Welcome to another Friday! It’s hard to believe that the week has just flown by, but yet another crazy week has come and gone. I participated in my first ever debate on Tuesday (after a day of dipping 8 puppies, fixing the pool filter, and getting the kids to their different after-school activities), started a half-rectangle triangle quilt (photos to come), and read a book (Martha Grimes).

After all of that, I really feel like settling in to working on an easy quilt and my in box this morning had an updated tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew with great photos and and even better name – Easy Stack, Cut, and Sew Blocks Tutorial. If you’ve got some time this weekend, check it out! How cute is that???

Fortunately, I don’t consider this to be the free pattern for Free Pattern Friday. It’s just a bonus thing. This week’s pattern is a Moda one by Kate Spain. It makes me think of spring, and for those of you up north, I know you need a bit of spring cheer.

It’s not really as complicated as it looks. The center is a square in a square, and then you use some stitch and flip pieces with some squares and you’re done. The color placement is obviously the key and I love the secondary pattern that’s achieved once the blocks are put together.

Have a great weekend

Becky

 

Happy Friday! I hardly noticed another week flying by – how about you? Lots of the usual stuff going on, plus I started fostering four puppies on Saturday which has definitely contributed to the workload around here! They are approximately twelve weeks old and leave on the 23rd to go to Siouxland Humane Society in Iowa. Isn’t Amelia the cutest??

I discovered a new source of free stuff this week – C&T Publishing’s website. They have a variety of books and notions for sale but also a few free patterns! I also really like their free reference tools, such as a batting guide, quilt sizes for diagonal-set blocks, etc. All sorts of information that you could really need some day.

Today’s pattern is an easy circle-based one. But not too many circles and a few linear blocks to add visual interest.

I love the low volume fabrics in the background, as well as the subtle divisions of the circles themselves. The pattern isn’t complicated, and if you’ve jumped on the Cricut Maker bandwagon (I haven’t, but have been dreaming about it), the circles would be a piece of cake.

Balance Quilt

Have a wonderful weekend!

Becky

I can’t believe it’s April AND already another Friday! I’ve been busy sewing, parenting, working, and whatever it is that I do that makes the week fly by.

I’ve been working on a boxy pouch, mostly following the pattern by Pink Stitches. I’m finding the process to be straightforward, although prefer my pouches to be a little taller. I’m planning on doing a sew along at my bee on Saturday so I’ve got a couple of pouches cut and prepped for that activity.

 

I also just committed to making a sample quilt called Harlequin by Robin Pickens. I don’t think that it should be too difficult – the construction method is half rectangle triangles – the real trick will be staying organized and getting everything put together properly!!

Since my upcoming quilt is so complex, I thought that FPF should be an easy one. Don’t you love the construction of this quilt? 3 1/2″ squares go together to make this fun, spring quilt from Cloud 9 Fabrics.

Trellis-Quilt

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Becky

 

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful week and have plans for a fun weekend. My kids still really enjoy Easter egg hunts and dyeing, and we are fortunate to have friends to share these activities with.

Since Easter weekend is such a busy one, I thought I’d share a relatively easy quilt for Free Pattern Friday. Of course easy is in the eye of the beholder, and this one is easy primarily in the number of pieces and the size of these pieces. However, it is constructed with equilateral triangles which may be something that you find complex. However, I do think the results are worth the effort!

The pattern itself does not go into any detail about how to avoid the common pitfalls of sewing these triangles together into rows without making a complete mess of things. Let me just say that it is not impossible, but a few pencil marks and basic caution need to be employed here and all will be just fine.

The first step is to be very accurate in your cutting. It is worth a little extra trimming and (gasp) fabric wastage in order to make sure that your triangles are absolutely precise. This accuracy in cutting will pay off.

After you cut your triangles, make a mark 1/8″ from the bottom edge of these triangles on the right side of the fabric. If you have an Add An Eighth ruler, this is a perfect time to use it. It is not necessary to draw across the entire bottom of the triangle.

Did you notice that when you were cutting your triangles, the top of the triangle had a blunt edge? It was not broken during manufacturing, but rather it recognizes that the tips of the triangles are unnecessary and would make your seam intersections even more bulky if included.

