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Go West King Sized Quilt Top Update

HI,
I am happy to share this week my progress on supersizing my Go West by Bonjour Quilts quilt top into a king size quilt. It took a lot of pondering on just how far to take the design to get the size I thought I needed to fit our king bed. I started with the twin size finished top at 64 by 84 inches and I am currently at 120 by 84 inches. After laying it out on our bed, I do know I really want to add to that 84 inch length as it does not cover the mattress as far as I want. It all depends on how far the leftover fabric goes in creating all the new half square triangles, if I add two rows to the bottom or also two rows to the top. I know it will shrink up with quilting and washing and drying. I just do not want to short myself.

Go West king flimsy angle

The quilt is certainly bright. It makes me really dislike my walls and that they were white or any color paint instead of wall paper from the 70’s.

Go West king flimsy front angle

I really like the center panel and how it shows the design off . Of course it is next to impossible to photograph. I am going to have to find a new large place to photograph this quilt properly once it is finished and quilted.

Go West king flimsy front on

I love love the copper penny and pumpkin spice colored grunge type fabrics with the bright blue.

Go West leftover blocks

This is all I have left from my original blocks I made from making two twin size pieced tops per Kirsty’s instructions for the this quilt pattern. I basically did not make the very center horizontal row of the second twin. I deconstructed the second twin by add sections to either side of the first completed top to get to the size I am at. I can use these leftover blocks in my additional rows needed. Yeah, just a few less HSTS to make! It shouldn’t be too bad as the finish is near….

Go West king leftover fabric

This is what I have for fabric leftover from initially cutting out my quilt blocks. Kirsty was generous in her instructions. Remember this is a doubled amount. I did buy exactly what she stated in the instructions and doubled each amount. Since I am so short on that one color it does limit me on how far I can add rows to the quilt. I can add up to three rows in each direction before I would need that last color. I will be sure to careful tally up each size needed before cutting into these extra pieces.

My plans in the upcoming week are to finish this top and start cutting out the HSTS for my daughter’s Go West. I need to finish up quilting a couple quilts (Jelly Roll Slice and Katie’s Compass) before I get too involved in creating my daughter’s quilt top.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will be linking up with Crazy Mom’s Quilts and Finished or Not Friday’s.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

TGIFF : Go West Flimsy

Welcome to TGIFF! Hi my name is Shelley and I blog as The Carpenters Daughter who Quilts. I have been quilting for over 20 years and blogging for almost 2 years. I think this is my third time hosting the Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday linky party. I am excited to see everyone’s latest finish and the chance to meet some new to me quilt bloggers.

I am sharing my latest quilt top finish. It is Go West by Bonjour Quilts. I have a twin size top finished but I am currently putting together a second twin top to join together to make a king size quilt. I really really love this quilt pattern and design. It is also one that my daughter likes as well so I have one cut out for her too. We have the fabric cut out to supersize her quilt too.

Go West twin angle

I am thinking of adding to the length of the quilt. A twin size is 64 by 84 inches. If you are putting two tops together, you will essentially come up with a top that is 128 inches wide by the 84 inches long. Our king mattress and box springs is currently on the floor. We are looking to build our own platform bed with a headboard attached to the wall. I measured the bed as is and I would really like in the 95 inch or so length at least. I am looking at adding an additional top and bottom two rows to the design but that would take the top to 104 inches long. I guess I could just add the additional two rows to the bottom and it would be approximately 96 inches. I really do not need 128 inches across so will just have to play with layout to see what looks right.

Go West mistake top

This is my late night finish of the top last night. I snapped a quick photo of it thrown across the couch and uploaded to Instagram. As the photo loaded, I saw that I had a big mistake of two rows flipped. Luckily it was easy to open a couple seams and take out the two row and flip them and sew back in. Bright blue always touches bright blue.

Go West twin straight front

Here is the corrected version.

Go West twin other angle

It really is hard to get a full on photo of a quilt on the king size bed since our closet is so close to the foot of the bed.

GoWest Holly fabrics

These are the fabrics that my daughter chose for her Go West quilt.

Lyric closet monster

This is Lyric, our Australian Shepherd that we adopted in February. She was a kenneled breeder dog. Her owner died and I am not sure what her life was truely like there. After 4 months, she still will not allow my husband to touch her. She will take food from his hand but that is all. She likes to hang out in the closet in our bedroom. She was lurking in the closet when I was taking photos.  She used to get on the bed with me but now she prefers making a nest in the closet. It has to be hot in there as she is panting.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and checking out my Friday finish (that is still a WIP.) I hope to be back with a possible photo of a finished king top or more progress.

