becky's disappearing four patch

well, it's friday and i've neither a finish to share nor did i have a friday sewing social with becky. i haven't settled in from summer enough just yet to start those up again. of course, becky's also pretty pregnant with her 6th son, so if we don't have one soon, we might not have any for a while. however, the other day i was organizing my sewing photos and came across these photos of a disappearing 4 patch block that becky was working on for her cousin's baby and thought i'd share them as a sentimental moment of nostalgia for those bygone sewing socials.

becky, who has only boys so far, had a few girly charm squares laying around that she'd had no occasion to use just yet. they were leftover from several charm packs that she'd already taken the "boy" squares out of for other projects. she paired them with some white charm square to make four patches, then cut 1" on either side of each seam.

 then she flipped the center pieced portions around and sewed them back together.

voila! simple, clean, and cute. and nearly as fantastic as becky's amazing smile.

here's a photo i stole off her instagram page of the finished baby quilt. just darling. nice work, becky!

"cinched" pattern tutorial

this is a simple strip quilt pattern which utilizes a jelly roll and a bit of extra yardage for an accent strip and block across the upper portion of the quilt. it comes together quickly and easily, with a few opportunities to embellish the design for more detail.

in this tutorial, i will give basic instructions for the pattern. for more detailed instructions, please refer to the links to each section of assembly.

fabric requirements

i'm starting with a generous amount of yardage partly because i already have it in my stash and partly because i simply like to work that way. generally i need room for error and i happen to adore scraps, so leftovers are quite welcome. 

• one jelly roll (or 45 - 2.5" wide x wof  strips, see further options below)
• fabric a - 1/2 yd for accent block and backing strip a (could be done with 1/4 yd or fat quarter if adjusting measurements slightly - see section on accent block)
• fabric b - 2/3 yd for accent strip and backing strip b
• fabric c - 1/2 yd for extra strips and backing strip c
• fabric d - the equivalent of one jelly strip for strip joining squares (if using)
• optional fabric e - 1/3 yd for accent block
• 1/2 yd binding fabric
• 3 1/4 yds backing fabric, 4 1/4 yd if using a directional print

it's a pretty small list. if you want more variety in the strips, which i do, you can use additional coordinating pieces. 

* note - 1/4" seams used through out and all measurements are for "cut" (seam allowance included) not "final" unless otherwise noted.

make the strip sections

cut the selvages off all jelly roll strips. (for more detailed instructions on preparing the strips, see cinched pattern, part one.)

select 30 jelly strips to be cut in half and used for the upper section. (set the other 10 strips and the 30 half strips aside for the lower section.) arrange these 30 half strips in a row for the upper section. (for a detailed discussion of strip selection and construction options, see cinched pattern, part one.)

layout the lower section with 30 full strips in a row. these full strips include the 10 remaining jelly strips from the jelly roll, your 5 additional full strips cut from fabric c yardage, and 15 full pieced strips constructed from the leftover halves from the upper section.

you can either simply piece the leftover half strips or . . .

you can make pieced strips that include small 2.5" x 2.5" cut joining blocks, for more interest. i did this, varying the placement height of the joining blocks in the strips, and also using three pieced sections and two blocks for some of the strips. (see cinched part one for a discussion on these joining options.)

cut the accent strip and accent block pieces from fabric b and e.

the accent block can be a simple 10.5" square of one feature fabric e or you can create any quilt block of your choice 10.5" in size. in this quilt, i chose to make a courthouse steps block. (for a discussion of block options and how i made my accent block, see cinched pattern, part two.)

join your accent strip pieces to your accent block to make the middle accent strip of the quilt top. there is a little extra length to this piece as cut so you can play with placement of where you want the accent block to fall.

lay all the pieces out either on a design wall, bed, or floor to check the placement of your strips in the upper and lower sections with the accent strip in between them so you can see how you like your layout.

join the strips in each sections together to create two panels, an upper panel and a lower panel. (for more details on joining the sections together, see cinched pattern, part three.)