Take this blunt tip of one triangle and match it to the mark that you made at the base of another triangle (fabrics right side together). This gives you the slight offset that you need. Since you’ve marked all of your triangles, all of your alignments will be the same.

Sew the two triangles together with a scant 1/4″ seam and iron open.

I hope that these basic instructions, when added to the pattern below will make this free pattern an enjoyable and easy experience for you.

Prismatic Quilt

Have a great weekend!
Becky

Welcome to another Friday! The school year is just flying by and it’s hard to believe that we are already making plans for the summer. How did that happen?

In preparation for summer, I thought I’d make this week’s Free Pattern Friday a pattern based on Allison Glass’ Sun Prints 2016 fabrics.

It’s a little hard to tell, but this is a square in a square pattern with some extra spacing to give the offset between “rows” (although the quilt is constructed in columns). What does this mean to you? If you don’t like the 58×84″ finished quit size, this is an extremely easy quilt to modify. The square in a square blocks are 4 1/2″ unfinished and all of the sashing is 2″. Either of these two dimensions can be easily modified for a larger or smaller quilt.

There are also no matching seams so this quilt is not only a great way to showcase beautiful fabric, but it also goes together incredibly easily.

Sun Print 2016

Have a great weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday! I hope you had a great week. I felt very productive and finished a quilt to give to the kids’ ski instructor. I used a layer cake that I had been hoarding for quite some time – Desert Bloom by Amanda Herring. I paired it up with Horizon, my favorite Bella Solid and a pattern I purchased a while ago from Cluck Cluck Sew.

I was hoping to keep this layer cake all to myself but I’m glad that I finally got it out and used it! I love how the intensity of the Horizon highlights the beauty of both the lower volume fabrics as well standing up to the saturated reds and grays.

The pattern is a fantastic choice both for quick quilts but also for those times when you want to focus on the fabrics. The squares are 5 1/2″ finished and in this case capture the beauty of the large scale designs while also allowing the smaller fabrics to shine. The back and binding are both Grunge and I love them both! Somehow one of the kids got mud from their ski pants on the back of the quilt – I don’t think it’s going to come off with spot cleaning so I’m contemplating washing the quilt before I gift it. Have any of you ever had to do that? In some ways I’m horrified, but as a recipient I think I might be relieved that someone else took the risk of washing it first.

With this much saturated color in my own quilting, I felt like the Free Pattern Friday had to step up and match it. Where do you go if you want some serious color saturation in your quilts? Amy Butler, of course!

This beauty is called Zen Garden, but I’m not sure about that…. maybe Patches of Baldness Due to Pulling Out Your Hair? I’ve previously put out some curved quilts that I thought were challenging but this one puts them all to shame. There are several pieces (most of which have curves) that are required to build up three separate curved pieces that comprise each block.

While I love Amy Butler’s use of color, some of the florals compete a little too heavily in this block making it difficult to appreciate the complexity of the construction. I might like to throw in a few solids or perhaps more highly contrasting fabrics to showcase the square within a square secondary pattern.

This is definitely not a quilt to whip up in a weekend. The pattern suggests that it’s a longer term commitment. No kidding! Let me know if you give this one a try – I’d love to see any color variations.

Zan Garden

Have a great weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday to you! We’ve had a busy week of election excitement (my own upcoming contest as well as the county primaries), quilting, and finishing both personal and business taxes. Whew! I think I need a break that includes more quilting.

I love this week’s Free Pattern Friday quilt mostly because I love paper piecing, but I also really appreciate its unexpected construction style and scale which result in a very unique quilt.

It’s called Papillion and was designed by Lynne Goldsworthy of Lily’s Quilts.

Of course I’d like to have a more saturated colors in the wheel, but I also wonder about experimenting with non-symmetrical, or perhaps mirror image patterns.  This quilt is constructed (via paper piecing) in wedge shapes which are then joined together in a wheel and thus there are options to adjust the segments to achieve interesting variations.

You know what would also be beautiful? V&Co’s Confetti Metallic Ombre as the rings of triangles, getting lighter as the radius increases. I love, love, love that fabric, don’t you? I might own a yard or two of my favorite colors.