It is now time for all of you to link up your Friday Finishes. Please go check out as many of the other quilters’ blogs and share the love by leaving a comment.( My comment page can be found if you click on the the title of this blog post and open the actual blog post.)

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

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Katie’s Compass Flimsy and other current WIP

Hi, I would like to share my finished quilt top Katie’s Compass by Sterling Quilt Co. This pattern was one of my May is for Maker’s  indie pattern purchases. I finished piecing the top before Memorial Day but did not get a chance to blog about it. I did share photos on Instagram.

Katie's Compass flimsy finish

This quilt top went together very easily. It was even easier for me because I had a good portion of what I needed for blocks all ready pieced into strips from the leftover cuttings from my Jelly Roll Slice quilt top.

Jellyroll Slice Flimsy

Here is a photo of the Jelly Roll Slice quilt made from the Fat Quarter Shop’s quick tutorial video and pattern set. I have this basted to quilt and had started in quilting with a serpentine type zigzag quilting but I was not happy with it. I am going to take out the 6 or so rows of stitching and rebaste and start again. I can quilt both quilts now at the same time I guess.

Katie Compass sample block

This is a single block of Katie’s Compass and it finishes at 20 inches. The quilt finishes at 60 inches square. It can be made from two charm packs or half of a jelly roll set.

Katie Compass backing

This is what I am using for my backing. I used up all the pieces leftover from making the backing for the Jelly Roll Slice quilt’s backing.

Katie Compass back blocks

That black and white print is rather blinding when taking a photograph of it. I had enough of the cat print to cut 6 – 5 inch squares and I built my blocks around them. I had enough of each teal print to make 2 blocks and then last 2 of the 6 blocks got white solid added to them. The turquoise solid was in my stash from a Hancock Fabrics Black Friday sale purchase.

Jellyroll Slice backing

This is the backing I made for the Jelly Roll Slice quilt so you can see where my leftover scraps came from.

I am also currently working on 2 other big quilting projects that actually will make 3 Queen sized quilts. I am making two supersized Go West by Bonjour Quilts, one in fabrics I picked out and one that my daughter picked out for herself. Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts shared recently how to enlarge her quilt pattern by making two of the twin size tops and in a couple different layouts it will make a queen/king size quilt.

GoWest my fabrics

These are my fabric choices for Go West. The bright blue is the center of the southwestern style blanket design. White is the background. I do have this cut into all the appropriate squares and have started in making a few of the numerous half square triangles needed for the top.

GoWest Holly fabrics

This is my daughter Holly’s fabric choices. She chose the black with white arrows as her center design fabric. White will also be the background fabric. All of our fabrics were from JoAnn’s but her yellow tree bark print is from Fabric.com.

The other large quilt project that I have started is City Tiles by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love). I fell in love with her quilt design from all the in progress photos she had on Instagram and I purchased the pattern the day she released it. I am making it from the Color Theory by V & Co. fat eighth bundle that I won back in December 2014. I have chosen to make extra blocks (because that is what I do…lol) and will take the quilt from 25 to 36 blocks to make it 90 inch squarish.

City Tiles fabrics

I picked out the most prominently colored prints from the fat eighth bundle of 40 prints. I also pulled out and set aside the variegated solids.

city tiles block 1

city tiles block 2

city tiles block 3

These 3 photos are the first City Tiles blocks that I have completed. I really like how they are coming together. I hope to be able to chain piece most of the block segments. I need to lay out the colored main pieces in order to keep their orientation the same in the block. That makes it just a little tricky. I have been finger pressing open each and every seam in the blocks and it makes them lay so nice and flat when I go to give them the final press with the iron.

I will be sharing this post with the various weekend linky parties. You can find my linky page at the top of my blog.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. It is getting really hot here in Iowa this weekend.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

Get A Clue, Nancy Drew! Mod D9P Quilt Finish

Hi,  I am happy to share a new quilt finish today that I have been working on since November. It is my Modernized Disappearing Nine Patch quilt made from Kristy Daum’s tutorial and made from the Moda Get A Clue, Nancy Drew fabric line.

Nancy Drew quilt front on ground

It finishes at 70 inches square. I had to make a stack of more nine patches to get to the larger size. The tutorial has you make five different nine patch combinations. You use 4 of your print or colored squares and 5 of the background squares and randomly mix them. I added 5 different grunged colors to the Nancy Drew charm packs. It looks like I pulled the yellow grunge to add to the blocks many times. I tried to get a good mix of the combinations but it was hard to remember what they were going to look like when cut into quarters. My final layout strays a bit from the tutorial but I mixed up what blocks I had the best that I could.

