Hello friends! On November 30th, I shared a free pattern (on my blog) for an Uneven 9-patch quilt and today, I want to share my finished quilt! (Click HERE for my original post about starting this project.)

I wanted to make a 2-color quilt for my king-size bed using these two fabrics I designed.  The cream fabric is called Seeing Stars for the Hush Hush 4 low-volume collection for Riley Blake Designs.  And the green fabric is called Sketchy Leaves for my Feels Like Home collection with RBD.

I worked on the quilt top throughout December 2024 and finished it right after Christmas.  It was fun working on something kind of festive in December but I love that the fabrics aren't Christmasy so they'll be great in my bedroom all year round!

It's a big quilt!  It finishes at 112" x 102".

I found this beautiful fabric for the back.  It's so classy and matched the green well.

My cute mom stopped by my house one day and helped me line up the backing pieces so the print matched up.  So glad we took the time to do that!  She is a really good seamstress so she showed me some good tricks!

Pretty darn good, right?!?  Thanks mom!!!

I had my quilter, Jen Ostler (in Highland, UT.) quilt it with a 1" grid pattern.  Grid quilting is always a favorite of mine; it's so timeless!  Jen did her signature move and quilted an extra little object into the quilting (in this case - a quilty star) which makes for a fun game of I-Spy!  Do you see the star below?

After I bound the quilt in the same green Sketchy Leaves fabric, I found some coordinating pillows to tie everything together.  I already had the artwork above my bed so I just pulled light green, natural, and gold colors from those prints to use as my pillow colors!  I got all of the pillows that you see here from a wonderful local shop called Layers Bedding.  It's at Gardner Village in West Jordan, Utah.  They add the perfect finishing touch and make my bed feel so cozy and inviting!

I love how the different sizes, colors, textures, shapes, and prints of the pillow fabrics add a lot of warmth to the room.  It took a lot of time to find the perfect combination but it was fun. The process was similar to doing a fabric pull for a quilt and I love that part of quilt-making!

If you want to make a quilt like this, you can download the free pattern HERE.

It includes instructions for 5 quilt-size options and would be cute in any colorway!

Have you ever made a 2-color quilt?  They're so classic; I just love them.

Tell me, what colors would you use if you made a quilt like this?

The Original United Quilt

Introducing...my United quilt!  This is one of the most special quilts I own!  Many hands went into making it.  It was completed in 2020 so this blog post is long overdue! Keep reading to hear the story behind this quilt...

I am sure you would all agree that 2020 was a rough year for humanity.  At the beginning of the year, people started to realize we had a terrifying worldwide Covid-19 pandemic on our hands.  Then, a few months later George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis, MN. police officer.  Riots ensued and cities across the country burned. All of this happened during a major U.S. presidential campaign.  Things got ugly.  It wasn't our best moment as Americans.  My heart was in turmoil.  So what does a quilter do when things get rough?

They create.  They use the hum of a sewing machine to blur the chaos of the world.

So, I made a little flag block and then another.  They were so fun and easy to make.  I quickly realized what would make them even better though - if some of my Instagram friends joined me.  So I put a request out there for anyone who desired - to please send me a flag block for my special project.

My request was for just one block in soft red, white, and blue fabrics.  Of course, many quilters could not resist sending more than one because they are that simple to make!  Just 2 seams!  It takes more time to pick out the fabrics than it does to make the block!  They're kind of addicting to make.

I received so many blocks!  Most came with sweet notes, a few with extra fabric they thought I would enjoy.  Everyone was so kind; it was so fun to open each package.  After I received all of the flags, I started piecing together my quilt top which included 50 flags (to represent the 50 states), plus 5 stars and 1 heart.  Thus, my United pattern was born!  And there really wasn't a question about what I would call it, "United" was meant to be.  It really was such a heartfelt project, from beginning to end.

I smile when I see the back of my quilt because it represents the generosity of my Instagram friends!  I didn't know any of them personally, but I received so many blocks that I had to put some on the back!  It's a reminder of how good, kind, and thoughtful people really are.  Despite all of the different religious, political, economic, and cultural backgrounds we have (there was even a flag from Australia!), we are all humans, and I believe, children of God.  And that is the greatest uniter.  We have more in common than we think and sometimes we need to be reminded of that.

