Pattern meets fabric: Boxed Kisses

My newest Christmas quilt is almost finished.

I know!  It's only September, but hear me out!

These Christmas fat qarters have been sitting on my shelf for eight years waiting for the right project.  I considered many different patterns for them over the years but they all required more coordinating yardage than I had.  I tried to find other fabrics to coordinate, but nothing looked quite right.

I designed Boxed Kisses a couple of years ago to use 1/4 yard cuts OR fat quarters.  I don't know why I didn't think until now to check if the bit of yardage I had to coordinate with my Christmas bundle would be enough to make Boxed Kisses.  There was just enough.  Happy dance!  I guess this quilt was meant to be.

Most of the quilts I make these days are test/sample quilts.  It was such a joy to relax and just follow a finished pattern this  time.  I haven't made anything this quicklky in ages.  Here's the timeline in photos.

August 1

Select 12 fat quarters from the bundle. 

Run all the fabric through te washer and dryer.

Press, press, press.

Start cutting.

August 2

Finish cutting.  Admire pretty stack of parts.

Piece units assembly-line style.

August 3

Lay out units to figure out
which fabric to pair in blocks

Remove some parts to start sewing.
Wonder if what's left has some design possibilities.

Focus on this quilt.  Assemble blocks.

August 4

Sew blocks together.

August 6

Add borders and audition binding fabric.

That's where things stand a month later.  Obviously I need to quilt the quilt before I can sew on the binding.  I've been distracted by non-sewing tasks and the insomnia quilt but Boxed Kisses:  Christmas Edition is next in line for quiting.

This fabric and this pattern were just meant to meet.  I'm tickled that 8 years ago, years before I designed this pattern,  I bought just enough of the cream, green and red yardage to pair with the fat quarters to make Boxed Kisses.  It's even more astonishing when you consider hat I very, very rarely buy fabric without a specific quilt in mind.

I'd love to hear about your fabric + pattern perfect pairings.  Tell me about them in the comments!

Happy quilting,

Joanne

Pattern available in my Etsy shop.

New work in progress - Name TBA

I've been busy, just not blogging. I've been thinking about it frequently, thoughts like "ooh, I should blog about that!", yet it's been over a month since I shared anything here.  I have things to share, I just get sidetracked on my way to the computer.

Here's one of the distractions, but also one of the things I meant to blog about.

Halloween Expressions from Riley Blake Designs

Pretty, right?  It's a bright happy bundle.  It followed me home from the quilt shop a few days after I had an insomniac designing session.  

I received a call for quilt design submissions, with a particular request for precut-friendly patterns, including FQ-friendly ones.  When a thought struck me at 3:00 am as I failed to fall asleep, I got up, started up EQ8, and played.  I finally got drowsy, so I went back to bed and fully expected to discard the design when I woke up.

Huh.  I didn't hate it in the morning.  In fact I was really excited and energized about it and needed to test it ASAP.  My stash is mostly leftovers from previous projects, and as such doesn't include a lot of FQ sized pieces.  So sad I had to head to the quilt shop!  The Riley Blake bundle jumped right into my hands.

Fabric cut, ready to sew

Cutting went swiftly, sewing almost as swiftly. I meant to take progress photos, but I was in the sewing zone and suddenly there were 20 blocks on the wall and no photos.  I made up for the lack of progress photos with a plethora of  block shuffling photos.

I hated the first layout and feared the whole project was a dud.

Over the course of the next week I shuffled blocks around, took photos, let things sit and simmer, shuffled some more. The darkest fabrics and the one multicolor print gave me trouble.  Thank goodness for my phone camera to help me keep track of what I'd already tried!

Screenshot of my photo gallery

That's just some of the layouts I tried.  There are over 30 on my phone.  Here's what I settled on finally.

I still wasn't 100% sold, but I also wasn't willing to give up on these blocks so I decided to start sewing them together and hope for the best.

Sewing the blocks together and pressing tidied things up quite nicely and it started to grow on me.

Adding the border pulled it all together and now I'm giddy again.  It's brighter than most of my recent quilts, but I used to use bright colours all the time.  I'm not sure when I drifted away from them, but it's been fun to revisit them.

I bought more of the multicolour print for the backing.  

The backing is pieced, and I have a quilting plan.  There will be circles and straight lines.  I'll work out some details as I stitch.  I hope this yellow thread I had on hand will work.  It's a bit brighter than I usually use, but it's a bright quilt so I'll go with it.

I'm excited to start quilting this tonight.  I want it ready to show off when I release the pattern next week!  

Happy quilting,

Joanne

New Pattern Alert: Rapids

 Let's keep this one short and sweet! This is Rapids.

I lacked a quilt holder for this photo shoot.  I have some photos from January, but leading with a picture of it in snow when it's so hot and humid outside right now seems wrong somehow.

Also, the Radiant Wings prints from Island Batik are all about big bold buterflies, dragonflies, and leafy things so the snow doesn't match.  (The light accent is Whip Cream, an Island Batik foundation.)

I chose plain squares to showcase the prints so the eye would focus on the prints instead of the shapes, but I wanted something a little more interesting than rows of squares. The zigzag layout fits the bill, and the accent triangles defining the zigzag path also draw the eye to the print squares.

The cover quilt was made yardage of six prints for the squares, but you could cut the squares from scraps for a scrappier quilt.  If you want a scrappier effect but don't have scraps or you just don't want to sort through them, you can use a package of 5" precut squares and just a little yardge to cut a few extra squares to make up the total number of squares required.

What else do you need to know about this pattern?

• You won't need to cut and sew any individual triangles
• It's suitable for a confident beginner.
• The quilt measures 61" x 77.5"
• It is Rosie-approved.
• You can buy the PDF download version in my Etsy shop, or you ask for a printed version at your favourite quilt shop.

I didn't lead with the snowy picture, but perhaps gazing at it will help counter the current heat.

The snowy picture is helping helping my brain think cool.  I think hunkering down in the sewing room, downstairs where it's cooler, will also help.  I guess I'll just have to go test a few new design ideas.  It's such a hardship :)

Happy quilting,

Joanne