Nancy Drew quilt back on ground

I had purchased 4 yards of the navy blue to use in the backing before I knew what the final size was going to be. I pieced together the remaining charm squares that I had not pieced into nine patches yet. I added the white on either side to make the width that I needed. I originally planned to have the pieced strip be off to the side, but I sewed the navy on to the wrong side. I did not want to rip out 80 inches of stitching so I just measured and cut the navy in half and sewed the other piece to the other side. I was glad that I chose to add the darker blue or black (it looked black in my dark sewing room) as it gave me navy fabric to make the binding and a bit over a yard left that can be used as sashing in a future quilt project.

Nancy Drew quilt front hanging

It was hard to know where to take photos. When I finished yesterday afternoon, it was still sunny but very windy. I waited for the wind to die down and then it clouded up before raining. I chose the clothes line and front yard in the grass to take photos and thankful that my phone used an auto flash.

Nancy Drew quilt back hanging

This is actually hung by the side. I intended for the stripes to be vertical when finished. I chose to prequilt my backing and I did a 1/4 inch from either side of the navy, dark blue and white sections. It helped keep it smooth and gave me something to help line up the top with when pin basting. I quilted a 1/4 inch on either side of the horizontal seams and I think it shifted on me a bit. I had pinned every large square and across and down all sides. I only made one pass down each strip set when quilting vertically as I was concerned it might ripple. I may go back in and try additional rows of quilting.

Nancy Drew quilt front hanging cropflash

I am very happy to have this top finished. I started piecing it before Thanksgiving and my husband’s back surgery. It missed Christmas and Ali’s birthday in February for completion. She likes it and says it is her first handmade quilt. Both of our Mom’s shared Nancy Drew Mystery books with us as young girls so it makes it extra special for her.

I will be sharing my quilt finish with the various quilt linky parties you can find listed at the top of my blog. You are looking for the comments sections, you will need to click on the title to this blog post to bring up the full blog posting. We are looking at rewriting some code to make this more accessible.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May is for Maker’s: My Indie pattern company purchases

Hi, For the month of May, I have been participating in the May is for Maker’s campaign to purchase a pattern a week for each week of May from Indie pattern companies. The idea to honor and support all the Indie pattern designers this month was started by Lindsey Rhodes who blogs as LRStitched. It is now week 4 of the month of May and I have all ready purchased 8 new patterns. I thought I would share them all with you. I also am going to share the fun patterns I have purchased in the last 5 months that I purchased while I was off from blogging as it might inspire you to check them out this month as well.

Mayisformakerscollage

In the top row are Cakewalk by Thimble Blossoms, Coastline by Sharon Holland Designs, and Double the Plus by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love).

In the middle row are Junebug by Lella Boutique, and Painted Basket by The Sometimes Crafter.

In the bottom row are Triangle Collage Pillow by Deborah Baron Art, Honor Roll by Hello Melly Designs and Breeze Quilt by For the Love of Fabric.

(I have all ready created a quilt with the Double the Plus by Emily Dennis and you can read about it in this blog post, if you missed it last week. )

maymakerscollage2

In the top row are Katie’s Compass by Sterling Quilt Company, Go West by Bonjour Quilts, and The Rebel Quilt by Libs Elliott.

In the second row are St. David’s Cross (Welsh Blanket Quilt) by Mary Emmens, Chicken and Stars by Happy Zombie, and Wild Goose Chase by Live.Love.Sew.

In the bottom row are Diamonds in the Deep by Bonjour Quilts, Hexie Framed by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love) and          City Tiles by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love.)

( I all ready have two versions of Go West by Bonjour Quilts cut out with one for my daughter and the other for myself. I am also working on City Tiles by Emily Dennis with it all cut out for a queen size version uping it from the original 16 to 25 blocks. I have 3 blocks pieced. I won the Diamonds in the Deep quilt pattern from a contest Bonjour Quilts had on Instagram and my friend Zafira who blogs at Zarkadia also won a copy.  Emily Dennis had a pattern sale so I also purchased the Hexie Framed pattern. I have always wanted to try a hexie quilt of some kind.)

maymakerscollage3

In the top row is the book Quilting from Every Angle by Nancy Purvis, the book Handmade Style by Noodlehead, the Stacked quilt pattern by Sew Many Creations and Outlined Plus by Meadow Mist Designs.

In the bottom rows are Maker’s Tote by Noodlehead, Purse Organizer by Sotak Handmade Patterns, Forest Friends quilt pattern (collection) by Sew Fresh Quilts and The Plus Side by Bonjour Quilts.