Papillion

Have a great weekend and try something new!
Becky

 

How in the world is it already March? It’s definitely spring in Texas and we are enjoying the blooming redbud trees and anticipating a huge crop of Lady Banks roses from our neighbor’s bush. It’s the best season in Texas!

This quilt, called Racetrack, makes me think of spring. The Tula Pink colors are so fresh and vibrant that it makes you want to get outside!

I don’t love the construction method, which has you doing the HSTs two at a time. Get online and find yourself a 4 or more at a time method so that you can knock this out much more quickly. I mean, what’s the point of spring if you aren’t outside enjoying it???

Leah Day has been blogging a series on walking foot quilting and I think her super wobble would look great with this quilt – with the wobble centered on a different part of the quilt. A fun, organic finish to a very linear piecing.

Racetrack

Have a great weekend!

Becky

Happy Friday! Hope you had a wonderful week and are ready to WORK this weekend! For the most part, FPF patterns have been quilts that you could whip up in a fairly short period of time without breaking a sweat (perhaps excepting the curved piecing).  Today’s pattern breaks that mold with a crafting time that is subtly described as “Longer Term”. Check out Garden Mosaic.

It finishes at 96×96 and I can hardly begin to describe what is included. The construction itself is not particularly complicated but the volume is astronomical. 2,048 HSTs. Once you have constructed your HSTs, you then mix them up with squares to form four patches and put everything together to create the amazing secondary pattern.

The only thing that would make this remotely doable is if you have a foolproof way of making HSTs where you don’t have to trim each one. There are several ways to do this, mostly using a paper template.

I might not be starting this pattern any time soon. I have my own quixotic quilt in progress. A few bee-mates and I are embarking on a log cabin/flying geese project that will hopefully be done in one year.

As shown, this quilt is 64 log cabin blocks, 144 flying geese blocks, and 81 four X blocks. Whew. Two epic quilts in one post. I’m exhausted!

Enjoy the pattern for the Garden Mosaic quilt and have a great weekend.

Garden Mosaic

Becky

 

 

Happy Friday! I had a very busy week – starting with a very successful grand opening of Montgomery Quilt Company‘s new location. It was so fun to meet a lot of new quilters and be involved in the decisions the every small business has to make as it grows. Plus I was allowed to do merchandising and quilt hanging – neither of which I’m very good at, so it was nice to have an opportunity to practice (although I know that there were a lot of changes made after I left!)

There was also the big news of FreeSpirit/Westminster closing the doors on its fabric business. I’m not sure how they’ve not managed to be successful with their line-up of popular and prolific designers, nor why they didn’t sell their business to a competitor who had a more successful distribution network in place. But, I guess that’s why I’m just a small designer and they’re the head of a large…. well….. unsuccessful company. Anyway, I hope that we will shortly find out where the likes of Joel Dewberry, Kaffe Fassett, Tula Pink and several can’t-live-without designers will land.

I also finally finished a quilt that I had been working on since sometime before Christmas. I purchased the fabric during my Black Friday binge and quickly decided to go for a quick and easy pattern that I found on Moda Bakeshop. I love the Bonnie & Camille Good Life fabric and was intrigued with the idea of two quilts with three jelly rolls. Was it too good to be true??? Turns out that the answer is no! Three jelly rolls makes two magnificent quilts – or it does, if one puts in the effort. So far, I have one fantastic quilt.

I was able to quilt it at our January quilt bee – we all brought UFOs to work on – but it took me a further month to sew on the binding (how embarrassing!). I love everything about the quilt. The royal blue against the Good Life aquas, reds and whites. The flannel dot on the back. The Bella solid in Christmas Red for the binding.

Since this quilt pattern comes from the Bakeshop, it’s this week’s Free Pattern Friday! Despite my procrastination on the binding, it’s a very easy sew – there aren’t any matching seams and the whole thing comes together very quickly. I quilted it in an all-over stipple with clear poly thread with my domestic machine. It was a breeze and I love it! I can’t wait to make the other half.

Lawn Chair Quilts

Have a wonderful weekend!

Becky