Summer Solstice Quilt-A-Long - Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky!!!!!

**  NOTE  - This post is part of a series of posts for the Summer Solstice Quilt-A-Long.  If you would like to join (and have a chance to win $100.00 Gift Certificate and Fat Quarter Bundle grand prizes sponsored by The Intrepid Thread and Fat Quarter Shop ) you can find a list of the post links here :)  Here is the schedule

June 9th- Intro, Fabric Requirements, and Prizes Announcement

June 23rd - Cutting 

 July 7th - Flying Geese 

July 21st - Half Square Triangles 

August 4th - Drunkards Path

August 18th - Building Blocks 

September 1st - Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky  (Today) 

September 15th- Summer Solstice Parade and Grand Prize Winners

Here we are coming to the end, but  first off for this week, we need to pick a winner for the Building Block Assignment.   And great job to everyone on making their blocks!!!!  I know, that is a whole lot of Pinning, Sewing, and Pressing!!!  Your blocks all look so fantastic and it is just so fun to see them all come together ;)

The Building Block assignment winner who gets a  Just a Speck Jelly Roll from Olie and Evie is . .  .

#12 - What KT Made!! - Congrats :)

  

And here we go!!!  Its time to finish up our Quilt Tops!!!  (And hopefully, get them quilted up :)  So very exciting, it's our 

LAST ASSIGNMENT - PIECING PROJECT TOP!!!

 Now that your blocks are all made you can piecing your quilt top together!!!    So fun right ;)

So as you can tell from the picture above, it is a little difficult to get these huge blocks in a picture and once I tried adding the sashing in the picture it just got worse.   Ya, apparently it would help if the ceiling in my sewing room was vaulted ;)  So  I am going to use digital pictures from here on out to make it a little easier to work with each layout and so you can see all parts of the instructions.   Start by laying your blocks out in your chosen layout.  Mine is 3 x 3.  Play with the placement of the blocks until you get a color layout that is pleasing to the eye.

MAKING SASHING STRIPS

When you have a layout you like you are ready to add the sashing.  Now you don't have to add the sashing if you don't want to. As you can see from above, it creates a  whole new design  without sashing that is pretty fun.  It's your quilt, you make it as you like ;)

So now that you have your blocks laid out where you like them, we need to prepare your sashing strips.   Sew all of your sashing strips end to end and then sub-cut them into the following strips for your project.

A few little notes on the Sashing Strips.

Depending on your size project, you might not have to sew all of your strips together and then sub-cut them.   For instance, If you are doing the 40" block, you don't need to sew your your strips together and then sub-cut the short sashings at 40 1/2", just cut your 42" strips to 40 1/2" ;)   Or, if you are doing the 20" block, subcut half of the strip to the 20 1/2" short strips first, an then sew the remaining strips together to subcut your Long Sasings.   The rest of them are just as fast to sew all of the strips together and then sub-cut as listed above.

And  If you really don't want any seams in your short sashings, you can always sub-cut them from your strips first, and then sew all of the leftover pieces together for the long sashings, that just means you will a few more seams in your long sashings and none in your short sashings.  Its your choice on where you want your seams to end up ;)

 On my Long Sashing Strips  -  I  like to cut mine about 1" longer so I have a little wiggle room.  Then I just trim off the excess after I have sewn it.   Or, many people like to wait to cut their long sashing strips until they have sewn the rows together and then measure the row and cut according to the actual measurement.

It really is hard to try and go over every way you can cut your sashings for each different size option, so if you have any questions don't hesitate to email me ;)    So with your sashings cut, we are ready to start sewing!!!

ONE BLOCK LAYOUT

Let's address one block layouts first.  If you are doing a 1 Block Layout and you want to add the sashing it is just like adding a border.  Layout the sashing strips as shown with the short strips on the sides and the long strips along the top and bottom.  Place the short sashing strips onto the sides of the block with right sides together.  Pin and Sew the short strips onto the side using a 1/4" seam.  Press towards the sashing.  Place the long sashing strips onto the top and bottom of the block with right sides together.  Pin and Sew the long strips onto the top and bottom using a 1/4" seam.  Press towards the sashing.  And your 1 Block Project Top is Complete!!!

MULITPLE BLOCK LAYOUT

Now, if you are doing any other layout, your sashing is a little different.  I will show the examples for a 3 x 3 layout but it is the same process if you are doing the 2 x 2 layout or the 4 x 4 layout.  Place your short sashing strips at the beginning of each row, at the end of each row, and in between each block in every row.

