The Wall - A Brick Wall Quilt Tutorial Featuring The Jolly Bar!!

I am very excited this morning to share with you a new quilt and a new tutorial that uses a brand new pre-cut!!!   Lot's of New going on around here ;)   So first, let's show you the quilt . . . here's The Wall.

A few months ago I was asked by the wonderful folks at Fat Quarter Shop if I wanted to play with their brand new exclusive to Fat Quarter Shop, Jolly Bar!!   And of course I wanted to play with it ;)  The Jolly Bar is the  in-between of a Layer Cake and a Charm Pack measuring 5" x 10".  You can see more about the Jolly Bar in this Video :)  I knew right away that I wanted to make a brick wall quilt.  It has been on my "to do" list since I started quilting and having already cut 5" x 10" pre-cuts are just perfect for it!!!  It really doesn't get much easier :)

And since I was making my own, I decided to take some pictures along the way and share with you how to make your own Simple and Fast Brick  Wall quilt!!!   I will be using the Somerset Jolly Bar by the ever amazing Fig Tree & Co.  I love the beautiful fall tones of this line!!!  

To make your own The Wall quilt You Will Need:

2 Jolly Bars  ( each Jolly Bar has (42) 5" x 10" rectangles and you will be using 72 of those)
1 1/2 Yards of a chosen solid for sashing.  I used Cream
4 Yards for Backing

STEP 1 - CUTTING

From your Solid Sashing fabric you will need to cut:
(7) 2 1/2" x Width of Fabric strips to be used for binding.
(17) 1 1/2" x Width of Fabric strips for sashing.
(65) 1 1 /2" x 5" rectangles for sashing.

From your 2 packs of Jolly Bars, first select 65 Jolly Bar pieces that will make up the full bricks in the quilt.  Then select 7 Jolly Bar pieces that you will then subcut in half to make (14) 5" x 5" squares. These will make up the half bricks in your quilt.   You only need 13 so put one square in your scrap pile along with the remaining 12 Jolly Bar pieces.

And your cutting is done.   Easy as that!!!


STEP 2 - SEWING THE ROWS

Place a 1 1/2" x 5" solid rectangle onto the end of a Jolly Bar with right sides together.  Stitch a 1/4" seam aligning as you go along the edge.   Repeat this for all 65 of your Jolly Bar pieces.  You totally want to chain stitch here to save oodles of time :)   Once your pieces have all been stitched, clip your threads between pieces and press your seam allowance on all 65 units towards the Jolly Bar.

And now you are ready to make your rows.   Layout 5 sashed Jolly Bars in a row and then add one half Jolly Bar 5" x 5" square to the end of the row as shown below.  When placing colors I like to not worry to much and keep it random, but I do make sure not to put the same color right by the side of another, so I guess I would say it is controlled random placement.

Now you can sew the row together.   Place the second sashed Jolly Bar onto the first with right sides together.  Stitch a 1/4" seam along the edge aligning as you go.   I don't bother to press yet.   Now keep adding blocks to the row.   Place the third sashed Jolly Bar onto the now sewn first and second units with right sides together.  Stitch a 1/4" seam along the edge aligning as you go.   Continue this process until your row is stitched together.  

Repeat the last 2 steps, laying out and sewing together 13 total rows.   You can chain stitch if you like, it will once again save some time ;)  Press all of the seam allowances towards the Jolly Bars.

STEP 3 - SEWING THE QUILT TOP

And now, it's already time to sew the quilt top together!!!  We are going to start by getting our horizontal sashing strips together.  Sew all of the 1 1/2" x WOF solid strips together end to end using a 1/4" seam and making 1 super long strip.   Press the seams to one side.   Then, you are going to take that giant strip and cut it into 12 sashing strips.  You can choose to do this a few ways, You can cut your strips 56 1/2" which is the exact measurement of your rows.  You can lay the strips between the rows and cut them based on the length of your sewn row.  Or, my personal favorite is to to cut them 58" so I know I will have a little extra to work with ;)

Now, on a large surface, lay your 13 rows out alternating each row as shown below to give you the brick wall effect.   Place a horizontal sashing strip between each row.    Go ahead and play with the layout for a bit until you get a color mesh that is pleasing to the eye.  It really helps to take a picture and view it on your camera or computer to help you see if the colors are all balanced.

Once you have your colors balanced, mark your rows so you won't have to accidently rebalance your colors again ;)  Now it's time to sew   Place a sasing strip onto the bottom of the row with right sides together.  Aligning as you go, sew a 1/4" seam along the entire bottom edge of the row.

When you get to the end of the strip, if you have used my preferred overage method of cutting, simply trim the sashing equal with the row.   I love that you can just align things as you go with this method and don't have to worry ;)

Repeat adding the sashing to each row for your 12 sashed rows.  You won't have to sew anything on to the last row.  Press the seam allowance towards the sashing strips.

And now, it's time to start sewing the rows together.  This is just like making the row but on a longer scale.   Place the second row onto the top row with right sides together.  I like to use a few pins just to keep everything aligned.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.  Just like making the rows, I don't bother to press yet.

Now, place the third row onto the now sewn first and second with right sides together.  Align and pin your rows together and sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.

Keep repeating this process until you have sewn together half of the quilt top.   At this point, I find it easier to start a new section.   Placing the 7 and 8th rows together and stitching a 1/4" seam along the edge.   This just makes it so you don't have to bother with the quite as much weight pulling your quilt top.

Keep adding rows to the second half of the quilt until they are all sewn together.   So now you should have 2 halves that look something like this.

Place the bottom half onto the top half with right sides together.   Align and pin the edge, I use more pins here then I did before to help with the slipping from the extra weight pulling on the quilt top.   Stitch a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.   And now, I press all of the seam allowances towards the sashing strips.

