Blog Remix- Pretty Pincushion

Do you need a quick project?  Or a fast gift for a quilty friend?  These pretty pincushions are the answer!  They are fast and super cute!  And who doesn’t need more pincushions in their lives?

This pincushion is part of the Fat Quarter Shop blog remix.  You can check out this YouTube video with Sherri McConnell and Kimberly from the Fat Quarter
Shop.  They walk you through the pincushion tutorial with lots of tricks and tips along the way.

The first step is to create a little patchwork.  I dug through my scrap bin and used up some of my favorite (and most hoarded) Bonnie and Camille fabric.  Some of these pieces I have been holding onto forever, like that original Ruby!

Most quilters stuff their pincushions with crushed walnuts shells.  But I am allergic to walnuts.  So I needed to find something else that was nut free.  I used poly pellets which worked great!  They added a weight to the pincushion so it won’t move on my work table.

Now I have a pretty pincushion to use while I work!  It really is cute as a button!  The Fat Quarter shop sells the cutest twill ribbon with fun sayings to use on your pincushion.  I also used my matching Bonnie and Camille Aurifil Thread to stitch this up!

So what are you waiting for?!?  Grab your favorite scraps or a mini charm pack and you can make one of these too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Chirp Out!

Jen

Advertisements

The Friendship Quilt Along- Enduring

Today I get to share my Enduring block for the Friendship Quilt Along by Amanda Herring.  To make this quilt, you will need the templates and this quilt kit.  Or you can use different fabric.  But this quilt kit is so cute!

The key to this block is the buttons! But I can’t sew on the buttons until the quilt is quilted. So I have the block cut out, marked and waiting for the quilt construction.  I decided to make a needle book to showcase this cute block.

I have had a needle book on my make list for awhile.  I was excited for the excuse to finally make it.

The best part of making this block was picking out the buttons.  My grandma gave me a bunch of vintage buttons.  She bought them for $1 a box!  I can’t believe it!  I’m pretty sure I will never have to buy buttons again.

To make this needle book, I followed Amy Sinibaldi’s tutorial.  I made the book a bit bigger to accommodate the size of the block.  I had some leftover half-square triangles from my Hello Brooklyn quilt that I turned into a pinwheel block for the back.  I then added a book binding between the blocks.  I did a simple cross-hatch quilting design on the book.  After it was quilted, I used the template to mark the block.

I used my button foot to sew the buttons on.  I have a Bernina Record 830.  I had to search Ebay for a button foot (#152).  I am so glad I found one.  It is so helpful.  The button foot holds the button in place while you sew.

The best part of making a needle book is embellishing the pages.  I made these letter pins a few years ago and needed a place for them.  This needle book was perfect!  And I love the gingham ribbon!

I also used some pom poms!

And I used some rick-rack and a tag!

And last of all, the back!  I love pinwheel blocks!  I had sew much fun making this needle book!  Now I need to make more!

Chirp Out!

Jen

*This post contains affiliate links.

 

 

Pineapple Quilt

Do you participate in quilt block swaps?  I have participated in a few over the years.  I signed up for a pineapple block swap hosted by the lovely Jackie Padesky.  She also wrote this cute pattern.

I made these 18 blocks, kept 2, and sent 16 to her!  My blocks are made up of V and Co’s Simply Colorful fabric line for Moda.

I wanted a super scrappy quilt.  But I have NO yellow!  I don’t really care for the color so I don’t buy it or sew with it.  That’s one of the benefits of a swap.  I got lots of cute pineapples in return.  And they were scrappy!

I quilted straight(ish) lines in a cross-hatch pattern on this quilt.  I love the cross-hatch pattern and want to quilt it on every quilt! And don’t you just love a quilt swish?

I was so excited when I found this backing fabric!  Most pineapple fabric is a bit girly looking with lots of pink.  I wanted to give this quilt to my pineapple loving husband for his bday.  So navy pineapples=WIN!  (And that is another close up of my block!)

One more benefit of swaps is getting to meet so many amazing quilters from around the world!  I love getting to know people who love quilting as much as I do!  Have you done a swap?  If not, you should try it out!

Chirp Out!

Jen

 

Friendship Quilt Along- warm

I’m happy to share my Warm block for the Friendship Quilt Along today. This awesome quilt along is being hosted by Amanda Herring for Riley Blake. To make this block you need these cute templates. You can find them at the fat quarter shop here.This block is an appliqué block. My preferred method is to use Heat n Bond. I trace all of templates right onto the Heat n Bond. I then iron it to the wrong side of the fabric. Your pieces should look like the pic above. After I’ve ironed everything to the fabric, I cut them out. Then arrange the pieces according to the pattern. You can find the Friendship Quilt pattern here. Then I press them to the background fabric. Before pressing, make sure you measure 1/4″ from each of the points to the edge of the fabric so you don’t cut them off as you sew the quilt together. I then use a blanket stitch on my sewing machine to stitch around each piece. I used Aurifil thread to stitch each of the pieces. I am new to Aurifil thread and it sews like a dream! You can find the matching box set of Aurifil thread here. I love this block! It is so cute! I love what this quilt pattern stands for- friendship. Each block is representative of what a true friend is. Do you have that friend who is always warm and inviting? I’m grateful to have some warm friends in my life. I’ve also met some warm and inviting friends through the quilting world and I’m grateful for them. So are you quilting along with us?I hope you do! Chirp out!JenThis post contains affiliate links.