Now, you are ready to sew the Sashing Strips and Blocks into rows.   To do this, I like to first sew the sashing strips to the sides of the blocks.  So place the short sashing strips onto the sides of the blocks with right sides together.  Pin and sew the short sashing strips onto the blocks using a 1/4" seam.  Press towards the sashing strips.

And now, you can sew the Sashed Blocks into your rows.  Place the second block in each row onto the first with right sides together.  Pin and sew the blocks together using a 1/4" seam.  Continue adding one block at a time until the row is complete.  Always use a 1/4" seam and press towards the sashing.

And now with your rows made, you are ready to add the long sashing to finish your quilt top.   This is just like making the rows, only on a larger scale ;)   Place the long sashing strips  at the top of your project, the bottom of your project, and in between each row of your project.

And once again, we will start by sewing the sashing strips to the rows.  Place the long sashing strips onto the rows with right sides together.  Pin and sew the sashing strip onto the row using a 1/4" seam allowance.  Press towards the sashings strips.  

Almost done,   Place the second block in each row onto the first with right sides together.  Pin and sew the rows together using a 1/4" seam.  When you are pinning, take care to align your sashing strips in each row so that your columns don't look askew.  Continue adding one row at a time using a 1/4" seam allowance and pressing towards the sashing until the quilt top is complete.

And now, you can just sit back and enjoy your beautiful Summer Solstice Quilt Top!!!

And while your enjoying,  don't forget to add your beautiful  Summer Solstice Quilt Top to the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group and to post it on social media using #summersolsticequiltalong.  I am so excited to see all of your beauitful Summer Soslstice Quilt Tops!!!

And while you are adding your pictures above . . . .

You also need to be sure and and your completed Quilt Top to the Grand Prize Linky!!!!  Yippee, we have made it to the Grand Prize!!!!


GRAND PRIZE LINK UP

Remember this from the start??  All those that finish their quilt top will be eligible for the 4 Grand Prizes.  The Grand Prize's are sponsored by The Intrepid Thread and Fat Quarter Shop and huge Thank You goes out to Julie and Kimberly for their generosity in these prizes.

The first 2 winners will each receive a $100.00 Gift Certificates to Fat Quarter Shop and the next 2 winners will each receive a  Custom Cotton + Steel Fat Quarter Bundle from The Intrepid Thread !!!     So fun!!!!!

  

         

In order to be eligible to win the Grand Prize you need to Link Up your completed quilt top (not quilted yet, just the quilt top) at the end of this post!!!  You have until the early, early morning of September 15th to get your quilt top sewn together and linked to be entered :)    But remember, You have to have a link at the end of this post to be entered to win one of the Grand Prizes.  

SUMMER SOLSTICE QUILT-A-LONG PARADE

Now, as just mentioned, you only have to have your quilt top done to enter into the grand prize link up . . . However,  I wanted to encourage you to finish these quilts and not set them in a pile of "to be quilted" so I am planning a Parade for the 15th of September :)  The parade will show off all  quilted and bound Summer Solstice Quilts!!  

So, how do you finish up those quilts??? 

Baste It, Quilt It, and Bind It!!  I know, I make it sound all so simple.  If you are new to quilting, and need some help with these last few steps, you can see my Video Tutorials that go over the basics of how to do this ;)  Also, there are some helpful free motion quilting tutorials if you are stuck on how you want to quilt your project ;) 

Once you have your project Basted, Quilted, and Bound it is ready to be showcased it in the Parade.  In order to have it in the parade, I need you to please send me an email  at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com  with your favorite finished Summer Solstice Quilt picture attached as well as the your name the way  you would like it listed with your photo, where you are from, and a blog, instagram, or flickr photostream link if applicable.  You can email me anytime from now until the evening of September 14th and I will get you added to the Parade!!!  

I am so looking forward to seeing everyone's finishes!!!  You can decide if you would like to add your finish picture to the Flickr group  and Social Media now or wait until after the parade to keep it a secret :)  Grand Prize winners will be announced on September 15th along with the amazing parade filled with all of your beautiful quilts.!!!  I can't wait!!!  I know this is just going to be an awesome parade!!

