Scarlet Street {RSC 2017}

I managed to squeak in three red house blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month. I spent a whole evening just ironing the fabrics and cutting out all of the red pieces for my blocks.

I found just enough solid light blue fabric in my stash to make these three blocks. I tried to use some older scraps for my windows, doors, and grass.

I think I'm actually out of light blue sky fabrics now. I will have to add a little to my stash to keep making blocks. :)

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Don't forget to join the Christine's Kitchen QAL and share your progress on Instagram to win prizes!

Meadow Mystery {Finished Quilt Top}

Before we moved I finished up all of my blocks for my Meadow Mystery quilt and over a month later, I finally sat down and put the quilt top together. Here's a quick shot of all of my individual blocks as I put them together:

Here is my absolutely lovely finished quilt! 

I am just squeaking in at the deadline to get this quilt entered into the quilt parade in April! Now to decide how to quilt it -- any suggestions?

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and NTT!

Christine's Kitchen QAL {Week 2}

It's time for Week 2 of the Christine's Kitchen quilt along!

Update: The QAL Is now over and the entire pattern is now available for purchase.

This week we are making blocks #3 and #4 -- the teapot and coffee kettle from row #1! We'll make these blocks and attach them to the section we made in week #1 and our first row will be completely done! Hooray! Below are also the notes to win PRIZES!

Last week I talked about general paper piecing tips, and this week I am going to talk about pattern and fabric prep.

• As I noted last week, I like to cut around my pattern pieces and leave at least some extra paper space between the dotted edge of the 1/4 inch seam and the edge of the paper. Too much paper flopping around gets in the way so I find that an extra 1/4 inch of paper around the template is a happy medium.
• If you find it helpful, shorten your stitch length. I find that my standard stitch length is usually sufficient, but a shorter stitch length does make paper removal slightly easier.
• While not necessary, I paper piece with my 1/4 inch foot on my sewing machine because I find it more convenient. I am used to lining up my line to sew on with my foot and that way when I switch gears from paper piecing sections to joining sections, my quarter inch foot is already on my machine and the needle is in the correct position.
• When working with yardage for a paper piecing project, I like to work from WOF strips. I cut my strips about a half inch wider than the widest piece that I would need in a section. An extra half inch gives you more than sufficient wiggle room for whatever piecing you might be doing. You can do the same with fat quarters as well, your strips will just start shorter (which can sometimes be easier).
• After adding a piece with from a WOF strip, I often times cut it off right away as shown in the example last week. This means that fabric isn't flopping around but it also means that you can control the angle you cut (ie, cut a square edge) which isn't possible if you don't trim again until your next seam trim.
• I save all of my fabric cut-offs throughout my paper piecing larger than an inch wide. In this project, there are lots and lots of small and narrow pieces, so it saves to save them! After I'm done with an entire section (for this project, after I complete an individual week's blocks) I will sort through and get rid of the smallest pieces in each color and save only the bigger pieces for future weeks' blocks.

Now on to this week's blocks!

Here are my prepped pieces, finished units, and blocks:

Here is my finished Row #1!

Here is Amanda's Row #1!

Now on to what you've all been waiting for...PRIZES!

This week our prize will be a bundle of four Island Batik fat quarters! To be entered to win, post a picture of your finished Row #1 on Instagram and include the hashtag #ChristinesKitchenQuilt! If you're not on Instagram you can share a picture in the Flickr group OR email me a picture at littlebunnyquilts@gmail.com! I will share the winner and their finished row next week!

March 20th: Blocks 1 and 2; sashing
March 27th: Blocks 3 and 4; building Row #1 and GIVEAWAY! (you are here!)
April 3rd: Block 5; sashing 
April 10th: Blocks 6 and 7
April 17th: Blocks 8 and 9; sashing
April 24th: Blocks 10 and 11; sashing 
May 1st: Block 12; sashing
May 8th: Applique blocks
May 15th: Setting 
May 22nd: Border and finishing
May 29th: Memorial Day break
June 5th: Show off your quilt! (And grand finale prizes!)

Sharing at Tips and Tutorials Tuesday and Linky Tuesday! Also, hop on over to Quilting Mod to enter to win a set of 10 Clover brand sewing and quilting tools!

