Good Morning Scrappers and welcome to Week 4! This is a project I have been eager to share with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It has been hot, hot, HOT in Tucson, so I have been happily sewing away in the studio, diligently avoiding the heat and making new things for you. This week we are going to be using a lot of a background color (I chose black as my foundation) and a variety of colors that stand out from the background. There are almost no rules to this project. It is

One of the things I wanted Luke to help me with was how to make the materials I use (old clothes) become more interesting - for my designs and quilts to be more innovative - and perhaps on occasion less traditional. I started unloading my huge stash of clothes waiting to be recreated into something wonderful - when Luke asked if I kept scraps - me? keep scraps? - you could almost see him gag when I showed him how much of my scraps I kept! His theory was why use the good stuff when we could use the scraps. I couldn't argue with him - so we set about sewing the white and blue scraps into 'splats' (my eloquent name for them). Little blue pieces (above) all sewn together turn into a blue splat (below.) From these splats we cut 2.5" strips and pieced traditional log-cabin blocks. I thought it was really interesting how when you start to make a structured block from this random splat it all comes together & the little scraps all sewn together look very purposeful - as if you have almost meant to put each scrap where it is. Up close it looks random - but step back and the pattern becomes very clear. I particularly like all the whites together. I would be happy to make a whole quilt from white scraps like this. During the process of making my splats I experimented with sewing the seams the wrong way and instead of sewing bits together - sewing little splat patches onto big splats just with a running stitch. I really like the effect it has of making the surface texture of the blue fabric more interesting. My finished block which I will become the center of a pretty quilt in the near future. Now I just need to find time to sew all of my scraps together in this way to make them all re-useable fabric pieces ....

Good Morning Scrappers and welcome to Week 4! This is a project I have been eager to share with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It has been hot, hot, HOT in Tucson, so I have been happily sewing away in the studio, diligently avoiding the heat and making new things for you. This week we are going to be using a lot of a background color (I chose black as my foundation) and a variety of colors that stand out from the background. There are almost no rules to this project. It is

Good Morning Scrappers and welcome to Week 4! This is a project I have been eager to share with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It has been hot, hot, HOT in Tucson, so I have been happily sewing away in the studio, diligently avoiding the heat and making new things for you. This week we are going to be using a lot of a background color (I chose black as my foundation) and a variety of colors that stand out from the background. There are almost no rules to this project. It is

I suspect that a “fakie-hexie” is some sort of snowboarding move, but since this is clearly NOT a sports related blog I’m not worried about misleading anyone when I say I’m doing a tutorial on fakie-hexies. The hexagon craze has taken the modern quilting world by storm. They’re everywhere. Look for a minute on flickr and you can spot plenty of hexagons – on quilts, throws, burp cloths, pillows, aprons, in little stacks waiting to be added to a project…. I’ll just say right up front that I don’t have the patience to sit and make such little bitty things. That would just about drive me nuts. However, I like the look of them. A few months ago I spotted a quilt made from fakie hexagons and I realized that would be my solution. I can’t even remember where I saw the quilt (I’m thinking it was my local quilt shop, or mabye JoAnns. I was out and about somewhere…) so I have no idea who to credit for this idea. I do acknowledge that this is not my original idea. Now that I have made my own fakie-hexie quilt, I have had questions about it’s construction so I thought I would do a mini-tutorial to explain. First a little about fabric requirements: This quilt has a finished size of 45”x58”. The finished quilt contains 176 hexagons. You’ll need 1/3 yard of 11 different fabrics or 176 charm squares. From each 1/3 yard, cut 16 5” squares. Then I cut the squares in half (so now I had 2.5” by 5” rectangles) Stack the rectangles (I did two at a time, and I suggest doing no more than 4 at a time – for accuracy reasons) Now you’re ready to arrange the pieces into hexagons. You’ll be assembling this in long vertical columns so keep that in mind when you’re placing pieces. (This next photo shows one isolated column, just to help you see more clearly how the top is assembled) Time to piece! (Use a 1/4 inch seam) Work with one column at a time to help keep thing organized. When you’re piecing two blocks together, you want to line them up like this: with a very scant 1/4 inch tip overlapping on each side. It may feel wrong at first, but if you do that then your blocks will line up nicely like so: Continue assembling the blocks until you complete a column. Press all seams in one direction. For the next column, press seams in the opposite direction. (This will help your seams to nest beautifully in the next step) As I completed and pressed each column, I laid it out on the floor to help keep everything in order. It’s coming together! This part of the process is always so satisfying. Now it’s time to sew the columns together. As you sew, take the time to make sure each seams nests together like this: Taking time to match up those seams will insure pretty points and matching seams: (totally worth it!) Once all columns are sewn together, press seams open. Now your quilt top is assembled! At this point you can trim off the points along the top and bottom so you have a nice straight edge. (I did that step after the quilting was done so I could trim up the backing, batting and top all at the same time.) Let me know if you have any questions, and if you make a fakie-hexie quilt let me know. I would love to see what this would look like with other fabrics!