So, in summary, Link up your finished quilt top (not quilted) at the end of this post by early morning September 15th to be entered for the grand prize linky :)  Email me a picture of your finished quilt (quilted and bound)  with your name, where you are from, and a place to link your picture by September 14th to be part of the parade :)  

Alright, I know that was a lot.  If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to email me at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, I don't want any one to miss out on the grand prizes or parades because of confusion ;)

I can't wait to see your finished quilts!!!  Thank you so much for quilting-a-long with me, it has been so much fun and I have loved watching you all stretch and try new things!!!!  Now, off you go to finish up :)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!

It's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!  Let's have some fun!!!

First,  we need to announce the winner from last weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway!!   The winner of  2 Yards of their choice of Sandy Henderson's new Strawberry Moon from  Shabby Fabrics is . . .   Number #100 . . . Congrats  Nettie!!! I have emailed you :)    

  

    

And on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by Happy Quilting!!!  Yup, little ole me today ;)  And before I get to the TTGD here, I wanted to let you know about a special little giveaway that I am doing over at Instagram.   It is a fun loop giveaway with 14 other awesome bloggers and as you can see, it is an awesome prize!!!  So pop on over to my Instagram to start looping :) 

And for those that don't do Instagram, never fear!!!   We are still doing our favorite Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day right here.  So here is the  giveaway ;)  One lucky winner will be receiving their choice of 3 Happy Quilting PDF Patterns.  And while we are at it, if you have made any of my patterns, I would love to see them!!!  You can email them to me or add them to social media with the #happquiltingwithmc ;)  

You have two entry chances, the second being optional, and please leave a separate comment for each.  All Entries are welcome, including International Entries.  Please just be sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger ;)  

ENTRY 1 - Simply leave a comment telling me what  your favorite notion in your sewing room is ;)  

 ENTRY 2 - Show your Happy Quilting love. You can follow Happy Quilting on Bloglovin, Email Updates, or RSS to get daily updates.  Or you can like Happy Quilting on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Flickr.   Any one way will do . . . Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Happy Quilting Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, September 6th , when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

A Quilting Kind of Day!!!

On Saturday I put a big Secret Sewing Project in the mail.  It is always fun to finish one of those, but often, when their deadline starts looming, other projects just pushed aside for the minute.  And that is how today's Quilting Kind of Day came about.  I have 3 quilts I am so excited to quilt today, because the tops have been finished for a week, and I just can't wait to see them all finished up!!!

First up, Have you seen the new The Jolly Bar Book??  It is so stinking cute (especially as the book is the same size as a Jolly Bar pre-cut)!!!  Well when mine arrived I was super excited because I am always looking for fast and fun quilts to add to my "baby quilt gift pile".  And all 20 patterns in this book totally fall into the fast and fun category :)

I decided to use The Treehouse Club by Sweetwater for Moda. (which comes out in Sept!!)   It is such a cute fabric line and has the bonus of being essentially gender neutral so these will work for boys or girls, and are perfect for when mom wants to keep the gender a surprise ;)  (ya, we only had the guts to do that with one of our children ;)  

And I had so much fun making up the first quilt top shown above with the book, that I just figured why not whip up a second pattern from the book. (this was of course, before the secret sewing project deadline was looming ;)  So now I have two baby quilt tops that I get to quilt up today.  So fun!!

And then you might recall seeing some pretty Grand Canal scraps from my Sample Spree Market Bundle that I have shown on my Instagram account.  Well, the quilt top has been patiently waiting and I am so, so, so excited to see this one all quilted up.   I Love the way it turned out and can't wait to see it in all its yummy texture goodness.   I am thinking an all over free motion quilting design on this one, now I just have to decide on which one to use ;)

So if you need me today, I will be at the Long Arm listing to a good book and quilting away!!

Happy Quilting!!!

Modern Heritage Quilts

Last summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to piece a couple of quilts for my good friend Amy Ellis for her newly released book Modern Heritage Quilts.  Now that the book is released, I can share the quilts!!  Yippee ;)

The first quilt is called Soaring and I had so much fun making it up.  I loved that I got to play with scrappy prints within each color value because scrappy is just happy!!!  And isn't the movement in this quilt just incredible.  I just love Amy's designs!!

And even though this quilt looks a little complex to piece, it really isn't.   Again, Amy does amazing designs and breaks this quilt down into simple piecing.  It went together super quick and was so much fun to piece!

