Summer Mini Quilt Blog Hop: Day 1

We can't wait for summer! To help put us all in a carefree, sunshine-y mindset, this week we're hosting the Summer Mini Quilt Blog Hop! Thanks to our talented designer friends, we'll be featuring tutorials to make four different summer-themed mini quilts. 

First up is Debby Kratovil from Debby Kratovil Quilts. She has used the cheery floral Liberty Garden prints and a cool folded hexie technique to create a sweet fabric garden. Check out her tutorial, and then head over to Debby's blog to enter for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of some Liberty Garden prints. Click here to see all 35 Liberty Garden prints and download two free quilt patterns for use with the collection.

Here's Debby! 

Liberty Garden is a perfect collection for Spring. The flowers and colors celebrate all the newness that this season brings our way. I chose six SKUs from the collection for the project I had in mind. 

Six fabrics chosen from Liberty Garden

For this mini project, I decided to revisit some of my 3-D hexagons, yoyos and prairie point flower leaves. First, let's see what I mean for the folded hexie! Then I think you'll understand my steps.

3-D Folded Hexagon

Other techniques begin with circles. Who can cut a perfect circle? Not me! Plus, there aren't any points of orientation with a circle. I like to start with a hexagon. These are easily cut using a multi-size 60 degree ruler. This is my Creative Grids ruler. I like to practice with construction paper. That way, if I make a mistake, it's only paper!

(The pattern for this will be included at the end of this post.)

Practicing with construction paper

I cut a 5-1/2" strip of the first floral and folded it in half, with fold side down and raw edges at the top. This is approximately twice the height of my finished folded hexagon.

5-1/2" strip folded

Then I cut the folded fabric, aligning the 2-1/2" horizontal line at the raw edges. (2-1/2" is half the finished height of the 5-1/2" strip). Slice on both sides of the ruler.

Cutting the 5-1/2" strip

 Open it up and - magic! A perfect hexagon.

Perfect hexagon!

Now, fold two opposing points into the center. Notice that the fold runs from two other opposing points. Press well.

Press two opposing sides

 Now, this gets tricky to show, but easy to do: Fold the bottom right point (in pic above) up to the center. Repeat for the top left corner, folding down to the center. Press. Sometimes I use pins to hold the folded fabric in place.

Next two folds

 You now have two remaining points to bring to the center. Press and hand or machine stitch. The center stitching will be covered with a yo-yo (or a button).

Last two points brought to the center. Stitched down,

 Now for the yo-yo (circle pattern included in link below). Trace onto freezer paper, press to right side of fabric and cut out. (See. I told you I can't draw a circle well!)

Cutting circle of fabric for yo-yo

 Gather outer edge (1/4" folded under).

Gathering the yo-yo.

 Now for the prairie points. Cut three 2-1/2" squares. Now press them in half, forming a folded rectangle.  Bring outside points DOWN to the center so that ALL raw edges meet. Secure with stitching. (This is illustrated in my Trash Basket Batiks pattern link below.)

Three prairie points (will become my leaves)

 The stems of my hexagon flowers were made with a 2-1/8" x 20" strip sewn into a tube. Pull it right side out using a safety pin. Press flat.

Tube of fabric for my stems.

Now let's see it all together:

Folded hexagon with yo-yo center 

The background of my mini was cut 10" x 12-1/2" (1705-84). The side border was cut 4-1/2" x 12-1/2". All other elements were cut and described above.

Liberty Garden mini

Here are the links to my 3-D Folded Hexagon pattern (with circle and hexagon templates included) and Making Prairie Point leaves is part of my FREE PATTERN: Trash Basket Batiks on Craftsy.

You can see the prairie points (and yo-yos) in the pic below:

Thanks Debby! Head over to Debby's blog for a chance to win some Liberty Garden prints! And make sure to follow along for all four days of our blog hop! 

Summer Mini Quilt Blog Hop:
Day 1: Debby from Debby Kratovil Quilts using Liberty Garden
Day 2: Benartex blog design team using Play Ball
Day 3: Alison from Little Bunny Quilts using Anything Goes
Day 4: Kelly from My Quilt Infatuation using Patio Splash

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The Art of Fussy Cutting

The other day, we shared Randa Mulford's Slices of Opulence quilt with you. She credited the fabric (Paula Nadelstern's Opulence collection) with doing most of the hard work in her quilt--she simply fussy-cut pieces to create intricate designs. 

