On The Go - A MBS Tutorial - Oh and TNT

Oh my goodness, am I excited about this new Moda Bake Shop Tutorial!!!!  I fell in love with the Ten Little Things line the minute I saw it.  I mean how often do you get fabric lines that just scream All Boy!!!  So I really tried to create a design that was in turn, All Boy.   

 I did some cute applique on the back that is part of the tutorial as well.  I just love the cars print and so I had to throw in a car applique as well :)

And remember the new quilting design I showed on TNT a few weeks ago.  Well here it is again, but a whole lot easier to see :)  It really was a fun design to do and once I got the hang of it it wen't really fast :)  And I just love how it fits the "On The Go" theme and looks more boyish.

And now that this Moda Bake Shop Tutorial has been published for a while, I can now post it here on my blog for your convenience ;)   So just follow along below for the full step-by-step tutorial.  And if you love it, you can get the printer friendly version here :)  

All Right . . . Let’s get going!   To make your own On The Go baby boy quilt you will need:

2 Ten Little Things Charm Packs
1 1/4 Yards of Bella Solid White for Quilt Top Background
1/2 Yard for Applique and Binding (I used 30505 40 – Navy Stars)
1/2 Yard for Borders and Pieced Back (I used  30504 17 – Lime Dots)
1 1/2 yard for backing (I used 30501 19 – Grey Trucks)

STEP 1 : CUTTING

For pieces for the small arrow select 18 prints from your first charm pack and then gather the same 18 prints from your second charm pack.    From the first set of prints cut a 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ square out of each charm.  From the second set of prints cut a 3 1/2″ x 3″ piece out of each charm.  Set squares aside.

For pieces for the large arrow select another 18 prints from your first charm pack and then gather the same 18 prints from your second charm pack.  From the first set of prints cut a 4″ x 4″ square out of each charm.  From the second set of prints cut a 3 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ piece out of each charm.

You should now have 18 squares of each of the 4 designated sizes. (2 piles for the small arrow, and 2 piles for the large arrow)  Great :)  Let’s keep cutting!

From your white yardage you will need to cut the following:

   For the Small Arrows                                                     For the Large Arrows
     (36) 1 1/2″ x 3″ rectangles                                             (36) 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rectangles
     (18) 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ squares                                           (18) 4″ x 4″ squares

   For the Small Arrow Sashing                                         For the Quilt Top Sashing             
     (18) 1 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ rectangles                                       (12) 1 1/2″ x 12 1/2″ rectangles
     (18) 1 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ rectangles                                       (4) 1 1/2″ x Width of Fabric strips

From your remaining yardage you will need to cut the following:

From your Pieced Back and Border Yardage cut
        (4) 3″ x Width of Fabric strips
        (1) 6″ x Width of Fabric strip
From your Applique and Binding Yardage cut
        (5) 2 1/2″ x Width of Fabric strips
        (1) 6″ x 5 1/2″ rectangle  (if they cut a little crooked you can just do 6 x 6 
         Set the rest aside for your applique

STEP 2 : MAKING THE ARROWS

***  Note… Sew all of step 2 assembly line fashion.  For each part of the direction repeat the process 18 times and when stitching make sure to chain stitch, this will save a lot of time :)

 We will start with the Large arrows.  So grab your pile of 4″ x 4″ cut charms and your 4″ x 4″ white squares.   Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the back of the charm.  Place the charm with right sides together on a white square.  Pin along either side of the drawn line.  Sew a 1/4″ seam on either side the drawn line by chain stitching all 18 left hand seams, clip your threads, and then go back and chain stitch all 18 right hand seams and clip your threads.

Cut down the drawn line. (you can use your rotary cutter or scissors, whatever is easier for you)  Press your seam towards the charm fabric.

