Sunday, April 24, 2016

Mini Mania : Hopscotch


We are continuing to stitch our way through the Mini Mania book along with Jennie at Clover & Violet. This month, we have a cute rectangular mini called Hopscotch with spinning stars.  This one measures 10 x 24 inches and is perfect for the wall or a table.  You could even make the blocks as three smaller minis too!


For my version, I used prints from Little Miss Sunshine by Lella Boutique for Moda with my favorite background, Moda's Essential Dots in White Black.  Love that Little Miss Sunshine has some great stripes, which are the perfect binding fabric too!


I quilted pebbles in the background area and did a swirl in the center of the modified churn dash blocks.  It's kind of hard to see the pebbles in this photo, but they make the stars seem to pop off the quilt, which is a fun effect.  I also fussy cut the center of all the friendship stars in the outer border with that cute little strawberry print.  :-)

This mini requires the use of a template.  I was a little too lazy to cut one out, but used my ruler to make a guide for cutting those pieces.  First, I measured what size rectangle I would need for the shape and cut the fabric to that size.


Then I used my ruler and some washi tape to make my "template."  You can see that I lined up the edge of my ruler with the angled cut.  Then I placed washi tape along the straight edge a the top of the rectangle. I lined up the edge of the tape with the top of the fabric and sliced off the bottom angle. Easy!  (Try on a practice block if you aren't sure!)


We have two different kits for this fun mini - Option 1 is curated by Jennie and then, of course, Option 2.  Find them both in the shop here while they last!

Happy Sewing! :)

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Mix and Match with Curated Collections

One of my favorite things about packing orders in the shop is getting to see different collections together as I am cutting and folding.  This month, we're introducing a series of smaller Curated Collections - bundles of six fabrics that we've selected as perfect playmates! We'll add two new bundles each week in limited quantities. 

Last week, we introduced Cat Crazy and Park Stroll ... 


Cat Crazy is a fun mix of prints mostly from Cotton + Steel, including prints from Playful, Cat Lady, Mochi and Black & White.  And a fun graphite grey stashbuilder from For You. 



Park Stroll was built around that cute little bike print from Basic Grey's Mon Ami collection.  A few coordinates from the collection as well as Grunge, Passport and Fancy were added in for a primary hued bundle of fun.


This week, we're loving these cheery and spring-like colors in our Aloha Bundle, which we built on a few prints from Aloha Girl by Fig Tree Quilts.  We added a little splash of color with Bella Solids Flamingo as well as a Cotton + Steel basic and small buttery floral from Strawberry Fields Revisited.


It should be no surprise that a Bonnie & Camille bundle would make it into the mix!  Our Nantucket bundle is full of stashbuilders from their Daysail collection and features a classic navy, aqua and green color scheme.  This would be great for a baby quilt or just to stash!

Don't miss all the new markdowns and last chance pieces in the shop this week ...

Happy Sewing! :-)

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Weekend Sewing : Lollies & Behind the Scenes

Hey there! 

So I finally found my way back to my sewing machine this weekend.  To be fair, I did sew like crazy last weekend, but it was all pre-market sewing with my friend Lee from May Chappell.  Secret sewing can't be shared .... so I will have to settle with sharing this new project.  

I saw an antique quilt on Instagram quite some time ago and I loved the block.  It was actually a signature quilt using the space in the middle (cross) for embroidered signatures.  So sweet!  I've been thinking about making a quilt ever since I first saw it and I finally chose my fabrics! 


Jen Kingwell nailed it with her new Lollies collection.  There are five prints in the collection, but each has eight stripes of different fun dottie prints... which means you get FOURTY prints in our bundle! 

Each stripe is about 5.5" wide, so you can get a 2.5" and a 3" strip of each one ... perfect for a 10" Hearth & Home block! 


The "Hearth & Home" Block is a classic block.  The cutting directions and assembly diagram can be found here. (Note:  I used 3" squares to make the HST blocks and then trimmed them to 2.5" with a Bloc Loc ruler instead of using 2-7/8" squares.  I find I get more accurate points this way.)

I am using eight prints from Jen's Behind the Scenes collection for the backgrounds AND I cut out all 30 of my blocks ... so I better get to chain stitching! :-)

Happy Sewing! :-)