Coast to Coast Traveling Bee {Month #2}

It's time to share what I've added onto the second Coast to Coast Traveling Bee quilt that I have been working on! This month I have been working on Summer's quilt.

As soon as I saw this quilt (even before it was shipped to me!) I had an idea of what I wanted to do for this quilt. I immediately thought of the Sky Rocket blocks that I had made last year for Nela's quilt in the other traveling quilt bee I participated in -- here's the quilt when I added the blocks, the six on the left side.

For this quilt, I decided that I wanted to add a row of blocks on both the top and the bottom of Summer's quilt. My problem was that the width of the quilt was a slightly odd given the size of the blocks (or really any normally sized blocks) because it was 45 inches across.

These are all paper pieced blocks (you can find the pattern here at the Quilter's Cache) that are 9 inches unfinished (8.5 inches finished) with the original directions. Instead of trying to resize the blocks, I cut the outermost edge pieces a quarter inch larger so that I could trim them down once I did some final calculations as well as to have fresh edges when I went to put the blocks together. The points on the blocks don't actually touch one another but I think that looks better than adding tiny strips of spacers in between these blocks.

Here are the paper pieced nine patch sections laid out on the background fabric (all of the fabric is from my stash!):

I made ten blocks -- five for each row. 

The final piece turned out so pretty, it's so tempting to keep all of these quilt tops for myself. :)

This will be on its way to Audrey up in Pennsylvania this afternoon! I've already received my next assignment to work on Karen's quilt! I haven't yet opened up the box because I have so many WIPs currently floating around in my sewing space!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, Sew Cute Tuesday, and NTT!

Christine's Kitchen QAL {Week 1}

Welcome to Week 1 of the Christine's Kitchen QAL!

Update: The QAL Is now over and the entire pattern is now available for purchase.

This week we are making blocks #1 and #2 and I'll be giving some basic paper piecing tips for paper piecing newbies. If you're quilting along with us, don't forget to use the hashtags #ChristinesKitchenQuilt and #HBDpatterns on Instagram!

As a reminder, here are the general fabric requirements:

Background: 2 yards
Various prints for piecing: 1 1/4-1 1/2 yards total (about 1/3 yard of this is for your border)
      Add extra if you like extra wiggle room for your paper piecing!
Binding: 1/3 yard
Backing and batting: 1 1/4 yard
Fusible web pieces

Here is my fabric pull:
I am using a cream and tan Island Batik print for my background and then various shades of green for my kitchen items. 

Some general tips:

• When prepping paper piecing patterns, I like to cut around my paper piecing template sections and leave at least a 1/4 inch of paper beyond the quarter inch seam marking. This reduces some paper bulk, but also gives you enough room around your piece to help you keep track of if you have enough fabric for each section.

• After I cut my pieces out, I like to arrange the units in the places where they need to go in the final block. I also like to look at each block and determine what order I should piece the units -- most of the time I attempt to piece blocks with the largest pieces of fabric first, so that I can use any cut-offs in units with smaller pieces.

• Remember that the pattern is opposite of what your final unit will look like -- we've included the tiny version of the finished block on the pattern page, so you can always use that as your reference.
• Sometimes I find it is helpful to pin or lightly glue the first piece of fabric to the foundation for stability. You'll quickly get in the paper piecing rhythm: Align fabric, sew on the line, fold paper, trim seam, press fabric, repeat

• If you are a new paper piecer, don't be afraid to waste a little bit of fabric! You are much better off to work with larger seams and then trim them than to have skimpy seams that might pull apart. 

Here are my cut out units for blocks #1 and #2:

Here's a good example of a time when knowing where the edge is can help you. My strip of green extended far beyond the template and I cut slightly beyond the edge to reduce the amount of fabric flopping around. I did this before adding the final background pieces because it would have actually wasted more fabric otherwise.

When you have to add a strip at an angle, I cannot emphasize enough: be willing to waste a little bit of fabric! I cut a strip about three times wider than was necessary in this example and made sure it covered the entire section and seam allowance before I did any trimming.

Here are my finished units for blocks #1 and #2 as well as my finished blocks!

Cut your sashing pieces from the background and sew together!

