Treasured in Lakeland Blues

 Today I am thrilled to be sharing a new quilt finish with you that features the beautiful Lakeland Blues  fabrics for my wonderful friends at Poppie Cotton.   I knew right away when I saw this collection that it needed to be paired with a dark background!!   And here it is,  my Treasured quilt, from my Fast & Fun Lap Quilts book, and isn't it just so striking!!  I love it ;)  

What I really love about the quilts in my Fast & Fun Lap Quilts book is that they are all made from one Layer Cake and a background fabric and you can get right to cutting. I used Licorice Black Country Confetti for my background, and again, I just love how it makes all of those prints pop.  A dark background is so great when you have a fabric line with lots of whites in it, then they don't get lost in a light background :)  

And as you can see from above, Poppie Cotton was kind enough to send me Fat Quarters, so with all of the leftovers (really only needed a layer cake to start) fun borders were added!!  I just love a scrappy border :)    The original Treasured quilt  finishes at 52 1/2" x 68 1/2", so it is a great lap size to snuggle up in.  This one, with it's added borders is 72" x 88" so it will be a great twin size quilt ;)  can I just say, the colors pop even more that I thought they would, just so pretty!!!  

 Treasured might look like a little complex, but it truly is a super fast quilt to whip up and oh so much fun to make. Just some basic stitch and flip, and some precise pressing so that all of your angled seams are nested.  So great!!!    And ya, having the dark background really gives this quilt a whole new look from the original.   Have you made a quilt with a black background yet??  They are just so much fun!!! And Treasured really lets you play with where you want the prints in each component of the design!

And Barbara once again did the piecing and quilting of this one for me.   She is so amazing!!!   She quilted an all over design of paisleys, swirls, and curls. I love how it complements the prints in the line with all the swooping leaves and flowers.  And using a black thread makes it blend in the background and pop on the prints.  So fun!!

And that is a new Treasured quilt! I hope you have enjoyed this post. To see more of my Fast & Fun Lap Quilts book, you can visit this post and see all the quilts. And if you make your own Treasured Quilt, (or any of the quilts from Fast & Fun Lap Quilts) I would love to see them! You can share your projects with me on social media with the hashtags  #happyquiltingwithmc and tagging @happyquiltingmc or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. I can’t wait to see your Quilts!!

Thank you so much for popping in today and sharing this new finish with me.

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

Making Double Dutch Pillow Kits

 Hello quilting friends!  This week I have been working on a new project :)  I am so very honored to be the keynote speaker at a Conference for Teachers next month.  Along with speaking, I will be demoing and teaching the attendees to make a Double Dutch Pillow.  I have been having so much fun going through my stash, and making up some Pillow Kits!!   Each kit needs 2 Fat Eighth prints for the piecing, one for binding, a background fabric, and a pillow backing fabric.  I am making 75 kits so it's so much fabric fun!!   I really have been trying to get a wide variety of prints so that students (which is funny because they are all teachers!) can find something they really like!    

Once I have fabrics all grouped, its on to pressing and cutting.  I have been cutting about 12 kits at a time as I can stack up fabric in about 6 layers for cutting to speed up the process.   I cut the binding, prints, then background and backing, all in good ol assembly line fashion.  

Then it's up to the dining room table to sort everything out.   It is totally faster to cut these in large groups, but it means I have to sort everything back into the original fabric groupings after it's been cut.  But it's been a nice quiet part of the day and I just love seeing all of the fabrics come back together all cut and pretty in the fabric groups I choose. 

And then, all that is left is to add a batting square and a pattern and bag it up.  I tried to lay everything out so each student could see all of the prints that will be in their kit at once.  I really like the way it all came together.   And double bonus, I am using up a lot of batting scraps that were just hanging around waiting to be sewn into frankin-bat :)  

I have about half of the kits all made.  So about 40 more to go :)   Looks like this will be my project next week as well!!   How about you . . . what project are you working on?? 

Heirloom Quilt

 And today I get to share the third quilt I made from Fancy That Design House new collection, Foraged, Found & Hand Me Down.  This one is called the Heirloom Quilt and isn't it so pretty in that pointy star goodness!!    This one has a lot of pieces, but it was so enjoyable to make all those points just perfect and see the awesome bursting stars come together!! 

The Heirloom Quilt  really highlights the beautiful prints in Stephanie's brand new Foraged, Found & Hand Me Down Fabric Collection.  I love the pairings of prints and colors that she had shown for each star!!  And it is so great to see how different parts of each block are highlighted depending on what fabric is there.  Just beautiful ;)   

And this quilt finishes at 72" x 91" so it would make a great twin size quilt!!!  I want to see it done with a dark background now as I think it would just make all of those rich colors pop!!  There are 7 different prints in each block so you can really have some fun mixing and matching prints!!  

And when it came time to quilt it, I decided to try something new.  I wanted to give the look of exploding stars, but not so random as my "fireworks" design.  So I did basic criss cross stars on a traveling line.   I really love how this came together.  It adds so much texture and is a great compliment to the pattern.  

