Tag: quilt along

Christa’s Quilt Along 3.1 – Charming Chevrons Supply List

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Free Quilt Pattern

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Charming Chevrons

I am so excited to start my next quilt along! I’m having a blast designing new quilt patterns and breaking them down into easy to follow step-by-step tutorials.

To purchase a PDF download of this pattern, click here.

What do you get when you combine a couple of charm packs with a fun geometric design made from triangles? The answer is Charming Chevrons (48″ x 56″), shown below:

Charming Chevrons

I designed my quilt using Kona Cotton charm packs in their new classic palette.

I have put together quilt kits using the exact fabrics shown above, plus a couple of variations using these Moda charm packs shown below.

American Jane School Days

American Jane School Days

Chez Moi Coquette

Chez Moi Coquette

Supply List

Important! If you’d like to pick your own charms, make sure that each pack contains at least 42 – 5 inch squares. Be sure to purchase or cut extra charms if needed.

Fabric

  • 2 of the same charm packs in darks or prints – 84 charms total (Kona colors above)
  • 2 of the same charm packs in lights or neutral solids – 84 charms total (Grey above)
  • 1/2 yard for the binding (can be same as the background or something else)
  • 3 yards for backing split into 2 equal pieces if using all the same fabric. If you prefer a scrappy backing like I do, collect assorted chunks and scraps to total this amount.
  • Batting piece measuring at least 54″ x 62″ – (why not piece together some leftovers?)

Supplies

  • Basic sewing equipment in good working order
  • Rotary cutting mat and equipment
  • Iron and/or pressing tool
  • A variety of acrylic plastic ruler sizes including a 6 inch square up ruler (or larger)
  • Brand new sewing machine needles (I always start with a fresh needle on a new project!)
  • Frixion marking pen for drawing straight piecing lines (or your favorite marking pen)
  • Neutral cotton thread for piecing
  • Decorative thread to match fabrics for quilting
  • Walking foot for straight line quilting
  • Optional – darning foot for free-motion quilting (FMQ)
  • Optional – design wall or large space to lay out your design
  • Optional – blue water soluble marking pen for marking quilting lines
  • Optional – pinmoors and pins for easy basting
  • Optional – supreme slider, machingers gloves, bobbin washers for smooth FMQ

Sewing Schedule (All links will be active once each step has been completed.)

Based on past tutorials, I am allowing plenty of time to sew the quilt together so no one feels rushed. You are always welcome to work ahead or slow it down. That’s the beauty of this quilt along – you can sew and quilt at your own pace!

Sharing is Caring

Please share your work in progress in my facebook group: Quilt With Christa . 🙂

Christa’s Quilt Along 2.8 – Blocking and Labeling Baby Bricks

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Free Quilt Pattern

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I have finally finished two Baby Bricks quilts, my Pretty Pink Version and my Boy Blue version. I am very pleased with both and wanted to share a little bit about blocking and labeling in this last tutorial. My next series, Charming Chevrons, will start tomorrow.

Baby Girl Bricks

Baby Boy Bricks

Here are the last steps I took to completely finish my quilts:

Step 1 – Spray Blocking

The blue quilt turned out pretty straight and flat so it did not need to be blocked. However, the pink/green version had a little ruffle in the borders.

Wavy Border

I got all the edges wet with a spray bottle, patted them into place, then let them dry.

Spray BlockingPat in PlaceLay Flat To DryI laid the quilt out on my basting tables so it could dry flat. You can also pin your quilts in place using a large piece of foam core board. I will try that method sometime in the future.

Here is a link to a previous post where I used rulers to make sure everything was straight.

Step 2 – Adding the Label

I must say, I really dislike adding labels to my quilts. Usually it’s because I’m in a rush to finish and I don’t want to think about that step. But I decided I really want to document my quilts better and include important information like what materials and techniques I used.

Iron Freezer Paper

Press The Edges

Add Text

I Using a scrap from the quilt top, I ironed a small piece of freezer paper to the back side of the fabric. (I used the wrong side of the fabric as the front because it was lighter.)

Cut the paper 1/4 inch smaller than the label fabric. Press the edges of fabric over the paper to make a crisp edge around the label. Flip the label over and add your text with a permanent marker. Be sure to remove the paper before attaching to the quilt.

Pin The Label

I pin basted the labels to the back corner of the quilt. Because my backings were pieced from scraps, this helped the labels to blend in a little better with the backing. I think I will try to print my label info on fabric for next time since my handwriting is not very pretty!

Hand Stitch the LabelAttach the label to the back of the quilt by hand using a matching thread.

This is the same stitching I used to finish the binding by hand.

It only took 10 minutes of sewing so I guess I will quilt complaining about what a hassle labels are.

Yay – both of my Baby Bricks quilts are finished. Now, onto the next quilt!

In case you missed it, or have just discovered this blog post, here is the complete schedule of tutorial posts for my Baby Bricks do-it-yourself quilt along:

Sharing is Caring

Please share your work in progress in my facebook group: Quilt With Christa . 🙂

Christa’s Quilt Along 2.6 – Baby Bricks Option 2 FMQ

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I love adding free-motion quilting to my quilts whenever I can. That is why I chose to enhance my girl version of Baby Bricks with some decorative double loops.