(I pretty much love every design in the Quilting from every Angle book. I purchased the Maker’s Tote and Sotak Purse Organizer patterns to make possible Christmas gifts. I did not get anything sew for gifts so this will be the first ones I go to for future gift making. )

I will be sharing in future blog posts my progress on these new quilty projects that I have started all ready from these wonderful patterns. Please consider supporting any and all of these talented Indie crafters this month!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

(If you are having a hard time finding out where to reply to blog posts, if you click on the actual title of the blog post it should open up to the full blog posting and have comments at the bottom. I am sorry for the confusion.)

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

Friday Finish: Double the Plus Quilt

Hi, I am happy to share an actual quilt finish. I made Double the Plus by Quilty Love, which is Emily Dennis’ quilt company. It is meant to be a reversible quilt and plus quilt blocks are my favorites. This pattern goes together really easy but I needed a super fast finish so I only made the one side.

Double the Plus pattern cover design

I picked this pattern to be a purchase for my part in the May is for Maker’s pattern campaign. You are purchase a new pattern a week for each week of the month of May by an Indie designer. I learned about this campaign on Instagram and have been following it there.  #mayisformakers  I have actually purchased more than 5 patterns by the 3rd week in to the campaign. I will write another blogpost to show off my fun purchases and projects I all ready have started.

MayisforMakers 2016 logoMy husband asked me to create a quilt for a former coworker of his who will be celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary this weekend. The gentleman has been a friend of our family for many years. He is in poor health and currently in the hospital. It was really important to my husband that this quilt be done in time for the party.

I chose a color scheme of blue and white. I had the needed 5 yards of each color to make the reversible quilt. Unfortunately, I made one simple mistake or actual stupid one and miscut the 5 inch strips needed for background piecing and cut them the size needed for the centers of the pluses. I literally tore my sewing room and storage area apart looking for more of that same blue or a similar shade that I could recut out another top of the blue areas. No such luck…I did find gray solid and decided that maybe I would have a gray with white pluses side with a white with blue pluses opposite side. I started cutting and piecing the gray version of this top. Well, I decided the next day to go see if I could locate a similar blue to make the quilt top over so it would look “correct” in my eyes. I found a shade of blue that I liked, though not the same. (Note to self, to not purchase odd shades called Indigo on Black Friday sales online. Hancock Fabrics is closing so that will not be happening again.)

Long story short, I have a white with indigo blue pluses quilt top half pieced. A gray with white pluses that is started piecing and the matching white with gray pluses matching side cut out. I needed to have this quilt completely pieced and quilted by Friday 6:30 AM as my husband needed to take it to work with him. I had to babysit our grandson that day and would not be able to attend the party at the hospital. We decided on a patriotic eagle all over print as the backing as our friend had been in the Air Force. I did my first all nighter and started quilting at 12:05 and finished binding at 5:55. It did a trip through the dryer to delint it and it was wrapped and out the door by 6:30 AM. Friday was the longest day ever since I had been up since Thursday 7 AM. I was up for 38 hours and slept a good 10 hours last night. The couple loved the quilt and both were almost in tears. The wife said she never had anything this nice. I hope to go visit them myself tomorrow.

Double the Plus flimsy top

This is the flimsy top without the last long side border pieces. I needed to take a full photo before my husband used the bed to go to sleep. So this is my only full layed out photo of this top. It is made with American Made Brand cotton fabrics. This was my first time using that fabric. It is really nice stuff and pressed nicely.

Double the Plus finished folded quilt

I ended up doing the most simple quilting possible. A 1/4 inch on either side of all seams. I really look forward to making the reversible gray and white quilt so I can do the allover gridded diamond quilting.

Double the Plus finished quilt topback

I had the patriotic eagle fabric in my stash. This is the first time in a long while that I used just one fabric print as a backing for a quilt. I tried to measure what I had extra careful and seamed it horizontally. I started my quilting on the horizontal rows and it seemed that a ripple was creating so I would have to move my pins a bit every couple rows to keep everything smooth. I ended up just a tad short in the end but was able to take a piece that I trimmed off the side and piece it to the back before trimming up to bind.

I apologize for not blogging much over the last 6 months. My husband finally was able to go back to work 2 weeks ago. He did not think his recovery from his back surgery would have taken quite that long. I hope to get a couple more blog posts up this coming week.  If you happen to be on Instagram, I can be found as @shelleymichellefolkerts and you can see of my new WIPs over there.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I will be sharing this quilt finish on Finish It Friday over at CrazyMom Quilts.

