Overnight Delivery Rail Fence Table Runner {Tutorial}

I ended up with a little pile of extra jelly roll strips as well as a few half strips after making my latest quilt pattern for Moda Bake Shop, Jingle Bell Rock.

The leftovers were definitely enough for a small project so I kept all of my coordinating fabrics together after finishing that quilt. I don't always keep coordinating scraps together, but when it seems like there is enough fabric to make something like placemats, a mini quilt, or even a table runner, I usually tend to keep the fabric together until I decide what I want to do with it.

I had quite a few low volume strips and some medium-to-dark strips so I decided to make rail fence blocks.

A little bit of strip piecing and quilting later, I had this adorable table runner! Here's how I made it:

For the top:
A total of 9 - 2.5" x WOF strips or equivalent scraps
     (I used some full WOF strips and some half WOF strips leftover from the quilt)

For the backing and batting:
A piece of fabric approximately 24" by 54"
     (This gives you a 2-3" overhang on all four sides)
A piece of batting the same size as your backing

For the binding:
4 - 2.5" x WOF strips (or binding width of your choice!)

To make the rail fence blocks, sew your strips together in sets of three and press as desired. Your strip sets should measure 6.5" wide unfinished. Subcut your strip sets into 6.5" long sections.

If you are working from WOF strips, make 4 strip sets, each containing 3 - 2.5" strips. Cut 6 - 6.5" sections from each strip set, making a total of 24 rail fence blocks.

If you are working from scraps, you can choose to strip piece or not -- each block is made up of 3 - 2.5" x 6.5" rectangles if you prefer to cut the small rectangles instead of strip piecing the blocks.

Arrange the blocks so that the orientation of the blocks alternate in a 8 block by 3 block arrangement and sew the top together. Your top should measure approximately 48.5" long and 18.5" across. Layer with batting and backing; quilt as desired and bind.

For the quilting, I quilted it in the same star-and-loops design that I used for the quilt but I scaled down the design slightly. The backing is the same backing as the throw sized quilt and I also used this fabric for the binding (but don't look too closely because I had to piece my binding quite a bit!) The Overnight Delivery line from Sweetwater is just too cute!

I hope you are having a wonderful week! I am home from retreat and will be working on a wrap up post this weekend to share what I was working on!

Jingle Bell Rock {New on Moda Bake Shop!}

I'm excited to share my newest Moda Bake Shop pattern with you -- introducing Jingle Bell Rock!

I've sort of had bowtie blocks on the brain in the last year and I came up with the idea of a bowtie made of pieced nine-patches in the springtime. I found that designs with just my nine-patch bowtie blocks were a little busy and I decided to swap out half of the blocks for log cabins built around a four patch. Here's my original design:

This quilt was made with the Overnight Delivery line from Sweetwater. This is a quilt that uses one jelly roll and background yardage -- I used a white on cream print from the line for my background instead of a solid this time around. 

To make the quilt, I made all of the nine-patch bowtie blocks first and then used the "strip stubs" and remaining jelly roll strips to make the log cabin blocks. Each of the bowtie blocks uses one dark and one light fabric; the log cabin blocks uses light scraps for the four patches, darker and medium prints for the first set of "logs", and background fabric for the second set of "logs". 

And guess what -- this pattern doesn't even use the whole jelly roll! I was able to make a coordinating table runner out of the scraps from this quilt -- I put together a tutorial for that too and that will be published tomorrow!

The backing for this quilt is one of the large text prints -- hope, joy, love, peace! The binding is the diagonal plaid in green and black. For the quilting, I did an all over filler of whimsical stars and loops in white thread.

If you're looking for a quick and fun quilt to make for Christmas, this pattern should be on your list! This quilt is also perfect for beginners because other than the stitch and flip units for the bowtie blocks, the rest of the quilt is put together entirely with straight seams and no sashings or borders.

It's always a little funny to work on Christmas quilts in the summer, and this one was no exception! I took these outdoor quilt photos on what was to that point the hottest day of the year here in Maryland!

Check out the full tutorial here on the Moda Bake Shop blog!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Jingle Bell Rock
Pattern: pattern on MBS, designed by me
Size: 60" square
Fabrics: Overnight Delivery by Sweetwater
Quilting: Stars and loops in white Aurifil

Sharing with Needle and Thread Thursday!

Jungle Cruise {Blog Hop Preview}

As you might have see on Instagram, I am working on my own version of our Summer Patio pattern using the Jungle Cruise line from Island Batik for our August blog hop! Check back on August 28th for my finish!

The Jungle Cruise line is shipping to stores soon, and I've had a lot of fun thus far working with this line. Summer Patio is a great beginner pattern and perfect for yardage or 2.5" strips.

The pile of fabric above became these strips:

...and the strips became these blocks:

Then came more cutting for the background and the sashings:

...and then I had some finished blocks!

Check back on August 28th for my stop on the blog hop featuring my finished quilt and some giveaways!

Don't forget to take advantage of the free shipping special in our Etsy shop! Kits, Kona, and extra wide backing all ship for free with a $30 purchase!

Sharing at Main Crush Monday, Linky Tuesday, and Let's Bee Social!

Garden Plots {New Moda Bake Shop Pattern}

I'm so excited to share about my newest Moda Bake Shop Pattern -- Garden Plots!

(Update 7/1/2020: This pattern is no longer available on the Moda Bake Shop website. It is now only available in the book, Best of Moda Bake Shop.)

