Fat Quarter Fizz!!

The gals at the Fat Quarter Shop have done it again.  They have another one of their shortcut quilts for you and this time it is using the fat quarter!!  You can check out the free video tutorial here and download the free pattern here ;)  

I was super lucky and got to make 2 quilts from this fabulous shortcut pattern.   The first one I was asked by  Fat Quarter Shop to make so they could use it as a sample.  

This quilt features the fabulous 25th and Pine by BasicGrey for Moda.  I just love Christmas quilts!!!  Seriously, I don't think I will ever have to many Christmas quilts.  And this quilt is the perfect size to snuggle up in front of a fire with measuring 60" x 72".

 To continue with the Christmas theme, I quilted an all over free motion exploding star design using Superior Threads Sew Fine #50 in Snow.  I love quilting these stars, they really are so much fun.  Because of the quick back and forth motion you really get into a groove ;)  Ya, my husband came in while I was quilting this one . . . picture if you will, shaking the booty to "All I Want for Christmas is You".  He got a pretty good chuckle ;)

This quilt really is a shortcut quilt!!  It goes together super fast, is super easy, and all around, just a good time to make!!  It really is perfect "go-to" quilt!!

Which is what gave me the idea for my next quilt.  The lovely gals at Fat Quarter Shop asked me if I wanted to make my own version of Fat Quarter Fizz using a fabric of my choice.  I immediately thought of how perfect this would be for a friends wedding that I have right around the corner.  And what could be more beautiful for a wedding than the gorgeous Up Parasol by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit Fabrics!!

I decided that rather than splitting the fabrics by lights and darks to split them by color palette.  So the greens and blues make a diagonal row and the pinks and oranges make the other diagonal row.  I love how it turned out.  You can still see the diagonal pattern, but it also has such a beautiful blend and flow.

When it came time to quilt, I opted for one of my new favorites, the quilted swirl.  Isn't it so funny, a few weeks ago I was scared to death to quilt this, and now it is a favorite ;)   I used my new favorite #402 Pearl So Fine #50 Superior Thread to quilt it up.   Seriously, that color blends so perfectly!!

When I brought the quilt back inside this morning after taking pictures and laid it on the table, I couldn't help but stare at all of this yummy texture goodness.   Isn't it so pretty in the morning light ;)

I am so loving this quilt and hope my friend will love it as well ;)  Thanks again to the gals at the Fat Quarter Shop for including me in this awesome project!!  It was so much fun ;)

So if you want to make your own Fat Quarter Fizz, be sure to watch the video here, and download the pattern here ;)

And if you are wondering what fabrics to choose, you are in luck. . . There is a whole bunch of us bloggers showing our Fat Quarter Fizz quilts today ;)  Be sure to pop on over to the Jolly Jabber to check out all of the beautiful quilt inspiration and get your creative juices flowing ;)  

Winner

It's time to pick a winner of the Miss Kate layer cake from Shabby Fabrics!!  Thank you again to Shabby Fabrics for sponsoring this fabulous giveaway!!  We are so glad to have you here with us at Happy Quilting!!

And the lucky winner is . . . #72!!!!

Congrats Michelle Olsen Sasak!!!!!  I will send you an email shortly ;)

And thank you again to all of my wonderful readers for playing along ;)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!

Purple Nail Polish Mini

Fat Quarter Shop is introducing a new video series focused on Solids and their first solids projects is this fantastic Nail Polish Mini!!!  Oh ya, this is an all girly quilt!!!

The gals at Fat Quarter Shop asked us to whip up a mini using our favorite color of nail polish.   I realized that I don't know my favorite color of nail polish because we have had a nail polish embargo since a certain little girl painted her body while lying on her bed quilt ;)   So ya, you can imagine the girls excitement when I pulled down our little selection of nail polish from the tippy top shelf to see what colors we had ;)  Wouldn't you know, my favorites were the purples ;)

And so I opted for an all Purple Nail Polish mini!!!  I just love working with solids, you really get to enjoy the richness of the colors!!