Hello Brooklyn

 

I’m excited to share my new pattern today as part of the Hello Lovely Riley Blake blog tour!  Hello Brooklyn!  Hello Lovely was designed by the lovely Amanda Herring.  She really outdid herself with this line!  I love it!  This quilt was so much fun to make.  And so much fun to take pics of!  You can find the pattern here.

I am really loving monochromatic quilts right now.  The pinks in Hello Lovely are, well, lovely!  I can’t decide which print is my favorite.  Maybe the main floral, or the polka dots.  Yeah, I can’t decide.  But run and go get some!  This line is so lovely!

I had Chelsea custom quilt this.  Each block is quilted to emphasize the block design.  She did swirls in the sashing (say that 10 times fast!) and beautiful flowers in the borders.  I could stare at this ALL day!  She really did an amazing job!

I love living outside of NYC.  The Brooklyn Bridge is one of my favorite places.  I knew I had to take this quilt there for a photo shoot.  I was able to get some fun shots of the architecture of the bridge and this quilt.  And we got some funny looks!

This quilt is a fun sampler quilt.  Which is perfect for a Brooklyn quilt since there are so many thing to do and so much diversity.  There are five different blocks.  You make each block six times and then you have a twin size quilt!  I love the variety a sampler quilt offers.  I don’t get bored making the same block over and over again.  Haha

I hope you love this quilt as much as I do!  Go check it out in my etsy shop here or my craftsy shop here.  Say Hello Brooklyn!

Chirp Out!

Jen

Fat Quarter Shop Snowballs Quilt

Today is our official first day of summer (no more school- yay)!  This quilt has all the summer vibes!  Bright yellows and a soft pink are just the right combo.  This fabric pull reminded me of pink lemonade!  Which is what we all nicknamed this quilt!

I pulled every yellow I had from my stash and came up with this.  I think those popsicles are my favorite!  I don’t sew with yellow much, so I had to get a couple more fat quarters.  This quilt has motivated me to sew with yellow more.  I love the finished product!  Is there a color that you don’t typically sew with?  Maybe you should try it out!

As I was working on this quilt, I fell in love with it even more.  So I decided to change the pattern and make it bigger!  Go big or go home!  This quilt pattern finished at 50″x 55 1/2″.  I decided to make this twin size!  To make it a twin size quilt, I made 77 yellow blocks and 77 white blocks.  I sewed 11 blocks in a row and made 14 rows. Daughter number three has already claimed it, so I think we have a winner!

I love to see those pretty yellows all swished together!  I used a variety of prints from Riley Blake, Moda and Art Gallery.  Don’t they all play together nicely?  I still think those popsicles are my favorite!

This is my favorite pic of the quilt.  I found these adorable lemons at Target!  Daughter number two was helping me take pics of this quilt.  She asked me if she could take a few pics and this is one she took!  I love it!  I should add that she is 10.  Her use of the close-up is spot on.  I also love the sun spots coming through the trees onto this quilt.  I should have her take all of my pics!  I think we have a budding photographer.

Have I convinced you to make this quilt yet?  It comes together quickly and is so fun to make!  The pattern is FREE from the Fat Quarter shop and can be found here.  Or you can watch the YouTube video here.  Grab a glass of pink lemonade and have a great summer making this quilt!

Chirp Out!

Jen

Home Mini

I am excited to release my new pattern Home Mini today!  You can find it in my shop here.  If you have been following along for awhile, you know I’m a big Bonnie and Camille fan!  I love their fabric designs!

It all started with this sweet little heart!  After making my large twin size Home quilt (which you can find here) I just knew I needed to make a mini quilt.

I picked out some of my favorite Bonnie and Camille prints from my scrap bin!  Can you name all of the fabric lines I used?  If you don’t have a bursting scrap bin like mine (oops!), this pattern is also charm pack friendly!

I loved taking pics of this quilt!  The Alphabitties from Fat Quarter Shop were a fun addition!

I picked some of my favorite colors for this quilt.  I wanted to keep the hearts pink or red. I also couldn’t make a quilt without aqua!  The navy print from Vintage Picnic is probably one of my favorites of all time!

