$5 Pattern of the Month - Summer Solstice!!!

 It's July and that means its time for a new $5 Pattern of the Month here at Happy Quilting!!!  And July is all about Summer Solstice.  And it is just $5 all month long!!!   

The  Summer Solstice Pattern can be found in my Etsy Shop in both a Paper version as well as a PDF version and both versions will be marked down to $5.00 for the month July.   This is such a fun quilt to make and has lots of great techniques in it.  It is a fantastic scrap buster.   It is rated for Intermediate quilters and if you don't have a lot of scraps, the pattern is also written for Fat Eighths or  Fat Quarters.  

Summer Solstice  has 6 size options.   It is an extremely versatile deign.    It uses Half Square Triangle Units, Stitch and Flip Units, Square in a Square Units, and No Waste Flying Geese Units.   So ya, lots and lots of fun piecing!!   

And like I said, Summer Solstice  is a super versatile design.  So don't feel like you have to do Yellow Grunge just because I did in the original.  It looks aweome in a rainbow of colors as well.   Don't these Batiks just shine in the design!!   And not quilting your print pieces and only quilting the background will make the piecing pop all the more!  Truly, just grab any  Fat Eighth or Fat Quarter Bundle or dig through all your scrap bins, and this quilt will come out amazing every time!!   

And remember, you don't have to use a white background either!!  I finished up piecing this quilt top of  Summer Solstice using Cannon Beach with a Grunge Cobalt Backgounrd and it is just stunning.    And yes, it is still in the "To Be Quilted" pile, yup, another top for the new Happy Quilting Ultra Marathon ;)   I'll try to get these done this month so you can see them all finished up while it is still the Pattern of the Month ;) 

  

 

And that is my $5.00 Pattern of the Month!!!  July 2026 is all about the Summer Solstice!!!   You are going to have so much fun making this quilt ;)   And of course,  if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to me ;)  And when you make your Summer Solstice quilts I would love to see them!!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or add it to social media with  #happyquiltingwithmc and #stackedsquaresquilt ;)  I can't wait to see your Quilts!!!

So are you ready to start making your Summer Solstice Quilts???  Pop over to my Etsy Shop, to pick up your Pattern and get Happy Quilting!!!!   

Shine On Quilt with Free PDF Pattern!

Today, I am super excited to be sharing this new Shine On quilt in beautiful Expressions Batiks along with a Free PDF Pattern for making your own! Shine On has been in my little sketch book to create ever since our trip to Germany last year (more on that in a minute).   And I am just so thrilled because the quilt finish is even better than I had dreamed! Don't you just love it when that happens! Basically, this quilt just makes me smile :) It truly does just Shine On!! 

How beautiful are all of those little patchwork squares in those stunning Seaside Sunset batiks!!  And the best thing is, Shine On is made with quite a lot of strip piecing so it comes together a lot quicker than it looks.   And Strip Piecing means it is also Jelly Roll/Rolie Polie Friendly so you can grab a Happy and Bright Roll and the Free Shine On PDF Pattern and get making your own!  And what really makes this quilt "Shine" is the beautiful batiks, and the contrasting white accent and black background.  It really gives the quilt that stained glass effect!! 

    

Which is where the inspiration from this quilt came from.  While visiting Germany, I snapped this shot (from a distance, sorry it's a bit blurry) of a beautiful stained glass window in the Cologne Cathedral.  I was just drawn to all of those tiny pixelated squares of color framed in the gorgeous windows.  So when I got home, I started to play with a few sketched images of how I could "recreate" my own version. I loved all of the square piecing, but I needed a little "structure".   And that made me think of my Shine Quilt Tutorial that I did back in 2018.   And I knew right away, I had the structure, I just needed to change the placement of the prints and background.  And then from Shine and a Cologne Cathedral window came Shine On!!  

Shine On finishes at 66" x 88" so it is a perfect size for a twin size bed or would make a nice cuddle quilt on the couch.    And truly, it comes together super fast considering the size of the quilt and how many little squares it is made of.  And you can't help but just smile when you are making it because it is just so full of happy color goodness.     So download your Shine On PDF Pattern, grab a happy bright Jelly Roll/Rolie Polie, 2 yards of white, 2 yards of black, and away you go!!     

When it came time to quilt my Shine On quilt I knew right away that I was going to do my all over Wavy Orange Peel.   I mean, when you have a beautiful grid like that in the piecing, you just have to take advantage of it.   And "wavy" orange peel does not require rulers, so it is just free motion fun.  And it gives such a great finish with so much amazing texture.   And for that added pop of color goodness, I used a Rainbow Variegated thread and it just makes me so happy.   It was the perfect finish for the this Shine On quilt!!  

