What? Another Crown Royal Quilt Finished?

This pattern can be downloaded HERE

Why yes!!  Yes TIS true!  And this one is just as good if not better than the rest, if I do say so myself.

 I love taking a photo of all of my pieces after they are freshly pressed and cut!  To me, it's very much like a puzzle.  Soon they will all fit together precisely to make a beautiful quilt!

 anddd we have a completed TOP!   One lone black bag for this quilt - it is the shining star in the middle!

 Quilt top being basted and ready to quilt!

 And here we have our finished quilt.  The one big difference on this particular crown royal quilt, is that I stitched a name on the bottom right-hand corner in matching thick gold thread.   I used a wide zig-zag stitch and my darning foot for  hand-guided machine embroidery.  My lovely customer chose the font and size.  If she is reading this - THANK YOU for your patience with me, and helping me decide on the size and font ;c)  I am verrryyyy indecisive!

Again, I have this pattern for sale as a downloadable PDF on etsy https://www.etsy.com/listing/168133712/pdf-royal-star-quilt-pattern-booklet?

FIREWORK STARS - Free Tutorial - Made with all 2.5" Strips!

 31" x 39" 

Hi everyone!  To celebrate Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and the beginning of Summer, I would like to offer my blog readers this free quilt pattern to try.  This quilt top is made up of nothing but 2.5" strips!  This quilt can be made completely scrappy from your stash, or with a brand new shiny jelly roll!

I am part of a group of fabric swappers called "QuiltvilleSwap" and so the fabrics in this top are all fabrics that I swapped with other quilters from around the world.  Feel free to join us HERE

 This quilt sews up quickly and would be a great weekend project! Feel free to finish this quilt however you choose, but in a separate blog post, I will explain in detail the way I chose to do the quilting for these quilts. 

Instructions are for 3 small wall-hanging quilts.  Divide materials by 3 if you would like to just make ONE quilt.  I give instructions for 3 because it uses 1 whole jelly roll of fabrics without any leftovers.  If you make just one, you will have some leftover strips and pieces.  

You can substitute 1 Jelly Roll and divide the fabrics into LIGHTS/MEDIUMS/DARKS.  

Darks = blue, Mediums = Red, and Lights = Neutrals

Amounts required are approximate, may need more or less depending on fabric

WOF = width of fabric 

FABRIC REQUIRED:  (includes binding)

12 WOF Blue 2.5" Strips

12 WOF Red 2.5" Strips

16 WOF Neutral 2.5" Strips

3 yards fabric for backing  (1 yard for each quilt)

3 pieces of batting 35" x 43" 

MATERIALS:

Sewing Machine in good working order

Quilting Pins

Spray Starch

Steam Iron 

Scissors

Red, Cream, and Blue Threads (thread to match fabrics)

Thread for piecing

Rotary Cutter 

Self-Healing Mat

6" x 24" acrylic Ruler Fiskars 6x24 Inch Acrylic Ruler (187620-1001)

EZ Angle Ruler or Fons and Porter Flying Geese Ruler 

or

Optional:  Darning Foot, Walking Foot

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cut all of your Full WOF strips in half. 

 We are going to be working with HALF WOF strips throughout this quilt.  

Lay out all of your strips and press with starch.  Make sure you PRESS and not IRON, so that the strips do not bow in the center. 

 1. Pair together a NEUTRAL strip with a Red or Blue strip and lay them RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER on your cutting mat.  Make a stack that is 4 layers-thick.  Red and Neutral strips, right sides together, and then Blue and Neutral strips, right sides together.
Cut Half-Square Triangle Pairs with your Triangle Ruler.  You will need 288 triangle PAIRS for the 3 quilts, or 96 each.   If you have 12 different red fabrics, and 12 different blue fabrics, you will need to make 4 cuts from each stack.  
(Click HERE for a tutorial on how to use the EZ Angle Ruler)

Each triangle stack should give you 1 RED/NEUTRAL pair and 1 BLUE/NEUTRAL pair.  Since they were sewn right-sides together, they are already ready to go through your sewing machine.   

 Sew all of your Triangle Pairs and Press them toward the dark side.
(do as I say not as I do please lol)

 Trim dog ears.  