Now you should have 36 HST’s and they are ready to be trimmed up.  Using the diagonal on your ruler trim the HST’s down to 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″.  If you are unsure how to trim your HST’s please see the tutorial I have here for help :)

Now we are ready to make the arrow points.  Take your 2 HST’s of the same print and lay them out as follows.  Place the left HST onto the right HST with right sides together.  Pin if you desire.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge.  Clip your threads  and press seams open to reduce bulk.

And for the bottom of the arrows, grab your 18 print 3 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ print rectangles and your 36 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ white rectangles.  Lay them out as follows.  Lay a white rectangle onto the left hand side of a cut charm with right sides together.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along the edge.  Repeat the same process on the right hand side. Clip threads and press towards charm print.

And now you can put your arrows together.  Match your arrow point prints to your arrow square prints and layout as follow.  Lay the square print piece onto the point print piece and pin.  Sew a 1/4″ seam along the edge.   Press the seam open to avoid bulk.  You should now have 18 Large Arrows :)  Set them aside.

Onto the small arrows,  These are made in the same fashion with just a minor change.  So grab your small arrow pieces ((18) 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ cut charms, (18) 3 1/2″ x 3″ charms, and (36) 1 1/2″ x 3″ white rectangles)  and use the same steps you used to create the small arrows.  The only difference being that when you trim your HST’s trim them to 3″ x 3″.  You should now have 18 small arrows.

Now you can add the small arrow sashing.  Retrieve your small arrow sashing pieces. ((18) 1 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ rectangles and (18) 1 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ rectangles. )  Choose any side of the block to start on.  Lay a small sashing piece onto the side with right sides together.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along the edge.  Press the seam towards the white.  Now lay the long sashing piece along the bottom of the block with right sides together.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along the edge.   Press the seam towards the white.

I tried to make sure that I was creating 4 – 5 blocks pointing each way.  This gives you a lot more flexibility when laying out your quilt to make it look more random :)  And now your arrows are done.

STEP 3 : BUILDING THE BLOCKS

With your arrows, you can low build your blocks.  For each block you will need 2 small sashed arrows, and 2 large arrows.  Lay them out taking care that the sashing pieces of the small arrows are on the inside of the block and opposite corners, as shown.  Point your large arrows any direction you choose.  You will be making 9 blocks this way so you can lay them all out and piece your blocks assembly line or do them individually :)

Lay the left hand block onto the right hand block on both the top and bottom rows.  Pin along the edge.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge.  Clip threads and press towards the small arrow sashing.  (This will allow you to nest your seams in the next step.)

       
Now lay your top row onto your bottom row with right sides together.  Pin taking care to nest your center seam.  Sew a 1/4″ seam along pinned edge.  Press seam open to avoid bulk.  You now should have 9  12 1/2″ unfinished blocks.

STEP 4 : PIECING THE TOP

Take your 9 blocks and quilt top sashing pieces (your remaining white cut strips) and lay them out as follows. Play around with the placement of your arrow blocks until you get a look that is pleasing to you.  I find it best to take a picture of my layout that I can refer back to  :)

For each block, place the small row sashing pieces onto the arrow blocks with right sides together (see row 1).  Pin if you desire.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along the edges (see row 2).  Press the seams towards the sashing (see row3).

Now to sew the rows together.  For each row,  place block 1 onto block 2 with right sides together.  Pin along edge.  Sew a 1/4″ seam along pinned edge.  (see row 1).  Place block 3 onto your now sewn together block 1 and 2 , pin along the edge, and sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge (see row 2).  Press your seams towards the sashing (see row 3).

And now to add the sashing to the rows.  Same process as before, just on a longer scale.  Place the sashings along the edge of the row with right sides together (see row 1).  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along edge and then trim excess sashing. (see row 2).  Press towards the sashing (see row 3).

And now finally, just sewing the rows together.  Once again, same as making the rows just on a longer scale.  Place row 1 onto row 2 with right sides together.  Pin along the edge taking care to match up your seams.  Sew a 1/4″ seam along the pinned edge.  Press towards the sashing.  Then repeat the process laying your row 3 onto your now sewn together row 1 and 2, pin, sew, and press.

