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

 

Happy Friday to everyone! I had a busy and fun week, as per the usual! Not as much quilting as I would like, but I am making progress on quilting a quilt constructed by someone else with Feed Sacks: True Blue by Linzee Kull McCray. I’m usually not really excited by these types of fabrics, but I do love the darker blue background with the red flowers (third row from the bottom, third from left), and the quilt is backed in this fabric so I’ll get some scraps once I trim and bind the quilt!

The quilt from last week’s Free Pattern Friday definitely interested a few people and while it was easy to SAY what I would do to change the quilt, I found it to be much more challenging to actually accomplish that change! The color alteration was reasonably easy to achieve in EQ7 – I used my favorite For You by Zen Chic color way and went to town. However, when I exported the image, the scale of the fabric didn’t show up properly so I went with solids (but still went to town!!!).

There’s still a lot going on here (which was one of my criticisms of the original quilt), but I think it’s a lot more fun here. For the center block, which was just a large blank square in the original, I thought that a crazy paper pieced star might be just the thing that would make the whole quilt work. I couldn’t make that happen with my limited EQ7 skills, but did pick out one from Wombat Quilts. It’s ironically in black and white but I think that the triangles echo the geese in this pattern nicely. What do you think?

There are a lot of neat paper pieced patterns on this site and I love reading her blog. It’s definitely worth checking it out!

While I was playing around with EQ7, I thought the Merge Block function would allow me to put the Wombat Quilts block in with the When Sparks Fly quilt. Alas, not. But, I thought I’d give that a whirl and make my own quilt for Free Pattern Friday. Hmmm… this whole quilt with EQ7 thing is way more complicated than it should be!

Introducing the Wrapped Star quilt. As per the quirks of EQ7, which I am not capable of sorting out, there are two paper pieced patterns (the star is separate) and a rotary cutting list. I wouldn’t be too trusting of the rotary cutting dimensions! And, the paper pieced instructions will require that you tape pieces of paper together since it is so large.

Similar to last week’s pattern, I think that the exterior of this pattern is superior to the interior – I think a different block merged into this quilt will vastly improve the look and possibly the construction pitfalls. One of the things I love about quilting is the ability to just test things out and see what happens next. Despite this not being an award winning design with perfect, easy to follow instructions, I hope you enjoy the process.  If not, you can always check out the link to Wombat Quilts’ free patterns – that’s enough to keep anyone busy until next week’s free pattern!

12 inch star foundation pattern

24 inch star quilt cutting

24 inch star quilt

Have a great weekend!

Becky

 

How in the world is it already Friday??? I had planned on pre-writing a more in-depth post about how to work with orphan blocks, but the best-laid plans… All I can say is that I have been delving into Montgomery’s not-too-distant past and following the exploits of a character named Soupbone. Yes, really.

Fortunately I was able to find an interesting free Andover pattern called When Sparks Fly by Libs Elliot.

There are LOTS of things that I love about this quilt. The size is one of them – it doesn’t look like it would be very large, but it finishes at 68×68″ so a very respectable size! I also love the flying geese – mostly because I love anything with flying geese in it. I also really like the mirror image striped triangle pieces, which add an interesting illusion of depth.

If I were to make this quilt for myself, I would start with a different center block – the current one doesn’t really do anything to enhance the design and really seems a bit too old fashioned for the rest of the quilt. The very center of the quilt is a 13 1/4″ square of fabric. No embellishment. No bling. No movement. It seems like wasted space unless you really go to town with the quilting to add all of those features with quilting rather than piecing. The size of the center block definitely makes changing this pattern a challenge because its unusual size will require some mathematical gymnastics. However, I think these would be worth it.

The second thing I would change would be the long strips that separate the flying geese from the striped triangle pieces. The fabrics used are too distracting and don’t really add any value to the overall quilt. Solids would be fine. Stripes would be even better. Have you seen the Allison Glass Mariner’s Cloth?

Which brings me to the final change. Color!!! There is not enough in this quilt to capture what is happening with the flying geese and the striped triangle pieces.

Is this too many changes to a free pattern? I’m always curious about whether people are interested in something that needs so many adjustments!

When Sparks Fly

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday!! It’s a fun weekend for Montgomery, TX – our Antiques Festival is finally here and the town is full of vendors with all sorts of interesting things. I love all of the items that could be repurposed into something else like old fans, tractor parts, etc. And furniture pieces that you can put things in – cabinets, drawers, and shelves. I could go nuts down there but will be mostly picking up trash for our Cub Scout service project, which is a good way to keep me out of trouble!!

Today’s free pattern is from Windham Fabrics and was designed by Stacey Day. It’s a tricky pattern since it’s pieced rather than appliquéd and those little interior sun pieces are PRECISE. However, the pattern comes with all of the templates and there aren’t too many pieces, so it’s a manageable challenge (hopefully).

I wasn’t overwhelmed by the fabric choices and think that there are a lot more options that would be more fun. Obviously an ombre would be amazing – either from the center outward or around the spokes. And a color wheel would be pretty too.  And while you’re at it, why not do each “spoke” in a scrap slab type of construction?

I picked a Windham fabric because I saw that Heather Givans’ latest collection was out – Night Hike. I thought that the constellation and moth fabrics were particularly pretty!

 

Hedgehog Quilt

 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Becky

 

Happy Friday! A fun weekend is ahead for quilty people in the Houston area. St Mary’s church in Plantersville, TX is having it’s annual quilt show. This is the fourth year of the show and they’ve expanded it to 3 days of viewings. It’s an amazing historic painted church and the quilts are lovely too. I went to the preview night on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed myself. If you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out.

Did you know that Brigitte Heiland of Zen Chic has a couple of free patterns on her website? Yes, it’s true! I’ve loved her patterns and her fabric lines ever since I started quilting. My favorite fabric line is For You but I really do like them all!

Did you know that she’s doing a block of the month? It’s starting in August 2018 and looks FANTASTIC.

I think I would do the block placement a little differently but I think the blocks do look great. If you want to stay in the know, you can sign up on her website (link above) for details.

The free pattern from her site is a simple (?) delectable mountains pattern and I think that the use of modern fabrics in a very traditional pattern is what gives it a unique look. Pink and green and orange side by side by side? Lovely!!!

Delectable Mountain (Hey Dot)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Becky