Nancy’s Mysterious Quilt

I don’t think I ever outgrew the Nancy Drew books. There’s something about spooky old attics and moss covered mansions and secret passages that I can’t resist. Sadly, I grew up in a brand new house with absolutely nothing mysterious about it.  When my husband and I bought our 1920 farmhouse, I was absolutely giddy to have a real attic with stairs. This place has all kinds of secrets!

Come visit me at my blog,  Michelle’s Romantic Tangle. I’ve got some projects inspired by the Nancy Drew books and I’m having a giveaway for four of the Nancy Drew books shown on the quilt. I’ll even tell you where we found a moss covered mansion to photograph the quilt in front of!

1 Layer Cake Get a Clue with Nancy Drew
4 1/2 yards white Bella Solid for background
1 panel Nancy Drew Book Covers
3/4 yard binding fabric
6 yards backing fabric

From the white background fabric, cut the following:

82 6 1/2″ blocks

63 10 x 2 1/2″ strips

Remove the mostly white prints from the layer cake and save for another project. They won’t contrast with the background and will detract from the effect of the Irish Chain blocks.

Cut 27 pieces of your layer cake into four 10 x 2 1/2″ strips.

To make the nine patch blocks, sew the 2 1/2 x 10″ strips into sets of three. Make 21 sets with print center strips and 42 sets with background center strips. Press.

Cut each  into four strips.

Assemble into nine patch blocks. Since the print squares are so small, I let the directional prints fall every which way.

Assemble your quilt top as shown in the final picture — in fifteen rows of eleven blocks with nine patch blocks at each corner. To cut down on the bulk you’ll have to deal with while appliqueing the book covers, I suggest leaving off the top two and bottom two rows until the books are in place.

Applique the six book covers from the panel onto the quilt using your preferred method of applique.

Attach the top two and bottom two rows.

Quilt, bind, and snuggle up!

one 66 x 90″ quilt

Michelle Marr
{mychellem.blogspot.com}

Moab or Sedona Quilt

Hi! I’m Michelle Marr from Michelle’s Romantic Tangle, and I’m back with my latest Bake Shop Project.

Every year when we start to talk about travelling, it seems like we’re deciding between Moab and Sedona. Something about clambering over the rough sandstone calls to all of us. As I was assembling this quilt and trying to think up a name for it, the colors started to remind me of the sandstone fins and the dark shapes of the scrubby little trees against the rocks as the sun goes down…and I started to wonder which destination we’d wind up in on our next trip… Moab or Sedona? Hop over to my blog and I’ll share some of my favorite things to do in both places.

2 Jelly Rolls Sandhill Plum, plus 1/8 yard each of six different light prints from the collection
3/4 yard fabric for binding
4 yards fabric for backing

Moab or Sedona isn’t a difficult quilt to piece, but it will take some time. This is the part where I’m obligated to warn you about measuring carefully (that is important!) and using an exact 1/4″ seam allowance. If you want everything to fit together precisely, that’s what you’re going to have to do. If, like me, you’re comfortable easing blocks together, there is a little room for error.

To get the 1 1/4″ wide strips for these blocks, you’ll be cutting your Jelly Roll strips in half lengthwise. Place the tips of the pinked edge along the 1 1/4″ line on your ruler. You’ll need every light strip as well as almost all of the fabric from the 1/8 yard cuts. You won’t be using all of the dark strips, so don’t cut them all at once, unless you have another project with narrow dark strips planned.

It’s your choice whether to cut the width of fabric strips in half or to cut them into shorter lengths before cutting in half. After losing a couple of strips to a slipped ruler, I started working with the shorter lengths.

You’ll need the following number of strips —

35 1 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ light squares
70 1 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ dark squares
70 light 2 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 dark 2 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 light 4 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 dark 4 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 light 5 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 dark 5 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 light 7 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 dark 7 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 light 8 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 dark 8 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
70 light 10 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips

That was more cutting than I wanted to do in one go, so I cut and assembled my own blocks in batches of seven.

To assemble the block, start with one light 1 1/4″ square. Sew dark 1 1/4″ squares to opposite edges. Press.

Sew light 2 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips to the long edges. Press.

Sew dark 2 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips along opposite sides. Press.

You’ll continue building the block by adding pairs of light and dark strips to their respective sides of the block in the following order. Press after adding each pair of strips.

light 4 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
dark 4 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
light 5 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
dark 5 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
light 7 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
dark 7 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
light 8 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
dark 8 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips
light 10 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips

Make 35 blocks and assemble in five rows of seven as shown in the completed quilt. Quilt, bind, and decide where you’re headed for your own vacation!