And your top is just about complete.  Doesn’t it just look so fun :)  Now you are ready to add the borders so go ahead and grab those 4 3″ border strips you cut.

Lay the strips along the top and bottom of the quilt top with right sides together.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam along the edge, (I don’t use pins, I just align as I go) and the trim the excess border fabric.

Repeat the same process for the 2 sides.  And now your quilt top is done!!! 

STEP 5 : MAKING THE PIECED BACKING

Grab your 1 1/2 yard backing fabric and trim it down to 50″ x Width of fabric.  Then go ahead and subcut it into 2 pieces by cutting off a 12″ strip from the selvage side.  Lay the 2 pieces along with your 6″ x 6″ backing square and your 6″ x WOF pieced backing strip out as follows.

Sew the 6″ square to the bottom of the 6″ x WOF strip to create your applique space. You can download the templates here.  Cut, adhere, and secure stitch your applique.

*Note – If you have not done applique before you can see my Applique Basics Video Tutorial that will walk you through how to do this ;) 

Once your applique is done, go ahead and sew the 3 rows of your pieced quilt back together.  You do this the same way you sewed your quilt top rows together only this time it is vertical instead of horizontal :)

STEP 6 : FINISHING IT UP

So now it is time to turn that finished quilt top into a finished Quilt ;)  Time to  Baste It, Quilt It, and Bind It!!!  Which is a whole lot in one little sentence.  If you are new to quilting, you can see my Finishing Your Quilt Series of video tutorials that will walk you through Basting, Quilting, and Binding step by step ;)

And you are done!!!!  And you have One Super Adorable ON THE GO Baby Boy Blanket measuring 46″ x 46″ perfect for a special little guy!!!!

With a totally all boy pieced back that you know they are just going to want to snuggle up with.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and if you make your own On The Go Quilt I would love to see it!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  or or add it to my flickr group here ;)  I can't wait to see your On the Go Quilts!!!

So that is what I was up to this week.  How about you???  Go ahead and link up your TNT !!

 

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Bright and Blue

March's Bee Blocks have been done for almost a week and I am just now getting to posting them and shipping them.  Which is okay right, because it isn't the end of the month yet :)

Ursula requested a Bright version of a Red Pepper Quilts block.  This block was a ton of fun to put together.  I loved surfing through my scraps for all of these fun bright colors.  And, this is the block that helped me discover the Lazy Scrappy HST method :)  So major bonus there!!!  (Sorry, I know the lighting in this picture is awful, I am trying to get this posted before the kids get up for school so no sun )  

Alisa requested a 25 patch block in blues.  She sent us a bunch to choose from and then requested we add some of our own.  I love the Grey/Blue tones in this block.  It is so calming.  And I have to admit, it was nice to have something that I could put together rather quickly.  This month is busy!!

So into the mail they go today!!!  Yippee Skippee!!!  Next month is my month for the Beejeebers group.  I already have my idea planned and I am so excited :)  I will let you know what I will be up to in a few more days :)

Pillow Talk Swap Recieved - Yippee Skippee!!!

So in the last four days I have been online about 4 minutes.  Crazy!!!!  Sorry, I didn't really drop off the face of the Earth, I have just been busy.   My husband and I were in charge of a Youth group for the weekend that we took to Bryce Canyon and then my family came into town, so It's all good because it was all a  good kind of busy :)  (which is the best kind right :)  

But, I received a little package in the mail so I had to ditch everyone for a few minutes to write about it.   I am so excited!!!!!!!   My Pillow Talk Swap came!!!!!  And the funny thing is, somehow I missed this one being posted in the flickr group so it was a total surprise!!!!  So fun.  Isn't it just adorable.  It was made by Liz of Living My Sweet Life.  Thank you so much Liz.  And thank you for the adorable little scraps along with it.  So cute!!!!