Amanda is making her quilt with white and grey dishes and a floral aqua background, here are her two blocks joined together:

I can't wait to see what you make! Feel free to share your finished blocks in the Flickr group and we will have a link-up (with PRIZES) once we finish our first row!

March 20th: Blocks 1 and 2; sashing (you are here!)
March 27th: Blocks 3 and 4; sashing
April 3rd: Block 5; sashing 
April 10th: Blocks 6 and 7
April 17th: Blocks 8 and 9; sashing
April 24th: Blocks 10 and 11; sashing 
May 1st: Block 12; sashing
May 8th: Applique blocks
May 15th: Setting 
May 22nd: Border and finishing
May 29th: Memorial Day break
June 5th: Show off your quilt! (And grand finale prizes!)

Sharing at Tips and Tutorials Tuesday!

Stash Bee March 2017 {Freeform Log Cabins}

This month for the Stash Bee, our Queen Bee Patty asked for Gwen Marston inspired log cabin blocks. I was rather excited about this -- thinking that like last month I would be able to use up a lot of scraps.

It sort of turned out to be a debacle.

First off, when I started pulling fabrics, I realized how truly few solids that I have which doesn't work well when your queen bee requests all or nearly all solids for a block. So I pulled in some near solids and figured I would minimize them and set off to work.

I made two blocks...

...and I hated them. The tonals and small scale prints were just too much and both blocks just seemed on the haphazard side of freeform. Some of the piecing of the dark accents was too large. I have literally never been this unhappy with bee blocks before.

So I did the only reasonable thing and chopped them all apart, salvaged the solid pieces and a few block sections, and then set out to work again. I pulled some additional solid fat quarters that I found buried deep in my stash and set off for round two.

This time I was much happier with my block.

So thus endeth the saga of bee blocks for March. I would very much enjoy not making more blocks like this for a while!

Sharing at Oh Scrap!

Christine's Kitchen QAL {STARTS MONDAY!}

Just popping in during a flurry of secret sewing and project planning to remind you that MONDAY starts our Christine's Kitchen QAL! 

Update: The QAL Is now over and the entire pattern is now available for purchase.

We are also working on having some super amazing giveaways for QAL participants! Rather than doing a weekly progress link up, we'll be doing a link up after we finish each row as well as at the end. That's four giveaways for you to win HBD patterns, fabric, and whatever else we might be able to get our paws on.

As always (and unlike a lot of other QALs), it is F-R-E-E to participate in this quilt along. Once the QAL is over, you'll have to pay to get the pattern, so even if you're unsure about keeping up with the QAL, collect the free patterns each week and save them! We don't judge. :)

As a reminder, here's the fabric and supply requirements:

Background: 2 yards
Various prints for piecing: 1 1/4-1 1/2 yards total (about 1/3 yard of this is for your border)
      Add extra if you like extra wiggle room for your paper piecing!
Binding: 1/3 yard
Backing and batting: 1 1/4 yard
Fusible web pieces

Here's our tentative schedule:

March 20th: Blocks 1 and 2; sashing
March 27th: Blocks 3 and 4; sashing
April 3rd: Block 5; sashing 
April 10th: Blocks 6 and 7; sashing
April 17th: Blocks 8 and 9; sashing
April 24th: Blocks 10 and 11; sashing
May 1st: Block 12; sashing
May 8th: Applique blocks
May 15th: Setting
May 22nd: Border and finishing
May 29th: Memorial Day break
June 5th: Show off your quilt!

We feel so special that so many of you have already left lovely comments here on the blog and on Facebook!
Ready to join in? You can join our Flickr group to share your blocks each week!

March {Mini} Madness with Island Batik!

As I previewed a few weeks back, my Island Batik project for March is a mini quilt and I'm happy to share the finished mini with you today!

When last I shared, I had just started working on the paper piecing units for my stars. I pulled out selected 10 inch squares from a layer cake of Lake Life and added in some Lake Life yardage as my background. As a reminder, I am using star #5 from our Starbursts pattern.

Since I got back from vacation I was able to finish it up rather quickly! I made four stars total, two pairs of matching stars. I ended up using a total of ten layer cake squares plus some background for my stars.

