Peak Hour Half Hexi Baby Quilt (#41)

The fourth, and last quilt to be made with Peak Hour by Riley Blake.  With some left over jelly roll strips and a 10" layer cake, I thought it would be fun to experiment making a hexagon pattern.

Here is what worked best for me:  for the jelly roll 2.5" strips, the small half hexagon from Missouri Star Quilt Co. worked nicely. For the 10" squares (layer cake) I used Lori Holt's  large Hexie Half ruler.

I was very lucky finding a layer cake since this design was released 3 years ago ... and was more short on fabric than I thought.  No worries - white Kona came to my rescue to fill out the gaps.

A half hexagon quilt, much like a  tumbler quilt, has to be laid out row by row to balance color. 

It is easier to see the hexagon shapes when the 'top' and 'bottom' hexi's match, but if you don't have enough fabric - mismatched works fine - as does combining the two different sizes.  

The half hexagon templates are fun - the larger size is my favorite as it comes together really, really fast! Quilting was done with Aurifil 50wt white in a loose zigzag, 2" apart - making a beautiful design through the batting and flannel back.

Materials:
Peak Hour / Riley Blake
White Kona
Amy Butler / Sunspots in olive
Aurifil 50wt. white
Warm & White batting
Size: 47" x 54"
July 2015

Under The Stars (#40)

Cindy Lammon of Hyacinth Quilt Designs made a beautiful quilt with this pattern and was generous enough to post on her blog the dimensions for the fabric squares and sashing.   She said, "feel free to copy away" and so I did.  

Cindy's blocks are more complex and showcased fussy cut images while I kept these simple since the fabric was too cute to cut!

 Fabric.com always gives you an extra inch in their cuts, so 1 yard of each design & careful cutting  gave me enough blocks to make two quilts.  Extra yardage was needed for the boarder which was cut at 4.5" and after quilting - trimmed to 4" on all sides.

The white Kona sashing is cut 1.5" wide and all fabrics were starched. I did make a layout for this quilt before I started sewing ... mostly so two designs wouldn't be next to each other.  Even when I knew I had laid out the middle row wrong it didn't matter because I couldn't figure out my mistake. It just goes to show that this lovely simple pattern is forgiving as well.  

 To make this feel like a camping quilt to snuggle up in - and give the illusion of wrapping oneself up in the night - the back is ash grey minky and the simple zig zag quilting is done with Aurifil 50wt. light sand (#2000) and grey smoke (#5004).  Quilting down the center of the white sashing from top to bottom & side to side - makes a really nice 4" grid throughout.

Materials:
Under the Stars from Timless Treasures
Kona white
Aurifil 50wt. / light sand / grey smoke
Dimple dot minky / ash grey
Warm & white batting
Cindy Lammon / Hyacinth Quilt Desgins
Size: 59" x 72"
July 2015

Chillingsworth Quilts (#38 & #39)

A half yard bundle of Chillingsworth fabric made two great skeleton quilts - inspired by a picture from the International Quilt Market, June 2014.

Left:  59" x 69"             Right:  60" x 69"

The quilt tops were cut and sewn at the same time to help me keep track of the layouts. 

They sat finished for a year, waiting for me to learn free motion quilting so I could stitch around the skeletons.  I never learned so it was time to experiment.

I did a grid pattern that was pretty nice - using this video from Nancy Zieman.  She uses this technique on a placemat but I found it also works on something as large as the skeleton panel (24"x44").  My lines are spaced 3" apart and since this panel didn't have an edge to sew off - I just sewed down the side of the panel until I came to a part that needed quilting.  This panel was done with one continuous line of stitching, following a grid made with a Washable Wonder blue marker.

This skeleton panel was done free form using a walking foot - going forward & backwards and around the image ... much harder since my sewing machine was too small for so much minky & batting stuffed into the throat. Never again!

The darker areas of the quilt were sewn with broken zigzags and straight stitching.  Aurifil 50wt. thread was used for piecing & quilting - and worked really well tension wise - the grey stayed on the top, the light sand on the bottom. 

Materials:
Chillingsworth /designed by Echo Park
Aurifil 50wt.
Warm & White batting
Minky / dimple dot beige
July 2015

Another California Girl Quilt (#37)

Two jelly rolls and two different patterns make up this pretty quilt using California Girl by Fig Tree for Moda.  The patterns are simple - a square block (instructions below) and small strips (or a coin pattern).

The truth is, I began two different quilts at two different times and had already cut the jelly rolls for each.  When both quilts were going to end up too small -  I just combined them into one.

The best part of using the pre-cut collection from Moda (or any other manufacturer), is that the end results harmonize - and that was a plus for me since the fabric came out in 2012. There was no stress since every piece worked - and there were many, many pieces.

I opted for a dimple dot minky in taupe instead of honey browns or light creams since this quilt is going to a home with that palette. Those colors would also work for the back. (The coordinating coral color binding was also a request - but a nice choice is the ocean blue like my other California Girl quilt - more of a contrast.)

While California Girl has overall softer colors, its like many other muted collections that benefit from white accents or sashing.  The white allows the designs to pop out and makes the final quilt look clean & fresh.

Quilting was done with a medium broken zigzag using the sides of the squares as a guide - then straight stitching using a 3.5 stitch length down the middle of each square.

The basic pattern for the block uses a pre-cut jelly roll or 2.5" wide piece of fabric.  Begin by cutting a center square 2.5" (I used white throughout) and chain piecing the 2.5" squares on the top and bottom.  
Move to step 2 and sew 2.5" x 6.5" on the sides - chain piecing again.  
I press my seams open and trimmed to 6".  Join 4 six inch squares together and make a block - trim to 11"
White sashing was 2.5" strips of Kona cotton.

Materials:
California Girl by Fig Tree/Moda
Kona white
Dimple dot minky / taupe
Aurifil 50wt / light sand (#2000) & beige (#2314)
Warm & white batting
Size: 65"x83"
July 2015