(Check out my next blog post for lots of ideas for May is for Makers pattern purchases. )

Happy Sewing,
Shelley

 

Irish Rose Chain Block Tutorial Uploaded

Hi, This is a quick note to say that I have completed and uploaded my 2016 Paintbrush Studios New Block Blog Hop quilt tutorial. I am calling my block, Irish Rose Chain. You can find a full tutorial for the block on my previous blog post from my day on the blog hop on Wednesday, March 30th.

Irish Rose Chain pieced block

This is what my completed block could look if you made 30 blocks creating an approximate 60 by 72 inch quilt.

Irish Rose Chain block completed-tile photoscape concept

This was created using Photoscape photo editing software. I did two previous blog posts on how to use the software here and here. I am looking to write up additional quilt designs based on a larger version of my block.

Thank you to all of you that sent condolences and well wishes on the passing of my Father inlaw. It was greatly appreciated. I will be writing you all back soon.

I will be linking my block’s tutorial with various weekly linky parties that can be found on the linky party page at the top of my blog.

Thank you for stopping by.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

2016 Paintbrush Studio New Block Blog Hop : Irish Rose Chain Block Tutorial

Hi, Today is my stop on the 2016 Paintbrush Studio New Block Blog Hop. Paintbrush Studio is generously sponsoring a New Block Blog Hop featuring their new line of solids, Painter’s Palette. The blog hop hosts, Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs, and Stephanie @Late Night Quilter, have curated the “Ocean Sunrise Palette”, and Paintbrush Studio is supplying each of us a fat quarter bundle to make our blocks.

2016 Paintbrush Studio New Block Blog Hop
We were to design a quilt block that finishes at 12 inches using at least 3 of the colors from our Ocean Sunrise bundle. I am working on using all 6 colors in my block.

Ocean Sunrise Palette

The block I designed takes some inspiration from an alternate version of my last year’s entry in the 2015 New Block Blog Hop which was called Blue Island Tribal. I designed 3 versions of my block with one having an appliqued flower. I instantly thought some sort of flower with the peach, coral and bordeaux colors. I would hate for lovely fabric to go to waste, so why not add some of the midnight and daydream in the mix as a tiled chain effect. This is how my block Irish Rose Chain was created.

Irish Rose Chain block cropped

This is my first colored pencil/graph paper concept of my design.
Ocean Rose tile

My block will be made in three parts.

Irish Rose block deconstructed block center

The center of the block is built around a Square in a Square block. I used Bonnie Hunter’s Square in a Square tutorial to figure out what size to cut my pieces. She has a nice chart with multiple size cutting directions.

There are 16 Half Square Triangles in my block that finish at 1 inch so for accuracy I decided to foundation piece my HSTs and you can print your own foundation sheets for free to make multiple half square triangles at once. I went to the  Quilting And Whatnot.ca website and printed out the 1 inch finished hst paper sheets. They are available in a pdf form for easy printing.

Irish Rose block deconstructed outer ring

The second part will be to create the four sections that make the outer rings.

Irish Rose block deconstructed ninepatch

The last part of the block will be to create the four outer nine patch block.

I made a test block from my fabric stash to test out the original plan for my block which is shown below. I originally made the very center of the block with 4 HSTs and the center of the block was constructed in four sections. The directions did work and I was able to create my block but there were far too many little pieces and seams. I decided that my block could be created in nine sections instead of sixteen sections. The four tiny HSTs have become a less complicated square in a square block.

Rose Chain block concept

Cutting Instructions for the Irish Rose Chain block:

White Fat Quarter

Cut (4) 1.5 ” x 21″ strips

(1) 2.5″ x 21″ strip cut into half, half used in nine patch construction.

(1) 3″ x 21″ strip

These white strips will be cut down into the following smaller pieces:

(4) 1.5 ” x 6.5″  white rectangles

(8) 1.5″  white squares

(4) 1.5 ” x 3.5″ white  rectangles used in nine patch construction

(1) 1.5″ x 21″  white strip cut in half for nine patch construction, both halves will be used .

(1) 1 7/8 inch  white square used in the center of the square in a square block. This is cut from second half of 2.5 ” strip.

(1) approximate 3″ x 4″ white rectangle used in half square triangles

(1) approximate 3″ x 11″ white rectangle used in half square triangles

Midnight Fat Quarter

Cut (1) 1.5″ x 21″ strip, cut into half and use in nine patch construction. Other half is extra.

Daydream Fat Quarter (lighter blue)

Cut (1) 1.5″ x 21″ strip, cut into half and use in nine patch construction. Other half is extra.

Peach Fat Quarter (center of flower)

Cut (1) 1.5″ x 21″ strip.