Foundation paper pieced mini quilt. The mountain quilt blocks are so cute!

The “Shuffle Quilt” pattern is a great solution for using up those layer cakes you have accumulated and would also put a good dent in the scrap pile if that is what you prefer.

Okay so here it is--my very first tutorial. Try not to judge me too harshly. Ever since I made my round 11 quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap I've had quite a few people as me for a tutorial or pattern for it. Well I didn't have one--I just figured it out on the fly. But I thought this might be a good way for me to cut my teeth as far as tutorials go, so here you have it. First of all some notes. All seams are 1/4". This tutorial is for a doll-sized quilt since most inquiries were about that size, but it could easily be translated into bigger blocks for a real quilt. Okay, here we go! Okay, now you need to cut your fabric. You will need to cut your background fabric into 42 3.5" squares. Next, cut the zig-zag fabric into 2" strips. I used Kona Ash for the background and some Good Folks scraps I've been hoarding for awhile now. The strips were various lengths but I found I didn't need much--a fat quarter of each fabric will leave you with LOTS of extra fabric. All cut out? Good. You're ready to sew. Lay a strip of patterned fabric across the background fabric at a diagonal. The exact angle isn't important, especially if you're going for a wonky look. Set your machine for a quarter inch stitch, and line your presser foot up with the edge of the patterned fabric. Sew, sew, sew. Flip the fabric over and press. Note--you will need to press the seams so that the strip is folded over, not the backing. You will need the square to stay square for a little while longer. See what I mean about the square? Okay good. Now keep it flipped over. Now it's time to trim the excess strip fabric away. Using the square as the template, cut along the edges. Flip it over and check it out!! Sorry. I feel like such a tease now. But you're really almost done! Flip the strip back over so it's like it was when you first sewed it on... ...and do what the picture tells you to. Now, repeat the process 41 more times. This doesn't take as long as you'd think, especially if you chain piece. All done? Good. You should have some nice little stacks that you can proceed to play with until you find a good layout. Here's mine: Now, about that layout. I'm sure you can figure it out by trial and error, but here's the pattern I used to get that lightning effect: Got it? Now you're ready to sew it all together, and you end up with this: Tada! You're done! Now you're ready to quilt and bind, baby. Hope you like this, let me know if you all have any suggestions!

The Haphazard Quilt – A scrapbusting project

The string quilt is a scrapbuster, no doubt, and it can also be incredibly liberating. Constructed from a series of thin strips (the strings), string-pieced blocks come in a wider variety of shapes and designs