join the three panels together to complete your quilt top, which is now approximately 70" h x 60"w, once you square it off. (i used 31 strips so my top is actually 62"w.)

next, create a backing. i like to piece my backings and used a three-strip accent stripe for the back of this quilt. (for directions on making this backing, see three strip accent stripe pieced backing.)

sandwich, baste, and quilt.

for the "out on a limb" version of this quilt, i did a simple echo quilt of all the seams. this resulted in lots of straight lines and a flatter, less-crinkly texture.

for "bloom where you are planted," i used a loopy figure eight quilting pattern, which ran along the strips. this quilt has glorious crinkle texture to it, if that is your preference.

in the accent strip, i stipple quilted for some contrast and added interest. the accent block also had some unique quilting in it's sections. (for a discussion of my quilting choices, see "loops and crinkles.")

"bloom" is bound in some lovely olive lottie dot from heather bailey's "lottie da" collection

now you just need to bind your quilt and you are ready to wash and snuggle!

i've completed two versions of this quilt so far, and have the fabric for a third set aside. "limb" lives on our living room couch and is regularly used and greatly loved, despite all it's imperfections, which i don't really notice any more. "bloom" was gifted to my dear friend and quilting buddy, jill, who has moved away. despite the fact that my 16 yr old photographer did not notice "limb" was upside down, you can see the two versions of the quilt here together and how the slight variations affect the look of the quilt.

i've greatly enjoyed this pattern, which is so simple and satisfying. having designed something myself, especially as a new quilter, is very gratifying, indeed. giving the gift of love made tangible in the form of a cuddly quilt is the best part of all.

i hope you enjoy this pattern and would love to see any version of it you create.

happy quilting!

the detailed steps for this tutorial are spread over 6 posts i wrote as i made the "bloom" quilt and worked on the pattern. find the others here:

cinched part one - fabric requirements and strip preparation
cinched part two - the accent strip and block, modifications from the first quilt, joining blocks for the long strips
cinched part three - joining your strips and sections to assemble your top
the three-strip accent stripe pieced backing - how to make the backing
loops and crinkles - quilting choices for "bloom where you are planted"
cinched part four - quilting, binding, and gifting

linking up with friday finishes at crazy mom quilts

dreaming easy: a checkered arrow quilt pattern tutorial

if you would like to read about how i came to create this quilt and it's process, as well as get information on how i chose my fabrics, please read this post - dreaming easy: the genesis.

i've tried to write the directions with a beginner in mind so although this is a very easy, fast block, the directions look wordy. more experienced quilters can likely just quickly glance at the photos to get a feel for block assembly. if this is your very first quilt (how exciting!) you are going to need more explicit instructions on basic skills and quilt finishing than i provide here. sarah schraw at sarah quilts and rachel hauser at stitched in color have both done beginner-friendly instructions on these topics.

dimensions

• 56" x 72"
• 63 - 8"sq finished blocks composed of 4 - 4" units
• 7 blocks per row, 9 rows 

*it is possible to make a slightly smaller quilt at 48" x 56" with just 4 charm packs (two of each type). this would yield a 42 block quilt of 6 blocks by 7 rows.

supplies

• two patterned charm packs of the same fabric line (42 squares ea) for 42 arrow shapes*
• three solid colored charm packs (42 squares ea) for background 
• various coordinating prints or solids, at least 5"x10" pieces of each, for 21 additional arrows*
• 1/2 yd binding fabric
• 4 yds backing fabric (or the equivalent for piecing a backing)
• batting

*a single 42 - 10" square layer cake of one fabric line, if subcut into 5" squares would yield 4 squares of each fabric, resulting in enough squares for 84 arrow blocks, 21 more than needed for this size quilt. you could simply select 16 of the squares to use, yielding 64  blocks (only1 extra), or omit some of the excess pieces and save for another use.