After cutting triangles.  You will then need to cut 48 2.5" SQUARES from each color. 

 Arrange your sawtooth blocks according to the graph below.  

The combination of Red/Blue/Neutral triangle pairs will not give you an even amount for 1 quilt, so please arrange your star blocks according to the following photo:  

 Start by sewing together the columns of the blocks.

Follow the chart for seam pressing direction

 Once the columns are sewn, sew together the rows.   Press Red block seams to the left, and blue block seams to the right.

 Arrange your blocks the way you want them to appear in your quilt.  If desired, label each row 1, 2, and 3 to stay organized.

 Butt seams together and Pin.  Sew Rows , then columns to complete inner quilt top.

BORDERS:

For the borders we are going to take HALF of the blue strips and HALF of the red strips, whatever you have left, and use those for the borders.  The REMAINING half will be used for binding!

 Take HALF of your remaining BLUE strips, cut in half LENGTHwise.  to make 1.25" strips.

 Arrange your strips in an order that will be pleasing to you in the final quilt.

 Pin together the 1.25" strips at the short ends and sew together.   **LOWER your stitch length and/or lock your stitches for this part!     REPEAT THIS STEP FOR HALF THE RED STRIPS

Next, we will go ahead and make the binding.  Take the remaining blue strips and sew together on the diagonal as you would if you were making binding.   REPEAT FOR REMAINING RED STRIPS

Sew together your remaining neutral strips like you would binding.  The neutral strips will be your large scrappy inner border.

Now start assembling your quilt top as shown. 

Border 1

Measure your quilt top horizontally and cut top/bottom border (1.25") and sew.  

Measure your quilt top vertically and cut left/right 1.25" border and sew.  

Border 2

Measure your quilt top horizontally and cut top/bottom Neutral 2.25" border and sew. 

Measure your quilt top vertically and cut left/right 2.25" neutral border and sew.  

Border 3

Measure your quilt top horizontally and cut top/bottom 1.25" border and sew.

Measure your quilt top vertically and cut left/right 1.25" border and sew.  

This is what your 3 quilt tops should look like when finished.  

Layer, Baste, and Quilt your quilt as desired!  Remember we have already sewn our Binding strips so they are ready to be attached to your quilt.  

Please go HERE for quilting tutorial and finished details.   

Thank you so much and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for "Firework Stars"

If you make this quilt I would LOVEEEE it if you would share it with me so I can share it with my facebook followers!

If you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment or email me at KatiesQuiltsandCrafts@gmail.com

This tutorial is for your own personal use please no mass production. 

Hi!  I work very hard and I have a family to support now, so if you buy from amazon or craftsy then please consider clicking through one of MY links so I get a portion of the profits! Thanks so much!

Firework Stars Quilting Tutorial

I wanted to do a separate blog post on how to FINISH your quilt "Firework Stars"

Not everyone is able to quilt their own quilts, but if you are a beginner or would like to learn, this is actually a great starter pattern.  

I want to share with you TWO things:  1.  A one-line quilting motif for the pieced area of this quilt.  and 2.  a free-motion border motif for your quilt called "firework feathers."  

First of all I LOVE piecing patchwork like this.  Especially sawtooth stars. Noone likes a bunch of thread knots on the back of your quilt. . so one-line quilting designs are WONDERFUL.  If you follow do the pattern the way I'm going to show you, then  you can do the whole  patchwork area of your quilt with only ONE line. . . . meaning, if you were to only use one thread color for the whole quilt, you would only have ONE entry point, and one exit point. . . no multiple starting/stopping points.  

The easiest way to do this would be free-motion with a darning foot, but if you are not yet comfortable with a darning foot, then you certainly can use your walking foot and let your machine guide your stitches. This method requires more quilt-turning, but that's okay, you do whatever you are most comfortable with.  I'm going to show you how to do this ONE-LINE quilting motif throughout this quilt, and I hope you try it!   

Looking at the photo below,  My needle is down in the center where 4 blocks meet.  This is where you will begin your quilt motif.  It is helpful to try to work clockwise so you don't lose your place.  

