(Note:  This quilt is now available in a PDF pattern!  It includes instructions for two sizes:  baby/crib 36″ x 48″ and throw 48″ x 60″.   The pattern is available in my shop. )

I am a big fan of Moda’s V&Co Ombré gradient fabric.  So when they came out with Ombré Confetti Metallic this year, I was very excited to use it.  It’s Ombré with confetti sprinkled on it! The design possibilities are endless with these fabrics and so much fun.  I know I’m going to be sewing with them for a while.  The colors are amazing – there are twenty different ones in all! For this quilt, I kept it to just 5 colors, with the grey being the predominant color.

I had so many ideas for different quilts using this fun fabric.  I wanted a block where I could pair the solid Ombré with the Confetti Ombré,  so I designed a little herringbone child’s quilt.

I made 192 Half Square Triangles for this quilt.  The quilt finished size is 36″ x 48″.  I made all the HSTs by using my eight-at-a-time method, which is just so fast.  The HSTs were 3.5″ trimmed and 3″ after being sewn in.

I used five colors and Kona White for the background.  The graphite grey color was sort of my anchor color and I used twice as many HSTs in that color than the other four.

For the backing fabric, I knew I wanted something that was not as busy as the front of the quilt and I was hoping to find something in a grey that I liked.  I found this fabric, by Moda, called “Shooting Stars” from the “Stellar Baby” line that I really liked and had some sweet words:

I used two layers of Warm and Natural cotton batting for this quilt.  Do you feel sometimes that one layer of Warm and Natural is just too light? Sometimes I want a warmer quilt and so I tried it on this one.  The basting process went great and it quilted up like a champ, with no puckers or problems.  And it has double the warmth.

I debated how to quilt this herringbone pattern.  I decided to go ahead and follow the zigzag pattern of the quilt, although this was going to require a lot of shifting of the quilt in the machine.  However, I broke out my knee lifter and that helped a ton – I didn’t have to take my hands off the quilt to lift up the presser foot to shift the quilt.  I don’t need this gadget often, but when I do, I’m so glad I have it.

For the binding, there was no question I was going to carry the grey dominant color to the binding – and that confetti fabric is perfect for a fun binding.  I cut 2.5″ strips to make the binding.  Here is a tutorial on how I did that.

I can’t wait to sew with some more Ombré Confetti!  It’s so fun.

I’m listing the quilt in the Shop.

Thanks for stopping in!
Elaine

I’ve made several checkerboard baby quilts in the past and have so many people ask me for patterns, that I finally made another quilt and spent some time making up a pattern.  In the past, I have made these checkerboard quilts using a traditional 16-patch block but I’ve thought about it and feel that sewing width of fabric strips together and then subcutting them is faster.  So this pattern utilizes a super easy and quick strip piecing method.

This little quilt is my “less is more” philosophy that using just a handful of prints can have more impact than many prints.  In this instance, I’m using just four fabrics – my main fabric, which is a little lamb print, a dot, a solid and a subtle checked print.  This is similar to the Little Owl Quilt that I did and which got such a great response and so many requests for a pattern. *

* The pattern to make this quilt is now available in my Shop.

The little lamb fabric is called Clover from Cotton + Steel. It’s so sweet!  I selected my favorite dot fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics called Firefly in Whisper from the Hello Bear collection.  I added a Moda Solid and a little bit of a check fabric from Camelot called Mixology Woven in Rainwater.

For the backing, I found a fabric I thought went so well with the top – it’s called Scattered Hashtags from  Moda Mixology.

For the batting, I used a low loft Warm and Natural 100% cotton.  I quilted it with Aurifil thread, using a 4.0 stitch length and a walking foot.  I just used the seams on each square as my guide.

For the binding, I used Squared Elements in Turquoise.  I machine stitched the binding using my usual method.

I have this pattern out to testers right now  and when I have it available very soon, I will announce it here on the blog and it will be available for purchase.  If you follow me on Instagram, you will see it there also.  I will be very happy to finally be able to provide you with a pattern for this simple, fun quilt.

This quilt itself is now listed in the Shop.

** A pattern to make this kind of quilt is now available in my Shop.

Thanks for coming by!
Elaine

Michael Miller came out with this cute Safari Friends fabric line and I couldn’t resist it for a quilt for a baby boy.  I love blue and white together, and the grey in the fabric was the perfect third color.  The line also had a really cute dotted fabric and then I pulled some great Kona solids to match the colors in the fabric.

I really wanted to highlight the safari fabric on the front of the quilt, but the characters on the fabric were so large that it would not have made sense to cut those into 2″ or 3″ squares – the animals would have been lost.  So I ended up cutting 6.5″ squares of that fabric and then did 6.5″ nine-patch blocks out of the other fabrics.

I made the nine-patch blocks by cutting 2.5″ strips of fabric, sewing them into 3-strip sets and then subcutting those into 2.5″ segments.  I then mixed them up and sewed three segments together to get the nine-patch blocks.