I cut 1.5 inch sashing for in between the blocks. I decided against sewing the blocks directly to one another so that the stars had more of a floating effect in the background.

I again used the blue fishes print from the Lake Life line for my backing (seriously, I have a lot of fish fabric!) and then quilted the mini with one of the spools of variegated Fantastico Superior Thread included with our Ambassador boxes. I used a yellow and green variegated thread and quilted free-form overlapping waves in a diagonal direction on the mini.

I made bias binding from the same blue fabric as the backing. Normally I don't do bias binding, but it worked well for this project.

Some of my fellow ambassadors have already posted their March minis and I highly suggest you check them out!

Joan @ Mouse Stash Quilting
Karen @ The Quilt Rambler

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and Finish It Up Friday!

Don't forget our Christine's Kitchen QAL starts MONDAY!

Christine's Kitchen Quilt Along {Starting March 20th!}

If you follow Honey, Bunny, and Doll Designs on Facebook, you know that our next quilt along starts on March 20th!

Update: The QAL Is now over and the entire pattern is now available for purchase.

Introducing Christine's Kitchen!

This is a paper piecing wall hanging or mini quilt with a few applique accents. This is a great project for paper piecers -- old and new! I'm planning to make a scrappy version with my Island Batik fabric stash (and maybe do some giveaways too!) My mom made her sample in scrappy 1930s fabrics and Amanda's WIP version has a teal background and white/grey dishes -- check it out on Instagram!

And like our other Honey, Bunny, and Doll QALs, it is totally free to participate! There is zero cost to participate, we don't require you to buy a kit from us, and you don't have to buy an outside book or pattern. Once the QAL is over, we'll sell the entire pattern, but patient QAL participants will get an entire pattern for free!

Here's the fabric and supply requirements:

Background: 2 yards
Various prints for piecing: 1 1/4-1 1/2 yards total (about 1/3 yard of this is for your border)
      Add extra if you like extra wiggle room for your paper piecing!
Binding: 1/3 yard
Backing and batting: 1 1/4 yard
Fusible web pieces

Here's our tentative schedule:

March 20th: Blocks 1 and 2; sashing
March 27th: Blocks 3 and 4; sashing
April 3rd: Block 5; sashing
April 10th: Blocks 6 and 7; sashing
April 17th: Blocks 8 and 9; sashing
April 24th: Blocks 10 and 11; sashing
May 1st: Block 12; sashing
May 8th: Applique blocks
May 15th: Setting
May 22nd: Border and finishing
May 29th: Memorial Day break
June 5th: Show off your quilt!

We will be adding the sashings to our blocks as we go along and we will also have a whole week dedicated to applique. My plan is to make my blocks for the QAL the week prior (ie, I will be only slightly ahead of the rest of you) so I can have good fresh comments and tips for you each week about the blocks you'll be making.

Ready to join in? Click on over to Craftsy to download our FREE information sheet with all of the information in this blog post. You can join our Flickr group to share your blocks each week!

Upcoming Projects {IBA March and April Preview}

Today I'm jet setting off to Arizona for a week of sun, baseball, and cacti, but before I leave, I wanted to share some project previews for my March and April Island Batik Ambassador projects.

For March, our theme is paper pieced mini quilts. I love foundation paper piecing so this is right up my alley. I decided to use one of the star patterns from our Starbursts pattern (if you have the pattern, it is star #5). I am going to make 4 stars for this mini in yellow, green, and blue. Here's my fabric pull:

I have the paper piecing units for two blocks finished. I'll start the units for the other two blocks once I am back from vacation.

This is coming along nicely and I am excited to hang this up in my new sewing space when it is finished!

For April, our theme is applique, so I started working on my own version of our Ready, Set, Soar! pattern. I pulled thirteen 5 inch x WOF strips from my magical Island Batik fabric box that coordinate. I tried to pull fabrics with an "under the sea" feel.

I cut the fabrics as the pattern directs and shared this in-progress shot on Instagram:

At this point, I have to decide what kind of applique I'll be adding. I'm leaning toward the outline of a mermaid but I'm worried that might be a little ambitious! I just found out one of my coworkers is having a baby later this year so if she has a girl, this quilt will be for her.

Happy Wednesday!