When it came time to quilt this little mini, of course I went with purple.  And I couldn't decide on a purple, so I grabbed my Fantastico Purple Variegated spool that I picked up on my last trip to Superior Threads (where I just happened to be wearing my Fat Quarter Shop T-Shirt, to fun!!!) and enjoyed all of the shades of purple :)   I quilted it with a scallop stitch using my walking foot ;)

And of course, my super girly Purple Nail Polish Mini is now hanging on my Purple Studio wall ;)

It fits in right along with all of my other purple mini's :)   Yup, I love purple!!!

This mini is just to cute!!!   So if you want to join in and Sew with Solids along with the Fat Quarter Shop check out the free Nail Polish Mini Video Tutorial here and download the free Nail Polish Mini Pattern here ;)  I can't wait to see what color polish is your favorite!!!

And be sure to check out some of your other favorite bloggers Nail Polish mini's.  They are all over at the Jolly Jabber.   Talk about some super color inspiration!!!


Thanks for stopping by today :)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Quilters Anonymous

As promised, Here is the full length Quilters Anonymous video by the folks at Superior Threads.   These guys crack me up!!!

Have a Happy Quilting weekend, and watch out for your husband trying to steal your Fat Quarters ;)

Super Scrappy Triple Irish Chain Block - A Tutorial

I am so excited about today!!!  For the longest time I have wanted to make a Triple Irish Chain but I wanted it to be a super scrappy one.   I have put it off and put it off, because that is a ton of little squares to sew together, like as in 121 per block :)  But the other day, I remembered August was my month for the Beejeebers block and I knew my bee friends would help make this long time wish a reality :)  So here she is, the first block of my Super Scrappy Triple Irish Chain all finished :)

And since my wonderful bee friends are helping me to make more blocks, I whipped up a little tutorial for them ;)  Which means, you can play along too!!!  Who knows, maybe you will use it for your next bee month ;)  For my blocks, I have chosen a specific color theme and will write the tutorial based on that color theme, but feel free to choose your colors however you please.  The skies the limit, do it totally color scrappy, do it each block a different color combo, do it however you like ;)

To Start - You will need:

Lots of Scraps!!!
I will be using scraps in
     Yellow, Navy (or dark blue), Medium Grey, and Low Volume (white on white prints)

STEP 1 - CUTTING

To make 1 block, from your scrap piles cut the following number of 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares from the designated colors.
    36 - Low Volume squares
    36 - Medium Grey squares
    28 - Navy Blue squares
    21 - Yellow squares

Honestly, I think cutting took longer than piecing the whole block.  There really is no speedy way to cut through your scraps, just stick to it and know that you are busting those scraps ;)

STEP 2 - PIECING THE CORNER BLOCKS

Layout 4 Yellow squares, 6 Grey squares, 4 Navy squares, and 2 White squares as shown below.

Sew the squares into rows.  To do this, I like to align the first and second squares in the row with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along the edge, then repeat that for the third and fourth squares in the row.  That gives you 2 pairs.  Now align the 2 pairs with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along the edge to make a row.   Repeat for all 4 rows (**chain stitching here saves time ;)

Press the first and third row to the left and the second and fourth row to the right.  This will allow your rows to nest together and gives you nice crisp points :)

Now you are ready to sew the rows into a Corner Block.  Place the first row onto the second with right sides together.  Align and pin each of the nested seams.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.  Repeat for the third and fourth row.

Now place the first and second paired rows onto the third and fourth paired rows with right sides together.  Align and pin each of the nested seams.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.

Press the seams in your Corner Block open.

Repeat the steps above to make 4 blocks total.  **Note - If you want to speed it up a bit and aren't worried about where each print ends up, you can chain stitch each of the steps above. Row 1 and 4 are the same and Row 2 and Row 3 are the same. So you can simply chain stitch 8 Yellow/Grey square pairs, 8 Blue/White square pairs, 8 Grey/Yellow pairs, and 8 Grey/Blue pairs.  This speeds up the pairs of 2 process and you are ready to start making rows, which you can layout and chain stitch once again :)

STEP 3 - PIECING THE SIDE BLOCKS

Layout 7 White squares, 3 Navy squares,  and 2 Gray squares as shown below.