I've had so many requests for how I made the selvage spiderweb quilt, I thought I'd do a quick tutorial of how I adapted Bonnie's Quiltville spiderweb tutorial to make my quilt. I'm not going to repeat Bonnie's instructions for how to make the template. You can find her instructions on the Quiltville site. So let's get started. Using Bonnie's instructions you will make your kite templates and cut your paper foundations. You will need just a touch of glue. I use Elmer's washable glue stick. I recycle paper from my printer to use as foundations. Here's how I trace my templates. I cut a 6" wide strip of fabric and trace the template alternated facing up and down butted against each other. I can get 13 kites from one width of fabric strip. Next, you'll need selvages...lots of them. Not all selvages are created equal. You will need at least 1/4" of fabric above the actual selvage for this quilt. You can make smaller ones work, but that 1/4" of fabric will make your life easier as you make this quilt. I also like to include peeks of the fabric when I use selvages so for me it's more like a 1/2" to an inch of fabric above the selvage. For the outer ring on my spiderweb blocks I decided to include a significant amount of fabric in addition to the selvage. I wanted the quilt to be colorful and I wanted to showcase some of my favorite fabrics that I've used in quilts. The outer ring selvages ranged in size from about 2 1/2" to as small as an inch. You will need to trim your selvages so the top edge is straight and even. Place your kite on your foundation triangle with a tish of glue as in the picture below. Now it's time to start placing selvages. I lay the selvage face down lining up the raw edge with the edge of the kite to trim my selvage to right length. I let it extend past the foundation on each side just a bit. Sew the first selvage with a 1/4" seam allowance. Be sure to set a small stitch length so that you'll be able to easily remove the paper later on. I set mine at 1.25 on my machine. Flip the selvage and press. Here's where I adapt Bonnie's method. With normal fabric you would continue the stitch and flip method of the first strip. With selvages it's a little bit different. The second selvage will be placed 1/4" UNDER the first selvage as in the picture below. With the second selvage slipped under the first, you'll sew on top of the first selvage just a tish from the finished edge. This will secure the second selvage. I run the inside edge of my 1/4" foot along the edge of the selvage when I sew. Continue this process all the way down the paper foundation until you have about an inch or so of paper still showing. On this piece I added one more narrow selvage. Try to keep the last pieced added to be at least one inch wide. This will help to reduce bulk as you join the wedges together to form the spiderweb. The last piece should extend just to the tip of the paper with 1/4" slipped under the selvage above. Repeat the entire process on the opposite side of the paper foundation and it should look something like this. Flip over the section and get ready to trim. Use the edge of the foundation to line up your ruler and use your rotary cutter to trim off the selvage ends that extend past the foundation. You can remove the paper now or wait until you have a bunch completed. The paper should tear away easily if you use a nice small stitch length. Be careful not to stretch or distort the block as you remove the paper. A completed section looks like this. I join the sections together differently than in Bonnie's tutorial. If you join sections like Bonnie does you will create a straight setting. Your webs will line up across your quilt. If you join them like I do here, your webs will be offset. Place two sections right sides together and sew along the long edge. I line up the kite points and pin there. You may want to pin more. I highly recommend that you press your seams open. This will greatly reduce bulk and make your assembly much easier and your quilt will lay nice and flat. Pressing seams with selvages open can be a challenge, but I learned to start in the center (where the points of the kite come together) and work to the edge when you're pressing. Open the center with your fingers, use the tip of your iron and open the seam as you float just above the fabric moving to the outer edge. Just touch the fabric enough to open the seam. Then press. Repeat for the other half, starting at the center and working to the other edge. If you try to go from one end to the other you'll be working against the selvages. Be sure to press again from the right side. Don't forget to trim those little triangles that extend on the corners. Again, it will help reduce bulk if you get rid of them. It will take 4 of these blocks or 8 sections to form your first full spiderweb. It's time consuming, but you'll find a rhythm and you'll have a quilt in no time. Have a great weekend and don't forget to check out Quilting Month on Sew Mama Sew...some really cute quilts are being showcased!

Good Morning Scrappers and welcome to Week 4! This is a project I have been eager to share with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It has been hot, hot, HOT in Tucson, so I have been happily sewing away in the studio, diligently avoiding the heat and making new things for you. This week we are going to be using a lot of a background color (I chose black as my foundation) and a variety of colors that stand out from the background. There are almost no rules to this project. It is

