Firecrackers Blog Hop and Giveaway!

I am SO excited to be a part of Fat Quarter Shop's blog hop for their new Firecrackers pattern!

If you're visiting Little Bunny Quilts for the first time, welcome! My name is Alison and I've been quilting for close to 12 years and I've been blogging here for just over 4 years. I live in Frederick, MD with Park Ranger Husband and my quilt inspector, Clara the bunny. I work at at non-profit by day and am a quilter and pattern designer by nights and weekends!

For my quilt, I worked with New Bedford by Denyse Schmidt!

These rolls include solid strips, but I only used the patterned strips in my quilt. Since you only need one and a half jelly rolls for the pattern, this worked out perfectly!

I love to strip piece so putting the strip sets together and them slicing them up into wedges was lots of fun!

I really like the 30 degree ruler that this pattern uses (click here to see it!) and I am trying to think of more ways to use it! (And you might have a chance to get one too... :D)

Thoughts on construction:
-All of your blocks will have bias edges, so be aware of stretching and avoid picking out seams when you can to prevent distortion.
-I found it was pretty easy to match up seams and points with this pattern since the blocks are all trimmed to the same size. This is also one of those situations where you can use the bias to your advantage!
-I also pinned like a fiend and even though it was time-consuming it was TOTALLY worth it!
-I think my seam allowance when I made my strip sets was a scant quarter inch and could have been a touch wider so that the fifth strip's piece in the final square was wider. You can definitely use an accurate quarter inch seam!

And here's my finished quilt!

For the quilting, I filled the white diamonds with loops and then went back and filled in all of my "firecrackers" with loops as well. (I do all of my free motion quilting on my domestic Janome Magnolia.) Here's a close up shot:

For the backing, I used the mustard plaid print and it looks gorgeous! The binding is also one of the mustard prints.

And here are all of the links if you're interested in making your own Firecrackers quilt!

PDF Pattern: http://www.fatquartershop.com/firecrackers-pdf-quilt-pattern

Quilt Kit: http://www.fatquartershop.com/firecrackers-quilt-kit

Backing Set: http://www.fatquartershop.com/backing-set-firecrackers-quilt-kit

Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu0X8miiNtI&feature=youtu.be

Here are all of the quilters participating in this hop -- go visit them to see their versions!

Daisy of Ants To Sugar

Brooke of Silly Mama Quilts

Adrianne of On the Windy Side

Melissa of Happy Quilting

Julie of 627 Handworks

Corrine of Must Love Quilts

Jenn of Mommy Sew

Alison of Little Bunny Quilts (that's me!)

Lauren of Fly Away Quilts

And now for a little celebratory giveaway to thank you for visiting! Fat Quarter shop is graciously allowing me to do a give away for a Creative Grids 30 degree ruler which is used in this pattern! 

Two ways to enter:

1. For everyone: pop over to FQS and let me know which jelly roll(s) you would use in your version of this pattern!

2. Followers of Little Bunny Quilts -- old or new -- get a second entry! Tell me that you are a follower and what color background fabric you would use in your version of the pattern. 

Thanks to the Fat Quarter Shop for asking me to be a part of this fun blog hop and to any new visitors! I will announce the winner of the give away on Monday! 

Sharing at Finish it up Friday and Free Motion Mavericks!

Trimmed.

When last we chatted, my Fireworks wedges looked like this:

Over the weekend, I sewed them all to their side pieces and trimmed them down to this:

And that's all I am going to show until it's time for the BIG REVEAL!

Short rant: HOLY WOW DOES THIS PATTERN HAVE A TON OF WASTE.

This is my gigantic trim-off pile with pieces that I am going to absolutely SAVE and use in something else. I honestly could have trimmed my blocks almost an inch bigger than the directions instructed to do.

Rant over.

Hope you're having a great week! If you haven't already check out this GREAT POST by Jess of Quilty Habit regarding some things she's seen recently with companies not properly crediting quilters for their work.

Linking up with Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, and WIP Wednesday!

Making Fireworks

Like a lot of other quilty bloggers, right now I am working feverishly and semi-secretly on a test quilt for the Fat Quarter Shop's new pattern, Fireworks.

I was able to pick which fabric line I wanted to work with, and I picked New Bedford by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit.

The pattern is written to use two jelly rolls plus yardage. These rolls actually include some solids that coordinate with the line, but I won't likely use any of the solids in my blocks. This color palette is really out of my comfort zone, but I love all of the provincial feeling fabrics in this line!

The blocks are made from strip sets of 5 strips apiece and here's my first set:

Now to slice up that strip set into wedges:

Here's a little secret/hint for you: I found that if I staggered my strips by ~1/2 inch as shown above, I was able to get 12 wedges out of a strip set instead of 10 as the directions indicate. It saves you a few strips!

Here are all 120 of my strippy wedges:

Hopefully you will see this pattern up on the Fat Quarter Shop Website soon -- and hopefully my quilt will be finished just in time!