Charm Party Baby Quilt + Bonus Pillow

Hi! I’m Julie from 627handworks.com. Today I’m sharing a Charm Party baby quilt with matching bonus pillow. I’m someone who likes to get as much as I can out of my fabric. The half square triangles leftover from the quilt top are perfect for creating a bonus project like a pillow or even a doll quilt. I would love to see your version if you make one!

2 Charm Packs – Print (Chance of Flowers)
1 Charm Pack – Solid (Bella Solid Snow)
1 1/4 Yards for Backing (Chance of Flowers, Cloud Flower Garden)
1/2 Yard for Binding (Chance of Flowers, Cloud Flower Garden)

To make the 16″ Pillow Cover you’ll need:
2 Yards of Trim
1 Fat Quarter (Chance of Flowers, Rose Sandy’s Solids)
18″ Zipper
Pillow Form

Gather up your fabrics. How pretty are these?

Pull:

64 Prints for Quilt Blocks
17 Prints for Quilt Border
32 Solid Charms

Choose 4 different charms:

Take 2 of those charms and pair with a solid, right sides facing. Mark a diagonal line.

Stitch along your mark and sew another line 1/2″ over.

Cut between those lines. Set the smaller half aside.

Press open and arrange your HST (half square triangle) with the other 2 charms.

Stitch together.

Make 16 ‘mini-blocks’.

Take 4 mini blocks and form a large block.

Make 4 large blocks.

Sew the 4 large blocks together.

Take the 17 Charms we set aside earlier.

CUT:
1 Charm into quarters (4) 2.5″ squares
16 Charms in half (32) 2.5″ x 5″ rectangles

Take 8 rectangles and sew end to end creating a border. Make 4 borders.

Choose 2 of the borders and sew a square onto each end.

Attach the 2 border strips that do not have the square end charms.

Attach the two border strips that have the squares on each end.

You have completed the quilt top!

BONUS PILLOW

(OR you can also use the leftover HST’s to make a matching doll quilt)

Pull 25 HST’s leftover from making the quilt top.

We will be trimming these into 3.75″ squares.
If you don’t have a special HST ruler, you can use this method for trimming your squares.

Using Washi or masking tape, mark a line from corner to corner on the 3.75″ line.
(Make sure you are using the squared end of the ruler and one side isn’t an extra 1/2″ wide)

Lay your HST (still folded in half) with the seam line (NOT the raw edge) along the 3.75″ mark.

Trim

Press open creating a perfect 3.75″ square. Repeat for the rest of the HST’s.

Stitch together in 5 rows of 5 using any layout you like. Quilt if desired. Trim to 16.75″ square.

Sew decorative trim along the edge with the decorative part facing the center of the pillow.

Lay your zipper facing down, pillow front facing up, and stitch in place.

Cut your fat quarter into a 16.75″ square (or the exact size of your pillow front).

Lay your back piece facing up (edges aligned with the pillow front edges), zipper facing down, and stitch.

Open your zipper half way. Lay your pieces right sides facing. Pin all around the edges and and stitch, being careful not to catch your trim along the way. Zig-zag or overlock the raw edges to prevent fraying.

Pillow cover is done!

40″ Square Baby Quilt
16″ Pillow Cover

If you make a quilt I would love to see it!
Julie Hirt
627handworks.com

Window Box Flower Quilt

Apr8

I hope you are having a great day. My name is Kris from krisrunner.wordpress.com and I am pleased to share this quilt with you today. At my house, the daffodils are blooming and the tulips are just around the corner. I wanted to make a flower quilt using a hexi design – and that is how this quilt came to be. I was surprised at how easy it was to use a half hexi template to make this quilt. I loved the colors in Chance of Flowers by Sandy Gervais and hope the great colors brighten your day as you make this quilt. This makes it easy to use with a charm pack or with jelly roll left overs or as a stash buster.

1 charm pack Chance of Flowers
1/8 yard of 4 browns for the window box. I used the Moda Marble collection: Coffee, Bark, Chestnut, and Dark Saddle
2/3 yard Bella Solids Snow Fabric
1/3 yard Cloud Rain Border Fabric
1/3 yard Rose Binding Fabric
1 1/2 yard Leaf Backing Fabric
Go!Hexagon 4 1/2″ sides ruler/template (item number 55437)

** All sewing will be done with a 1/4 inch seam.

1. Sort your charm pack into a couple of different piles.

Pick two green charms to be your stems of your flowers.