**two charm packs will yield 42 of the 63 blocks needed. each arrow requires either two charm squares or two 5" squares of the same print fabric so gather enough additional fabric to make the 21 extra arrows. an 18"x20" fat quarter will yield 12 - 5" squares/6 pairs so you could use a minimum of four fat quarters to round out the fabric needs for the additional arrows, with a bit to spare.

block assembly directions

before beginning assembly, cut all the additional squares to supplement the charm packs.

for ideas about sewing hsts with directional prints, read this post here.

and for information about using low-volume (light colored) prints and being able to see the pattern in this quilt, read here.

chain piecing assembly line

also, please note that the whole process can be streamlined by chain piecing all the blocks at once at each step and doing your pressing and cutting assembly-line fashion. because each block uses only one print fabric, it's pretty easy to keep the block pieces straight and not confuse them.

all seams sewn with a 1/4" seam allowance.

each block will require two identical squares for the arrow shape and two background squares. one of each type will remain a square (top two in the photo), the other two will be used to make hsts (bottom two in above photo).

draw a diagonal line from one corner to it's opposite corner on the wrong side of your background (white) square, then layer it on the printed square, right sides together.

if you are chain piecing, do this for all your blocks before proceeding to the sewing, cutting, and pressing steps.

sew a seam 1/4" away from the diagonal line on each side.

cut between the seams on the diagonal line you drew. press each block open either to the printed fabric side or fully open. your preference. i pressed this seam to the side.

you now have two hst units and two squares. position as shown to create your arrow shape. sew the top two blocks together down that center seam and the bottom two, also, by layering the blocks with right sides touching. if you have the block laid out like this, simply take the units on the right side and fold them over so they are face down on the left side unit. then, without flipping or turning anything, sew down the right hand side of the units.

note: originally, when i began, i was trimming the square units down to 4.5" before i assembled the larger block because that's close to the size of the hst units. however, i found that since i was trimming up my blocks anyway once they were done, i was double trimming and wasting time. the pinked edge of the charm squares can be troublesome to match up and i find that i just don't get the piecing as precise as i'd like, so i prefer to do a quick trim of the blocks when finished. you make the call about how much and when you want to trim. the only time i found it at all helpful to do a pre-trim was when i wanted to sort of fussy cut the square blocks to match up with a certain part of the hsts.

for a detailed picture tutorial of that process, go to this post: checkered arrow block sans pretrimming.

once you've sewn the two sets together, press fully open.

at this stage, i found it helpful to press the seams open instead of to the side. it's kind of a pain because it takes longer, but the bulk begins to add up in these blocks and i found it really helped them to lay flatter when pressed open from here on out. if you really don't want to press fully open, press to the side of the square unit so you have opposing seams for lining up your units.

now you're going to sew the two half units together to complete the block. lay the units together, right sides touching, and match up the center seams by either butting the opposing seams together (shown above, slightly staggered so you can see how they fit together) . . .

 or by matching the seams up (above) depending on how you pressed. if you are a pinner, pin at the seam. i tried both ways and found i prefered pressing the seams open and pinning directly into the seam. above you can see how the pin is actually between the two pieces of fabric where it enters and exits.

sew together and press open.

voila! matching seams. so pretty. but not fully necessary here. on the blocks where my seam was a tad off, it didn't really show up in this pattern like it does in some others. so don't stress over your seam matching here unless you really care.

here's my first block after initial assembly. you can see that even though on the first one i pre-trimmed the square units before assembly, it's not a precise block and i still have odd pinked edges in places. this is why i decided to try forgoing the pre-trim and it totally worked! see photos of what that looked like in process in this post here.

here is my beautiful arrow block all trimmed up.
i like it!

once all your blocks are complete, you need to lay them out in a 7 across by 9 down grid and assemble your rows.

i first assembled each row individually by sewing adjoining pairs across the row, then attaching the pairs to each other, pressing all seams open after assembly, of course. then i sewed two rows together, and then the pairs of rows until the top was completely assembled in a 7 x 9 block grid.

you can read about my process for piecing the backing here.

when your top and backing are complete, sandwich, quilt (i stippled), and bind.
your lovely checkered arrow quilt is ready for use.