This is a complicated looking quilt that has all straight seams! This could easily be accomplished by a confident beginner or intermediate quilter! Each block uses two jelly roll strips -- I chose to make each block using two different fabrics.

I quilted this quilt with an all-over meander with flowers -- my go to motif as of late!

This quilt uses one jelly roll and a total of a yard of fabric for the focal fabric portions of the blocks. I used three different fabrics for the large centers of the blocks.

I also wrote this pattern so that you could use either 3 yards of fabric -or- a neutral jelly roll as your background fabric. I used yardage but the directions don't change if you wanted to use a jelly roll and save time!

I had some trouble fighting the shadows given that I took these pictures before sunset, but some of the pictures show such amazing texture!

The fabric line used in this quilt is Voyage by Kate Spain! I absolutely love the purples used in this line. Every other block is turned 90 degrees which accomplishes two things -- it eliminates the need for sashing between the blocks and it also means that you only have to match the seams between the blocks themselves and not any of the "gears" around the block!

I used the large scale floral flourish print in three colors -- pink, teal, and blue -- as my block centers. I also used the teal fabric for my backing and the pink print as my binding. There is also a final "border" of background strips around the 16 blocks to help the blocks float on the background.

Don't forget to share your finished quilts using my patterns with me -- I love seeing them!

Sharing at Finish It Up Friday!

Blue Breeze {WIP}

My blue Summer Breeze quilt has continued to be a good break from all of that FMQ that I have been doing on my star quilt.

Here are the little pinwheels:

Here they are in the finished blocks -- these were super zippy to put together!

Here's the top all laid out together -- somehow I miscounted and ended up with four extra rail fence blocks!

While I was slightly interrupted and had to stack all the blocks up before I put the top together, I managed to keep everything in order perfectly -- check out the adorable-ness that is this quilt top!

I am about 90% set that I will be using navy blue to back and bind this one to tone it down a little bit. I will definitely quilt it in white or light blue on the front, but I think that if I do a navy backing, I might also use navy in my bobbins. What do you think -- do you like to quilt with two different colors front and back or do you mainly stick with one color for both?

Sharing at WIP Wednesday!

Weekend Sew In.

My husband is currently out of town on business so I have had the whole apartment to myself since Friday and as such I have turned the living room into a semi-permanent sewing studio until he gets back on Wednesday, so I have lots to share this week!

Since Yvonne was nice enough to "hive crash" and make me a pineapple block  so I hive crashed back and made her a block!

She wrote a GREAT tutorial so check it out! I cannot wait to see her finished quilt!

I also started a new project using some of the strips I collected in the 2.5 inch strip swaps I hosted two or three years back. I had quite a few strips that were from Dear Stella's Lanikai line -- but mainly the larger prints. 

I picked a pattern out of Scrap Basket Surprises -- Summer Breeze -- and started to work! I was able to get all of the rail fence blocks completed and started cutting for the pinwheel blocks as well. 

I don't plan to do the outer borders as this pattern instructs since I don't have enough fabric to do so! It will end up 40 x 48 without a border, so I think that's a pretty good baby quilt size!

And of course, Clara was on high alert as official quilt inspector.

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday and Fabric Tuesday!

Square Pegs Pattern at Moda Bake Shop!

I am so excited to share that my second pattern for Moda Bake Shop is now up -- Square Pegs!

This quilt is made with one jelly roll, one charm pack, and a little bit of white yardage. It's a modern take on a log cabin and made with the gorgeous new line from Studio M -- Basic Mixologie.

This is a great beginner quilt but is fun for any quilter! The blocks go together very quickly and the pattern is easily scaled up or down with more or fewer blocks.

Here's my original diagram:

And here's my finished quilt:

It's somewhat visible in the "tree pictures", but for the quilting, I did a "mod meander" -- it's like Leah Day's "circuit board" pattern but the corners are all rounded or curves rather than sharp turns. I can try to take some closer up pictures of the quilting!

The background is a great teal print from the line that is diamonds and the binding is an orange diagonal stripe -- perfection for binding!

I hope you pop over to Moda Bake Shop to check out the pattern and if you make your own version, be sure to share it!

Sharing at Finish it Up Friday!

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!

Frame of Mind Moda Bake Shop Quilt!

I am so excited to FINALLY share my finished quilt for Moda Bake Shop -- Frame of Mind!

I submitted this design way back in June and got the fabric over 4th of July weekend and got right to work! Although, I did finish it juuuust under the wire, but that's the thrill, I guess! I was able to use Stephanie Ryan's new line, Good Karma and I loved every minute of this process!

This is a one block quilt great for confident beginners -- all squares and rectangles and minimal seam matching! It does use partial seams, but one you make a few, you get the process down pat!

You get two different block looks with the two different arrangements of your background and print strips. Alternating your block As and block Bs gives you a great final look!

I did a floral quilting motif (similar to the one I used here) with a swirl as the center of my flower, and then 3 or 4 rounds of petals to make it look more like a chrysanthemum, to pick up the chrysanthemum pattern in some of the fabrics (I used the one print as my backing!)

For the binding I used one of the ziggy stripe prints (and I apologize for not having a gratuitous binding shot!) and it turned out AWESOME. This quilt ends up 75 inches square!

Pop on over to MBS for the full tutorial! Sharing at Finish it up Friday!