And that is my Shine On Quilt !! I hope you love this quilt just as much as I do and make your own. And if you do, I would love to see them!!!   You can share your quilt with me on social media using hashtags #happyquiltingwithmc and tagging @happyquiltingmc or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. I can’t wait to see your Shine On quilts!!!

Thank you so much for popping in with me to share this new Shine On quilt finish with me.  And yes, we finally got some snow, and I love how the white background just makes the chain in the design pop all the more ;)   

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

Summer Solstice turns Midnight Solstice

Good Morning all of my quilty friends!!   Today I am thrilled to share a brand new Batik finish with you all! Expressions Batiks have become a favorite of mine to work with. The new collections are just so pretty in all of their beautiful colors and prints. And I just love how happy and bright this new Carnival Glass Collection is. And you all know, I recently released 4 new patterns and I knew right away that I had to remake my Summer Solstice pattern in this collection! It almost gives it a Midnight Solstice look, right!! Such a change up from the original to add so much happy color, and I just love it!

The Summer Solstice Quilt can be made with Scraps, Fat Eighths, or Fat Quarters. It is a very versatile quilt for cutting, and you can make it as monochromatic (like the original) or as colorful as you like. And I just can't even express how much I just love that the suns and dials  totally pop in all of the happy bright shades of Carnival Glass .

And ya know, a scrappy happy binding is always the perfect finish. I used this Pale Haze Hand Dyed for the background, and I love how the soft blue gives an added umph to the colors. It's not a big departure from a white background, but just enough to make it stand out. And I am already planning on remaking this with a dark background, I can't wait to see that just shine!!  Talk about Midnight Solstice ;)  

And while this might look a little complex, the Summer Solstice Quilt uses basic techniques of No Waste Flying Geese, Half Square Triangles, and a Square in a Square. So you will get some great technique practice and still have an easy time piecing everything together as there are not a lot of points to worry about lining up! And the Sun Block and the Dial Block come together with some great pieced sashing to finish off the chain and add to the points around the sun block. It really is a super fun one to see come all together! Again, this is the Twin Size quilt, but the pattern has multiple size options so you can make whatever size works for you ;)

And this was quilted with gorgeous repeating feathers in the background and arches on the print chain and dial block. All of the Sun block triangles are left unquilted which really makes them pop! Barbara did the quilting on this and it is just beautiful. And talk about so much yummy quilty texture.

And that is my Summer Solstice Quilt featuring the Carnival Glass Expressions Batik Collection! I hope you have enjoyed this post and make your own Summer Solstice Quilt!!! And if you do, I would love to see it! You can share your projects with me on social media with the hashtags #happyquiltingmc and #summersolsticequilt and tagging @happyquiltingmc or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. I can't wait to see your Summer Solstice Quilts!

Thank you so much for joining me today! I hope you are loving these batik quilts as much as I am! 

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

Navigating the Stars in Tradewinds Batiks

 Today I am am thrilled to share another new Batik finish with all of you! Expressions Batiks are quickly becoming a favorite to work with. I just love all of the gorgeous colors and prints, and the hand is so great. And pretty much, I have fallen in love with them. I was particularly struck by the beautiful rich colors of this new Tradewinds Collection. I just released 4 new patterns and am excited to make them in Batik collections now!! I picked Navigating the Stars for this Tradewinds Collection because the pattern design was inspired by a rose compass on an old map, so I figured Tradewinds went right along with that!

The Navigating the Stars Quilt is Fat Quarter Friendly, so you can just grab a bundle and get cutting and piecing. I made the Twin Size quilt, which uses 20 Fat Quarters, so this bundle had just the right amount of prints, with two prints to spare for the accent and background fabrics.

I pulled this Cinnamon print from the line to be the accent of all the interlocking stars. It really is the perfect print in the line as it has enough color difference to stand out, but not so much that it is overpowering. And then for the background, I used the beautiful neutral Phloof print . I just love how it reads as neutral to make all of the prints shine, but still has some fun detail in it. Like I said, these prints fit the pattern just perfect!

And while this might look a little complex, the Navigating the Stars Quilt Pattern mainly uses one technique of stitch and flip corners. And it is a great quilt to work on lining up your points, while still having the forgiving nature of the entire block being made of one print. And you know I wrote the directions so that all of your diagonal seams will nest! I love that it allows me to piece the entire block without using pins, so great! Again, this is the Twin Size quilt, but the pattern has multiple size options so you can make whatever size works for you ;)

And this was quilted with a gorgeous echoed feathered swirls in the background and two rotating motifs in the blocks centers. My amazing MIL, Barbara did the quilting on this and it is just beautiful. And I especially love this picture because it really shows both aspects of the block. In the block on the left you see the star in the background popping out. But in the block on the right you see the square cross in the print popping out. I love it when a block has two designs hidden in one block! It's just so fun.