(Edited to add: see the finished quilts HERE) Back in January I cut my string scraps that were less than 2.5" down to a uniform width of 1.5". Since then they've been aging in a couple of large ziploc bags. This weekend I decided the time had come to do something with those scraps! As many scrap quilts have made I remain amazed by how many quilts can hide in a scrap bin. Scraps are irresistible to me. Much more so than yardage. I had an idea in my head for what I wanted to do with these strings and I decided to photograph the process for a tutorial. I started by sorting out the cool colors, which probably constituted half of the strings. (I *might* have a problem with the color blue... the "warms" pile was pitiful by comparison.) I sewed the strings together at their short ends to make one looooooong string. Locate both loose ends, put them rights sides together, and start sewing down one long side toward the middle. When you reach the middle it will probably be all twisty. Cut it and complete sewing the two strips together. Press your string pair, then repeat the process. Find both loose ends and start sewing your pairs into a four. Press and repeat, sewing your 4-string string into an 8-string. This takes a long time if you started with a lot of string like I did. The bright side is that every time you fold it in half and sew, it ends up half as long, so as you go it gets easier. Keep going until you have a long panel 16 strings wide. I considered stopping at this point and just making a quilt top out of horizontal strings, but I decided to continue with my original plan. I sub cut the panel into squares, each 16.5" square. I put these up on the design wall alternating directions, this would make a cool quilt, too. Then I did the same process with my neutral colored strings. I took the neutral and cool colored squares and turned them into HSTs. I marked the line with a sharpie and pinned the blocks so they didn't shift while I sewed on either side of the line. If you put the squares together with their strips running the same way, then in the HST they will turn. If you put them together with their strips perpendicular then in the HST they will run the same direction. I chose the first method so the two different colors run at different angles. With my blocks turned into HSTs the options are limitless... Any layout that can be made with HSTs. I haven't sewn these together yet, still auditioning layouts to find my favorite. Which do you like best? Linking to Oh Scrap!

Update January 2015 In the Fall of 2014, The Buggy Barn closed their doors....so sad :/ Their books can still be found today via a Google search. I'm getting ready to teach a great technique, a unique technique! It's The Buggy Barn Way. Trinity Quilt Club will be learning this nifty way to piece together blocks. After teaching a whole year and then some of the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt, this will be a breeze! Very forgiving, no need to stress over seams that don't line up and the blocks are big! Here is the beginning of my Spring Fever quilt. Trace the pattern onto Freezer Paper and iron on to a stack of Fat Quarters layered in a specific order. Using a large Rotary Cutter, cut through the stack of Fat Quarters (FQ). Depending on the amount of FQ's needed, one may want to divide the pile into a manageable thickness for cutting. In this particular pattern, the pattern is stitched together in quadrants. Each quadrant in the photo above has 5 separate pieces to be stitched together. Shown below are the lower quadrants A and B. Square up ONLY the sides you will be stitching together. I just simply placed the ruler on two areas that matched, and trimmed the rest. In the picture above, both A and B quadrants are trimmed and ready to stitch together. Once they are stitched together, again trim ONLY the side which will be sewn to the trimmed quadrant C and D. Once the sections are trimmed and ready to sew together, pin the middle intersection and i throw a couple extra pins in just to keep the block from shifting. You can see how uneven it is! Not to worry one bit! Below is the block stitched together ready to be trimmed to the appropriate size. My pattern said to trim it to 11.5", but my blocks are easily trimmed to 12". There is no sashing or border added to this quilt. It calls for a total of 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down. My mother-in-law gave me scraps from her stash over Christmas. I rummaged through them last week and found enough of the plaid and the farmer/strawberry fabric, added the white fabric from my stash and am making this for my little grand niece Sammy, for a drag around quilt. Sammy's quilt will be 3 blocks across and 4 blocks down for a total of 12 blocks. I will add a border to make it a bit larger. Click Here to view the finished quilt

Squircle Party (54″ x 60″), machine pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted Highs & Lows of 2021 (67″ x 43″), hand and machine pieced, hand quilted Tiny Bubbles (44̸…

