Fancy Fox Quilt (#32)

 (Update: Below is my first fox quilt in natural tones, but I made another Fancy Fox Quilt here  in December 2015 using a Retro 30's jelly roll - showing that each quilt has a unique look & feel with different fabrics.)

Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox Quilt pattern was the perfect design for my next "guy quilt' - and it was a great stash buster too. Instructions were clear and chain piecing went quickly.  I did use starch and ironed a lot ... lots of starch makes happy foxes!

Maybe being new to this type of piecing was my problem -  but most of my fox 'faces' measured larger on top and less on the bottom.  Not to worry. 

 I only planned to make 42 fox faces knowing that number was realistic for my time - I added 2.5" pieces of sashing around each fox to fill out the space. This sashing allowed me lots of wiggle room for errors, the blocks were cut to 9.5"x11.5" - the tip of the nose was my center point.

I did make a few cutting mistakes and by the end I was down a couple of fox blocks - so decided to put stars in the four corners using the measurements & instructions from Happy Zombie for her Manzanita Star.  

To make this more 'manly' and rugged I used Mammoth Flannel on the back which is lovely to sew and soft.  All my fabrics had been pre-shrunk since they were leftovers from other projects, the only exception being the Warm & Natural batting which was tumbled in the dryer to remove wrinkles.

Since I don't know how to free motion quilt, my goal was to not mess with the fox face - so the ears are the only area that you can see the zigzag quilting.  I used Aurifil 50wt. Grey Smoke (5004) which was perfect for disappearing into the yarn dyed denim and blending into the plaid backing. I spray based the quilt layers together and the Aurifil thread just glided through beautiful and smooth.

I am partial to the broken zigzag stitch and for this quilt I used a medium width and length.  I tend to zigzag smaller for pretty quilts and juggle between larger widths & lengths for 'man' quilts.

Materials:  

Robert Kaufman's Essex yarn dyed linen in denim

Moda/3 Sisters Winterlude Aged Solids in Black

Riley Blake Shades (or Blenders) in Slate & Granite,
& Orange Fox Trails stars

Moda Funky Monkey sock texture (brown)

Timeless Treasures Sketch (black & white)

White jelly roll 
Aurifil 50wt. grey smoke (#5004)
Size: 59" x 83"
February 2015

Old New 30's Quilt (#31)

I love fat eighths and Westwood Acres had a lovely bundle of Old New 30's from Lecien that worked out perfectly. 

 I am always pleased by the simple and quick way fat quarters and fat eighths can be used with Cluck Cluck Sew's Easy Bake pattern. 
 Using Aurifil 50wt. white with a medium sized zigzag stitch is so effective on square block quilt patterns - it looks nice on both sides (front & back).  It's pretty sweet for piecing too.

I wanted to use the whole bundle and not have leftovers, so every piece went in - even the strong green & red.  The backing is white flannel, something I usually use as a middle layer in my minky quilts - but plain was best since the front was strong & bright.

Pale pink & white stripes from my stash expanded the quilt into a twin size. The large pale border created a nice barrier between the binding and help soften all those strong colors mixed together.

Materials used:  
Easy Bake Pattern/ Cluck Cluck Sew
Old New 30's Lecien fat eighths (from Westwood Acres)
90" wide white quilter's flannel / Fabric.com
Pimatex Basic Stripe Pale Pink / Robert Kaufman
Aurifil 50wt. White for both piecing and quilting
Binding:  Amy Butler Solid in Coral
Batting: Twin sized Warm & White
Quilted with a broken zigzag stitch on a Janome DC2013
Size: 69" x 84"
February 2015