Baby Bricks - Girl VersionStep 1 – Securing the Blocks

Before getting to the fun part, the quilt needs to be secured with a little stitching in the ditch between all of the rows. This anchors the piece for more decorative quilting later.

Beginning the RowsStitch in the DitchWhen stitching to the end of a row, pivot and sew along the side to get to the start of the next row. I used my walking foot with an “open” toe so that I could clearly see where I was quilting.

Step 2 – Quilting the Loops

I quilted all of the white “negative space” with random double loops. To do this design, first quilt a row of single loops. I changed the direction of each loop for interest – think of stitching e’s & o’s in an alternating fashion.

Single LoopsWhen I reached the end of the row, without stopping, I went back the other direction, echoing the flowing lines between the loops and filling the inside of the circles with another loop. This created a ribbon look which I really like.

Double LoopsFor the FMQ, I used Isacord polyester thread in a Vanilla color which I bought from Leah Day. This was the first time trying that thread and I really like it. I need to get more colors!

Step 3 – Quilting the Blocks

At first I had planned on adding more free-motion quilting to the rectangular blocks, but then decided the quilt needed some geometric looking quilting instead. So I got out my ruler and washable marking pen and added registration marks, crisscrossing the blocks.

Add Registration MarksHad I planned this out more, I would have marked the quilt before I basted and probably quilted the straight lines first. But it just goes to show it’s ok to change your plans during quilting and it will still turn out great!

Straight Line Echo

With my walking foot and pink thread, I quilted lines 1/4″ away from either side of the marked lines. Then I spritzed the lines with water. (I will completely soak the quilt later.)

I marked an “x” design going in both directions on the center row of the quilt. Then each of the rows to the left and right accentuated the direction of the straight line quilting.

Quilting Detail

I pieced the back using some pink and green scraps from my stash. I like how much the quilting shows up on the back. (I used wool batting to give the quilting some body.)

Pieced Back

Here is the schedule of tutorial posts for my Baby Bricks do-it-yourself quilt along:

Sew and Tell Friday – Finished Jelly Roll Quilts

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I am so excited to see that people are finishing their Jolly Jelly Roll quilts. This was my first ever quilting tutorial and it gives me great satisfaction to see that it was a success! You can click here to see all the tutorials. (I still have a few Jolly Jelly Roll kits available, too!)

First, we have Joanne P. who made her quilt from fabric she got from me plus scraps from her stash. She picked a bright white inner border for a little “pop” and then bound it in blue.

Joanne's Jelly Roll Quilt

Joanne quilted a wavy grid effect by starting the quilting in her piano keys borders and continuing across the surface of the quilt  from top to bottom and side to side. You can see the neat effect it gave on the back of the quilt. I am so glad she “did-it herself!”

Quilting CloseupQuilted Grid

Kathleen W. was also very productive and finished her quilt, too. I just love the aboriginal prints, don’t you?

Kathleen's Jelly Roll QuiltKathleen’s favorite part of the quilt is her pieced backing. I concur! She did a nice job on the serpentine stitching,  and she even added a label, too. Way to go, Kathleen!

Kathleen's Quilt Back

Sew and Tell – Do it Yourself Quilts Update

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Today’s Sew and Tell is a little different. Instead of featuring a finished project made by one of my customers, I’m excited to share with you some finished jelly roll blocks from one of my quilt- along followers. Scroll down to  the end of this post if you want to join the fun!

These pictures come from Diane in Canada and she finished up this week’s homework in a jiffy!  She had an older strip bundle lying around that she put to good use.

Jelly Roll StripsDiane’s fabric is Greenfield Hill by Denise Schmidt for Westminster. Instead of randomly sewing the strips together, she matched up the pretty jewel tones into coordinating pairs.

Jelly Roll Blocks“Sew” far, “sew” good, Diane! I think your use of color will be striking if you sew each row in a different color, “strippy” style, or if you have the colors cascade across the quilt in an orderly fashion (like green, red, blue, black, etc.)

For those of you eager beavers out there like Diane that are ready to move on, I’ll give a sneak peek of what we’ll be working on for next week’s lesson. If you select 100 of your blocks and sew them together into 50 pairs like this you’ll be one step ahead.

Jelly Roll Block Pairs

Next week’s post will include complete directions on how to finish the quilt top, so make sure you grab your one yard of tone on tone or solid coordinate to go with your jelly roll.  I’m going to use Ruby Red Kona Solid to go along with my Vintage Modern jelly roll shown above.

In case you are just joining us, you can click the links below to catch up and follow along with this tutorial in it’s entirety. My main reason for starting this tutorial is to teach you that  yes, you can, make a complete quilt from start to finish, all by yourself!

DIY Quilts #1.1 – The Jolly Jellyroll Quilt Supply List

DIY Quilts #1.2 – Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt Blocks