new project sometime soon.  I’d like to try out one of the Hello Pouches from Knot & Thread Design.

I’ve already picked out the fabric (of course) but my big problem is that I don’t have a large enough zipper. However after reading the instructions, I think that I will do things a little differently and can make do with a smaller zipper.

Today’s free pattern is Woven Pieces by Matthew Boudreaux. You may know him as Mr Domestic and be following along on his Patchwork Petals Sewing Party.

This is a fun pattern for showing off pretty pieces of fabric and I think you could re-work the pattern to use smaller pieces of focal fabric, although you would want to make sure that there was color continuity so that you could keep the woven effect.  The construction process is fairly straight forward, although there are some tiny pieces along each edge that may challenge you.  The quilt finishes at 80×80 which is a great size for hanging out and enjoying summer breezes.

Woven_Pieces

Have a great weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday! I hope you had a wonderful week with lots of sewing. I haven’t sewn in what seems like MONTHS – and am really starting to miss it. One of these days I’m going to have to finish painting my sewing room so that I can put everything back in and begin sewing regularly again.

Today’s free pattern is called Simply Fun from Maywood Studio and is by Rachel Shelburne. It’s a cute pattern and is fat quarter friendly, so if you have been reluctant to dive into a stack, this could be the pattern you’ve been waiting for.

It looks like you should have a fair amount of scraps left over, which means that you will have to find something to do with them. Have you seen the Year of Scrappy Triangles by Sewn by Leila? I’m dying to have the time to do each and every one of these cute triangles – and this is only a small sample of the available blocks.

See what I mean? Aren’t you in love too? Your favorite tiny scraps don’t have to be discarded any more. Wouldn’t it be insane to make a quilt entirely of these HSTs?  I love dreaming about new projects almost as much as starting new projects.

For now I just might give Simply Fun a shot.

Simply Fun

Have a great weekend!
Becky

 

Today’s blog post is a quickie because I’m on the road for a wedding, so I’ve scheduled this post ahead of time and have a million things to wrap up before I go. Besides, I suspect that you won’t mind if I get straight to business. Am I right?

Today’s pattern is from Art Gallery Fabric. It’s a fun and easy and you should be able to get through it in a flash.

Keep in mind that a lot of the action happening in the quilt is coming from the fabric rather than the piecing. When you look at the instructions, you’ll see what I mean.

If you don’t have fabric that gives you a similar appearance of movement, you can MAKE your own fabric! Well, at least you can put together scraps into pieces that match the required dimensions. Even better, if you’ve been saving selvedges, this would be a perfect time to use them.

Check out the pattern and see what you think!

Cross-the-Line

Have a great weekend

Becky

Happy Friday! Hope you’re having a good summer! We’ve had a busy week – this was Cub Scout camp week, and parents are highly encouraged (and in my case, required) to volunteer. I spent Tuesday teaching basketball, which is not a skill I realized I had. Wednesday making craft stick bombs (turning potential energy into kinetic energy), and yesterday helping with the robot arm craft (during which, I managed to get super glue on my teeth – YUCK!). All of which means there’s not much quilting to report, but the kids had a lot of fun.

Are you loving all of the plus quilts that have been all over blogs lately? Mostly because of the Modern Plus Book that came out a couple of months ago. I also mentioned that I was interested in Meadow Mist’s Modern Plus Sampler Quilt Along.

For today’s free pattern, I thought I would find a free plus quilt just to round things out. Isn’t this one pretty?

It’s called Ironhook by Wendy Sheppard. I love the look of scrappy fabric and, of course, I appreciate any background choice that isn’t white! The construction looks complicated, but it is done in columns instead of rows, which is what gives it the appearance of a more random method. The little plus blocks are off-centered and rotating them gives an extra random effect.

Having done a plus quilt without interlocking pieces, there are more background pieces than you might expect, and thus more cutting. However, there aren’t many matching seams, which means that the whole quilt can be constructed relatively stress free!

Ironhook Tested

Have a great weekend!

Becky

 

Happy Friday! It’s been another crazy week with not much sewing on my part, but lots has been happening in the quilting world, so I’ve been watching other people sew. Hopefully that counts for something! I fell in love with the Modern Plus Sampler from Meadow Mist Designs and hope that I’ll be able to join Cheryl’s quilt along.

I have the book and have made one of the quilts earlier this year and would love the opportunity to try out a couple of the other blocks without committing to a whole quilt of each!

I also love the Patchwork Petals Sewing Party that Mr. Domestic is hosting. Of course his fabrics are beautiful, but what I love most about this pattern is the illusion of appliqué that is achieved through paper piecing. How fun!!

Of course none of these are free patterns, so what’s on tap for Free Pattern Friday? Outside the Lines by Moda. Isn’t it pretty?

The pattern is set up to be made with layer cake squares and Moda’s cake mix recipe cards. But if you look at the pattern, you are really just mixing 2″ finished HSTs with a couple of solid squares and a few rectangles to round out the block. It’s complex and simple all at the same time. When you look at the sample quilt, see how each star is almost a medallion of alternating light and dark rounds. I love it.

