Hi friends!

I'd like to introduce you to my new pattern,

Merry Pinwheels!

I wanted to design a 2-1/2" strip-friendly pattern

and thought these pinwheels were really fun!

Merry Pinwheels would be cute in any colorway.  

But I used this darling Rolie Polie from Riley Blake Designs called

Holiday Cheer by My Mind's Eye. 

It's full of vintagy Christmas goodness!

And bonus, the selvages are so cute!

I believe the skill level for Merry Pinwheels is "confident beginner".

It comes with instructions for FIVE different quilt sizes:

Crib, Throw, Twin, Queen, and King.

This is the twin size.

For the background, I used Sparkler in the color Alpine

by Melissa Mortenson for Riley Blake Designs.

And then I found this darling pink gingham fabric 

for the backing. So vintagy and sweet.

My quilter, Jen Ostler (@drycreekquilter on Instagram) 

quilted it for me.  She used the Orange Peel Swirl Panto.

It was a new-to-me design and I think it's perfect

for this quilt.  It's festive but doesn't take away

from the pattern or prints.

Jen was able to get the design to line up perfectly with the blocks.  I love it.

I bound it with the red stripe from Holiday Cheer.

And of course, I added a simple label from Ever Emblem.

I get the 2" cotton, fold-over, sew-in labels.

If you go to their site, you'll have to pick a cotton label 

and customize it from there.  I've been using their labels for years.  

They're so convenient.  Now I don't have an excuse to not label my quilts!

We're all set for Christmas now.  (I love putting Christmas

quilts on beds during December.  It creates a magical feeling

and gives the added warmth needed in our home here in Utah).

I'll be sharing some of my pattern tester's versions soon.

If you were going to make this quilt what colors/fabrics

would you use?  I'm thinking this would be darling

in 30's reproduction prints.

You can get the PDF pattern HERE

and the paper pattern HERE.

P.S. All patterns and quilts in my Etsy shop

are 20% off right now.

Happy quilting!

Scrappy Brick Quilt

 Good morning!

I have another scrap-buster quilt

to share with you today.

It's a brick-style quilt.  Have you made one of those before?

It was my first time doing one and you can't 

get any easier than this pattern right here!

I was using up scraps leftover from my Kaleidoscope quilt

which you can see HERE.  I ended up cutting some more rectangles

from my stash and scraps to make it a little bigger though.  

I cut 3" x 9" for the main rectangles and 3" x 4-3/4" rectangles for the half-rectangles.

The finished size of this quilt is 43" x 53" but you could make it any size you want!

I think this size would be perfect for a baby, toddler, or lap quilt.

 Because my quilt top was wider than 40" (and you need extra backing fabric

for longarm quilting) I decided to go with this 60" wide chambray

fabric for the back.  It's called Robert Kaufman Chambray Union 5 Point Dot  

and I got it from Sewtopia in Salt Lake City.  I didn't want to piece the back for such

a small quilt so this was a great way to go.  I love the little design on it!

The labels are from Everemblem.

I get the 2" cotton, fold-over, sew-in labels.

If you go to their site, you'll have to pick a cotton label 

and customize it from there.  I've loved the ease of these labels.

Now I don't have an excuse to not label my quilts!

I love this gold and rust stripe fabric that I used

for the binding.  It's the Warp & Weft Moonglow Stitch Suede by

Alexia Marcelle Abegg for Ruby Star Society.  I got it from

Sewtopia in SLC as well. 

Jen Ostler in Highland, Utah quilted it for me.

The design she used is called Terracotta and I've used

it quite a few times.  I really like that panto for a

nice, basic, overall pattern.  Jen did a fantastic job as usual!

I love a super easy, fast, scrap-buster pattern, don't you?

I'm really happy with the way this turned out

and would definitely make this pattern again.

I hope this inspired you to use up some of your scraps.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy quilting!

Scrap Happy Quilt Tutorial

 This next project I want to share with you is such a great scrapbuster!

I saw a quilt like it at my friend's mother's house and knew it would be such a fun project 

so I just had to make one too!

Here's a brief description of how to make this beginner-friendly quilt:

1. Gather a bunch of 4-1/2" wide scraps (they can be any length you want). 

I cut mine anywhere from 1-1/2" to about 5-6" in length.

2. Sew them into one long strip.  Press the seam allowances open.  

3. Cut that strip into 4-1/2" segments.   

Some of the fabrics will be wide and some will be narrow strips.  

You're not supposed to worry if they're really narrow - that's what

makes this pattern charming.  (I would adjust my ruler to avoid

having a piece that was smaller than 3/4" though).

4. Lay out the blocks, rotating every other one so the strips alternate directions.  

5. Sew the segments into rows.  Press the seams in one direction, 

alternating the direction with each row.  

6. Sew the rows together and press all the seams in one direction.

You can make this quilt any size you want.

I made mine pretty big to use up a bunch of fabrics from my stash.

I did an 18 x 21 layout (378 segments) so my quilt

finished at 72" x 84".  That means I needed a 4-1/2" wide 

strip of scraps about 48 YARDS long!!!

I had my friend, Jen Ostler in Highland, Utah quilt it for me

with a new-to-me panto called Spring.  It's made up of

circle and petal shapes.  Do you see the little bee Jen added in, just for fun?!?

She always hides a little object in the quilting for a fun game

of hide-and-seek.