(1) 2 1/4 ” by 21″ strip

These will be cut down into smaller pieces.

Cut (4) 1.5″ x 2.5″ peach rectangles

(2) 2 1/8″  peach squares cut diagonally. These triangles are used in the square in a square block.

Coral Fat Quarter (second petals of flower)

Cut (1) 1.5″ x 21″ strip

(1) 3 ” x 21″ strip

These will be cut down into smaller pieces.

Cut (4) 1.5″ x 4.5″ coral rectangles

(1) approximate 3″ x 4″ coral rectangle used in half square triangles

Bordeaux Fat Quarter (outer petals of flower)

Cut (2) 1.5″ x 21″ strips

(1) 3″ x 21″ strip

These will be cut down into smaller pieces.

(4) 1.5″ x 2.5″ bordeaux rectangles

(4) 1.5″ x 6.5″ bordeaux rectangles

(1) approximate 3″ x 11″ bordeaux rectangle used in half square triangles

…………………………………………………

Piecing the Irish Rose Chain block:

I started my block by foundation piecing all my half square triangles.  You will need 2 paper squares to create the 4 coral HSTs. You will need 6 paper squares to create the 12 bordeaux HSTs needed.  Layer the 3 x 4 inch white and coral fabrics together and pin the 2 foundation squares to them, sewing on the dotted lines.  Layer the 3 x 11 inch white and bordeaux fabrics together and pin the 6 foundation squares to them, also sewing on the dotted lines.  You cut your pieces apart on the solid lines. I finger pressed the papers back on themselves at seam to help perforate the paper for easily removal. Be careful not to tug on the stitching. I finger pressed my half squares open before I pressed with my iron. I did not have to do much squaring up and basically only had to trim off the wings.  (This is not the “norm” for me, but I was extra careful how I handled the bias edge of the triangles. )

HST paperpieced for Irish Rose block

Creating the Center

Let’s now make our center square in a square block.  We will need the 1 7/8″ white square and the (4) coral triangles cut from 2 1/8 inch squares. I finger pressed in half both ways the white square, and finger pressed the coral triangles in half. You will first match up two of the triangles to the opposite sides of the square using the pressed center marks. Sew at a scant 1/4 inch and press seams open and triangles back. You may trim up the over hanging corners of the triangles to the side of the square but I did leave mine until the end. Attach the other 2 triangles to the other sides of the square matching at the pressed marks. Finger press all seams open and then press flat with iron, while taking care not to stretch out of shape. The square in a square should be squared down to 2.5 inches finished.

Irish Rose center construction part 1

We will build on out from the square in a square. Find your (4) 1.5 x 2.5″ peach rectangles, (4) coral HSTs and (2) 1.5 x 4.5″ coral rectangles. We will be sewing 2 of the 1.5 x 2.5″ peach rectangles to the sides of the square in a square block. Press seams open. Sew (2) coral HSTs to (1)  1.5 x 2.5″ peach rectangle in the direction shown in photo. Press seams open. Create a second one with the other coral HSTs and peach rectangle. These will be sewn to the center square in a square pieced set. Seams pressed open. You will next sew a 1.5 x 4.5 ” coral rectangle to each side of the block. Seams pressed open.

Irish Rose center construction part 2

This is how your pieced section should now look.

Irish Rose center construction part 3

We are going to finish piecing the center block. You will need to find (2) 1.5″ x 4.5″ coral rectangles and (4) bordeaux HSTs. You will be sewing a bordeaux HST to each end of the coral rectangle in the direction shown in photo. Press seams open and make two. We will add these new pieced segments to each side of the center block. Press seams open and this part of the block is complete.

Creating the Outer Petals of the flower

Irish Rose outer ring construction

We will be creating 4 of the outer flower petal blocks. You will need (4) 1.5 x 6.5″ white rectangles,  (4) 1.5 x 6.5″ bordeaux rectangles, (8) 1.5 ” white squares, (4) 1.5 x 2.5″ bordeaux rectangles and (8) bordeaux HSTs. You will start with the 1.5 x 2.5″ bordeaux rectangles adding a bordeaux HST to each end and pressing seams open. A 1.5″ white square is sewn to the end of the newly created segment and press seams open. You will sew a 1.5 x 6.5″ white rectangle to the top of section with the white matching the white side of the HST. Add the 1.5 x 6.5″ bordeaux rectangle to the side matching the bordeaux side of HSTs. Press all seams open and make all four petal blocks the same way.