And that is my Square Dance Quilt featuring the Tradewinds Expression Batik Collection! I hope you have enjoyed this post and make your own Navigating the Stars Quilt!!! And if you do, I would love to see it! You can share your projects with me on social media with the hashtags #happyquiltingmc and #navigatingthestarsquilt and tagging @happyquiltingmc  or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. I can't wait to see your Navigating the Stars Quilts!

Thank you so much for joining me today! I am so happy to have discovered the joy of quilting with Batiks and am excited to share more batik quilts in the future. Thank you so much to my wonderful friends at Riley Blake for creating such amazing fabrics for us all to sew with! 

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

$5 Pattern of the Month - Desert Rose!!!

It's a new month and a new $5 Pattern of the Month here at Happy Quilting!!!  And October is all about Desert Rose.  And it is just $5 all month long!!!   

The  Desert Rose Pattern can be found in my Etsy Shop in both a Paper version as well as a PDF version and both versions will be marked down to $5.00 for the month October.   This is such a fun quilt to make and is a great technique builder for No Waste Flying Geese and Half Square Triangles.  It is rated Intermediate and is Fat Quarter friendly.  

Desert Rose  has 5 size options.   Each fat quarter will be placed in three different blocks, one in the center ring, one in the middle ring, and one in the outside ring of piecing!

And like I said, this one is all about building your technique on No Waste Flying Geese.  Each block has 16 flying geese in it, so you make 4 sets of No Waste Flying Geese for each block.  So lots of practice on getting them to perfection.   And because the blocks are on the large side, once your units are made, the quilt really comes together quickly!  

And there is also a lot of negative space in this quilt, with the background weaving all through the block.  Because of this, I choose to leave the prints unquilted, and really do dense quilting in the background.  It just makes the piecing pop all the more!!  

And again, because there is so much background, you can really play up your background fabric choice.  You can use a low volume with lots of pop, or even have fun with a colored background.  It really makes the piecing shine!!  

 

And that is my $5.00 Pattern of the Month!!!   October 2025 is all about the Desert Rose Pattern!!!   You are going to have so much fun making this quilt ;)   And of course,  if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to me ;)  And when you make your Desert Rose Quilts I would love to see them!!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or add it to social media with  #happyquiltingwithmc and #desertrosequilt ;)  I can't wait to see your Quilts!!!

So are you ready to start making your Desert Rose Quilts???  Pop over to my Etsy Shop, to pick up your Pattern and get Happy Quilting!!!!   

New Happy Quilting Pattern - Navigating the Stars!!

Today is our final new pattern day and it is all about . . . Navigating the Stars!!!   And this one has a fun little story of how it got it's name :)  This block design was inspired by an image of a rose compass on an old map.   I kept tweaking the design until I got to this.  At that point, I noticed that if I focused on the background fabric at the center of the block, I saw a star, which was my main goal.  But when I focused on the Print fabric at the center of the block, I saw a square cross, reminding me of the way the sails are always depicted on the Mayflower.   And I thought it was so cool that what started with old sailing maps, turned to stars and sails.   And what did they use to navigate . . . the stars ;)    And I just love the amazing secondary designs that pop out of this quilt, it really came together to be a super cool  geometric block!!  

The  Navigating the Stars Pattern can be found in my Etsy Shop in both a Paper version as well as a PDF version.  And it is on Special for it's release with PDF Patterns at $6.00 and the Paper Patterns are $7.50!  The patterns are full color and the paper version is in book format.   

 Navigating the Stars  is an intermediate skill level pattern, as it has a lot of matching points!     The block is made with just stitch and flip corners, so the technique is super fast to pick up.  Then you just have to use a few pins to line up all of your pretty star points!!!   And when you put the blocks together, you get new secondary stars in the accent fabric that connects the blocks.  So fun!!! 

This Navigating the Stars quilt is made with  Rainier by Jessica Rose for Moda and is the queen size.  I was instantly drawn to this fabric because it had the perfect colors to break up my quilt design into warms and cools.   I grouped the pinks, tans, and yellows and then the blues and greys and placed them every other block.  It really adds to the layout to go from sunny warm to stormy grey throughout.  .  And And we lived by Mount Rainier for a year back in our early married years, so there is that too!!    The quilt is Fat Quarter Friendly, and is so versatile it would look great in any fabrics, so you can grab a bundle and make it shine in your own way!!    

And for the quilting, I did some more beautiful wavy arches.  I love to do this quilteing design when I have a "grid" in the quilteing.  There were a few places where I had to estimate where my grid was, but it was totally worth the guessing.  And I love how the little arches fit perfect in the center star, just so cool!!!   And ya, I think it totally adds to the nautical feel of this quilt :)   I just love it!!   