Here is the pillow in it's new home.  It fits perfect along the back of my sewing chair.  It just makes me smile every time I walk into the room.  Thanks you over and over and over Liz!!!  I love it!!!

Yup, I am really loving these swaps!!!

Giveaway Hop with the Fat Quarter Shop!!!

No more rhymes, I mean it. . . . Anybody want a Peanut??
 (Oh, Sometimes I crack myself up :)

Okay, enough with my silliness and onto some fun!!!!  I am super excited to joining the Quilting Gallery's St. Patrick's Day Quilters Blog Hop Party!!! I mean, what better way to test your Irish Luck then to hop around entering a bunch of giveaways!!!  So fun!!!!  There will be a full list of blog hop sites on Saturday morning, so make sure to check it out :)

A super huge thanks goes out to the Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring this giveaway!!!  I know you have all heard of the Fat Quarter Shop!!!   In a word . . . Amazing!!!!  Kimberly and her team are fabulous to work with.  Their customer care is top notch and their selection is out of this world!!! Not to mention how generous they are in supporting the online quilting community!!!!

And this is the generous offering they have for one of you with some Serious Luck of the Irish!!!!  An Entire Fat Quarter Bundle of Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods!!!!  Ahhhhh!!!  Don't you just love it!!!!!  Cuteness Galore!!!!!

For a chance to win this lovely bundle simply leave me a comment telling me your favorite thing about the Fat Quarter Shop!!!  And that's it.  Simple and easy :) (One comment per person please :)

The giveaway will remain open until March 23rd and then a winner will be chosen randomly and announced shortly after.  International entries are welcome.

Oh, and by the way, Welcome to any new visitors!!!!  I am so glad that you found Happy Quilting and hope that you will come back often.  I have so much fun sharing my quilting passion here.  If you would like, you can follow Happy Quilting and ensure that you catch all of the Quilty Goodness going on here :)    

TNT Thursday - The lazy scrap HST

First off - If you have no idea what the heck TNT is . . . Check out here :)  Okay, now we are all on the same page.  Let's proceed.

So Today's TNT is sort of funny to me as I hadn't intended to do this particular new thing and the only reason I did it was because I was being lazy and procrastinating.  Here's the story :)

So for one of my bees we were asked to make a block with a bunch (like as in 32) of HST's that were all different.  So, I cut my white squares from some yardage super speedy like.  Then I rumaged through my scrap bags (which I hope to one day upgrade from zip-lock baggies)  and rounded up a bunch of small scraps.  And then placed those scraps on my cutting mat where they sat.  And sat.  And sat. Does this happen to anyone else??  Seriously, cutting individual scraps into 3" squares was just not on the top of my "I can't wait to do that" list.   Then I had  a thought.  Why trim them down now when I will trim later????

And from that thought was born the lazy man's (or woman's in this case) scrappy HST.  I don't know how often you would need to piece HST's from scraps, but if you do, this really turned out to be quite the time saving technique.  

So first I marked my line on all the perfectly cut white squares.  And then I just set them on top of my scrappy pieces centering them as best as possible.  I didn't even bother to pin them as I had wiggle room :)  (And ya, that was super sweet to not have to pin :)

Then I just chain stitched my 1/4" seam on either side of the drawn line.  I did all of the rights, and then all of the lefts :)  And then just clipped my threads between the blocks.

Then it was onto pressing.  I pressed towards the print.  I was worried I would have some issues here where things weren't even but nope, they pressed over just fine :)

Now it was just onto trimming.  I used my little square ruler and just lined up the diagonal line with the seam of my HST and sliced the first 2 sides and then rotated and once again lined up my diagonal and the 2 1/2" markings and sliced again.  And wham!!  Perfect HST's.  And I have to say, it was so much more fun slicing off some decent size trimmings instead of the little minuscule pieces I normally trim.  It made it seem like the trimming step was actually really necessary :)

So there you have it :)  The Lazy Scrappy HST :)  Now I don't think I would ever do this with yardage or pre-cuts or anything . . . But you better believe the next time I am using scraps for HST's, I will be using this little technique again :)

And just for fun . . . I used these particular HST's (and a few more) to make this bee block :)

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So that was my new little try for the week . . . Let's see what you have been up to :)  Let the linking commence!!!!!