For the one-line quilting motif, you are basically OUTLINE quilting, except more of a curved, flower-like motion.  For this design, we will be outline stitching inside every piece of each block.  This style of quilting accentuates your piecing, is very secure, and looks lovely in your finished piece!

 To start the quilting, just follow along the yellow drawn line.  This example is using just the red thread in the red areas.  

and this next example is quilting the NEUTRAL areas.  Start quilting in the center of one of the 4 blocks, and follow the yellow line.
 1.  Outer Tips of Stars.  2.  Inner pieced 4 patch.  3.  Inner Tips of Stars 4.  Enter next block and do outer edge.  5.  Go back and finish block by doing the inner portion.  (I try to remember to go CLOCKWISE, Outer edges first, and then Inner edges.  Enter the next block at the FIRST available entry point so you don't forget)  6.  Going clockwise, enter next block, but only for one piece of patchwork.  This is just a gateway to the NEXT block we are going to do.  Quilt the Outer tips of stars 7.  Then do the INNER tips of stars.  8.  Inner 4 patch  9.  Finish block, continue on through "gateway" block, and on to the entry way to the next block.  Outer portion of block, and then onto the next block to also do the outer portion.  10.  Inner 4 patch  11.  Inner tips of stars, and on to complete outer portion of previous block 12.  Complete block by doing inner portion and then on to the final block  13.  Outer portion of final block.  14.  Inner portion of final block

Sorry this is so hard to see.  If the photo is any larger it gets cut off my by side bar =c(   You can click on the photo and zoom in if you need to see more closely 

 Once you start quilting and get the hang of it it's not so difficult.  If it helps, you could print off one of the PAINT graphs and practice doing your one-line quilt pattern with a pencil.  Just remember it's not the end of the world if you DO end up having to stop, lock your stitches, and go to another area.  This is just an option for you to try if you like.

 Here is what the back of the quilt will look like once you have finished all of the quilting in the patchwork area.  

*********************************************************************

Next I would like to share with you the border design called "Firework Feathers"

Start by quilting just the base line or SPINE of your feathers around the middle of the border.  You are going to treat your pieced border as one large border.  You can just free-style stitch a wavy line down the center of your border with neutral-color thread.  However, if you feel more comfortable, you can first draw the line with chalk or a water-soluble marker.  

Next, you will start quilting your feathers on the RIGHT side first.  If your outer border is RED, use RED thread.  If your outer border is BLUE, use BLUE thread.  

Here is a short video clip of me doing the RIGHT side of the quilting design:

After you finish the RIGHT side, you will then do the LEFT side of your feather design.  Here I have included a video of me explaining the quilting design a little bit.  Please forgive me this is my first video tutorial ....... .ever.   ;c)

****************************************************

Once all the quilting is complete.  I highly recommend that you press your whole quilt with a steam iron.
This is especially important since we are using STRAIGHT GRAIN binding(made from our 2.5" scrappy strips or jelly roll!)

 Trim the backing and batting from the quilt, making sure that your corners are an exact 90-degree angle.

Finish your quilt by attaching the binding that you already made!

Hi!  I work very hard and I have a family to support now, so if you buy from amazon or craftsy then please consider clicking through one of MY links so I get a portion of the profits! Thanks so much!

Quilt made from baby clothes from the 1980s

Just finished a quilt made from my friend's baby clothes.  

These baby clothes were given to a quilter who was going to make a quilt out of them, but she got sick or got busy or something, and never was able to finish it.   This previous quilter had cut up all the clothing into (rough) rectangles that measured 2.25" x 2.5"  Some of these rectangles had been sewn into 9-patches.  Everything was cut with a template and regular hand scissors (=c0

 I thought it was odd that they were cut this size.   Typically 9-patches are cut into squares, not rectangles.   Also, if the squares were 2.5", as you probably can imagine, the possibilities for the blocks would have been MUCH greater.   The blocks and therefore the QUILT could have been much bigger and there would have been many more block options, etc., 

BUT, I love a challenge, and so what I did was cut most of them down to 2" and treated them as strips to use with the EZ angle ruler.  This way I could do flying geese and HSTs for blocks.   I also cut a few of them into 2" squares and made NEW (even) 9-patches:c)   

 Here you can see the previous quilter's 9 patch block on the left, ,and my flying geese block on the right.