I had the white and purple polka-dot fabric in my stash 

(but didn't have quite enough so I added in a strip of the mint green fabric

to make my back long enough).  Then I bound the quilt in the aqua floral fabric

from my fabric line, Treasured Threads by Poppie Cotton.  The specific name 

for that fabric is Double Crochet in the color Teal.

This project was really easy and really fun!

I highly suggest doing it if you have a lot of scraps!

I am having a quilt sale soon.

I have so many quilts that are just sitting in closets, not getting used

and I need to recoup some of my costs for them (plus gain back some closet space!)

So you can visit my Etsy shop HERE if you're interested in a pattern or a quilt.

This quilt will be included in the sale which will probably start on Monday 9/18/23.

Feel free to pass along this info to anyone you know who loves handmade quilts.

I would appreciate the shares!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy quilting!

Lattice Quilt

 Hi friends!  Today I'm sharing a fun

quilt I made with some blocks I received

in a block swap.

This was a project I participated in with my local quilt group.

We do swaps a few times a year.  This time, our swap coordinator

sent out some simple instructions for these lattice blocks along with

some earth-tone color palette pictures for inspiration.

We swapped sets of 40 blocks each month for 3 months.  We could swap more than one set if we wanted to...but I only did one set each month.  That gave me 120 blocks and then I made 104 more blocks on my own for a total of 224 blocks.  I probably should've just made more sets to swap but I wasn't sure what my plan was at the time.  Oh, and one set of fabrics could not be repeated more than 7 times so that we had lots of variety.

We were asked to not trim or press the blocks before swapping so everyone could do that themselves, according to their own preference and with their own ruler.  I tried to stay on top of the pressing and trimming each month so I wouldn't have to do it all at the end.

After I had all the blocks pressed and trimmed I spent a long time laying them out in rainbow (ish) order from top to bottom.  I have never spent so long laying out blocks before!  There is no exact science to this method.  I only focused on the triangle colors and didn't worry about the colors of the skinny rectangle pieces.  I tried to create balance.  It's not perfect but it's pleasing to my eye.  I did a 14 x 16 block layout so it would be symmetrical.  I made the last few blocks at this stage so I could see what colors I still needed.

I stacked all the blocks up in rows and numbered them with my Marilee's Numbered Pins 

to keep everything in order.  Then I sewed them together using the web piecing technique.

Click HERE to get a free PDF describing how to do that method.  I love it because it saves time and thread!

Can I be honest here for a sec...?

When we first started the swap I thought this was going to be the ugliest quilt ever!
Haha!  I did not see how all of these fabrics were going to come together.

But once I got them all laid out I started to really like it.  Oh, and in case you're wondering I did use all the blocks I was given except for a few that the seam allowances were really tiny or the middle rectangle was too wide.  Those kinds of things happen in a swap.  But I didn't hold out any because of their color.

P.S. There are lots of ways you could put these blocks together.  Some people did

a scrappy layout.  Some people put four blocks together and then sashed

those.  I wanted to do something different so this is what I came up with.  They all turned out really cute though.  They're all so scrappy.  Swapping blocks was "the way to go" with this quilt!

I backed my quilt with some fabric that I just so happened to have in my stash.

It's called Francesca in Mediterraneo from the Nonna collection by Guicy Guice for Andover.

I love that it incorporated so many earth-tone colors!

I had Jen Ostler quilt it with the Glass Castle panto by Karlee Porter.  I hadn't used that panto before but I really liked the movement it gave to the front of the quilt and it complimented the backing fabric nicely (it's a little hard to see in the picture but the background of the backing fabric has a similar design).

I finished binding it while I was at a quilt retreat in Montana last week.

My friend Brooke and I took our quilts down to the lake to get some pictures and 

I love how this one turned out!  It was windy and we were laughing so hard.

Isn't her smile and the lighting so great?!?

It was a fun project!

There are always some issues when you participate in a swap but 

overall I'm so glad I participated in it!  I love how this quilt turned out.

So worth it!

I've been asked many times for details on this block so I've created a simple PDF

with instructions and the details on my specific quilt.  Click HERE to get that

and let me know if you have any questions!

Happy quilting!

Positive Vibes Quilt

 Hello, hello!  I finally got some pictures of my 

finished Positive Vibes quilt that I want to share with you today!

I got her quilted a while ago but I am so slow at binding these days

and I'm even slower at getting pictures!

I designed this pattern to go along with my recent fabric collection

with Poppie Cotton called Treasured Threads.  The little rectangles in it

remind me of stitching.

It's fat-quarter-friendly and the pattern comes

with instructions for 2 size options - baby and throw.

I hosted a quilt-along for it in March and April of this year.

I even taught a few Positive Vibes classes for different guilds

recently and it is so fun seeing the different colorways people choose.

It's cute in every colorway!

I would say the skill level on this pattern is advanced beginner.

It has an on-point layout (so the blocks are turned 45 degrees).  

It's not much harder to sew a quilt this way.  

You just sew diagonal rows of blocks with triangles on the ends - 

to square it up.

I had my quilter, Jen Ostler in Highland, Utah quilt it for me.

She used the Diamond Loops pattern and I love it!

I think the diagonal lines and the curvature of the loops really compliment

the pattern and the fabrics!

I love a good scrappy binding and this one does not disappoint!

This quilt finishes at 71" x 85".  

A nice large throw-size quilt!

Glad to finally have her finished and photographed!

If you'd like to snag a copy of this pattern you can

visit my Etsy shop HERE.

And you can check out the two-color 

baby version I made HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I'd love to hear what you think about this quilt

and let me know if you have any questions.