The quilt ended up being 36″ x 48″, with 48 blocks total.

I used a different batting with this quilt and I think maybe I have found the perfect batting.  It was Quilter’s Dream Cotton batting and I really liked everything about it.  I use Warm and Natural most of the time, but this batting can be a bit stiff (it does soften up the more you wash your quilt) and can cause creases in a quilt when the quilt is folded for a long time.  I have used Hobbs 80/20, but that batting did not have enough weight for me – it was too light.  The Quilter’s Dream was softer than the Warm and Natural but had more heft to it than the Hobbs.  I can’t wait to try this batting on a larger quilt, where I will use two layers of it (which I’ve been doing lately with my larger quilts).  I’ll keep you posted.

I used the Safari Friends animal fabric for the backing and I just think it’s so cute. I quilted the whole thing with Aurifil thread – Light Delft Blue – at 4.0 stitches per inch.  I usually do a lot more quilting, but because the front of the quilt was a little busy, I felt I didn’t want to quilt every single line, so I outlined the larger blocks and left it at that.

The binding is a striped fabric from Hawthorne Threads.  Have you ever ordered fabric from this online shop?  Not only do they have a great selection of designer fabrics, but they digitally print their own line of fabrics and this stripe is one of those.  If you like stripes, they have a great selection and so many colors.

I used my regular machine binding technique to do the mitered binding.

And because I think they are so cute, I went ahead and make a reading pillow to go with the quilt!  The front has a pocket where you can slip a couple of books inside.

Thanks for dropping by – I hope you’re making something!

Elaine

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Pink alert!  Here is a quilt to wrap a baby girl in that is as cute as can be.  I used fabrics from the “Hip Hooray” line from Lizzie Mackay for Blend Fabrics.  This fabric is hard to find now and I’ve had it in my stash for a while, waiting to use it.

This line features a double border fabric with whimsical little animals on both of the borders.  I cut the borders off and used them on either end of the quilt.

I also took some of the border and fussy cut some of the animals out and used them for the patchwork center.  Each square ended up being 3.5″ after being sewn in.

I added a couple of more fabrics for the patchwork center, including a favorite Swiss Dot from Moda’s Essential Dot collection and a Robert Kaufman Carolina Gingham in Pink.

I used Warm and White for the batting and did the quilting with Aurifil thread in Pale Pink.

I almost never have to mark lines on my quilts. If I do, I usually use a Hera marker, which only makes creases.  But for this quilt, I really did have to mark lines so I used a Clover water soluble felt pen, which required washing the quilt afterwards to remove all the markings. I have used a Clover Chaco marker in the past, but have found that these markers don’t work hardly at all after a while.  Very disappointing!  So I would recommend the felt pen instead.  The lines washed right out nicely.

For the binding, I LOVE bias binding and a lot of fabric lines now are offering stripes on the bias, so you don’t have to actually make bias binding.   This binding fabric is from Moda’s “Dot Dot Dash” line.  I just love the look of this binding.  I cut 2.5″ crossgrain strips and used my machine binding technique.

The finished quilt is 37″ x 46″.   It’s a nice size to cuddle up with, use as a play mat, or just a decorative accent in a child’s room.   I’m listing it in the Shop.     (This quilt has sold)

Thanks for dropping by!
Elaine

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Lately I’ve been writing about how  much I love Moda’s new fabric line called “Ombre”, designed by V and Co.  These fabrics are gradient solids which, when cut up, look like you’ve used multiple solids.  I really like using these fabrics and designed this quilt around two colors from this line – Honey and Graphite Grey – and I’m so pleased with the results.

I had this design in mind for a while – to do staggered Missouri star blocks.  I worked the design all out on graph paper and, because of all the varying negative space on this quilt, had to really do a lot of figuring and calculating – something I really like.  No two rows were alike.  There were some  miscuts and ripping out, though.  But that happens when you are not using a pattern!

One of the things I love best about this quilt is the grey gingham binding.  I have a nice stash of small size ginghams and  I think they make the sweetest bindings.

The background fabric is Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Solid in White.  Because of all the white in the background,  I used Warm and White batting, a pure white batting from the Warm and Natural company which doesn’t create a dull background behind bright white fabrics.  And it has the same feeling and low loft of regular Warm and Natural batting.

For the background fabric, I used this adorable flannel backing in Organic Cotton from Cloud 9 fabrics.   The yellow and grey elephants were so cute and just matched the Ombre colors so well. The flannel is soft and makes such a nice backing for a child’s quilt.

The stars were made up entirely of Half Square Triangles, which finished at 2″ after being sewn in.  This is what I used as my quilting guide, so the overall quilting grid is 2″.   I used 50 wt. White Aurifil thread and quilted at a stitch length of 3.5.  The quilting makes such a nice texture and drape.

The finished size of this quilt is 36″ x 52″ .  I love how it turned out and have listed it in the shop.

Thanks for popping in!
Elaine

linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts,  Sew Fresh Quilts,  Free Motion by the River,  Sew Cute Tuesday