Christmas Twirls at Moda Bake Shop!

I'm excited to share my THIRD Moda Bake Shop quilt pattern today! Introducing Christmas Twirls!

This quilt is made from two charm packs of The Cookie Exchange by Sweetwater, as well as some red and green yardage.

Each block is a pinwheel set inside four triangles.  Each pinwheel is made from one pair of charm squares.

Here's a picture of my quilt top before it was quilted.

This quilt finishes at 42" x 49" and is a perfect Christmas quilt to snuggle with!

Click here to go to Moda Bake Shop to see the tutorial! Don't forget to share your version of this quilt with me!

Sharing at Finish it up Friday, Sew Cute Tuesday!

Bali Batik Blog Hop!

Today I am sharing a fun block tutorial over at Benartex's blog Sew in Love with Fabric as a part of their Bali Batiks blog hop!

I call my block Aruban Puzzle as it is a fun twist on the classic Dutchman's Puzzle block!

Click on over to see the tutorial, but before you do, leave a comment to enter my giveaway for your own set of Bali Batik fat quarters! Click here to see the entire Rio collection.
Click here to see the entire Dolce collection. 

To enter, tell me about your summer quilting plans -- are you going to be starting any new projects or will you be tackling your WIP pile? I'll be trying to finish up some WIPs but I also have some new projects planned as well -- including some of the patterns I have bought as part of May is for Makers!

If you're coming from Sew in Love with Fabric, thanks for visiting! I hope that you stay a while and see what I've been up to lately!

The giveaway is now closed! Our winner is Janet!

Summer on the Coast -- Month #2 -- Unit B

Welcome to our second month of the Summer on the Coast QAL!

This month we are making slightly more complicated blocks -- triangle in a square blocks! Click here to download the Craftsy pattern!

Here's how many units you will need for each size and approximate fabric needed for each part of the block:

Baby: 34 units (7/8 yard for large triangles, 1 yard for small triangles)
Throw: 48 units (1 yard for large triangles, 1 1/8 yard for small triangles)
Twin: 98 units (2 yards for large triangles, 2 1/4 yards for small triangles)

If you want to pre-cut your pieces to help reduce some trim-off waste, my recommendations for cutting is as follows:

Center triangles: cut 7 inch wide strips across your WOF. See below on how to cut your first angle -- you should be able to get 10 triangles per WOF.
Side triangles: cut 7.5 inch by 4.5 inch rectangles -- you will need to cut half of your rectangles from upper right to lower left and cut the other half of your rectangles from upper left to lower right. You will need one of each type of small triangle (left handed, right handed) for each unit.

Note: pre-cutting is NOT necessary if you feel confident in your paper piecing skills! 

To start, fold your triangle-square units along one of the triangle lines.use that fold to trim the same angle across your 7 inch fabric strip. I cut my strip 1/4 inch away from the edge of the paper. This will make it easier to line up your small triangles.

As noted above, you will need to cut both "left handed" and "right handed" half-rectangle triangles. If you layer two rectangles wrong sides together and cut diagonally once, you will have both two sets of triangles.

If desired, pin your fabric strip to the foundation. Line up your first triangle to the pre-cut edge and sew on the line. Press your triangle away from the background strip.

Fold along the opposite triangle line and cut off the excess background fabric strip - don't forget to leave a 1/4 beyond the fold for your seam allowance!

Place your second small triangle along the second angled edge and sew on the foundation line. Press your block.

Make sure that your triangles cover the entirety of the block as indicated by the dashed lines around the block. You may need to increase the size of your half-rectangle triangles if you have trouble with lining up the triangles correctly. When you've made sure that your pieces are lined up, you can trim your block along the dotted lines for a 6.5 inch block (6 inch finished).

Share your finished blocks in the HBD Designs Flickr group! Click here to download the free pattern from Craftsy!

Sharing at Fabric Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday, and Let's Bee Social!