I suspect that a “fakie-hexie” is some sort of snowboarding move, but since this is clearly NOT a sports related blog I’m not worried about misleading anyone when I say I’m doing a tutorial on fakie-hexies. The hexagon craze has taken the modern quilting world by storm. They’re everywhere. Look for a minute on flickr and you can spot plenty of hexagons – on quilts, throws, burp cloths, pillows, aprons, in little stacks waiting to be added to a project…. I’ll just say right up front that I don’t have the patience to sit and make such little bitty things. That would just about drive me nuts. However, I like the look of them. A few months ago I spotted a quilt made from fakie hexagons and I realized that would be my solution. I can’t even remember where I saw the quilt (I’m thinking it was my local quilt shop, or mabye JoAnns. I was out and about somewhere…) so I have no idea who to credit for this idea. I do acknowledge that this is not my original idea. Now that I have made my own fakie-hexie quilt, I have had questions about it’s construction so I thought I would do a mini-tutorial to explain. First a little about fabric requirements: This quilt has a finished size of 45”x58”. The finished quilt contains 176 hexagons. You’ll need 1/3 yard of 11 different fabrics or 176 charm squares. From each 1/3 yard, cut 16 5” squares. Then I cut the squares in half (so now I had 2.5” by 5” rectangles) Stack the rectangles (I did two at a time, and I suggest doing no more than 4 at a time – for accuracy reasons) Now you’re ready to arrange the pieces into hexagons. You’ll be assembling this in long vertical columns so keep that in mind when you’re placing pieces. (This next photo shows one isolated column, just to help you see more clearly how the top is assembled) Time to piece! (Use a 1/4 inch seam) Work with one column at a time to help keep thing organized. When you’re piecing two blocks together, you want to line them up like this: with a very scant 1/4 inch tip overlapping on each side. It may feel wrong at first, but if you do that then your blocks will line up nicely like so: Continue assembling the blocks until you complete a column. Press all seams in one direction. For the next column, press seams in the opposite direction. (This will help your seams to nest beautifully in the next step) As I completed and pressed each column, I laid it out on the floor to help keep everything in order. It’s coming together! This part of the process is always so satisfying. Now it’s time to sew the columns together. As you sew, take the time to make sure each seams nests together like this: Taking time to match up those seams will insure pretty points and matching seams: (totally worth it!) Once all columns are sewn together, press seams open. Now your quilt top is assembled! At this point you can trim off the points along the top and bottom so you have a nice straight edge. (I did that step after the quilting was done so I could trim up the backing, batting and top all at the same time.) Let me know if you have any questions, and if you make a fakie-hexie quilt let me know. I would love to see what this would look like with other fabrics!

Good Morning Scrappers and welcome to Week 4! This is a project I have been eager to share with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It has been hot, hot, HOT in Tucson, so I have been happily sewing away in the studio, diligently avoiding the heat and making new things for you. This week we are going to be using a lot of a background color (I chose black as my foundation) and a variety of colors that stand out from the background. There are almost no rules to this project. It is

Okay so here it is--my very first tutorial. Try not to judge me too harshly. Ever since I made my round 11 quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap I've had quite a few people as me for a tutorial or pattern for it. Well I didn't have one--I just figured it out on the fly. But I thought this might be a good way for me to cut my teeth as far as tutorials go, so here you have it. First of all some notes. All seams are 1/4". This tutorial is for a doll-sized quilt since most inquiries were about that size, but it could easily be translated into bigger blocks for a real quilt. Okay, here we go! Okay, now you need to cut your fabric. You will need to cut your background fabric into 42 3.5" squares. Next, cut the zig-zag fabric into 2" strips. I used Kona Ash for the background and some Good Folks scraps I've been hoarding for awhile now. The strips were various lengths but I found I didn't need much--a fat quarter of each fabric will leave you with LOTS of extra fabric. All cut out? Good. You're ready to sew. Lay a strip of patterned fabric across the background fabric at a diagonal. The exact angle isn't important, especially if you're going for a wonky look. Set your machine for a quarter inch stitch, and line your presser foot up with the edge of the patterned fabric. Sew, sew, sew. Flip the fabric over and press. Note--you will need to press the seams so that the strip is folded over, not the backing. You will need the square to stay square for a little while longer. See what I mean about the square? Okay good. Now keep it flipped over. Now it's time to trim the excess strip fabric away. Using the square as the template, cut along the edges. Flip it over and check it out!! Sorry. I feel like such a tease now. But you're really almost done! Flip the strip back over so it's like it was when you first sewed it on... ...and do what the picture tells you to. Now, repeat the process 41 more times. This doesn't take as long as you'd think, especially if you chain piece. All done? Good. You should have some nice little stacks that you can proceed to play with until you find a good layout. Here's mine: Now, about that layout. I'm sure you can figure it out by trial and error, but here's the pattern I used to get that lightning effect: Got it? Now you're ready to sew it all together, and you end up with this: Tada! You're done! Now you're ready to quilt and bind, baby. Hope you like this, let me know if you all have any suggestions!