I enjoyed putting the quilt together and then I took it to my quilter, Jen Ostler, who quilted it using the Diagonal Plaid panto.  It's a great general panto that looks good on everything!

I think the light blues and reds look great on the navy background.  But I've also made a United quilt with a low-volume background that you can check out HERE.  It's extra scrappy.  I would love to hear which one is your favorite!

This quilt will always have a special place in my heart.  I want to thank everyone who sent me a block.  They mean so much!  I even had several pattern testers for United so be sure to check out the #unitedquilt hashtag on Instagram to see lots more inspiration.  They really knocked it out of the park.  People have even hosted block swaps for United (which I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing!) 

This quilt finishes at 78" x 87". So it's big!  Someone told me the other day that they gave their United quilt to a friend in her "Military Mom Era".  That made me so happy!

If you'd like to make a United quilt you can grab the 

paper pattern HERE or the PDF pattern HERE.

Have a great day!

Scrappy United Quilt

 Hi friends!  Happy New Year!  I am so excited for 2025!  I love a fresh start and am looking forward to some fun things on the calendar this year!  I don't know if you've noticed but I now have an "Events" tab at the top of my blog with some of the said things on my calendar!  Check it out if you're looking for trunk shows, classes, and retreats you can do with me this year!

Today I want to share a quilt I started back in July of 2023.  

I just finished it last month and finally have some pictures to share!

This is my United quilt pattern and the third United quilt I've made.

Okay, I just realized that I never blogged about my other United quilts!  

I will have to make another post for those ASAP!  But here's the original United quilt. 

It has a great story...stay tuned.

01//14/25 Edit: I finally posted about my original United quilt!  Click HERE to check it out and hear the beautiful story of how many hands came together to create this quilt.

I really love the original quilt so much but I saw a scrappy version that one of my friends/pattern testers made and I was smitten!  Leah @pinkdesertblossoms.shop on Instagram made a darling low-volume background version that I couldn't stop thinking about.  Here's her finished quilt:

[Photo by Leah @pinkdesertblossoms.shop on Instagram]

With Leah's permission, I totally copied her!  Because I just loved it so much!

I made scrappy little flags whenever I had red and blue fabrics out.

United has 50 flags in the pattern - to represent the 50 states of course!

It also has 5 star blocks and 1 heart block for a little extra sweetness!

I used a red and white striped fabric for the binding and was absolutely in LOVE 

with the two-toned blue floral fabric I used for my back.

Jen Ostler quilted it for me with a really fun quilty star panto that was new to me.

It's called Starry Sawtooth by Melissa Kelley of Sew Shabby Quilting.  

I love how the quilting turned out!

Lots of fun fabrics were used!

The red and white wide-striped fabric below was from an old shirt of mine! 

These flag blocks are SO easy to make!  It will take you more time to decide 

which fabrics to use than to cut the fabric and make the blocks!

The quilt is pretty big!  It finishes at 78" x 87". 

I'm gonna give you a pro tip too!  It's awesome to do this pattern as a block exchange because then you don't have to buy so many different red and blue fabrics (if you want all of the flags to be different).  I did end up buying quite a few for mine because my red stash had gotten really low!

You can snag a paper or PDF version of this pattern HERE in my Etsy shop.

I'd love to hear what you think of this United quilt!

I'll try to do another post soon of my other United ones!

Happy quilting friends!

Feels Like Home Quilt

 Anyone else feeling like they need to finish a few projects before the end of the year?  I've got about 

3-1/2 quilts to bind so I'll be watching all the Christmas movies for the next two weeks while I try to get those finished!  I watched Haul Out the Holly on Netflix while finishing the binding on my Feels Like Home quilt.  It was a cute movie about a town that is over-the-top festive and a girl...who is not!

I hosted a quilt-along for this pattern in August and September and enjoyed making it alongside some of you.  I always love seeing the different colorways people choose.  I especially loved the red and white version and the Christmas version I saw.  If only there were enough time and money to make them all!

I used fabrics from my first fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs called, Feels Like Home for this quilt.  The collection has 10 low-volume prints and 14 saturated prints that were all inspired by my hometown and my home - my favorite place to be!