And because it is all quilted in a grid, it adds so much wonderful quilty texture!!!   And doesn't this look like the perfect little reading nook.  My sweet neighbor let me take pictures in her yard.  I just wanted to see it pictured next to the warm earthy bricks, and it did just what I hoped it would, brining out all of those warm rich tones in the quilt!!  

Navigating the Stars  like all of my Happy Quilting patterns, has multiple size options so you can make whatever size quilt works for you ;)     The pattern has 6 size options :  Baby, Lap, Picnic, Twin, Queen and King.     

And that is my new  Navigating the Stars quilt and Pattern!!!    I hope you enjoy making your own as much as I did making mine!!   And of course,  if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to me ;)  And when you make your own Navigating the Stars Quilts I would love to see them!!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or add it to social media with  #happyquiltingwithmc and #navigatingthestarsquilt ;)  I can't wait to see your Quilts!!!

So are you ready to start making your Navigating the Stars Quilts???  Pop over to my Etsy Shop, to pick up your Patterns.   Again, PDF Patterns are just $6.00, the Paper Patterns are $7.50,  until September 9th :)    And while you are there, check out these other newly released  patterns that are also on the same special ;)  Always good to save on shipping!! 

Thanks for popping in today.  And thank you for all of your New Pattern and Quilt Love!!  You all are the best :)  

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

New Happy Quilting Pattern - Primrose and Proper!!

Today is our second new pattern day and it is all about . . . Primrose and Proper!!!   Making flower blocks is always fun, and I so enjoyed designing this quilt.  I started with the large Primrose Flower, and just wanted to add a little something more to the design.  So I started playing with the Proper flower and was super excited that when combined with the tiny flowers, that it created an secondary chain.   So great!!!   And it is just so happy and bright you just can't help but love it!!! 

The  Primrose and Proper Pattern can be found in my Etsy Shop in both a Paper version as well as a PDF version.  And it is on Special for it's release with PDF Patterns at $6.00 and the Paper Patterns are $7.50!  The patterns are full color and the paper version is in book format.   

 Primrose and Proper  is an intermediate skill level pattern, as it covers a lot of piecing techniques!     The quilt is made of two separate blocks and then pieced in a alternating layout.  And those little flowers are actually in the blocks, so you don't have to worry about sashing on this one.  Just an added pieced border to finish up the tiny flowers :)     The pattern teaches techniques including no waste flying geese, stitch and flip corners that have nested diagonal seams and half square triangles.  Lot's of pieces to make this one go together, but so worth it for how pretty it turns out!! 

This Primrose and Proper quilt is made with  Parlor  by Crystal Manning for Moda and is the queen size.  These beautiful Parlor prints are expected to land in shops any day now . . .so keep an eye out!!  They are just so rich and vivid . . . and you know I especially love those purples!!  And the prints are full of beautiful florals and vines, just so pretty!!   And of course, I used Grunge for my background and accent fabrics, cause ya know, I just love it!!   The quilt is Fat Quarter Friendly, so you can grab any bundle and make it shine in your own way!!    

And for the quilting, I did some more beautiful custom quilting.  I quilted the background with a tiny loop de loop, which made it easier to fill all of the nooks and crannies in the florals.   Then in the leaves I did arches to resemble leaf veins.  In the florals, it is a combination of feathers, curls, and pebbles.  I love pebbles for making a center focal point pop!!   And in the tiny flowers, I went with some echoed petal shapes.  So much quilting variety and so much quilty goodness!!  I just love it!!   

And doesn't it just make you want to cuddle up under a tree with a good book!!  I just love yummy quilty texture, it is so snuggly!!  

Primrose and Proper like all of my Happy Quilting patterns, has multiple size options so you can make whatever size quilt works for you ;)     The pattern has 6 size options :  Baby, Lap, Picnic, Twin, Queen and King.     

And that is my new  Primrose and Proper quilt and Pattern!!!   This is so great getting to finally share these quilts with you!!!   These have been a WIP for some time, and it is just amazing to see them all done ;) I hope you enjoy making your own as much as I did making mine!!   And of course,  if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to me ;)  And when you make your own Primrose and Proper Quilts I would love to see them!!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or add it to social media with  #happyquiltingwithmc and #primroseandproperquilt ;)  I can't wait to see your Quilts!!!

So are you ready to start making your Primrose and Proper Quilts???  Pop over to my Etsy Shop, to pick up your Patterns.   Again, PDF Patterns are just $6.00, the Paper Patterns are $7.50,  until September 9th :)    And while you are there, check out these other newly released  patterns that are also on the same special ;)  Always good to save on shipping!! 

Thanks for popping in today.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for more Happy Quilting Pattern fun :)  

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