Update January 2015 In the Fall of 2014, The Buggy Barn closed their doors....so sad :/ Their books can still be found today via a Google search. I'm getting ready to teach a great technique, a unique technique! It's The Buggy Barn Way. Trinity Quilt Club will be learning this nifty way to piece together blocks. After teaching a whole year and then some of the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt, this will be a breeze! Very forgiving, no need to stress over seams that don't line up and the blocks are big! Here is the beginning of my Spring Fever quilt. Trace the pattern onto Freezer Paper and iron on to a stack of Fat Quarters layered in a specific order. Using a large Rotary Cutter, cut through the stack of Fat Quarters (FQ). Depending on the amount of FQ's needed, one may want to divide the pile into a manageable thickness for cutting. In this particular pattern, the pattern is stitched together in quadrants. Each quadrant in the photo above has 5 separate pieces to be stitched together. Shown below are the lower quadrants A and B. Square up ONLY the sides you will be stitching together. I just simply placed the ruler on two areas that matched, and trimmed the rest. In the picture above, both A and B quadrants are trimmed and ready to stitch together. Once they are stitched together, again trim ONLY the side which will be sewn to the trimmed quadrant C and D. Once the sections are trimmed and ready to sew together, pin the middle intersection and i throw a couple extra pins in just to keep the block from shifting. You can see how uneven it is! Not to worry one bit! Below is the block stitched together ready to be trimmed to the appropriate size. My pattern said to trim it to 11.5", but my blocks are easily trimmed to 12". There is no sashing or border added to this quilt. It calls for a total of 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down. My mother-in-law gave me scraps from her stash over Christmas. I rummaged through them last week and found enough of the plaid and the farmer/strawberry fabric, added the white fabric from my stash and am making this for my little grand niece Sammy, for a drag around quilt. Sammy's quilt will be 3 blocks across and 4 blocks down for a total of 12 blocks. I will add a border to make it a bit larger. Click Here to view the finished quilt

I suspect that a “fakie-hexie” is some sort of snowboarding move, but since this is clearly NOT a sports related blog I’m not worried about misleading anyone when I say I’m doing a tutorial on fakie-hexies. The hexagon craze has taken the modern quilting world by storm. They’re everywhere. Look for a minute on flickr and you can spot plenty of hexagons – on quilts, throws, burp cloths, pillows, aprons, in little stacks waiting to be added to a project…. I’ll just say right up front that I don’t have the patience to sit and make such little bitty things. That would just about drive me nuts. However, I like the look of them. A few months ago I spotted a quilt made from fakie hexagons and I realized that would be my solution. I can’t even remember where I saw the quilt (I’m thinking it was my local quilt shop, or mabye JoAnns. I was out and about somewhere…) so I have no idea who to credit for this idea. I do acknowledge that this is not my original idea. Now that I have made my own fakie-hexie quilt, I have had questions about it’s construction so I thought I would do a mini-tutorial to explain. First a little about fabric requirements: This quilt has a finished size of 45”x58”. The finished quilt contains 176 hexagons. You’ll need 1/3 yard of 11 different fabrics or 176 charm squares. From each 1/3 yard, cut 16 5” squares. Then I cut the squares in half (so now I had 2.5” by 5” rectangles) Stack the rectangles (I did two at a time, and I suggest doing no more than 4 at a time – for accuracy reasons) Now you’re ready to arrange the pieces into hexagons. You’ll be assembling this in long vertical columns so keep that in mind when you’re placing pieces. (This next photo shows one isolated column, just to help you see more clearly how the top is assembled) Time to piece! (Use a 1/4 inch seam) Work with one column at a time to help keep thing organized. When you’re piecing two blocks together, you want to line them up like this: with a very scant 1/4 inch tip overlapping on each side. It may feel wrong at first, but if you do that then your blocks will line up nicely like so: Continue assembling the blocks until you complete a column. Press all seams in one direction. For the next column, press seams in the opposite direction. (This will help your seams to nest beautifully in the next step) As I completed and pressed each column, I laid it out on the floor to help keep everything in order. It’s coming together! This part of the process is always so satisfying. Now it’s time to sew the columns together. As you sew, take the time to make sure each seams nests together like this: Taking time to match up those seams will insure pretty points and matching seams: (totally worth it!) Once all columns are sewn together, press seams open. Now your quilt top is assembled! At this point you can trim off the points along the top and bottom so you have a nice straight edge. (I did that step after the quilting was done so I could trim up the backing, batting and top all at the same time.) Let me know if you have any questions, and if you make a fakie-hexie quilt let me know. I would love to see what this would look like with other fabrics!