Fussy cutting sounds easy; just cut out the part of the fabric you want to use--but how do you truly do it successfully? Today we're sharing some tips from the expert herself, Paula Nadelstern. She has a product out through C&T Publishing called VisiGrid Quilter's Template Sheets which she uses for fussy cutting. These sheets are see-through to help you position your templates on fabric, feature a grid for more precise templates, and are easy to cut, non-slip and crack-resistant.

Find Visi-GRID here.

Using Visi-GRID, you can create a window-like template, marking both the seam line and the centered axis:

 You can draw templates of any shape and use a combination of a ruler and the printed grid lines to add a 1/4" seam allowance:

Here are some real-life examples using Visi-GRID, including some from Paula's most recent book, Fabricadabra.

Find Paula's book here.

Audition your options by moving the template around the fabric. When you've decided what you want to use, mark the template by copying clues/motifs onto the template. Mark around the template, and cut out your fabric shape. 

After you've decided where to position the template on the fabric, hold it in place and use a fine black permanent marker to trace a lot of the details of the selected designs directly onto the template. Continue marks into the seam allowance. Use clues to help you find identical patches multiple times. 

Here's another example of template pieces, the fabric used, and then the identical (mirror-image) pieces cut using the templates. Look carefully and you can see the outlined white triangles on the fabric. 

"An Agreement of Butterflies," designed and pieced by Paula Nadelstern and quilted by Rebecca Gore, is one of the quilt designs featured in Fabricadabra. 

Each butterfly body uses the same fussy cut strip for the butterfly body.

Here's a close up:

The wings are also fussy-cut, different for each butterfly. The wings are mirror images of each other. 

Fussy cutting can be so much more than simply cutting a flower or other motif out of fabric! 

Click here to read an interview with Paula on C&T's website.
Ready to fussy-cut some of Paula's fabric? Click here to view her Kismet collection.

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Join Cherry Guidry's Vintage Ornaments Quilt-Along!

Yes, it's only May, but the months until December speed by quickly! 

Today, Cherry Guidry is kicking off the Vintage Ornaments Quilt-Along on Bernina's blog, We All Sew. Stitch along with Cherry as she uses her new holiday collection from Contempo, Mulberry Lane, to create a gorgeous holiday quilt. You'll feel great in December when your quilt is finished and ready to use! 

Here's Cherry's Vintage Ornaments quilt:

A few close-ups of ornaments you'll be making:

Click here to find the entire first post, including fabric requirements. Cherry will be posting the 2nd week of each month between now and October. Follow along and have fun! 
Click here to see the Mulberry Lane collection. 

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Art Gallery: Slices of Opulence

Randa Mulford's "Slices of Opulence" quilt won Best in Show at International Quilt Festival in Chicago recently. Congratulations Randa! 

She made the quilt using Paula Nadelstern's gorgeous fabrics, and we asked her to walk us through her quilt design and process. 

What inspired you to start the Slices of Opulence quilt?

It started with the fabric. I had purchased yardage of Paula’s Opulence fabric because I always buy Paula’s fabric. Short of doing a full scale kaleidoscope quilt like she does, I’m always looking for ideas on what to do with the medallions. I had seen Tomoko Tohno’s quilt “Orange Range” quilt, featured in the May 2008 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter magazine, and realized I could redraft the pattern so I could use the medallion, it would work beautifully. (Find Tomoko Tohno's pattern here.)

Tell us how the quilt came together.

I wanted a way to use the fabric effectively, because I had a limited amount of it, especially the stripes. I couldn’t repeat exactly what Tomoko had done, so I changed it. The blocks aren’t as complicated as they look. The piecing is actually pretty simple, and the fabric does the work! The medallions became the focal piece of each block, surrounded by fussy-cut triangles, paper pieced points, and striped diamonds.

How long did it take you to make this quilt?

