Saturday, April 13, 2013

that feeling

Sometimes you just know when a quilt is going to be a winner.

An idea came to me while writing the post for my Friday's Quilt tutorial about making a version with a "low volume" background. That very afternoon it hit me that Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee would be perfect for it. 

Yesterday I cut and sewed.
another Friday's Quilt
Today, I cut some more!
another Friday's Quilt
And the most fun part for me, arranging the blocks.
another Friday's Quilt
I think I'm gonna love it!

Happy weekend to everyone!

Monday, April 08, 2013

Friday's Quilt ~ a tutorial

This quilt could not be simpler or more fun to make! It employs the technique of sewing up a block then cutting it up to make smaller blocks (like you do for Disappearing Nine Patch blocks). I'm calling this Friday's Quilt because you can whip it out by Friday. :)

Friday's Quilt

This tutorial gives specifics to make a baby sized quilt (40" by 52") but you can easily adjust to make any size you want.

Fabrics and Cutting
To start, you'll need 12 prints and about 1.5 yards of a solid for the background.

From the prints, cut 12 9"x9" squares (1 square from each fabric if you're using 12 fabrics).

From the background fabric, cut 19 2.5-inch wide strips (2.5" x width of fabric).
- Subcut 6 of the strips into 9" lengths to make 24 2.5"x9" pieces.
- Subcut 8 of the strips into 13" lengths to make 24 2.5"x13" pieces.

Friday's Quilt {tutorial}

Sewing
Sew the short and long strips to your squares like so. Chain piecing makes this go fast!
Friday's Quilt {tutorial}
You should then have 12 of these blocks measuring 13" square.

Now, the fun part! Cut your square into quarters so that you have 4 6.5" square blocks.
Friday's Quilt {tutorial}

Arrange them alternating the orientation, 6 blocks wide by 8 blocks tall.
Friday's Quilt {tutorial}
Piece the blocks together row by row.
Finally, add the remaining full length strips to make a border around the whole quilt.
Quilt and bind as desired!

Friday's Quilt Friday's Quilt Friday's Quilt

Here's a larger lap size I originally made a year or so ago. I love how the squares look like they are floating. The next version I make I would love to use a collection of "low volume" prints as the background, how fun would that be!
IMG_8102s IMG_8104s

I hope the instructions were clear but please don't hesitate to contact me with questions! As always, you are welcome to use this tutorial to make and sell the finished product on a home-based scale giving credit to this site. Thanks!

Friday, April 05, 2013

Life Update

Wow, sorry to just drop off the face of the earth like that but good news, we're in the process of buying a house! Seven {long} months ago we sold our house thinking it would take a month or so to find something that would be right for us, ha! My dad graciously let us move in with him so that we could save our money and not have to rent. Who knew that the market in our area would change from a buyer's market to a seller's market making it hard to find what we wanted and home prices going up.
What we were wanting was to downsize a bit, get a smaller, more affordable house (not that our 2,000 sq.ft. house was a mansion or anything!) because the cost of our medical bills/insurance. We wanted to continue to stay out of debt (thank you Dave Ramsey!) and moving to a more affordable house was the only place to cut our monthly costs. My husband and I were at total peace with it all and knew that God would take care of us no matter what. And although it hasn't been easy living with family it has all worked out just fine. I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally move to our own space and make it ours! It's not final yet but soon!

So anyway, with all that personal stuff out of the way I can show you what I've been working on. Though the blog has been quiet, my sewing machine has been working up a sweat!

I'm excited to say that some of my things will now be for sale in a local brick and mortar shop selling handmade/vintage goods and is opening today! The ladies that started our local Etsy Denton group have rebranded to be called DIME (Denton Independent Makers Exchange) and are opening The DIME Store where they are selling goods from local Etsy crafters. I got a sneak peek at it the other day and it's going to be awesome!

Some iPad covers:
iPad covers

Some table runners. This plus one inspired by this quilt.
Wonky plus table runner
This triangles one inspired by this quilt. My favorite!
triangles table runner

Baby plus quilt inspired by Heather's quilt.
Plus Quilt plus quilt

I'm calling this quilt Friday's Quilt (because it's so easy you can have a finished quilt by Friday LOL!) and I'll be posting a tutorial/pattern for it soon! I made a large throw sized version of this quilt you can see here.
Friday's Quilt

There were some zipper pouches, bookmarks and other things that I just didn't get pictures of but I'll snap of few of them at the store when I go!
I promise I won't be so much of a stranger. I really have so much I've been working on and want to share but all I've been thinking about lately is what colors to paint the house and how I'm going to decorate it! :)
Have a lovely weekend!