Creating Nine Patch blocks :

Irish Rose nine patch construction

To make the four Nine Patch blocks, we will be using (1) 1.5 x 21″ white strip which you will cut (4) 1.5 x 3.5″ white rectangles. (1) 1.5 x 21″ white strip is cut in half and (1) 2.5″ white strip cut in half. We will be using a half of each 1.5″ strip of Midnight and Daydream. Combine 1/2 strip of 1.5″ Midnight strip with 1/2 of 2.5″ white strip. Press seams open. Make a 3 strip set sewn from white, daydream, white 1.5 inch strips. Press all seams open.

You will cut (4) 1.5″ pieces from the Midnight/White strip set and (4) 1.5″ pieces of the white/daydream/white strip set. You will sew a midnight/white set to a white/daydream/white set and press seams open. Make (2) with the midnight square on the left side and (2) with the midnight square on the right side. You will add a 1.5 x 3.5″ white rectangle to the white/daydream/white side and press seams open.

Whole Block Assembly:

Irish Rose whole block assembly

Let’s finish piecing this block. You will start from the middle out. Take the flower center and sew two outer flower petal sections to the center matching the 6.5″ bordeaux side of the outer petal to the center bordeaux HSTs. Press seams open. For the top and bottom, sew a nine patch to each side of the outer petal blocks with the midnight squares facing furthest out on all blocks. Join all three rows together matching intersections and pressing seams open.

Irish Rose Chain pieced block

Yeah, you now have a completed Irish Rose Chain block! Thanks for sewing along with me.

I entered a photo of my completed block into the Photoscape photo editing program and you can tile your photo and see what a possible quilt would look like made from that block. It was a little hard for me to get a good straight on overhead photo of my block in good lighting to get a perfect match of my seams in my tiled photo. The one side is just a tad off but you can tell that the midnight squares will match up to make a large center square.

Irish Rose Chain block completed-tile photoscape concept

I hope that you will consider sewing up a version of my Irish Rose Chain block. I would love to see whatever you come up with. A variety of colors and prints added could really change the look to the flower shape.

Please check out the rest of today’s lovely blocks.

Wednesday, March 30th

Host: Stephanie @Late Night Quilter
Vicki @Orchid Owl Quilts
Shelly @The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts
Amy @13 Spools
Geraldine @Living Water Quilter
Jan @The Colorful Fabriholic
Sharla @Thistle Thicket Studio
Jinger @Trials of a Newbie Quilter
Kathryn @Kupitis
Jane @Jolly and Delilah
Josi @Avocado Quilts
Deanna @Stitches Quilting
Lori @SewPsyched!

Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley

TBT: Rocky Mountain Sparkler Quilt

 

On the first Thursday of the month, Jenn who blogs over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge holds a Throw Back Thursday linky party. You are able to share any quilts whether they maybe good, bad or ugly from your pre-blogging days. This will be my first time sharing one of my quilts there. I have shown pretty much all my pre-blogging days quilts all ready on my blog that I had photos of. There are numerous ones that did not get photographed that I wish I now had a record of making. This quilt that I am sharing today is one of my favorite smaller quilts that hangs currently from a quilt rack in our living room. (My WordPress was not allowing me to write or edit my posts, but after upgrading it appears to be working again. So my Thursday posting is now a Sunday post.)

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I made this quilt back in 2000 if I remember correctly. It is made up of blocks that are called Rocky Mountain Sparklers. Rocky Mountain Sparklers are the western cousins of the Delectable Mountains quilt blocks.  I do not remember the line of fabric but I think it is really cool as it is ombre and you could get a lot of different looking squares from one cutting. This is made with a tea dyed muslin for the background material. I quilted around the mountain blocks an 1/8th to 1/4 inch away from the seams. I am surprised looking back at some of my older quilts and seeing how well I managed to keep my points. These were made back before learning all the time saving techniques and using a more simple non computerized sewing machine.

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The pattern and instructions for this quilt can be found in the Start With Squares: Speedy Square Piecing for Scrap Quilts by Martha Thompson.

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Here is what the original quilt design was to look like. I changed the alignment of blocks and did not make mirror images.

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I found in my stash that I have a stack of 6.5 inch cut squares from this quilt’s fabrics. I have squares in colors that did not end up in this quilt. I am not sure why they all were cut to this size as the Rocky Mountain Sparkler blocks are made from a larger square.

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I am looking forward to using these print squares in a possible mini quilt in the future. Possibly sizing down the Rocky Mountain Sparkler block or some 4 at a time flying geese blocks. The varigated colors of the ombre might show up nice in the flying geese blocks.