And your quilt top is done!!!!   Wasn't that just so super easy and fun!!!

And with your quilt top done, it is time to finish it up.  Just Baste It, Bind It, and Quilt it!!   If you are new to quilting, you can see my Finishing Your Quilt Video Tutorials here that will walk you through the individual steps of basting, quilting and binding ;)  

I quilted my quilt with an all over free motion Feathered Swirl.  It really is becoming my favorite and matched the beautiful fabrics just perfectly!!

And look at all of the yummy, yummy texture it creates. So fun!!!

And for the backing I used this beautiful print from the Mirabelle line.  For the backing, just cut your yardage in half and sew the 2 pieces together using a 1/2" seam ;)  And for the binding, use your already cut 2 1/2" strips to create a binding strip.

And before you know it, you will have a beautiful 57" x 70 1/2" Wall quilt!!   I can't wait to snuggle up in this one ;)  

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and if you make your own The Wall quilt I would love to see it!!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or add it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  ;)    I can't wait to see your The Wall Quilts!!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!   I look forward to seeing your Wall quilts!!!!  And be sure to pop on over to The Jolly Jabber for lots of Jolly Bar inspiration.  There will be 8 of us sharing our Jolly Bar creations over the week!!!

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

The New Moda Bake Shop

First off, thank you for all of your well wishes on my whole computer break down.  I think it is up and running again, thanks to my sweet husband spending hours with it on Saturday ;)  I am one lucky lady ;)

Know, I know most of you have probably heard of the Moda Bake Shop.  I have written over 20 tutorials for them over the last 4 years and they are an amazing resource.  What you might not know is that this weekend, they switched over to Wordpress and have a whole new look and some wonderful new features, including that new adorable cupcake logo ;)

Some of my favorite features include - Searching for recipes by the pre-cut they use ;)  You can just click on the image in the bakery of what pre-cut you want to use and up pops all of the tutorials that use that pre-cut.  Brilliant!!

And at the bottom of each tutorial, there is a little author tidbit ;)   I love this because it has all of the social media links over there on the right, making it super easy for you to connect with your favorite bakers ;)

And, if you still just want to browse daily recipes, just like before.  You can click on the recipe link at the top to get a listing of each days post ;)  An easy way to make sure you don't miss anything ;)

These are just a few of the new features ;)   So be sure to pop on over to the Moda Bake Shop and check out its brand new digs :)

Oh, and as you can imagine, this was a huge process and a ton of work to change over.   Huge kuddos to Angela, Lisa, and Lissa!!!!   Everything went so smooth for such a huge transition.  However, I did find a few broken links for some of my tutorials.  I have cleaned up what I found, but if you happen to find a broken link or just can't find a tutorial you were in the middle of, just let me know, and well get it taken care of ;)

Thanks and have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

The Good and the Bad

This morning has already been a rollercoaster :)

First the good . . . I got on my ipad this morning to find an email from the lovely folks at Free Spirit Fabric asking if I would be willing to bring my Off Kilter quilt to Market with me so they can hang it in the Free Spirit Booth!!!!   Of course my answer was Absolutely, yes, yes, yes!!!   I can't tell you how happy I was to get that email, it really made my morning ;)

Then the bad . . . I got on the computer to write about it and it all went downhill from there.  I can't get my internet to come up.  I can't get Adobe to open.  I think I have a virus.  Major Panic!!!   My husband has been working on it and I think he has found a temporary fix . . . but Ahhhh!!  I hate computer problems.  Mostly because I feel so utterly inept to deal with them and I start thinking worst case scenario and freak out.  So here is hoping I can take it in and some lovely IT person can bring it all back to normal.  I hope, I hope, I hope :)

Have a Happy Quilting Weekend ;)  

Up Next

So I realized this morning as I was adding the leaders to this new quilt to go on the long arm that all of my little "marathon quilting" quilts are ones that I can't show yet.  Boo on that.   So I can't show you the top, but I can show you the back :)  I know, not much, what ya gonna do :)

And I have a question for you, Pieced Backs . . . What do you think about them???

I tend to do a pieced back if I have large leftover pieces or if I just didn't get a large chunk for backing.  I will admit, they are not my favorite thing to piece, I am always so anxious to finish the quilt once the top is done and I don't like having to slow down again for a back.  I also never really "measure" when it comes to a pieced back, I just lay out pieces and start sewing them together, which always seems to end up with one side of the top being just an inch to short.  Hence that added 4" strip on the left :)  But with all that said, I sure love the way a pieced back looks when it is all done.  They are just so fun and add one more element to the quilt ;)

And now that the back is all done it it time to load it onto the long arm.  I was trying to come up with some design ideas, I think I am going to go custom on this one rather than all over and am playing with combining these three designs.  What do ya think??  Do they play nice together??

I best get going, I have some laundry and dishes to do before I can start quilting and it is Wacky Wednesday, so I don't anticipate getting far but hopefully I can get a start ;)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!

Feathered Swirls :)

Thank you for all of the sweet comments on my daughter's birthday ;)  It was a lovely day for us all ;)
Yesterday I showed you my marathon piecing weekend, which of course, would only be followed by some marathon quilting right ;)  So this morning I got a good jump start and loaded one of those quilt tops and freshly made quilt back onto the long arm ;)   And it is now done and ready for binding ;)  Yippee, 1 down 4 to go :)

I love quilting this feathered swirl!!!!   It is funny to think that about a month ago I was scared to death to even try this design, now it is a sure favorite ;)  I love all of the beautiful texture it creates and it goes really fast, which is always a bonus when you have a line up of quilts ;)   And it really finishes the quilt oh so prettily ;)

Well, I best be off to make the quilt back for tomorrows quilting morning ;)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!