I hope you enjoy making this pattern as much as I did!

Chirp Out!

Jen

 

How Does Your Quilty Garden Grow?

I am excited to share my new quilt pattern today, Quilty Garden!  You can find it in my shop here.  Amanda gave us the theme of flowers to share with her Flora and Fawn fabric line from Riley Blake.  I added these fun Riley Blake basics to my quilt.  They arrived on a perfectly snowy day in March.  Boo!

As I was piecing these sweet 6 inch blocks, I came across a fun new notion–fork pins!  These are a game changer!  I am always unpicking my blocks and these pins helped my blocks line up!  If you haven’t tried these, you should!We go to Washington DC every year to see the cherry blossoms.  I thought this Quilty Garden would look so cute with the cherry blossoms.  The cherry blossoms fall off in the wind.  There are beautiful pink petals everywhere.  I think this Quilty Garden fits right in!  These 6 inch blocks were a breeze to piece.  I have a fun way to piece flying geese included in my pattern.  You only need 5 different 10 inch squares for the flowers.  For the background, you need 3 fat eighths or you can use scraps like me!  That fussy cut deer is my favorite!  Isn’t it so sweet?!?

This Quilty Garden was such a fun Spring project.  You can find the pattern in my shop here!

We spent the day at Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s home.  I had to get a few pics with the quilt there.  My baby had fallen asleep and needed to try it out!

I hope you enjoy this pattern!  How does you quilty garden grow?

Chirp Out!

Jen

Jumbo Sew-Together Bag

Today is my turn to share on Amanda Herring’s ‘It’s in the bag’ blog series.  For my bag, I choose the sew-together bag by Sew Demented.  The pattern can be found here.  But, I typically can’t follow a pattern exactly.  And I also live by the phrase ‘go big or go home!’  So I am introducing my version of the JUMBO sew-together bag!  (For dimensions and such Jackie @jackiepadeskyquilts on instagram helped me out a ton!)

I mean this thing is HUGE!!!  I used an aurifil spool of thread as reference.  For the outside of the bag, I picked one of my favorite prints from Flora and Fawn by Amanda Herring for Riley Blake.  I then quilted it in a 1 inch cross-hatch pattern.  I love it!  I picked the pink text as my binding.  I love this print as a binding.  Little phrases pop out like dream lofty dreams, so cute!

My favorite part of the bag is the pockets!  Aren’t those little deer so cute?  For the middle pocket I used my other favorite teal print from this line.  I love that little floral!  The inside of the bag is the pink in the same floral.  And the sides of the bag are the cross-hatch in pink.  And I made my bag with a lot of pink!  But with four daughters, there is just a lot of pink in my house!

This bag may seem intimating with all of the zippers, but you can do it!  I found this amazing blog that walks you through this bag step by step with lots of pics!  You can find it here.

Now what is going in this bag you ask?  I have been wanting to take the plunge into EPP (English Paper Piecing).  I am in the carpool lane a lot (sometimes it feels like all day), or at swim team or activity days, you get the idea.  I’m an on the go mom!  So I need an on the go activity!  Which is why I wanted to try EPP.  And now I have the cutest bag to store all of my stuff! -scissors, thread, fabric, binding clips, and a tape measure!  I’m ready to go!

Chirp Out!

Jen

Hunter Star Table runner

I’m excited to share my Hunter Star Table runner with the Fat Quarter shop today!  This is part of the their Vintage and Classic series.

I decided to use V and Co ombre for this project.  I have had this stashed waiting for the perfect project.  The hunter star was a perfect match!

I recently got a new table (yay!  My family can all fit!) and I needed a new table runner.  The Fat Quarter Shop is offering the pattern for the table runner here.  The pattern also includes lap, twin and queen sizes.

This is the first time I have used V and Co ombre and I am in LOVE!  Plus aqua is my favorite color!  I arranged the blocks from dark to light.  I love the ombre effect across my whole table!

This block is quite simple to construct.  Typically a hunter star quilt block is paper pieced.  This pattern is traditional piecing and comes together quickly.  I think I need to make a Hunter Star quilt now!

I quilted the table runner using straight lines.  I use a walking foot on my Janome machine.  The walking foot really helps me keep my lines straight and consistent.  I followed the angle of the Hunter Star which created a fun echo of the angles.

I bound my quilt using Moda Bella solid aqua.  It matches the aqua ombre perfect!  I finished hand stitching the binding while watching the Olympics.  This is the first project I have hand bound and I love it!  I am just usually so impatient to finish that I will machine bind my project.  But now I think I am hooked!

I had so much fun making this table runner!  And styling it!  I was able to get out some of my favorite farm house inspired items and take some pics.  I had so much fun!

If you want to make a Hunter Star block, you can find the pattern for a free block here.  Or you can watch the you tube video here.

Chirp Out!

Jen