Name Game Swap - My Package Arrived!!!!!!

Remember when I mentioned how exciting it was to send off packages to my swap partners.  Well receiving them . . . So awesome!!!  I can't tell you how excited I was when I went to the mail yesterday and found a wonderful little parcel that came all the way from Australia!!!  I got inside, tore it open and found this awesome package put together just for me!!!!  Squeal!!!!!

I just can't begin to say how much I love this.  It is just perfect for me and my purple sewing room!!!! It is going to match so fabulous!!  And don't you just love the little buttons!!!  What a fabulous detail.

Thank you a million times over to Quilt Kitty !!!!  Thank you for a mini that just fits me so perfect and makes me so happy.  Thank you for the extra goodies, I love the pins and I have already hid the chocolate from my kids.  Most of all, thank you for taking the time to make something just for me.  I will treasure it!!! 

Winner of the Intrepid Thread Sponsored Giveaway!!

I was so excited about the block contest yesterday that I forgot to post a winner of The Intrepid Thread Sponsored Giveaway of the Poetica Fat Quarter Bundle.  So let's get to that :)

And according to Mr. Random. Org the winner is lucky #10!!!!!

 Who happens to be Becky M!!!  Congrats Becky!!!  Looks like you will be getting a bundle of your favorite :)

Thank you to everyone for entering.  It was so much fun to get to read what everyone's favorites are :)  Happy Quilting!!!!

(Oh, and if you didn't win today it's okay, come back Friday. Well see how your Luck of the Irish holds out, Wink, Wink :)

A Wonderful Surprise

Good Morning, Good Morning ,  It wasn't so great to stay up late.  (have you seen Singing In the Rain, Love it!!!)   My little baby girl is sick (as are several other members of our family) so I was up  quite a few times in the middle of the night.  I woke up super tired and got the kids off to school. Then it was time to start the laundry.  Yup, sometimes Monday mornings are a real drag.

Until . . . You come to find that your block has been selected as one of the finalist in Crazy Old Ladies Block Contest!!!  Yippee Skippee!!!!

So here's a quick run down, if you have no idea what I am talking about.    Emily Herrick, amazing fabric and pattern designer and the brains behind Crazy Old Ladies had a whole ton of her new Hall Of Fame Line sent to her.  And she wanted to give some away.  So she came up with this fun little block contest to do so.  Now I have loved her Hall of Fame line from the second I layed eyes on it so of course, I was going to enter.  I choose some of my favorite blocks that I have completed recently and entered them.  And this morning I found that I was a finalist with my Improv Angles block.

So now it is onto a vote :)  So please, do me a huge favor by supporting Emily's contest.  Take a minute to pop on over and vote :)  The poll is on the top of the right hand column of the blog :)  Find a favorite and click on the name of the person's block.  There are some amazing blocks and I am just tickled to be among them :)

Isn't it just amazing how surprises just come along that turn your day completely around.  Love it!!!!!

Black, White, and Shades of Grey

I am hoping to get time today to slice into this lovely stack!!!  The fabrics are  from Riley Blake's Tuxedo Collection and I just love them!!!!  Don't they just POP!!!!  Sadly I won't be able to show much more of them than this.  Yup, another secret project.   Sorry to make you wait. I so wish I could share, but just think how awesome it will be when I can finally reveal them :)  Lot's of fun in store down the road :)  Let's hope I can be patient.  (Which should be interesting, as it never was my strong suit :)