And  that is my Heirloom Quilt !!   Doesn't it just look so pretty on the swing!!  It reminds me of old world maps and the rose compass in the corners.  So cool!!  

Thanks so much for popping in again to share another finish with me today :)   

I hope you are all having a very Happy Quilting Weekend!!

Gleaned Quilt X 2

I was so excited when Stephanie, from Fancy That Design House, asked if I could make a sample of her Gleaned quilt ;)   I just love Stephanie's beautiful fabrics and her quilt designs are always so fun and original!!! And wouldn't you know it, right after I said "Absolutely Yes!!!" to Stephanie, my good friends at Moda asked If I could make a sampler for them as well!!  So Double Gleaned Quilts  for me, so fun!!!  

The Gleaned quilt uses Stephanie's brand new Foraged, Found & Hand Me Down Fabric Collection.  This line is absolutely gorgeous!!  The prints are just stunning and the colors are so rich!!  And you know, I especially love those deep purples ;)   And Stephanie is not only an artist with her fabric, but also with her pattern designs.  Talk about making a Panel just pop!!!  Isn't that asymmetrical scrappy plaid bult around the panel just amazing ;)   

And Stephanie doubled your layouts with this one, designing the quilt around both the Iron Panel (shown here) as well as the Eggshell Panel.   Both are jus so pretty, I don't know how you will choose ;) The quilt finishes at 60" x 72" so it is a great lap size to snuggle up with a good book!!    

And while the piecing in this one was super easy, with just basic squares and rectangles, I highly recommend some Alpahabitties, because there are a lot of different sizes and prints to keep track of on this one.  Having them all labeled made it so much easier.   (Especially as I was making 2 at the same time!)  

And when it came time to quilt it, I decided on some basic traveling feathers.  I love how it brings out the design on the panel, and adds lots of beautiful flow to all of the piecing.  I used a medium grey thread so it blended will on both the dark and the light prints!

And look at all of that yummy texture it added!! And yes, I quilted both of the Gleaned quilts  I made with the same all over design.  You can't tell that the picture above is from a different quilt than the picture below, tee hee hee ;)  Truly, this quilt was so much fun to make that even though I have already made it twice, I want to make it again in the Eggshell layout ;)  

And if you love it as much as I do, you can make your own!!  There is already a Gleaned Quilt Kit available that has everything you need to whip up one for yourself ;)   I think this would also make a beautiful wedding gift!!  And once it is all cut and labeled, it really pieces up fast ;)   

And  those are my 2 Gleaned quilts !!   I don't know why I forgot to take a picture of the two of them together, but trust me, you have seen two ;)     This was such a wonderful project to make and I am so glad I got to make it twice!!!   And there is more Foraged, Found & Hand Me Down  Quilts to come because I got to make another of Stephanie's gorgeous patterns.  I will share it tomorrow!!  

Thanks so much for popping in and sharing these finishes with me today :)   

I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Day!!

Holiday Panel Quilts and Runner!!

 Today I get to share lots of  fun quilting that I have been making for my friends at  Riley Blake Designs!!  Teresa Kogut is quickly becoming a favorite designer of mine!!  I just love her folksy, whimsical designs and cheerful holiday themes!  I have made quilts from her wonderful fabrics here, here, and here  So it is no surprise I was super excited to whip up some Panel quilts from her new fabric lines!!  

First up . . . Naughty or Nice!   This is a fun new Boxed Quilt Kit that is perfect for a quick Christmas Quilt :)   I just love Old World Santa!!   And this kit goes together super fast because you are just adding borders!!    I seriously made the whole thing in an hour, cutting included :)  

Yup, all of those tiny little stars that you are thinking you have to fussy cut . . . those are actually part of the panel :)  Such a smart idea to make it look like a pieced border so you get the look of all that piecing goodness without the actual piecing :)   And isn't the quilting Riley Blake did on this quilt top just so cute!!   This Naughty or Nice Quilt Kit finishes at 54" x 60" so it is a great throw size ; )

And we are not done with this whimsical Naughty or Nice fabric line yet!!   I also got to make this adorable Table Runner highlighting some of the main prints from the line.   You know me, I love some Star piecing, so this one was really enjoyable to make.   And because you are just making a table runner, the project, once again, came together super quick :)  

I think my favorite part was getting to fussy cut the old time Santa's for the center of the stars.  And as always, Riley Blake does such a great job at beautiful quilt photos!!  

And Teresa Kogut  also has a new Halloween line out this year called Ghoul Friends.  This is my kind of Halloween, more cutesy than scary ;)  And I am a little late posting this one and it is getting hard to find the kits . . . but you can still get the panel and whip up your own panel quilt ;)  

What really made this quilt fun to make is the added Star Applique!!   I don't know about you, but I find it so relaxing to secure stitch applique.  I just love it ;)  And it adds so much pop to the quilt, just so cute!!   And again, this is just the panel, a few borders, and some fun applique, so a quick project that came together oh so Cutesy Halloween!!  

So ya, 3 projects that were super fun to make!!!  I love how quick you can whip up an adorable panel quilt!!  And they make such wonderful gifts ;)  Have you worked with panels before . . . what are your thoughts on them??