The second quilt I pieced for Amy is called Brilliance.  In this design Amy takes the traditional snowball piecing but stretches it out to make diamonds.   So fun!!!   And once again, gotta love the super scrappy goodness :)

This quilt has such wonderful modern flair tied in with such a wonderful traditional block.  It just makes me smile.  Just like Soaring, it was super fun and super fast to piece.   And how perfect would it be for busting some serious scraps.   You better believe this one was added to the list to make my own version ;)

Yippee, it is so fun to finally get to share these fun quilts!!!  You can see all of the amazing quilts in Modern Heritage Quilts over at Amy's Blog right here ;)  Like I said, she is an amazing designer and these quilts are incredible eye candy!!!

Thanks so much Amy for letting me be a small part of your incredible book!!!  And yes, several of these amazing quilts (Serendipity, The Comfort Quilt, and Brilliance)  have been added to the "to do" list. That list just keeps getting longer and longer :)  Gotta love it!

Have a Happy Quilting Weekend!!!

1 Million Pillowcase Challenge

Have you heard of the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge???   It is a fantastic charity project brought to our quilting community by the wonderful folks at American Patchwork and Quilting and in a few short weeks they will be holding their annual 24 Hour Sew-A-Thon!!!  It's a great time to get involved and sew up a pillowcase or 2, or 3 . . . .

You can find all of the details about the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge right over here.  There are lots of free pillowcase patterns and if you want a step by step tutorial, you can always see my Summer Sleepover Set Pillowcase Tutorial that I shared last week ;)  

So start pulling some fun fabrics, mark Sept 16th on your calendar and get ready to join in with quilters across the globe for some pillowcase fun!!!!   I can't wait!!!

Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!

It's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!  Let's have some fun!!!

First,  we need to announce the winner from last weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway!!   The winner of the $50.00 Fat Quarter Shop Gift Certificate  is . . .   Number #126 . . . Congrats  mamasem!!! I have emailed you :)    

  

    

And on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by Shabby Fabrics!!   Along with hosting the giveaway, Shabby Fabrics  is having a huge Summer Clearance Sale, you are sure to find some amazing deals so be sure to check it out :)

And the Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is in luck, because Shabby Fabrics has something fun for you!!!   One lucky winner will win 2 Yards of their choice of Sandy Henderson's new Strawberry Moon!!!   Eeekk, I am so excited for these gorgeous fabrics!!!

You have two entry chances, the second being optional, and please leave a separate comment for each.  All Entries are welcome, including International Entries.  Please just be sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger ;)  

ENTRY 1 - Simply leave a comment that tells me your favorite Strawberry Dessert.  

 ENTRY 2 - Show your Shabby Fabrics love. You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest, or Instagram.  You can Sign up for the Shabby Fabrics Newsletter (top right hand corner) or Follow their Blog,  or you can Visit the Shop and then share a favorite item ;)   Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Shabby Fabric Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, August 30th when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Luck of the Irish Quilt

A little while ago I was asked by the wonderful folks at Moda if I could help them out with a pattern sample for the new fabric line Summer Breeze IV.  I just love working with Moda so of course I said yes, and didn't even ask what the pattern was.  I had to laugh when I opened the box and found the pattern and fabric for this beautiful Luck of the Irish Quilt!!!!  Yup, Moda knows me well, always love an Irish Chain Quilt!!!

Luck of the Irish is a scrappy version of a Double Irish Chain and since I have made a Single Scrappy Irish Chain, and a Triple Scrappy Irish Chain, I guess this just finishes off the list of Scrappy Irish Chains to make.  Yippee!!!

I just love the criss cross design of an Irish Chain quilt!!!  And I love that Moda designed this quilt with 1 yellow print and then scrappy blue prints.  It gives you that great scrappy look without losing the center yellow chain.  So perfect!!!

When it came time to quilt it I wanted to continue to add to that Double Chain so I quilted the yellow patches in little flowering orange peel design and then a single arch in the blue patches.  Then in the background I just did some all over swirls.   I love the way it really makes each part of the quilt pop out.  

And I know, you can't really see any of the quilting in the previous picture.  The thread really matched the fabric. (which made it a little hard to see sometimes when I was quilting ;)   But the light hit the quilt just right in this picture so you can see all of the yummy texture created.  So fun!!!

And that is the Luck of the Irish Quilt!!!  The quilt is now with the lovely folks at Moda and Summer Breeze IV is set to release in December, so you will see this design and fabric pop up then .   And I know they are kitting this quilt as well, so super fun with that!!!!

And that's it for today!!!  The kids started school on Tuesday so it's been a little crazy the last few days.  But I think things are finally calming down today and I plan to spend it at my sewing machine :)  So excited!!!

 I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Weekend!!!