Nordic Christmas [Christmas in July]

Merry Christmas in July! This is a tutorial for a quick Christmas quilt. Seriously quick and fun. It is a Scandinavian inspired design I put together for Folk Art Holiday. This is something you can whip up quickly and enjoy all Christmas season! I just super sized this classic block for a fresh and fast Scandinavian inspired quilt.

Make sure to head over to the Sew Lux Blog to see the other fab tutorials.

As always, if you have any questions or if I made a mistake (known to happen, I am not a professional) let me know. I am happy to help and would love your input.

Nordic Christmas Tutorial

Finished Quilt Size: 65” x 65”

Finished Block Size: 25” x 25”

All seams are a scant ¼”

Skill level: Confident Beginner

Please read all of the instructions first before you start. 

Materials:

8 Fat Quarters of Folk Art Holiday (Available here)

3 yards Bella Bleached White

4 yards backing fabric

½ yard for binding

Coordinating Thread (I used this)

Supplies:

Basic quilting supplies (rotary cutter and mat, ruler, scissors, sewing machine, iron, etc)

6.5” Square Bloc-Loc Ruler (optional, but helpful)

Rotating cutting mat (optional, but helpful)

For each block cut (parenthesis note the prints from my example):

6 – 6 x 6” squares white

4 – 6 x 6” squares Print B (Green)

2 – 6 x 6” squares Print C (Blue Snowflake)

8 – 5.5 x 5.5” squares white

2 – 5.5 x 5.5” squares Print A (Blue Bird)

1 – 15.5 x 5.5” rectangle Print A (Blue Bird, cut this directionally so the birds stand upright, horizontally the long way)

1.    Make twelve (5.5 x 5.5”) half square triangles (HSTs) blocks, eight of Print B and four from Print C, using your 6 x 6” squares of the print fabrics paired with white. You can use your favorite method to make these HST blocks, I outline my favorite below (using your 6 x 6” squares):

a.     Draw a diagonal line through all six of the white squares using your fabric pen or a pencil.

b.     Pair the white squares with squares of Print B and C, right sides together.

c.      Sew ¼ inch on either side of the diagonal line for each pair of squares.

d.     Cut along pencil line.

e.     Press blocks, with seam toward darker fabric (print).

f.      Trim each HST unit to 5.5 x 5.5” (Use your Bloc-loc and rotating mat to make this painless and quick).

g.     You should have twelve half square triangle units (eight from Print B and four from Print C, all paired with white).

2.    Now it is time to layout your block. It is a 5 square by 5 square block unit. Lay the block out as pictured below (time to get Print A involved).

3.    Sew together in horizontal rows. When you are finished with rows 1 through 5, press the rows in opposite directions, row 1 to the right, row 2 to the left, row 3 to the right, etc. I used a technique called webbing my block (for a tutorial on that, see this video).

4.    Sew five rows together.

5.    Repeat to make four blocks. Each block measures 25.5” square.

Corner Stone Instructions:

Cut:

Eight – 3” by approximately 15” strips of each print you would like to use (I chose two red, two gray, two blue, and two green, using the Print A from each block.)

1.     Sew strips of the blue print to the red print, then strips of gray print to green print. Make sure you check to ensure directional prints are facing the same direction.

2.     Press all of the seams to one side (up for the blue and red and down for the green and gray).

3.     Cut 3" strips from the long strips. You need nine from each fabric set.

4.     Take one from each combination and sew together so seams lock. If you want all of your cornerstones to look the same just make sure to sew them in the same orientation.

5.     You will finish with nine 5.5 x 5.5” four patch blocks.

Sashing/Layout and Assembly:

Cut: 

Twelve – 25.5 x 5.5” strips of white for the sashing.

1.     To the left of each 25.5” square block attach a sashing strip. Sew blocks together in large strips and add one more sashing strip at the end. So your block units look as pictured. Press seams towards sashing.

2.    With the remaining sashing strips attach them with the four patch corner stones in between each strip. You will have 3 long strips. Press seams towards sashing.

3.     Sew sashing onto blocks, use pins at this stage to line up seams (even if you never use pins, trust me, you'll want to here).

4.     Sew rows of blocks together to complete your quilt top (use pins, you may need to ease in some seams to your blocks line up perfectly).

5.     Press! Step back and enjoy!

Now you can baste, quilt and bind your quilt in your favorite way!