Summer on the Coast -- Month #1 -- Unit A

Welcome to our first real month of the Summer on the Coast QAL!

This month we are starting off simple, so if you are a brand new paper piecer you can totally do this! Click here to get the pattern from Craftsy!

Our units this month are square in a square blocks! Here's how many units you will need for each size and approximate fabric needed for each part of the block:

Baby: 12 units (1/4 yard needed for center squares, 1/3 yard for corner triangles)
Throw: 16 units (1/3 yard needed for center squares, 1/2 yard for corner triangles)
Twin: 30 units (2/3 yard needed for center squares, 3/4 yard for corner triangles)

If you are not interested in paper piecing your blocks, you can easily find tutorials for perfect SIAS units on the internet. You will need a 6.5 inch block unfinished (6 inches finished).

If you want to pre-cut your pieces to help reduce some trim-off waste, my recommendations for cutting is as follows:

Center squares: 5 inches each (I started with 4 3/4 inches as shown below, this is slightly tight, so you are probably better off with 5 inch squares) -- one per block
Corner triangles: 4 inch squares cut diagonally once -- cut two squares per block to yield four triangles per block

As always, make sure that your paper piecing template prints out at the correct size -- from dotted edge to dotted edge, your block template should measure 6.5 inches!

To start off, center your square within the template with sufficient overhang on all four sides. I found it helpful to pin the squares to the paper foundation for the first seam. Line up your first triangle along one of the sides of your square.

Sew on the line, press and repeat with your second triangle. I found it easiest to sew the opposite triangle second.

Repeat with your 3rd and 4th triangles. A quick tip: sometimes it is hard to "eyeball" lining up your triangle in the center of the square, but if you make sure that the overhang is equal distance on each side of your square piece, you will have perfectly aligned triangles every time! You can see in the diagram below that the unsewn triangle #3 has "dogears" that are the same size on each side of the block.

After giving your block a final press, you are ready to trim on the dotted lines for your final unit.

Notes on color selection: I choose my smallest fabric cut to use in all of the centers of my units. I picked a contrasting color for my corner triangles. I didn't use any "background" fabric in my units this month. If you have a larger scale print, you will likely want to use it as your center squares.

Have other questions about how to pick fabrics? Just leave a comment (and make sure you are not a no-reply blogger!)

Share your finished blocks in the HBD Designs Flickr group! Click here to download the free pattern from Craftsy!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social!

Oh Fudge Tutorial and Giveaway!

The giveaway is now closed! Thanks to all who participated! See who won below!

Today I am sharing a "sweet" tutorial over at the Benartex blog Sew in Love with Fabric as a part of their Oh Fudge hop to celebrate Valentine's Day.

This table runner is made with fabric from the Oh Fudge 10 x 10 inch stacker and you can win your own Oh Fudge stacker for yourself! *Pink solid not included*

Want to enter to win?

1. Leave me a comment with what you would want your sweetie to bring you on Valentine's Day.

2. Followers via any platform get a second entry -- lots of following options on the right sidebar! Just tell me how you follow!

I will announce the winner on Monday!

Pop over to Sew in Love with Fabric to check out  the tutorial!

Update: Our winner is Kathy!

Sew Solid with the Fat Quarter Shop: Castle Bow Holder Tutorial and Giveaway!

I am excited to be joining in for the Fat Quarter Shop's first Sew Solid hop of the year! Today we're showing off the new Castle pattern!

Click here to see the video tutorial! They have kits all ready to go for you to make your own pillow in the pink "queen" colorway above or in a blue "king" colorway!

When I saw this castle pattern, I immediately thought of all of the little princesses in my life and set out to make something especially fun for a little girl's room -- a princess bow holder!

To make it, you'll want to follow the cutting directions in the castle pillow pattern, but omit the pieces set aside for the pillow backing. I used teal blue, yellow, and pink fat quarters for my castle.

Once you've constructed your castle, layer with your desired backing and batting, then quilt. I used an all over meander for mine. Trim as if ready for binding.

