The new Best Friends Forever collection by Stacy Iest Hsu is too cute!  We love the rainbow palette and fun prints. Last week we whipped up a quick and easy pillow and thought we'd share the details here. 

You will need the following (kits available here): 

• 1 Mini Charm Pack (or 36 2.5" squares)
• 1 FQ Border Print
• 1 HY for Backing
• Approx 20" square batting & muslin, if quilting

Start by arranging your squares into six rows of six. We arranged them in a rainbow like gradient, but you can arrange them however you like!

Next, sew all the rows together using a 1/4" seam allowance. Press rows in opposite directions and then join the rows. Press well. 

From your border fabric, cut two 4" x 12.5" rectangles and two 4" x 19.5" rectangles. Join the 12.5" long strips to opposite sides of your patchwork, pressing toward the border. Then sew the 19.5" long strips to the remaining two sides. Again pressing toward the border. 

Layer the pillow front with batting and muslin backing (or solid fabric) and quilt as desired. We did a fluffy FMQ mum-like flower. 

Trim the pillow front to 19" square. 

To make the back, from the half yard cut two 14" x 19" rectangles. Along one 19" side, fold about 1" to the wrong side. Tuck the raw edge into the fold and then topstitch to secure in place. Repeat this to finish one 19" edge on the remaining rectangle in the same manner. 

To finish, with the pillow front facing up, place one backing rectangle RST on top of the pillow front aligning raw edges with top, bottom and one side.

Then place the remaining backing rectangle on top of the other RST aligning to the opposite side.

Stitch all the way around using a 1/2" seam allowance. (We usually do two rows of stitching and clip the corners to reduce bulk.)

Carefully turn right side out and gently push out the corners. Insert a pillow form and enjoy!

This project can be done with any collection! Just arrange the mini charm squares to your liking, add a border and stitch it up!

Happy Sewing!

Farm Fresh by Gingiber is such a fun collection. While there are farms just down the road from my little neighborhood, I wouldn't say I am a farm girl. BUT these chickens, roosters, cows, and more are just too much fun! 

As soon as I saw the collection when our Moda rep came around, I knew a Grocery Bag was going to be on my must-make list. 

Here's the details on how I made this one afternoon over the weekend ... 

Pattern: Grocery Bag by Michelle Patterns (Pattern includes instructions for three sizes - I made the medium size for this project.)

Fabric: I used a panel (multi), three FQs for the back (red dots, chickens, red feathers), sides & handles, and 1 yard of the strawberries for the lining. I also used 1 yard of Drill cloth as an interlining to make my bag nice & sturdy. 

A few changes:

The Grocery Bag pattern doesn't include any piecing instructions for the exterior, but if you know me at all, you know I love to piece a bag exterior! 

Additionally, the pattern calls for muslin as the lining. I like to use Drill or other canvas because it makes it really sturdy. So, I cut my drill cloth to the size the pattern called for and then pieced my exterior panels and strips onto this.  Everything else was assembled as per the pattern. 

Piecing the Exterior: 

My center panels were cut at 11.5" wide. And then my strips for the sides at 3.5" to be sure I'd have enough wiggle room. I lined up the chicken panel with the center of the canvas and then pinned the strips on top, stitching all the layers together. I pressed toward the side strips and then top stitched them in place. 

I then pieced the back of the bag in the same way. I used a different print in the center and then the same chicken print on the sides. 

Once I had my fabrics stitched to the canvas, I sewed around all four sides about 1/8" from the edge to secure the layers together. 

From there, I assembled the bag as instructed in the pattern. I did use the same drill cloth in the handles as well to be sure they felt nice and sturdy. 

The medium bag size worked perfectly for the large panel image. To make the larger bag size, I would probably add a bottom strip under the animal or frame the animal on all four sides. That's the fun part of customizing a pattern with piecing! 

The medium size is easy to carry and folds up nicely... perfect for a quick trip to the farm stand or grocery store. It easily holds a large jar of PB and some soup cans with no problem! 

Hope you enjoyed seeing this fun bag project! 

Happy Sewing!

Hello there! 

Its Quilt Market Time once again and so as usual, I decided at the last minute to make a new bag! 

I love making the Nova Tote - it is definitely my go-to bag pattern. But recently, I made the Stitched With Love mini (designed by Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms) and as soon as I finished it, I knew I’d be making another and turning it into a bag! A few folks on IG requested a bit more info, so I took some photos - which aren’t in great lighting due to late night sewing 😂 - but I hope they will help!

For this one, I used a lot of leftovers from our Stitched With Love kit, but added in some favorites from my stash as well. the mini was made as called for (I did clip the corner on the top left of the machine and did some special fussy cut piecing for Sew Lux using this print). Instead of the border, I used more of the background to make it wide enough to quilt the bag front. 

I made the main part of the bag as called for in the pattern, including straps etc. The major difference here was I put the strap on the front before attaching the pocket. This is because I didn’t want to put the straps over the piecing on the pocket. 😁

Since this machine “block” is much larger than the pocket size the bag pattern calls for, there were a few other adjustments to make. 

I covered the bottom of the straps on the front of the bag in a similar fashion as the bottom panel before attaching the pocket. The top of my pocket is approximately 1.25” from the top edge of the bag. 

Then the bottom panel of the bag was cut 3” shorter than the original measurements called for. This allowed me to cover the raw edge of the pocket and also the raw edge of the straps on the back side of the bag. 

Then the only other major change I made was to the measurements when boxing the bottom. It was one inch shorter since the pocket comes down so far in the front. 

I did make this using Soft & Stable and bound all my seams as shown in our Nova Tote Sew Along last year.

I used a fabric on the back that had a grid in the design - I quilted in the lines and you can barely even notice the quilting. 