The pattern incorporates Heart blocks, Log Cabin blocks, and Courthouse Steps blocks.  I had been wanting to make a Courthouse Steps pattern since the first quilt I ever made was a scrappy Courthouse Steps quilt.  So this is what I came up with!

The roof unit of the house block is made using a technique called foundation paper-piecing.  There are only 5 pieces in each roof unit and only 13 houses so it's totally doable!  This is a great opportunity to practice FPP if you haven't tried it before.  And I actually have a video tutorial HERE for this specific block, if you want to check it out.

FPP is a great technique for getting challenging angles and accurate seams!  It looks a lot harder than it really is too!  Have you tried it before?

My friend, Jen Ostler quilted it for me.  She is the best.  She trims each quilt, ties it up with a ribbon and attaches a chocolate to the receipt.  She puts her heart into each quilt and is seriously the sweetest person ever!

She also quilts a tiny hidden object into each quilt - which makes for a fun game of hide-n-seek!  This time it was a star.  Can you see it in the photo below?  I love that little personal touch!

The panto I chose for this quilt is called Heart of the Home and I knew before I even finished making the quilt top that I wanted that design.  It's just perfect!

Jen tweaked the panto just a tad to make the proportion of the houses match the proportion of MY houses!  She also made sure the chimneys were on the same side as MY chimneys!  She did that all on her own.  She really is the best!

I bound it with this fun floral stripe from my collection, Feels Like Home.  

It's called Flower Beds in the color Night.

I backed it in Peonies in the color Honey.

And of course, I added one of the simple labels I always use.  I get them from Ever Emblem.  They're so easy to sew into the binding so I don't have an excuse to not label my quilts!  I get the 2" cotton, fold-over, sew-in labels.  If you want to get some for yourself, you will just have to pick one of their basic cotton labels and customize it from there.  I machine stitch my binding down around it because it's hard to hand stitch through it (but then I usually hand stitch the rest of my binding down to the back of my quilt).

This is a big quilt!  It finishes at about 92" square.  Perfect for snuggling or putting on a bed!

I don't know why it took me so long to bind it but I'm so glad it's finally finished!

I love how it turned out!  It was really fun to make and maybe someday I'll make another one...in Christmas fabrics!

If you'd like to grab the pattern, please visit my Etsy shop HERE.

Thank you for stopping by today.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  

Happy quilting and happy holidays!

Two-Color Uneven 9-Patch Quilt Free Pattern

 Hi there!  I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving holiday if you live in the USA!

We did things a little differently this year and went out to eat in Deer Valley, UT. 

It was a winter wonderland there, as you can see.  We had a great time, relaxing and spending time with friends.

Over the last couple of days I have been writing instructions for a new project I am going to start soon.

I've talked a little bit about it on Instagram...

I've been wanting to make another 2-color quilt.  I made a green and white Irish Chain quilt a few years ago, ended up selling it, and have been wanting to make another one ever since.  This time, I decided to go with this Uneven 9-Patch pattern though.  I thought it had a similar vibe but it's a little more jazzy!  I have never made an Uneven 9-Patch quilt if you can believe that!

For the dark fabric, I'm using this green leaf fabric (from my Feels Like Home collection with Riley Blake Designs).  It's called Sketchy Leaves and is in stores now.  For the light fabric, I am using this cream quilty stars print that I designed for Riley Blake's Hush Hush 4 low-volume collection.  It's called Seeing Stars and just shipped to stores!

[Santa Mini Mug Pincushion was gifted to me by my friend Shannon White.]

I plan to make a king-size quilt for my bed.  I have written the instructions to include 5 different size options though so there's something for everyone!  I think it would be cute in any colorway.  2-color quilts are just classic!  I'm loving this red and white "test" block I made!

I am not doing an official quilt-along for this pattern.  I have no sign-ups, or schedule, and won't be sending any emails.  But I would love for you to make one too, if your little heart desires!  I'm starting Monday, December 2nd as a little treat to myself for getting through November haha!  Feel free to join me.   I'll be sharing my progress on Instagram.  

I'm not sure how long it will take me but I think it will be a little bit festive to work on this during December.  It's green and white so I think it will be really cute at Christmastime, but it will work in my home throughout the year too!

Click HERE for the free pattern.

Happy holidays,

Amber