I then cut 5 pieces of pink ribbon slightly longer than each of the places that I wanted to add ribbon. I folded the ends under and sewed the ribbon to the mini quilt with a few forward and backward stitches across the width of the ribbon. For each of the four short pieces, I tacked the ribbon down at each end. For the long piece of ribbon, I tacked the ribbon down at each end and at two places along the length.

Add a hanging sleeve and bind as desired. I used a pink, yellow, and blue print from my stash.

And voila -- your princess's bows have a royal place to stay neat and organized!

Check out all of the quilters participating in today's hop!

Peta of She Quilts Alot

Jenn of Mommy Sew

Alison of Little Bunny Quilts

Lisa of Sweet Little Pretties

Taunja of Carried Away Quilting

Interested in making your own Castle Pillow or just feeding your fabric addiction from the Fat Quarter Shop? Comment below with what is on your quilting wish list for a chance to win a $25 Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate!

Edit: The giveaway is now closed and our winner is #34 Patti!

New {Bee} Year

The start of a new year brings the start of so many new things -- including a new year for bees! This is my FOURTH year participating in the Stash Bee, third year as hive mama, and second year as bee mama!

For my month as queen bee, I decided that I wanted my hive mates to make me pineapple blocks -- not pineapple log cabins, but fruity pineapples. I actually collect pineapple "stuff" -- ornaments, candle holders, wine stoppers, etc.

The block I requested is sort of a combination of two tutorials (here and here) but it ends up looking more like the second Dear Stella block but not quite so tiny!

For fabrics, I told my hive mates to feel free to go scrap-tastic but stay away from any large prints, since the squares are a maximum of 2 inches when finished. I found that small to medium scale prints or tonals worked best for me. Here's my fabric pull:

For background, I requested a bright white fabric (not off white!)-- a solid or a white on white print is preferred. I used medium-to-dark olive greens, but use whatever looks good together from your own stash. I used all different shades of yellow, but stay away from anything with large amounts of colors that aren't yellow.

Now onto the tutorial!

Cutting:

16 - 2.5 inch yellow squares

2  - 3 inch yellow squares

4 - 3 inch green squares

2 - 2.5 inch background squares (not pictured)

4 - 3 inch background squares (I accidentally put 5 in this picture, you need 4!)

Pair your 3 inch squares together as follows to make half square triangles:

Yellow + white  -- make two

Green + white -- make two

Green + green -- make one -- use two contrasting greens!

Trim each HST to 2.5 inches.

You will end up with:

4 - yellow and white HSTs

4 - green and white HSTs

2 - green and green HSTs

Lay out your 2.5 inch squares as shown below.

I found it easiest to sew my squares into rows of four first.

I then ironed each row in opposite directions so that it was easy to match the seams (which there are a lot of!). Sew your rows together.

Ta da! I've already seen two finished blocks and they are SO cute! I cannot wait to see them all together. 

Happy new year to you! :)

Square Pegs Pattern at Moda Bake Shop!

I am so excited to share that my second pattern for Moda Bake Shop is now up -- Square Pegs!

This quilt is made with one jelly roll, one charm pack, and a little bit of white yardage. It's a modern take on a log cabin and made with the gorgeous new line from Studio M -- Basic Mixologie.

This is a great beginner quilt but is fun for any quilter! The blocks go together very quickly and the pattern is easily scaled up or down with more or fewer blocks.

Here's my original diagram:

And here's my finished quilt:

It's somewhat visible in the "tree pictures", but for the quilting, I did a "mod meander" -- it's like Leah Day's "circuit board" pattern but the corners are all rounded or curves rather than sharp turns. I can try to take some closer up pictures of the quilting!

The background is a great teal print from the line that is diamonds and the binding is an orange diagonal stripe -- perfection for binding!

I hope you pop over to Moda Bake Shop to check out the pattern and if you make your own version, be sure to share it!

Sharing at Finish it Up Friday!