I did add a magnetic snap closure (Sew-in) to keep the pocket closed since the straps over the pocket on the original design typically do this. 

I hope you enjoy checking out my new bag! If you have questions, feel free to reach out. 

Happy Sewing!

Hey there!

I hope you've been having fun getting your Dessert Sampler blocks made and sewn together. I was so excited when I got my top finished - what a sense of accomplishment to see all those HSTs all together! :)

I sent my quilt off to Julie at Creekside Quilting. Julie has quilted several of my quilts for me and she always does a great job with a great turnaround time, too. And ... she's willing to trim my quilts up to if I want her to, which is something I love. 

I sent Julie a few different pantograph options, but ultimately settled on this Moulin Rouge one by Urban Elementz. With so many types of blocks and angles, I thought something a little swirly might be fun. (The original sample shown at Quilt Market was done in loops similar to this one.)  

I used this wide back for the backing and the quilting shows up so well on the back, too!

All I have left to do is to attach my binding and stitch it down. :)

Thank you so much for sewing along with me!

We made it! 

Today we are getting sections 5 and 6 assembled and then the quilt top is just two seams away from being done! 

Section 5

This is the bottom left corner of the quilt top. Start by sewing the three 9" blocks together and then the two blocks on the right. You'll add the HST strip to the grey/pink/yellow star and then add the pink and green gingham star to that unit.

Section 6

This section is the bottom right corner of the quilt top. The two smaller blocks are joined and then added to the larger blue block. From there, you'll add the rectangular unit of blocks. 

Finally, before adding the bottom unit you will need to sew on this little filler strip. 

Once you have sections 5 and 6 made and joined together, all that is left is to sew the three longer sections together. 

I carefully pinned these sections, matching seams when I could to help me be sure things lined up nicely. 

Monday I will share pictures of my quilt as I've worked ahead a bit and had my quilter work her magic on it! 

See ya then!

We're back in the middle of the week for the middle section of the quilt! 

Let's jump right on in ... 

Section 3: 

This one is the left side of the middle section. This one is pretty easy - with one longer 6" tall section at the top (filler + the four 9 patches) - and then the two 9" blocks with the 18" star and the filler strip. 

This first picture should show a little of the progression toward finishing this section. 

Then here it all is all joined together ... 

Section 4: 

This section is the right side of the middle section of the quilt. This one also includes that first big ole block we made at the very beginning of the sew along ... remember that one?! :)

The section looks like this when finished...

Join sections 3 and 4 and set them aside for Friday!

We will see you on Friday to get the last two sections (5 & 6) done so we can FINISH! Yay!

Happy Sewing!

It's Assembly week! We made it! It feels so great to have all of the blocks done and ready to put together. As I mentioned last week, I am condensing the assembly posts from 6 to 3, so we will have them all done this week. I found that they weren't too overwhelming to put together and once I got started, I couldn't wait to finish and see it all together ... I think you'll feel the same!

Before you start: 

I would suggest either laying out your quilt (if you have room) OR separate all the blocks into six piles - one for each of the sections. I think you'll find this a little easier to work from that if you were just sorting through them all to find the ones you need 

Section 1:

This section is going in the top left corner of the quilt. Start buy joining the two smaller 6" blocks together and then joining the pair to the courthouse steps block. 

Once you have this section together, you can then join it to the large pink and white block. You may find as you join blocks that you may need to ease them in a bit. In many of these joining seams you will find that there are lots of seams you can match up to help keep things lined up properly. I pinned all these seams and then eased in occasionally between if needed. (Sometimes when you have a lot of bias edges (ahem, HST blocks!) things can get a little stretched.) 

Then, you can work on the second "row" of this section. This section is two blocks with some of our filler strips between them and on both ends. 

One you have those all joined, you can then join the two rows to complete Section 1. 

Section 2: 

This section is the same height as section one, but is a bit wider and has quite a few more blocks. 

Just work in smaller sections as shown in the pattern to make bigger units and then join those to finish. 

Keep sewing those sections together ... 

Once you have this one all together, it will look like this! 

Finally, join sections 1 and 2 together... match the seams at the bottom of the small blocks on the top and then the bottom of the larget blcoks in the middle. 

See you on Wednesday with Sections 3 & 4!

Happy sewing!

Woo hip! We have made it to the end of the block making! 🙌🏻 

Today’s blocks are the final filler blocks for this beautiful sampler quilt and they are strip sets - so easy! 

Block 48 is one set of slightly longer strips. 

Blocks 49-51 are made up of slightly shorter strips. Just cut them according to the pattern and chain stitch them together. 

We will see you next week to assemble everything! Note that I’m planning to condense the assembly to 3 posts - sections 1 & 2 on Monday, 3 & 4 on Wednesday and then 5 & 6 on Friday. 

Have a great weekend! 

Hey, hey!

Today's blocks could NOT get any easier! We're making four strips in various lengths of squares ... not half square triangles, just squares!

Easy, easy, easy!

We have just one more set of easy peasy units on Friday... can you see the light at the end of the block making tunnel?! If you have room to lay out your quilt, I would go ahead and start working on that. If you don't have room to leave it laid out, then I would try and organize the blocks by section as shown in your pattern. This will make the assembly go by a lot easier next week if each sections' blocks are all together. :)

See ya on Friday!

Welcome back! It’s Week 11 and we are in the FINAL week of block making! Next week we will be sewing this beauty together! Yay!

Block 43 is another strip of several smaller blocks. We’ve made these cute hourglasses before, so this should be an easy one. 😁

The pink and yellow combo is so pretty and seems a perfect fit for this one! 

That’s it for today! All we have left this week is easy strips! 

See ya on Wednesday!