Free Pattern Friday: Holiday Edition!

Today's post offers a recap of all of the free quilt patterns available on our website that correspond with our holiday fabric collections. Download your favorites and ask for the fabric at your local quilt shop. 

Nordic Holiday by Amanda Murphy

Amanda designed a free quilt pattern using Nordic Holiday, Candy Dish.

Click here to find out how to download it.

Click here to see the entire Nordic Holiday collection.
Click here to learn more about Amanda's Nordic Holiday collection and see Amanda's available quilt patterns.

Florentine Christmas

Find two free quilt patterns on our website using Florentine Christmas: 

"Secret Santa," featuring wrapped packages with applique bows

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

"Buon Natale," simple half-square triangles packed with punch

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Click here to see the entire Florentine Christmas collection.

A Moose for Christmas by Cheryl Haynes

Use Cheryl's panel (and coordinates) in a variety of free quilt patterns! 

Merry Moosemas! designed by Heidi Pridemore, features pieced borders around the panel.

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Follow Cheryl's directions to turn the various panel pieces into table runners, pillows, and card holders. 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Cheryl has an additional free pattern on her website--a classic patchwork square quilt that allows the fabric to shine. Click here to find it. 

Click here to see the entire fabric collection.

Click here to learn more about A Moose for Christmas.

Winter Story

Download our free quilt pattern featuring Winter Story, "Winter Cardinals."

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Click here to see the entire Winter Story collection.

Click here to learn more about Winter Story.

Mulberry Lane by Cherry Guidry
We have a free quilt pattern available on our website, Snowy Village, using the panel from Cherry's collection. 

Click here to download the free pattern.

Click here to see the entire Mulberry Lane collection.

Click here to learn more about Mulberry Lane and see Cherry's available quilt patterns.

A Festive Season by Jackie Robinson

Our website features a few free quilt patterns using Jackie's collection.

First, Festive Cardinals & Ornaments by Heidi Pridemore (you choose which panel and border print to use!) 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Festive Runners by Jackie Robinson (again, you choose which panel to use!). Pattern includes table runner, queen-size bed runner, and placemats. 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Click here to see the entire A Festive Season collection.

Click here to learn more about the collection and see Jackie's additional quilt patterns.

Merry Little Christmas by Holly Helgeson
Looking for a free quilt pattern? Try "Christmas Windows," which features the panel surrounded by patchwork borders. It's available as a free download on our website. 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Click here to see the entire Merry Little Christmas collection.

Click here to learn more about the collection.

Winter Games by Amanda Murphy

Amanda designed a free quilt pattern using her Winter Games pattern. This quilt, called Skating Rink, is a log cabin variation featuring fussy-cut athlete appliques from the collection. The pattern is available as a free download from Amanda's website. 

Click here to find out how to download Amanda's free quilt pattern.

Click here to learn more about the collection and click here to see Amanda's additional quilt patterns.

We hope this holiday recap week has helped get you in a festive spirit! 

Happy Holidays!

Don't miss our other Christmas-themed posts this week! 

Holiday tutorials

Technique Tuesday with Debby Kratovil: Hexagons with Festive Season

Traditional and modern holiday quilt features

Snowflake Topper

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Technique Tuesday: Hexagons, Diamonds and More with Festive Season 2!

Today Debby Kratovil of Debby Kratovil Quilts is back with us for Technique Tuesday. She is sharing what she's done with Jackie Robinson's collection called A Festive Season. Debby returns to her hexagons for this table topper.

Tell us about this, Debby.

I received a bundle of many of the prints, and what I was most excited about were the vertical panels of cardinals! I had plans to make a strippy quilt and use these birds. But, even after cutting dozens of half hexagons and piecing several vertical strips, I walked away and started something else!

Vertical border print from Festive Season

 These are the half hexagons I cut, but then moved on to another idea!

Half hexagons cut from most of the prints

 Here are the fabrics that I began with.

Fabrics from Festive Season

I decided to make an upsized block using Katja Marek's New Hexagon calendar, the November 25 block. I can rotary cut any patch based on the 60 degree grid and this is what I did.

The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar

Here is the block as it appears in the calendar:

November 25 block from Katja Marek's perpetual calendar

Notice that there are 3 shapes in the block: a triangle, a diamond and a jewel. These have 60 degree angles. Easy to cut. Let me show you how!

Have you ever noticed the diagonal lines on your rulers? These are MAGIC! I use the 60 degree lines all the time. I cut 3" strips of this gorgeous gold print, sliced off the selvedge edge with a 60 degree angle by placing the ruler's 60 degree line at the bottom of the strip. Then I measured 3" over from the cut edge and cut perfect 3" diamonds.

3" strips cut into 3" equilateral diamonds

 These are the 4 diamonds which will become my jewels.

Four diamonds about to become jewels

I can make a perfect jewel by knowing what size the diamond will finish to (2-1/2"). Half of that is 1-1/4". I take my Creative Grids 60 degree ruler and line it up as shown and cut off a 1-1/4" triangle (discard). A perfect jewel! I cut four of these

Cutting a perfect jewel patch

Now for the black diamonds (the same size as the gold ones above):

Black diamonds cut from 3" strips

And the small red triangles FINISH to 1-1/4", so I cut those from a 1-3/4" strip:

Red triangles cut from a 1-3/4" strip using a 60 degree ruler

Let's see them lined up together! They will be sewn along those two diagonal lines.