Next, pick 3 solid or mostly solids to be the centers of your flowers

Finally, create 3 sets of 6 charms to be the outsides of your flowers.

2. Cut each of your charms (except for the green stem’s) in half giving you 2.5 x 5 inch rectangles. (you will have a total of 42 rectangles)

3. Use your half hexi template and cut the 42 rectangles into half hexis. Make sure to cut the notches on the ends – this will help when you line them up to sew.

4. Next you will want to cut 9 strips of 2.5″x WOF from the Bella Solid Snow material. Using your half hexi template, cut 88 white half hexis.

5. Take the green charms for your stems and cut 7 rectangles as 1.5″ x 2.5″ stem pieces.

6. Next you are going to want to lay out your flowers. To do this you will want to start with one of your center half hexis and pair it with the matching half hexi. Then, add 6 additional pairs of hexis to complete the flower. Continue this with the remaining two flowers and connect them with white as shown in the picture below. Place the middle flower a hexi lower that than ones on the two sides.

7. Once you have your flowers like you want, fill in with the rest of the white hexis. Place a row of white on the top and on the bottom and on each end of the flowers like in the picture below. The ends will be jagged and that is correct. We will trim them later.

8. We are going to now sew the stems on to the white hexi’s.

Take the seven half hexis under the flowers for your stems. With each one, cut off 1″ from the top left edge. Cut 1/2 inch off the other side.

Insert the stem piece (2.5″ x1.5″ green) using 1/4 inch seams between each side of the half hexi, Press your seams as you go. Do this for the remaining 6 stem pieces. When you have completed this place the stem half hexis back onto your flower layout.

9. Now that you have your layout complete (congratulations!) Let’s talk about how to get ready to sew the rows. If you have a preferred approach, use that. I’m going to describe the approach that I’ve settled on for this type of quilt.

Moving from left to right, take the first hexi and place it on top of the next hexi. Making sure that you always place the next hexi on the bottom of your pile. You will end up with 10 rows of 13 hexis. The top hexi is the left most piece.

I label each row with a sticky note so that I can keep the rows in the correct order.

I chain piece 5 rows at a time. I have found that keeping track of the row I am on and which is the left hand edge piece can be tough. My trick is to put a straight pin in the left hexi of each row. The vertical placement of the pin indicates row # (the highest pin is row #1). I have circled the pins in the photo below so you can see my trick.

10. You are ready to start sewing your rows. See the picture below to see how to line up your hexis.

Make sure to press your seams after each hexi. You will sew the hexis together until you have sewn all 13 hexis together. This is a picture of that it will look like as you are sewing part way along the row.

11. Once you have sewn all your rows together, lay it back out and admire your work! You are amazing! Feel free to enjoy a cold or hot beverage of your choosing at this point.

Now you will sew all your rows together. Pressing your seams as you go. Don’t you love it!

12. Now that the rows are all sewn together you will want to trim the edges. Use a ruler and trim off the edge to form a straight edge.

13. Next step is to create your window box. I loved using different browns to make more of weathered look to the window box. If you don’t want the same weathered look, feel free to just use one piece of brown material (8.5″x 44.5″).

To create the weathered window box look you will want to cut from each of your brown colors so that in total you will have:

10 rectangles of 2.5″x 8.5″ (3 each from 2 browns and 2 each from 2 browns)
24 rectangles of 2.5″ x 4.5″ (6 from each brown)

Hold aside 4 of your 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangles (one of each color) for later.
Select different color combinations from the smaller rectangles and sew them together giving you 10 rectangles of 2.5″ x 8.5″.
Combine each 2.5″x 8.5″ mixed color rectangle with a solid 2.5″ x 8.5″ rectangle resulting in 10 larger 4.5″ x 8.5″ rectangles.

The final 4 rectangles which are 2.5″ x 4.5″ should be combined to make 2 blocks of 2.5″ x 4.5″ (see the right end blocks in the picture below)

Arrange the blocks as in the picture below. I flipped each alternating 8.5″ block to give it more contrast. Feel free to customize. When you are happy with the look sew the blocks together into one large window box which will be 8.5″ x 44.5″

14. Sew the flowers to the window block making sure that the window box is adjoining the flower stems.

15. To add the border or window frame to the flowers and window box you will need to:

Cut 4 strips 3.5″ X WOF

Cut 2 rectangles 30″ x 3.5″. Using the extra from those WOF you will sew them on to your 2 strips of 3.5″ x WOF to create 2 rectangles which are 51″ x 3.5″.

