It's done.

I loooove the quilting on this. 

Nice and tight.

Ric rac sewn down.

Just.  Lovely.

Kayleen [if you're reading this], you're awesome!

I also love pictures of quilts.  So I took about a million.  Care to see a few?

I snuck onto my neighbors property to take these pictures.  Then I climbed [well, let's be honest, I trespassed] through the fence onto some horse property. Then the husband came home.  I got caught.  But it's o.k. cause I then got permission to walk around their yard to take even more pictures [I think I signed up to fix some kind of boat canopy-shade-thingy in the process though], but it's o.k. 

Anyways, here are a few of those pics:

 

 

The pieced back consists of some leftover polka dot fabric and charm squares from the quilt front, as well as a few other girly fabrics I had laying around.

Gotta have a binding shot for some reason...

I'm sure you all are out having fun this weekend, but I thought I'd post somethin' for those of you just takin' it easy.  If you're interested in the free tutorial for this quilt click HERE.  More details about this quilt are HERE.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

It's that time again

I've been wondering how Blogland would carry on with so many of my favorite people off at market... and then I remembered Amy.  She's hosting the 3rd annual Blogger's Quilt Festival right now.  This virtual tour of quilts is a great way to get to know other quilty bloggers and enjoy a whole lot of eye candy in the process.  Stop by Amy's blog to get a list of all of the entries in the festival.  We can still have fun as we sit in front of our computers day dreaming about Market, right!?!

So if you're reading this, I first want to say Hi.  Hello.  Welcome to A Little Bit Biased.  I'm Amber and I'm excited to meet you.  I wasn't sure what to share with you today, but then I remembered that I never officially posted about my first (and only, so far) recipe on the Moda Bakeshop.  I posted about the original CANDY HEARTS quilt back here, but then I made a spruced up version for the Bakeshop.  Here it is:

This is a special quilt to me for a few reasons.

- It was one of those spontaneous designs that came to me when I needed something cheery for my home after a long winter.  It really did the trick.

- It was a fun, fast and flirty project.  SCORE!

- Moda's Bakeshop actually liked it!?!

- They sent me free fabric to remake it in Moda fabrics! 

(When that UPS package arrived it was pure heaven I tell ya!)

- I love the cream background with the pops of color on the hearts and sashing.

- Who doesn't love ric rac? :)

- It was my first attempt at a ruffle edge quilt.

- My quilter did an amazing job quilting it.

You can click here for the tutorial. 

Well, that's my quilt.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm excited to meet more of you during this wonderful Quilt Festival.  Thanks to Amy for organizing all of this! 

Have a great day!

Sharing the Love!

Well, thanks for all your sweet comments on my little Candy Hearts quilt from yesterday.  It really was VERY easy to make and a lot of fun playing with the cheerful colors.  I had bought 2 of those charm packs (for the hearts) from Lanie Jane's liquidation sale during the summer.  The line is called Darla by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit Fabrics.  I absolutely loved the prints and colors, but wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with them!?!  Then last week I started feeling like my Happy Anniversary quilt that I have hanging in my entry right now was kind of blah.  I needed something fun for Valentine's day to brighten up these long winter months that seem to be lingering on here in Utah.  

So since you all were so sweet about my design, I have a couple of things I want to give you!  First, a little tutorial for everyone on how to make Candy Hearts and second, one charm pack to one of my followers.  The charm pack is identical to the one I used to make Candy Hearts.  Since I bought two charm packs from L.J.'s and only ended up using one of them for this quilt, I'm sharing the love!  Just become a follower and leave me a comment below (telling me that you did so or that you already are) and I'll enter you in the drawing.  Becoming a follower might not be such a bad idea because you're going to want to know when I start my really special giveaways in celebration of my new patterns!  Prizes will include a Layer Cake from one very special Utah fabric designer, the original quilted wall hanging from one of my new patterns (I'll be sad to see this one go because I made it for my house :(), lots of patterns & possibly some more fabric!  So you're definitely not going to want to miss out on these giveaways!

Well, enough talk.  Now onto that tutorial.

CANDY HEARTS

45" x 54"

Materials: 

1 charm pack or (35) 5" scraps of fabric

1 1/2 yards of light background fabric

(6) 2 1/2"  x 45" strips of fabric for sashing

7 yards of ric rac

1/2 yard for binding

3 yards for backing
  OR 1 3/4 yards plus scraps for a pieced back

Directions:

1.  Create a heart template by cutting a 5" square piece of paper.  Fold it in half and cut out half a heart that measures exactly 4 3/4" from top to bottom.   

2.  Fold one charm square or 5" scrap of fabric in half, right sides together.  Place the folded heart template on the fold of your fabric and trace with a pencil.  With fabric still folded, cut out the half-heart on the traced line.  Repeat with the remaining 34 squares of fabric to make a total of 35 hearts.  Set hearts aside.

3.  Cut out five 7 1/2" x width of fabric strips out of the light background fabric.  Trim them down to 40 1/2". 

4.  To mark the placement of the hearts, fold each strip in half and iron on the fold to mark the center.  Then fold the two ends into the center mark and iron on those two folds.  Lastly, fold the two ends in again meeting at the last two fold marks, creating a total of 5 fold marks in the strip.  The placement for the last two hearts is exactly 5" to the right of the second fold mark and the fourth fold mark. Use a clear ruler to measure 5" away from those fold lines and then line up the center of the two hearts there.
  

5.  Lay out the hearts on the fold marks according to the diagram below:

Center the heart on the fold marks with the point of the heart 1 3/8" away from the edge of the fabric. Pin or glue baste into place.  I used a few dots of Appli-glue on each half of the heart.

6.  Sew 1/4" inside edge of hearts creating a raw edge that will fray when washed.  Clip threads on front and back.  Repeat for all 5 strips of hearts.

7.  For sashing: cut six 2 1/2" x 40 1/2" strips of colored fabric.  Using a pencil, mark a line down the middle of each one. Glue baste a piece of ric rac onto the marked line, leaving about an inch extra in case of fraying.  Stitch down the middle of the ric rac using a thread color that blends.


8.  Sew rows and sashing together, beginning and ending with sashing strips.  Press seams towards sashing.


9.  Cut five 2 1/2" x width of fabric background fabric for the borders.  Sew end to end.  Measure through the middle of the quilt from top to bottom.  Cut two border strips that length and sew to the sides of your quilt.  Press seams towards border.  Then measure through the center of your quilt from side to side and cut two border strips that length.  Sew those to the top and bottom of your quilt.  Press seams towards the border.


10. Quilt and bind!

***

Candy Hearts is perfect for beginners!  This is a quick project and would be great for Valentine's Day or even for that favorite little girl of yours!  I'm thinking about putting a ruffle on mine instead of a regular binding.  Wouldn't that be fun?!?  First I've got to figure out the quilting on it though!  If anyone out there makes it, send me a link, I'd love to see your finished product!

Oh, and don't forget to become a follower and leave me a comment below.  I'll pick a winner for the charm pack on Friday the 13th - at noon!