Two New Quilts

These quilts have been partially done for awhile now but I've finally finished them COMPLETELY! (The hard part!) I wanted to share them with you as well as where to find the patterns.

Introducing: Lawn Chair Quilt

You can find the pattern here. You'll find the pattern has you make two quilt tops and then they put them together to create one quilt. I only made one quilt top and did one fabric on the back instead. Either way, it turns out cute! Oh, and this is supposed to be (I'm guessing from the name) an outdoor quilt, so if I did this pattern again, I'd do a brown fabric instead of the white to work better with dirt and grime.

You Go Cowgirl!

I had a great time making this quilt! It took some extra work and patience with the lettering but was SO worth it! All of this fabric is cozy flannel as well. The striped fabric is actually the backing that I wanted to get in the picture. I made this for my little girl (before I became pregnant)! And when she graduates to a bed I'll use this as her bed spread. The pattern for this quilt can be found in the book, Jack And Jill Quilts: For Boys And Girls. Click on the book below to purchase from Amazon. 

My Latest Creation: 6 pack belt

I've been waiting for FOREVER to post about this as I made it during the summertime but couldn't show it until I gave it as a birthday gift... don't you hate that!?! My husband showed me the idea from a picture on the web and I created my own pattern to get it done. My brother loves mountain dew and that's where we got the plan to make this up! I wanted to make it with mountain dew fabric but couldn't find any at the time. Anyway, it was a really fun one to make up!

(Congrats on your modeling debut, Ryan!) If there's enough interest, I'd be happy to share measurements and whatnot for this, so comment if you'd like to know!

Quick-Tip: Curves & Corners

When sewing together a project that involves curves and/or corners, try this:

Corners: before turning your fabric inside-out cut diagonally on the corner. Be sure you do not cut where you have sewn or you'll have a hole!

Before:

After:

Curves: Cut into your fabric down to where you have sewn. Cut all around the curve about 1/4" apart.

Before:

After:

Quilting Block: Tilted Squares

Here is what I am working on with my Crazy Eight Reindeer Panel quilt - tilted squares! It adds a great "twist" to your quilt.

1. Add a border fabric to your middle square. (I added honey bun strips). After adding the border, make sure each block is the same size. In my case, I made all of mine 6 1/2". 

2. On my cutting board, I made a chalk mark where the 1/2" line would be since there is none. Then, I lined my bottom left corner with the 2" mark, and my bottom right corner on the 1/2" chalk mark. 

3. Mark all of your cut lines before cutting. Just remember the goal is to have straight lines even though the square in the middle is becoming tilted! I use my ruler as a guide from the bottom left corner and along the 2" line. See how it creates a straight line? It's also important here to mark before you cut because then you can see how your quilt block will come out before any cutting is done.

4. Below are all of my chalk marks. I put the ruler on the right side to show how you would line it up in order to mark all sides. Basically you start from the corner and go straight! For instance, I used the 2" line on the bottom, the 6 1/2" line on the right side, the 8" line on the top, and the 1/2" line for the left side. 

5. Now cut, and if you started out with a 6 1/2" square like me, you should now have a 6" x 6" finished square. 

These make for very whimsical and cute quilting blocks! You can view them within a quilt here.

Add A Decorative Touch To Your Quilt

I bought this panel (awhile ago) called, "Crazy Eight Reindeer Panel". I saw the quilt put together and LOVED this detail: stitching! As you can see, I added snowflakes falling down from the sky. I also outlined a few items (like the striped blue hat below) to give the panel a 3D affect as well as to help hide the fact that this is indeed a panel! I'm not a huge fan of them, but this one is really cute. You can view the whole panel here. It comes with the large picture with the reindeer, and all of the squares you see with Christmas decor (ie. holly, Christmas tree, snowman, ornament, etc.) I plan to make up my own version of this quilt and have some cute quilting block ideas for you, so check back!

To stitch these falling snowflakes in, along with outlining items on the panel, I used cross stitch thread (all strands) and a needle.