That’s a tricky question because I set the quilt aside for quite a while. I started it probably in 2009, when the fabric was new. I got back to working on it in 2014 and finished all the piecing. It took about 2 hours to do a set of paper pieced triangles points, to give you an idea. I quilted it last summer.

How did you come up with your color layout?

As I mentioned, I was limited by the amount of striped fabric I had—I could only make a set number of diamonds from each colored stripe. I couldn’t do concentric rings, so I played around with placement. I made a bunch of different paper pieced strips and played around with what centers worked with other pieces.

Describe the quilting.

I had recently bought a Sweet Sixteen. It’s the first quilt completely done on it. I used King Tut thread—different colors to go with different sections. I quilted feathers all the way up the points. On the stripes, I quilted long designs.

What do you like best about the quilt?

It has different perspectives—up close I like looking at how the different prints flow into each other and create a kaleidoscopic look. From a distance, the yellow petals pop out and you see different color zones emerging.

Randa made a smaller version of her quilt using Paula's latest collection, Kismet. This quilt was on display at Quilt Market last fall. 

Later this week on the blog, we'll be talking about how to fussy-cut fabric like Paula's medallions!

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Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican Army's victory over French forces in 1862. The date has become a celebration of Mexican-American culture in the U.S. For many, this translates into going out with friends, eating Mexican food, and listening to Mexican music. Click here to learn more about the history of Cinco de Mayo.

On this social holiday, we thought it would be fun to share our Happy Hour III novelty print collection. Perfect for summer! 

These fun prints from Kanvas are fruity drink themed, with citrus slices, pineapples, and fun dots and stripes thrown in as well. 

Click here to see the entire Happy Hour III collection.

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Changing Lanes: A Dreamscape quilt

We all love a gorgeous quilt where the fabric does all the work! The Changing Lanes quilt, designed by Stephanie Sheridan of Stitched Together Studios, uses a cool palette of our Dreamscape collection in a simple yet stunning design. The Changing Lanes quilt is featured in the April/May 2017 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. Read on to learn more about it.

"Changing Lanes" by Stephanie Sheridan; machine quilted by Linda Leathersich;
featured in McCall's Quick Quilts April/May 2017

What attracted you the Dreamscape collection?

I love the soft mottled quality of this line - all of the colors just flow and blend, and the actual fabric print is understated.

How did you choose your palette from the wide variety of colors of the Dreamscape print?

Given the choice, I always tend towards a palette of cool ocean colors - blues, greens, turquoise, aqua and my personal favorite - purple! I actually also colored this design in a rainbow and a warm color version with Dreamscapes and a neutral color version using Nature'sPearl, but the cool colors became my favorite.

How did this design come to be?

My inspiration for this design concept was a bar code - I was thinking of it as a modern monochromatic quilt. When the editors asked me to try it out in colors I couldn't believe how great it looked!

Why does the Dreamscape line work well in this quilt?

First - it had the right amounts of lights and darks (you need 4 of each)! It also is a good blend-y line, so the colors are the star, rather than the actual fabric print. The flow of the fabric plays well with the straight lines of the design.

What do you like best about this quilt?

The way that the flow of the fabric design plays well with the straight lines of the quilt design.

Tell us about the quilting.

As always, Mom's quilting perfectly complements the quilt design. She used straight lines making open boxy shapes.

p.s. Lori Baker from McCall's shared a blog post about making the Changing Lanes quilt. She added rows to make it queen size, and created a beautiful pieced back. Click here to read her post. 

Click here to see the entire Dreamscape collection.

Click here to visit Stitched Together Studios' website.

Click here to find McCall's Quick Quilts.

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Playing with color: Blocks of Brilliance

Color! Color! Color! 

Blocks of Brilliance from Kanvas is absolutely bursting with color and we love it! 

Orange peels, loops, squares, a painter's stripe and cool layered collage prints. Blocks of Brilliance comes in both brights and pastels, though both colorways are richly saturated. 

Our Shadow Blush basics collection has the same soft watercolor feel of the Blocks of Brilliance prints. We've selected eight brights and eight pastels that coordinate beautifully with the prints. 

Click here to see the entire Blocks of Brilliance collection.
Click here to see the full line of Shadow Blush blenders. Have fun choosing colors to match these prints!

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