And here are an assortment of the 9-patch blocks on the top, and an assortment of my NEW blocks on the bottom.  All of my new blocks measured 4.5" UNfinished.   The HSTs of those sawtooth stars measured 1" FINISHED ! LOL ;c)   Yes, very teeny tiny!

The finished quilt top:   All of the fabric for the blocks (including the white) was made out of baby clothing.  The striped rose print for the sashing and binding was picked out by the quilt's recipient.  My friend, Beth, was nicknamed "Rose" when she was a little girl, so the rose has special significant to Jackie, her mom (for whom I made this quilt)

I found the inner border floral fabric and outer border pink fabric at Phylis's Quilt shop in Hurricane  (Thank you for your help picking out fabrics Phyllis!!).   The floral-y fabric had such a beautiful, vintage 80s-feel to it I think.   AND, it included all the colors from Beth's baby clothes.  It also helped make that transition from the stark white of the baby clothes used in the blocks. . to the creamy beige used in the striped rose print.   I never thought I could make white and beige work together, but I really think it works in this quilt!

After all the piecing was complete - it was time for Katies' fun playtime. LOL

For each of the blocks, I quilted a circle/feather type of deal.  I made a circle template with cardstock and marked just the outer circle, and did the feathers and inner circle by hand.  (which is why they're not perfect and I WILL mark them NEXT time!)

 For the inner borders, I quilted a feather with an echo, but as you can see in the next photo, I was not satisfied with just a normal feather.

 I thought the feathers were too fat, so I added a vein in each one to fill it out a bit.  This was the first time trying this technique and I really like the way it looks!

 For the sashing and outer borders I tried another new quilting motif. . a free-hand leaf pattern.   It definitely would have looked better if I would have marked it first.. . I started to mark it, and then got really confused on the math, and gave up ;c)

 For the pink and rose striped areas, I used Mettler cotton pink thread.  For the white/block areas and the feathers, I used #Aurifil poly variegated quilting thread.   When Jackie saw the quilt in person, she said she really liked the variegated colors.   Since they are a fine pastel, with a bit of shimmer, I thought it was perfect for this quilt too!

 And right now I'm working on a photo memory quilt - with the colors sage, brown and white.  I picked out these fabrics for the quilt and will have a blog post on it soon! ;c)

New Crown Royal Quilt

  Sorry I haven't been updating my blog very much, but if you want to get the latest photos, and updates on my current projects - be sure to "LIKE" my facebook page!!

So here they are:  My latest Crown Royal Quilts are complete! 

This is the "block" - and because these blocks are so BIG, these quilts are not as versatile as the old crown royal quilt pattern.  https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/patterns/royal-star-/194359 These are only available in Twin-size or bigger.  

Here are the "special" crown royal quilt bags /logos that were used in this quilt.  I used these special colors and textures for the cornerstones, so that the main blocks would stay consistent. 

 Here is the center quilt pre-borders

 For the border star blocks, the lights and darks were reversed.   I've made SOOO many of them the opposite way, I screwed up a gazillion times and had to do ALOT of seam-ripping/unpicking ;c)
For the borders stars I used the gold/leather crown royal quilt.  and purple background.

 Here are the two finished tops!

 I used the leftover bag material from the BACK and SIDES of the crown royal bags for the sashing.   For all the other purple areas I used a mottled purple quilting fabric.

 Here are the two quilt tops on the wall, without flash ;c)  My camera seems to have trouble capturing the color purple.

 Here is me quilting the quilt with my big-guy machine ;c)  Yes, I think the name of my sewing machine is "big guy" . .  I never claimed to be creative.  LOL

 For the backing I used a purple minky fleece.    When I ordered it from fabric.com, I thought it was just as dark as the purple quilting fabric and the crown royal bags.   But when it showed up in the mail it was a bit lighter.   Like a lavender or something.

 Here are the 3 quilts finished!   I used gold binding on one, and purple binding on the other.

 Here's a shot of the backing. . it's the same on both quilts.