linked up with wip wednesday at freshly pieced.

dreaming easy: checkered arrow block sans pretrimming

pre-trimmed units

finished block still needs trimming

when i first made this block from 4 charm squares, i trimmed the two square units down to 4.5", so they matched the size of the hst units, prior to assembling the block (first photo). i call this pre-trimming. however, i found i still needed to trim up the final block because the pinked edges of the charm squares left the block uneven. also, i wasn't trimming my hst units before joining the block together, which contributed to it's slight mismatching. rather than pre-trimming the square units and the hst units to perfect 4.5" squares, i took a shot at assembling the block without any pre-trimming.


i made sure the excess fabric was going to be on the outside edge of the two sections and joined them by lining up the center seams. (if you don't, no big deal. just see the end of the post for instructions.)

my assembled block looked like this:

obviously it needs a trim, but i saved time by doing it all at once.

i don't have an 8.5" sq ruler, so i used the closest size i have, my 9.5" sq. i l located the middle point of the 8.5" sq (the intersection of the 4.25" lines) to line up with my center seam intersection on the block. then i made sure all the edges fell within the 8.5" guidelines. the pencil is lined up with vertical line and the tip of my rotary cutter is lined up with the horizontal line so you can see where they are in the photo.

after eyeballing that everything is within the proper lines and as straight as i can get it, i trimmed off the top and right sides of the block. thank you rotating cutting mat for making this easy.

all that's left is to rotate the block so you can trim the other two edges. once it's flipped, you can easily line up the 8.5" lines on the ruler with the straight edges you just created.

there you have it - a perfectly trimmed block and no pre-trimming required.

excess seam allowance before pressing

if you find yourself in the position of having excess seam allowance after the final seam is sewn, just give it a trim to 1/4" before you press the last seam open.

just trim, then press

dreaming easy: the genesis

i have 8 wips in various stages of completion. it's about time i finished rather than started something. and i most definitely didn't need any more patterns or ideas because if i did start something new, it should be one of the dozens of patterns or "to do" pulls i have sitting around my bawthroom sewing space, waiting their turn to come to life.

yeah, but i have a real problem with all those concepts. and self control. i recently picked up the quilty mag special edition of beginner friendly quilts despite my decision to not indulge in magazines anymore. and most of the quilts in it were even simple enough i could probably figure them out without instructions on my own. but i bought it anyway. (coupon was my enabling excuse.) i especially liked the cover quilt. they call it a chevron pattern, but to me it looks more like a scrappy houndstooth, a pow wow modification, or even a feline head silhouette. whatever unidentified pattern it is, i like it. i did not plan on making it for a while, though.

arrow shape? i think i'm calling it an arrow block. i don't know! any better ideas out there?

and the pattern looks like a checkerboard of arrows - an arrow check. best i can do. no wait - checkered arrow. this is a checkered arrow pattern.

enter enabling factor #2 - i was stuck in my bawthroom sewing space for a while as the littlest one played in the tub. my dining room is my main working sewing spot these days. the bawthroom is mostly about storage of the hoard. i was sitting there, looking at all the fabric, remembering how i used to sew while the girls splished and splashed in the tub (hence the blog name) and thinking surely there was something i could do while she played even though there is no longer a machine or any cutting implements up there. creating a fabric pull was all i could come up with. (organizing or destashing just wouldn't have been any fun.) i had the chevron/arrow/kitty pattern on the brain and began wondering if i could further simplify the pattern with precuts; either use a layer cake or charm squares.

turns out i could and i selected "dream on" by urban chicks for moda on the spot. i adore this fabric line so much i may have severely over-purchased it when it clearanced out a while back. the layer cakes are already spoken for by another pattern but there were two charm packs up for grabs. that's perfect anyway because i can use white charm packs for the neutral space in the quilt pattern.