Sew the squares into rows.  To do this, I like to align the first and second squares in the row with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along the edge.  That gives you a pair.  Now align the third square in the row with the pair with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along the edge to make a row.   Repeat for all 4 rows (**chain stitching here saves time ;)

Press the first and third row to the left and the second and fourth row to the right.  Once again, This will allow your rows to nest together and gives you nice crisp points, and we all love crisp points :)

Now you are ready to sew the rows into a Side Block.  Place the first row onto the second with right sides together.  Align and pin each of the nested seams.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.  Repeat for the third and fourth row.

Now place the first and second paired rows onto the third and fourth paired rows with right sides together.  Align and pin each of the nested seams.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.

Press the seams in your Side Block open.

Repeat the steps above to make 4 blocks total.  **Note - Once again, you can speed things up by chain stitch each of the steps above. You can simply chain stitch 8 White/White pairs, 4 Blue/White pairs, and 4 Grey/ Blue pairs.  Then you can chain stitch the last square in each block onto the pairs to finish making your rows.

STEP 4 - PIECING THE CENTER BLOCK

Layout 5 Yellow squares, and 4 Grey squares as shown below.

Sew the squares into rows.  This is just like the last block.  Align the first and second squares in the row with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along the edge.  That gives you a pair.  Now align the third square in the row with the pair with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along the edge to make a row.   Repeat for all 3 rows.

Press the first and third row to the left and the second row to the right.  Once again, nesting is the goal here :)

Now you are ready to sew the rows into a Center Block.  Place the first row onto the second with right sides together.  Align and pin each of the nested seams.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.  Then repeat to add the third row to the now pieced first and second row.

Press the seams in your Center Block open.    You only need one of these Center Blocks so you are ready to move on.

STEP 5 - PIECING THE SUPER SCRAPPY TRIPLE IRISH CHAIN BLOCK

With all of your small unit blocks made you are ready to make a Big Block!!!   Layout your 4 Corner Blocks, 4 Side Blocks, and 1 Center block as shown below.

Now it is just like before only with more seams ;)  You will sew the blocks into rows.  So Align the first and second blocks in the row with right sides together and nest and pin each seam. (and yes, I pin each and every seam, this helps with those crisp points :)   Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.  Now align the third block in the row and the remainder of the row with right sides together and nest and pin each seam.  Once again, sew a 1/4" seam along the edge to make a finished row.   Repeat for all 3 rows.

Press all of the seams open.  This will allow the block to lie nice and flat.   Almost done!!!

Now, you just have to sew the three rows together.   Place the first row onto the second with right sides together.  Align and pin each of the nested seams.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.  Then repeat to add the third row to the now pieced first and second row.

Press the two seams open.

And now stand back and enjoy your beautiful Super Scrappy Triple irish Chain Block!!!!    Isn't it just so fun!!!  This block should measure appx. 22 1/2" x 22 1/2".  It will finish at 22" x 22" when put in the quilt ;)

I hoped you enjoyed this tutorial ;)  These blocks are super fun to make and a little addicting ;)

Once, you have your blocks made, you can put them all into a quilt top.

4 blocks would be a 2 x 2 layout and would measure 44" x 44", perfect for a baby quilt
12 blocks would be a 3 x 4 layout and would measure 66" x 88", for a large lap quilt
16 blocks would be a 4 x 4 layout and would measure 88" x 88", fit for a queen :)

Whatever size you make, lay the blocks into rows as described above.  Then pin and sew the Blocks into rows.  You will want to pin each seam to ensure everything lines up.    Press the seams open, or if you don't like the seams open, press the seams in opposite directions from row to row.  Then pin and sew the rows together, finishing the quilt top. Once again, pinning each seam will help align everything so you get lots of pretty squares lined up.   Press the seams open.

Then with your quilt top done, you are ready to Baste It, Quilt It, and Bind It.  I know, a lot of work in one little sentence.   If you are unsure on how to do this, you can see my Quiltmaking Basics video tutorials that go over these three steps in detail ;)

Then just sit back and enjoy snuggling in your new quilt ;)  I made a Queen size verison and am so loving it!!!  If you do make your own Super Scrappy Triple Irish Chain Quilt I would love to see it.  You can add it to my Flickr group here  or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com  ;)

Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy Quilting Weekend!!

Adding this Super Scrappy Triple Irish Chain Block Finish to Sarah's and Amanda's.