• Left side: sew the red triangle, gold jewel and black diamond into a row. Press seams
• Center: Sew the two jewels to the black diamond.
• Right side: sew the black diamond, gold jewel and bottom red triangle together.

Festive Season block patches ready to be sewn

To make my table topper, I made 6 of these blocks. They will finish to 7-1/2". I wanted a center hexagon and decided to fussy cut one of the cardinals from another print in the collection.

Fussy cutting the cardinal using a freezer paper template window.

I interfaced the hexagon shape and he's now ready to add to the center. In order to make the six pieced blocks fit together (without y-seams), I new needed to cut setting triangles to go on both sides of the top of each block. Here is what I mean:

Sew two beige 60 degree triangles to top two sides of 3 blocks. Cut from 4-1/4" strips

Because the hexagon block finishes to 7-1/2", my triangles will finish to half that: 3-3/4". So, they are cut from 4-1/4" strips.

Sew two red 60 degree triangles to top two sides of 3 blocks. Cut from 4-1/4" strips

And let's see the six blocks sewn into a "circle" with the fussy cut cardinal in the center.

No y-seams, honest! Sew 3 blocks (two with beige triangles and one with red) into a large half-hexagon for the top. Sew 3 blocks (two with red triangles and one with beige) into a large half-hexagon for the bottom. Now sew both together (there will be a very big hole in the middle!)

Six pieced blocks sewn into a ring and then the interfaced cardinal is machine appliqued onto the center

I added an inner and outer border to this and machine quilted it on my HandiQuilter Sweet 16 and here she is.

Festive Season table topper: 31" x 36"

In between working on this, I made several other hexagon blocks. Allow me!

Double Twisted Hexagon

I call this Christmas Hexagon Star.

Christmas Hexagon Star from Katja's Hexagon calendar

And one last block using hexagons! This is in her calendar on the date of November 27

Center hexagon, four half-hexagons, two diamonds and two triangles!

Whew! I think I'm tired. But I had such a fabulous time playing with A Festive Season. I hope you were inspired and will look at your rulers in a new light. They can do some pretty magical things.

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Christmas in July: A Festive Season

 It's the middle of July...the sun is shining...flowers are blooming...

So of course it's the perfect time to start planning for Christmas! 

Over the next two weeks, we'll be sharing all things winter holiday related with you. The fabrics are available in stores now, so you can get started on your favorite reindeer, snowflake, or Christmas tree quilt pattern now and be done before the holiday rush begins! 

Crank up the air conditioning, pull out your wool hat, and enjoy our Christmas in July series!

Jackie Robinson is back, and with more feathered friends! Her new holiday collection, A Festive Season, features vibrant red cardinals and ornaments nestled among evergreen branches and holly. Touches of metallic gold add an elegant accent, and black and cream serve as background colors, allowing the reds and greens to pop off the fabric. 

The panels:

The coordinates: 

We asked Jackie to talk to us about A Festive Season:

Why did you decide to feature cardinals and ornaments?

We don’t have cardinals in Montana, but I grew up seeing them in my backyard. Because they’re red, they’re a festive bird. But they also are only in the U.S., so we added in the ornaments to make the fabric appealing worldwide. Also, the cardinals can just be “winter” (as opposed to holiday), and the ornaments add more of a Christmas feel.

Tell us about the cardinal prints.

They’re my favorite. I just love them! The birds are hand painted, and they’re beautifully detailed and shaded. I created embroidery designs from them. One of the prints has the birds spread out, so you can isolate and fussy cut a bird.

I have a bathroom that changes design almost monthly. I now have a beautiful set of cardinal linens, including embroidered towels, inspired by this collection.

Let’s talk about the stripe.

It’s the same stripe formula that I’ve done in the past—one section is 2-1/2” wide, and makes a good binding. Of course there’s the wider section as well. I include little ¼” chunks to be seam allowances. I like the paisley version too. The paisley goes well with both the cardinals and the ornaments.

And the panel?

It features four big blocks and three little ones, for the best of use of space in the panel size. The metallic gold braid around the edges adds interest. There are so many great ways to add metallic accents to designs. The panel blocks are featured in a BOM design (see more below).

Tell us about a few of the prints.

I’ve used a paisley before, but we added some holiday feel to it with holly. Holly is very much an ongoing theme in my holiday fabrics—it works for everyone. We have some holly looking plants here in Montana called Oregon Grape.

I also really like the tonal ornaments—they can be treated like a regular tonal print and used in backgrounds of blocks. I especially like the cream design.

Our website features a few free quilt patterns using Jackie's collection.

First, Festive Cardinals & Ornaments by Heidi Pridemore (you choose which panel and border print to use!) 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Festive Runners by Jackie Robinson (again, you choose which panel to use!). Pattern includes table runner, queen-size bed runner, and placemats. 

Click here to download the free quilt pattern.

Jackie has a variety of patterns using A Festive Season on her website as well. Click here to see all of Jackie's A Festive Season patterns.

Ornamental Ornaments: 

Jackie also designed a 4-month block of the month pattern, A Festive Tree BOM:

Dancing with the Stars:

Click here to see the entire A Festive Season collection.

Click here to find the free patterns for this collection.

Click here to visit Jackie's website and see more of her patterns.

Click here to see Jackie's coordinating embroidery collection.

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