i do love "dream on" so much. it reminds me of 60s/70s bedsheets from my earliest childhood. and i'm a sucker for precuts like many a quilter/fabric junkie. lately, however, i find i like working with just one line of fabric less than i used to. mixing things up is more to my taste these days. but i have all these precuts. my solution - add coordinating fabrics from my stash to round out the precut line! i picked several more stash fabrics (yay for shopping my stash!) that go well with "dream on". only problem was once i started making blocks i noticed many of my fabric selections are low volumes on white backgrounds, hence they won't be very distinctive in this pattern formation. i think my solution for this is to get a couple of barely-there tints of the colors in the fabrics (yellow, blue, green, pink) like the two kona samples (ice and maize) i pulled from my modular color card, to use as the background for the super white prints. the hint of color should help the prints to stand out without overpowering or altering the design. it won't be quite as crisp as the quilt in the magazine, but it will be pretty.

***actually, i decided to use one single color for the background because it would be too much thinking to get the background laid out with cohesively colored solid arrows. i didn't want to lay the whole top out and then assemble, i wanted to chain piece the individual blocks and then assemble. so  instead of multiple solid colors, i used some fussy cutting to make the patterns stand out more. also, you can refer to this post to see how i dealt with directional prints when making the arrows.

the inspiration quilt from quilty, "chevron and on", is composed of squares and half square triangles (hsts) that produced 8.5" finished blocks, with precise cutting directions from fat quarters. it was also a square 68" x 68" size. i prefer rectangle quilts. something about the symmetry suits my taste preference better than a square. thus i decided to enlarge the quilt and alter the dimensions by adding two rows of blocks.

also, i wanted to use charm squares, which would require some trimming since i would be making squares and hsts, which do not start out cut the same size but charm squares obviously do. i don't prefer wasteful trimming when i can avoid it. but this is why i'm in favor of it here: i want to use precuts from my stash. the upside to this is i don't have to cut tons of squares out, just trim up blocks after they are assembled, which i do anyway. the negligible amount of waste simply can't be avoided with this method but at least it's small.

since i have modified this quilt design and have created my own method for making these blocks, i'm making a tutorial for how to make this quilt my way.

these blocks are so quick and easy to make! i'm having a lot of fun whipping up a batch at a time each night.

linking up with wip wednesday at freshly pieced

modifications - cinched, part 2

i don't think i've ever followed a quilt pattern exactly as written. i always find some way to make adjustments, whether it be in size, layout, or fabric choices. apparently i can't even follow my own pattern without making modifications. i've made a few changes along the way with "cinched".

***to see where this quilt starts and to get all fabric requirements, go to cinched pattern part one.

accent square/block

first up, instead of that simple accent square in the middle section, i chose to make a courthouse steps block. i spent about an hour fussy cutting and fidgeting to create the block that will be the focal point of the quilt. it's a bit busy, but all the fabrics from this line are loud and luscious. i had a little fun including the critters in the strips i cut for a touch of "eye spy" action in the outer ring.

the white floral fabric came from my backing and the other two pieces came from leftover jelly roll strips not used in the body of the quilt. the sizes of the strips came about purely out of what i had available to work with. i just kept adding until i had the block size i needed.

this block of the quilt is one place where you could spend a bit of time doing something special if you wanted to amp this pattern up just a bit. any favorite block, as long as it's size 10.5" unfinished would work here. or, like in my original, you could fussy cut a fabric you wanted to focus on or highlight. anything the correct size goes - the possibilities are wide open.

if you are simply cutting a 10.5" block, cut it from fabric a. if you are making a "racing stripes" pieced backing like mine, while you're cutting, you can cut additional 2.5" wide strips of fabric a until you have an 80" x 2.5" pieced strip.