One approximately 50×70″ quilt

Michelle Marr
{Michelle’s Romantic Tangle}

Dashes in the Woods

I’m Michelle Marr and I blog at Michelle’s Romantic Tangle. Little Red Riding Hood has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, so as soon as I saw A Walk in the Woods, I wanted to play with it. It’s such a fun collection, and it makes a wonderful big girl quilt — which was supposed to be mine, but was stolen by my teenage daughter as soon as I got the binding on!

1 “A Walk in the Woods” Jelly Roll

1 “A Walk in the Woods” Charm Pack

3 1/2 yards Zen Grey Moda Solid for background

4 yards fabric for backing

3/4 yard fabric for binding

Cutting:

Before you start cutting, unroll your Jelly Roll and remove any strips that do not contrast well with your background fabric. To make the churn dash blocks stand out from the background, I removed all of the grey prints. Because I didn’t want to leave out the adorable little foxes, I did use the grey fox print in the center checkerboard. You can make the quilt with just a Jelly Roll, but without the grey fabric, there’s not a lot to spare so I added the charm pack as insurance against cutting errors.

From the Jelly Roll, cut:

128 print half square triangles for Churn Dash blocks (see instructions below)

160 2 1/2″ squares for Churn Dash blocks

200 2 1/2″ squares for center checkerboard

From background fabric, cut:

16 4 1/2″ squares for Churn Dash blocks

64 4 1/2 x 2 1/2″ strips for Churn Dash blocks

64 half square triangles for Churn Dash blocks (see instructions below)

200 2 1/2″ squares for center checkerboard

16 2 1/2 x 12 12 1/2″ strips for sashing between Churn Dash Blocks

2 2 1/2″ x 40 1/2″ strips for border of center checkerboard

2 2 1/2″ x 44 1/2″ strips for border of center checkerboard

Using the Easy Angle or other similar ruler, cut 128 half square triangles from 2 1/2″ Jelly Roll strips (4 each from 32 different strips) and 64 half square triangles from 4 1/2″ strips of background fabric.

Sew two of the small print triangles to a square to form a larger triangle. Then add a white triangle to form a square. Press. Make four units for each churn dash block, sixty-four total.

For the bars of the churn dash blocks, sew two 2 1/2″ squares together. Press open and sew to a 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ strip to form a square. Press. Make four units for each churn dash block, sixty-four total.

Using four scrappy half square triangles, four bar units, and a 4 1/2″ background squares for the center section for each block, assemble sixteen churn dash blocks.

For the center checkerboard section, sew 200 print squares and 200 background squares into 100 four-patch units. Arrange in ten rows of ten. (40 1/2″ unfinished size)

Border with 2 1/2 strips. The bordered checkerboard section should measure 44 1/2″

Using the churn dash blocks and 2 1/2 x 12 1/2″ strips, assemble the outer border. You will make four strips as pictured — two with three churn dash blocks and two with five blocks.

Add the borders to the center checkerboard section.

Quilt, bind and snuggle up on your next trip to Grandma’s House!

one 68″ square quilt

Michelle Marr
{mychellem.blogspot.com}

30s Barn Raising

Hi! I’m Michelle from Michelle’s Romantic Tangle, here with my first Bake Shop project. I love cutting fabric up into squares and seeing how different layouts will look with fabrics.

Using a jelly roll makes this quilt go together extra quickly. Be sure stop by my blog to enter the giveaway sponsored by Kimberly at Fat Quarter Shop. You could win the jelly roll and background fabric to make this quilt.

– 1 jelly roll {1930s Bella Solid}
– 1 1/2 yards background fabric
– 1/2 yards binding fabric
– 4 yards backing fabric

Cutting:

From the background fabric, cut 100 2 1/2″ squares and 100 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ rectangles

From the Jelly Roll, cut 600 2 1/2″ squares

Assembly:

You’ll be making 100 blocks. Each block is made up of three sections.

For the first, piece one 2 1/2″ colored square to one 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ background rectangle.

For the second, piece together two 2 1/2″ colored squares and one 2 1/2″ background square.

For the third, piece together three 2 1/2″ colored squares.

Make 100 of each section and press.

Piece three sections together to make each block, varying the color placement and trying not to place identical squares side by side very often. With the limited number of fabrics in this quilt, you’ll wind up with fabrics next to each other in the finished project, but they won’t distract from the design.

For the layout, you’ll need a design wall or floor. I found it easiest to start with the full diamond in the upper left hand corner and work out from there. Except for the corners of the diamonds, the blocks in each row of the quilt alternate two different positions. Once you get the pattern set up, it’s easy to continue each row.

Assemble the blocks into a top, then quilt, trim, bind, and snuggle up!

60″ square quilt

Michelle Marr
{mychellem.blogspot.com}