Foundation paper pieced mini quilt. The mountain quilt blocks are so cute!

This is for a digital download (PDF) version of the pattern. See back cover for fabric requirements. Watch a video tutorial showing how to make this quilt from start to finish: https://youtu.be/Ymw1y4GigPI Careful color placement creates this stunning design from simple triangle-in-a-square blocks. Make them using the suggested ruler or included full size templates. Cover quilt shown is made from Christa's Abstract Garden fabric collection & Modern Marks from Benartex/Contempo Studio. Substitute fabrics in similar colors to achieve the same look. Pattern includes instructions for 3 sizes, full color diagrams and machine quilting suggestions.

The Haphazard Quilt – A scrapbusting project

From Cathy's Confectionery Company: Crumby Yummy Candy 56 x 64 Ready for giving or gifting! This was another Rainbow Scrap Challenge project from last year. I picked through my crumb boxes for scraps in the color of the month and made these eight inch Crumby Yummy Candy blocks. For the background fabric I used mostly white on whites but did also use a few pieces with what looked like sprinkles. A couple of backgrounds have jelly beans. I quilted it on my DSM with lots of squiggles in the candies and some streamers in between them. I figured I had used so much white on the front that I had better use a lighter colored backing. And on to the next!! This was my goal #8 for Q3 Finish--Along

Update January 2015 In the Fall of 2014, The Buggy Barn closed their doors....so sad :/ Their books can still be found today via a Google search. I'm getting ready to teach a great technique, a unique technique! It's The Buggy Barn Way. Trinity Quilt Club will be learning this nifty way to piece together blocks. After teaching a whole year and then some of the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt, this will be a breeze! Very forgiving, no need to stress over seams that don't line up and the blocks are big! Here is the beginning of my Spring Fever quilt. Trace the pattern onto Freezer Paper and iron on to a stack of Fat Quarters layered in a specific order. Using a large Rotary Cutter, cut through the stack of Fat Quarters (FQ). Depending on the amount of FQ's needed, one may want to divide the pile into a manageable thickness for cutting. In this particular pattern, the pattern is stitched together in quadrants. Each quadrant in the photo above has 5 separate pieces to be stitched together. Shown below are the lower quadrants A and B. Square up ONLY the sides you will be stitching together. I just simply placed the ruler on two areas that matched, and trimmed the rest. In the picture above, both A and B quadrants are trimmed and ready to stitch together. Once they are stitched together, again trim ONLY the side which will be sewn to the trimmed quadrant C and D. Once the sections are trimmed and ready to sew together, pin the middle intersection and i throw a couple extra pins in just to keep the block from shifting. You can see how uneven it is! Not to worry one bit! Below is the block stitched together ready to be trimmed to the appropriate size. My pattern said to trim it to 11.5", but my blocks are easily trimmed to 12". There is no sashing or border added to this quilt. It calls for a total of 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down. My mother-in-law gave me scraps from her stash over Christmas. I rummaged through them last week and found enough of the plaid and the farmer/strawberry fabric, added the white fabric from my stash and am making this for my little grand niece Sammy, for a drag around quilt. Sammy's quilt will be 3 blocks across and 4 blocks down for a total of 12 blocks. I will add a border to make it a bit larger. Click Here to view the finished quilt

I'm so delighted with this week's project! It was fast and fun, cut and finished in a weekend. In fact, I liked it so much I'm already planning to make it again in cool colors. This time around, we'll be looking at working with small left overs that can be cut to the same width (in this case 2 1/2"). Because we're working with a very diverse pile of warm temperature scraps, I'm going to introduce a solid fabric to unify the scraps and create a visual resting space. Cutting for 1 block (Fin