Sew the 30″ x 3.5″ strips to the ends of your flower and window box.

Sew the 51″x 3.5″ strips to the top and bottom of the your flower and window box.

16. Add batting and backing to your quilt top and start adding texture. Have fun!

I chose to quilt pebbles in the centers of the flowers and swoops in the outside flowers.

I tried to create wood grain on the window box.

17. Bind your quilt and then wash it to get all the crinkly goodness of a quilt.

Hope your quilt helps to brighten your day! It sure brings spring in from the outside…

…into my sewing room wall.

Happy sewing!

Finished size: 48″x 32″ (once washed and shrinkage happens)

You could make a bed runner by adding a couple more flowers to each side if you wanted to expand it.

Kris Allen

{krisrunner.wordpress.com}

Candy Flowers Pillow

Mar29

1 Mini Charm Pack – Print / Chance of Flowers
2 Mini Charm Packs – Solid / Bella Solid in Snow
3 Coordinating Fat Quarters
21″ Pillow Form

22″ Square of batting for quilting the pillow top
22″ Square of scrap fabric or muslin

Pull 40 printed charms and 64 solid charms.

Pair up 40 prints with 40 solids, right sides facing. Finger press a a diagonal crease on one side.

Chain stitch the 40 pairs of prints and solids on the diagonal crease.

Optional:
Without breaking the chain, run the the charms back through and stitch a 1/2″ over. Rather than throwing the trimmed fabric away, this quick step will create 40 little HST’s for future projects.

Cut. The pictures below show both options.

Open and press.

You should have a stack of 40 Half Square Triangles (HST) and 24 Solids.

Layout:
Using 12 HST’s and 4 solids, create a star.

Add the next row around – double check to make sure your HST’s are going in the right direction.

Add the points on the top and bottom.

Fill in with the remaining solid charms.

Piece:
Feel free to use your preferred method, I’ll show mine.

Some people like to stitch from the inside out, others in rows or even quadrants. This is how I piece several small squares that I want to keep in a certain layout and direction.

Going in vertical rows: Fold the squares on the right column onto the squares on the left.

Chain stitch – do not cut the thread between squares.

Feel free to press the seams, I don’t find it necessary and I will press later on.

Using the set of chained pairs, fold the first two pairs right sides together and stitch. Open. Fold the next pair up onto the previous pair and stitch. Repeat until all 8 pairs are pieced together.

Leaving them chained is nice because they stay in the right order and direction.

Open and press the seams all in one direction. When you complete the next row, press those seams in the opposite direction. This will make it easier to piece the rows together.

Stitch the two completed rows together.

Stitch the other two rows using the same method, and sew the halves together.

If your edges are raggedy, feel free to trim a little and straighten them out. Just be careful not to cut off the HST points along the edge and leave a seam allowance.

Take a Fat Quarter and cut four 2.5″ strips down the length of the fabric. You will have four strips approximately 21″ wide.

Attach one strip to the top and one to the bottom of your block.

Press open and trim.

Attach the other two strips to the sides.

Press open and trim.

Optional: Using the batting and scrap fabric, quilt as desired. Trim.

Double fold:
Take your remaining 2 Fat Quarters and along the 21″ side, fold over 1″ and press. Fold over another 1″ and press.

Top stitch along the top and bottom of the fold. Repeat with the other Fat Quarter.

The Math:

The two back pieces will create an envelope style enclosure and they need to overlap about 4″. Since everyone sews 1/4″ seams a bit different, we may have slightly different sized pillow tops.

Take the width of your pillow top and divide by 2.
Add 2″.
You should be somewhere near 12″.

Trim both Fat Quarters to that measurement. Trim the raw edge opposite your double edge fold, leaving the 21″ width intact.

Example: My pillow top is 20″. 20 divided by 2 = 10. Add 2 = 12″. I now have two fat quarters that measure 21″ x 12″ each. (21″ side has the double fold)

Part 2:

Trim both Fat Quarters so they don’t hang off pillow top. Instead of being 21″ they will probably around 20″.

Layer:
Pillow Top right side up
Fat Quarter #1 right side down – lining up raw edges along the side
Fat Quarter #2 right side down – lining up raw edges along the opposite side

Pin or clip edges in place. Stitch along the edge all the way around.