*measurement options - another adjustment i've made to this quilt is a few of the measurements have changed. originally, i was trying to keep fabric requirements as small as possible, so i made the accent square 9" in order to get it out of 1/4yd. but after putting the quilt together, i noticed the 9" square didn't match up with the 2" strips. so i enlarged the square/block to 10" finished/10.5" cut. this means the accent strips adjoining the square are also slightly larger than the original at 10.5" high. if you want to buy less fabric, you could reduce the square/block to 9" cut in order to get it out of 1/4 fabric. just make sure you also adjust the adjoining strips to the same height.

accent strip

the rather clumsy name of this quilt comes from the accent strip & block that divides the upper and lower strip sections. i originally toyed with the name "sweet spot" because of that accent square, but that didn't sit right for a few reasons. then i thought how the accent strip looks kind of like a belt "cinched" around the waist of the quilt body. and this quilt is a "cinch" to make, being so easy and all, so that became the name. since nothing else brilliant came along, it's stuck with a somewhat lame name.

the whole point of the accent strip was to add some length to the quilt, making it a larger size than just a jelly roll alone allows. also, it was a chance to add interest to a basic strip quilt and showcase a few favorite fabrics from the line. selecting two fabrics with lots of contrast makes a better impact in the quilt.

anyhow, to make that accent strip, first create your 10.5" unfinished square/block (options above). from fabric b, cut one strip 10.5" x wof (or 42" long) and one strip 10.5" x 12". (this is a little wide, but it will give you room to place your block exactly where you want it in the quilt top.)

sew the long strip to the left side of the accent block and sew the shorter strip to the right of the accent block, as pictured above.

upper strip layer

this is where i left off last time - ready to sew strips together. once you have all strips laid out in a pleasing manner, begin sewing them together in pairs. then join 3 pairs together in one group of 6 strips. square off these groupings of 6 before joining them together. this will help keep everything straight. when you sew multiple strips by just adding the next strip on, you can get a slanted piece. so chain piece in pairs, then group in sixes, and square up before joining them all together.

also, to aid in keeping everything straight, i alternate the direction i sew the strips in. i chain pieced the pairs top-to-bottom and pieced the pairs together bottom-to-top.

now join your upper strip layer to the middle accent strip layer.

when you do this, line up the seams of the accent block with the strip seams above it. pin at the seams and at other intervals along the length of the seam, then sew.

lower strips layer

 a few days ago i got the top section of half strips sewn all together. now for the lower strip section. but as i looked at them hanging on the design wall, they weren't exciting me much. meh. blech. boring. so i just left them alone and did what i was supposed to be doing around the house instead.

however, yesterday i was browsing blue elephant stitches, catching up with jolene's work, when inspiration hit. i don't think i even saw anything specific there, i just got the idea of how to spice up my strips some while i was looking at her lovely quilts.

i was never really crazy about all the half strips put together in this pattern, but it was a necessity because of cutting all the strips in half for the top layer. so i tried cutting more long strips from my extra yardage and weeding out some of the pieced strips. surprisingly, i liked that even less. the joined up strips were adding interest to the quilt. i thought about breaking them up into more pieces per pieced strip, but each time you cut the strip you loose 1/2" length to seam allowances and that cut down the length of the over all quilt.

well, the idea i got was to take one extra half strip of  light green gingham and put a 2.5" (cut) block in between the joined strips. i already had my pieced strips sewn together, but it wasn't much work to unpick those few short seams. and it was worth it! i like the way these little boxes look a lot.

by using the little block to add length, i was able to put more pieces in some of the strips so that there is also variety in where the blocks fall and how many per strip. the lower section is peppered with little bits of green gingham and i like it. this could also be done with more than one fabric but i like the consistency it adds to the quilt having just one fabric for all the small blocks.

 i liked it so much that once i got going, i cut into some of the other long strips that i hadn't intended on cutting at all. now i have more variety and am much happier with the way the long lower section is looking.

new lower section layout awaiting sewing (just ignore the unrelated blocks sharing the board)

next up, part three: sewing the strips together and finishing this top!
nearly there.


the detailed steps for this tutorial are spread over 5 posts i wrote as i made the "bloom" quilt and worked on the pattern. find the others here:

cinched part one - fabric requirements and strip preparation
cinched part three - joining your strips and sections to assemble your top
the three-strip accent stripe pieced backing - how to make the backing
loops and crinkles - quilting choices for "bloom where you are planted"
cinched part four - quilting, binding, and gifting
cinched full tutorial