Please head over to Jenn’s page and check out the neat quilts that have been shared this week on Throwback Thursday.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

 

Fat Quarter Shop’s Jelly Roll Slice Shortcut Quilt

Hi, I received an email back in January from Fat Quarter Shop asking if I would like to make a quilt for their newest shortcut quilt pattern series. I have been away from quilting for a couple months dealing with family matters. I jumped at the chance to work with a new pattern. Fat Quarter Shop provided me with the pattern and fabric to make this quilt, and I chose to upgrade to make a larger quilt.

Fat Quarter Shop releases multiple quilt patterns throughout the year in their shortcut series. There is a free pattern and video for each pattern released in the series. The videos show how to construct the needed blocks and give some great pointers.  The Jelly Roll Slice comes in four sizes from baby to Queen size and uses from only 17 jelly roll strips for a baby quilt up to 3 jelly rolls for a Queen size quilt. I chose to make the twin size quilt and it uses 2 jelly rolls and a small amount of background fabric. Rhoda Ruth fabric

I chose the Rhoda Ruth by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. I have been admiring this line of fabric for awhile and all the lovely quilts created with it. I instantly migrated to it when given the chance to pick whatever line I wanted to use. I purchased a yard of the Rhoda Ruth Nightfall Savannah Sun fabric which is the first fabric, a half yard of the Rhoda Ruth Nightfall Southwest Key fabric which is the second in line, and a half yard of Rhoda Ruth Nightfall Flower Petals to be pieced into a backing for my quilt.

The Jelly Roll Slice instructions made for an easily constructed quilt top. Kimberly shows her technique for pressing seams on the video and it really did work wonders for how easily the blocks go together. The quilt math is quite generous and I had no problem creating the needed block components to make my quilt top.

Jellyroll Slice FlimsyThis is my twin size top shown on the top of a king size mattress. The twin finishes off at 64.5 by 88.5 inches. I tried something new for me and pin basted my quilt on our mattress. We adopted a cat recently that only has three legs but he is quite good at swiping and shredding with his one good front paw so basting this way save my quilt batting and a lot of grief.

I chose to piece a multi striped backing for my quilt. I used the three Rhoda Ruth Nightfall print yardages and added two shades of turqouise and teal as stripes and finished it off with navy solid. I had to get extra creative with my piecing as I discovered I did not have as much navy in my stash as originally thought.

Jellyroll Slice backing

I tend to make a lot of pieced backs for my quilts and since I had so many seams across the width of my quilt. I decided to prequilt each stripe a 1/4 of inch away from the seams. It ended up taking a bit of time and used 4 bobbins just for that amount of quilting. I think it was worth it as it helped me keep my back flat and smooth when I basted the top to it.

We were given a deadline to have our quilts done to go along with the release of the Jelly Roll Slice pattern and video. I had my twin top and back completed in time but I am still quilting at the time of this blog post. I have not made too many quilts with jelly roll strips so was not sure how I wanted to quilt mine. I see from the other completed quilts in this series that straightline stitching to allover stippling looks lovely on this design. I have decided to use a serpentine style stitch and quilt multiple rows going over all my horizontal seams. It is creating a lovely pattern and I have used it before and it produces a lovely puckered look after washing and drying the quilt.

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This stitch on my Viking 990 sewing machine is actually a 4 step zigzag. My other machine has a true serpentine stitch.

I hope to finish up quilting my version of the Jelly Roll Slice quilt in the next couple days and upload some finished daylight photos to this posting and they will also be shared on Instagram using #jellyrollslice.  I am new to Instagram this year and can be found @shelleymichellefolkerts .

Links to Fat Quarter Shop’s pattern and video can be found below. They have a quilt kit made up for this quilt as well.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOIuFJrIkQU
FREE Pattern: http://static.fatquartershop.com/media/wysiwyg/pdf/JellyRollSlice-CompletePattern.pdf
Quilt Kit: http://www.fatquartershop.com/jelly-roll-slice-quilt-kit

To celebrate the launch of this new pattern, the Fat Quarter Shop will be having a 15% off Jelly Roll sale starting on Monday February 22nd and there is no coupon code necessary. (sale lasts until Sunday the 28th)

Please check out the other lovely versions of the Jelly Roll Slice quilt that my fellow quilting friends have created.

Taunja of Carried Away Quilting
Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs
Terri Ann of Childlike Fascination
Eileen of Eileen In Stitches
Cristy of Love You Sew
Hayley of Moobird Stitches
Shelley of The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts
Kathryn of Kathryn Jones Quilts

I thank Fat Quarter Shop for the chance to participate in their pattern launch. They have so many fun and easy quilt patterns in their Shortcut series. I have been working on their Single Wedding Ring quilt pattern that was released last year.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

 

 

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