Check out the pattern for the construction instructions and then use your own favorite HST technique (or Moda’s cake mix cards) to make this fun quilt.

outside-the-lines

Have a great weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday, and welcome to summer! I hope you are having a wonderful beginning to your summer.

I was reading Geometriquilt’s blog this week and intrigued to see her post about a new website that she contributes to called QuiltFill. It’s kind of like EQ7 (or 8) for dummies. You can’t make new quilts but it’s entirely possible to take one of their collection of quilts or blocks and re-color them to your own satisfaction with real colors that people actually use. There are quilts with Kona options and some with Riley Blake Confetti Cotton solids options. I don’t think that you can pick the palette you want, so that’s a bit of a limitation. Another limitation is that you can’t break apart the quilts, so if you don’t want to construct your quilt in the same way, you’re kind of stuck (For instance, with the Concentric Stripes quilt, I would have liked to have each concentric square a different color fabric, but alas. Not an option)

In addition to the great colors that are built into the platform (EQ7 is miles behind on this), I love the Randomize tool. Keep clicking on that button and you can get some crazy color choices that you definitely wouldn’t have put together for yourself. It’s not always a winner but occasionally you’ll hit something new and fun.

I decided to play with a Leland Ave Studio quilt and what fun I had. Blue was my first choice, and I love all of the blues that Kona has to offer.

But then I had to branch out a bit into green with a little yellow, which is definitely not something I’ve ever tried in real life. But I could do it if I wanted to – because QuiltFill tells you the exact Kona colors that you have put into your quilt.

And then I tried a little purple as well and also made a few value changes to highlight the different things happening in the piecing.

Here is the original quilt. I think it’s so interesting how color can really change whether people like a quilt or not. The cool grays definitely make it look more modern but the parfait color is definitely not my thing.

I’m more of a hot pink girl. And once you add the green in there, it totally loses the air of sophistication that is present in the original version.

Maybe this is a bit more sophisticated?

The beauty of all of these changes is that they took me SECONDS. In EQ7 (and I’ll assume that 8 isn’t much better), it’s much more complicated. For me, that includes Google, likely a YouTube video, grinding my teeth, and possibly a computer reboot. So while there are definitely limitations to QuiltFill, I’m having fun playing with color and ignoring the limitations.

The designers who are currently contributors have a mix of free and for sale patterns on the site. While this pattern isn’t technically free (for Free Pattern Friday), it is from the Modern Patchwork magazine, June 2017 edition. I subscribe, but if you don’t you can follow the link and get an electronic copy for less than $5 (no affiliate links on any of my posts!).

So enjoy your totally free access to QuiltFill (you aren’t even required to set up an account, if you can believe that) and have a wonderful weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday! It’s also the last day of school for us, although I’m not sure if that’s a point of celebration or the beginning of a sad quilting slowdown.

I’ve been working on a new to me quilting technique. I finished the quilt top for the Harlequin quilt I was working on, but was struggling with what to do on the quilting.

Of course the biggest problem is my limited free motion quilting skills, so I couldn’t hope to replicate the quilting shown on the pattern. I decided to try to do a radiating wavy star from an off-center point and then use a ruler to draw lines between the star’s branches in a way to make my own triangle patterns. I hope it works out because I’ve come too far to start ripping now! I’m using a thin ruler to make the straight lines in the triangle – I wonder if it counts as ruler work?

Today’s Free Pattern Friday is the quilt that I was working on quilting last week with the True Blu fabric (if you’re interested, you can find it at my friend Amy’s shop here. It turned out so cute!

It’s interesting how differently quilts turn out when you change the fabric choices. The original pattern used a much higher contrast layer cake (did I mention it’s layer cake friendly? Yay!), and I actually see the patterned fabric making a circle around the center white fabric.

In the True Blu quilt, I see the patterned fabric making an X pattern rather than a circle. Do the two fabric choices change how you perceive the pattern layout too?

I really liked the backing of the quilt, which was a eye catching red and blue fabric. I definitely need to get some yardage of that!!!

As I was going through my camera and pulling photos for today’s post, I came across one I had taken of the most beautiful flower. If you can believe it, it’s a peony. I had never seen one in any other color than pink, nor had I ever seen one that had opened so fully. It’s magnificent, isn’t it? Another friend of mine has an amazing bridal floral business and her supplier sent her this flower for a floral shoot. I hope some day she has a bride who chooses to use them because I’d love to see them in arrangements!

And before I forget, with all of the photos and talk of flowers, here’s the actual free pattern for this week! It’s a link rather than a PDF. Add it to your cart and check out – all you need to do is add your name and email address and you should be good to go!

http://www.pre-cuts.com/shop/Free-Patterns/p/Broken-Lattice-Quilt-Pattern-x33878183.htm

Have a wonderful weekend, and Happy Memorial Day!
Becky