I am off to finish this one. I will make it my personal goal to have this finished to show you by the end of the Christmas in July Challenge. I can’t wait to see what you make. 

Link up your projects by between July 21^st and August 4^th on the Sew Lux Blog for a chance to win fabulous prizes. More importantly, get a jump on the Christmas sewing and avoid the craziness that can come with that season! 

For complete challenge details see here.

Full Disclosure: This fabric was given to me in exchange for writing this tutorial, but I love Sew Lux and I buy fabric there all of the time. My endorsement of the shop is heartfelt and my opinions are my own. 

Cat Lady (Meow) Quilt.

Today is a big day. I worked my last day before Christmas. I get a week off now. I have an unbelievably huge pile of sewing projects and Christmas cookies.

Meow.

I also get to show you my finished Cat Lady quilt top. Meow. For the Ladies Night Challenge.

This quilt was inspired by my Ladies Night bundle (still available at Sew Lux).

Meow.

It was also inspired by some amazing Elizabeth Hartman and Aneela Hoey cat quilts.  I elected to paper piece mine (because meow I hate measuring) and the sizing is totally different. If you are interested I could probably share my techniques. Let me know.

Finally, while I am talking about inspiration, I would like to thank Max the cat. He is the fuzziest meow cat in the world (sorry other cats) and provides the ultimate inspiration.

Each block measures 11.5 inches finished and the quilt is about 58 inches by 58 inches. It is now meow basted and ready to quilt.

In other news, we decided to extend the deadline for the challenge to December 31st. Now is the time friends! Sew something wonderful for yourself. Enter the drawing. There are fabulous prizes!

I love you all. Merry Christmas Eve Eve.

PS - Meow.

A New List.

Guess what friends? I am back in another hotel room.

Shocking.

This time I am in Charlotte, North Carolina and it is a quick trip. I think I am going to be at home all week next week. A whole week (maybe longer?).

Do you think my husband will get sick of me?

I am updating my list, it has totally been awhile. Maybe I will get some sewing done while I am in town?

June/July List: 

1. Bee Blocks. I have finished my bee blocks for June.

For Make it Modern, I had a churn dash and a patchwork wheel. They were super fun to make. This wraps up the Make it Modern Bee.

For Simply Solids Gamboge group, we made stepping stones blocks. Hope this is not TOO bright. I just love color.

Still have July's bee block.

2. Meredith and Eric's wedding quilt. The blocks are sashed and now I just need to put it all together, make a backing (buy some fabric?), and quilt it. No biggie. They only got married a couple of months ago.

I love the way it looks so far!

3. Whitewashed Quilt. Remember this? I barely do... I have not even touched this! Ha!

4. Wonky Rainbow Quilt. This one needs to be quilted and bound. I can do it! This quilt is for me and I can't wait to snuggle under it.

5. Drunkard's Medallion Along. I am working on Christen's top right now and I think I get Paige's next. I love getting into the spirit of each medallion and playing with new techniques. I can't show pictures here because we decided these were going to be a secret, so I will just tell you that we will all need shades for Christen's quilt!

6. Baby Quilts. In my crazy world I decided I have three baby quilts to make this summer. No big deal right? I need to pick some easier patterns I think.

7. Block of the Month Blocks. I have June's Lucky Star to make and then June and July's Lucky Star and Hop, Skip, and Jump block. I am loving these block of the month's I can not wait to make them into gorgeous quilts.

8. MIL Quilt (better name to come). I decided to make my Mother-in-law a quilt. Here is my fabric pull so far, it feels so soothing. I think I am going to do some simple patchwork.

There will be other projects. I just can't say no to starting something fun and I love it! No complaining here!

I know I need to make some pillows with animals on them for our couch. Derek is getting a new laptop, so he is naturally going to need a case, he is currently trying to decide what animal he wants on his case (right now raptor is winning, who knows how to paper piece a raptor? oh dear...)

I am linking up to WiP Wednesday. Happy Day Friends! You are all beautiful! Sorry for the epic post.

May. It's ON.

Hi friends!

There is still time to enter my giveaway here. I am loving reading everyone's homemade gift ideas.

I am back from Tennessee/Alabama early this week because the water levels were so high we could not get into the project area. At least I get to sew a few more evenings this week!

I did really well on my April list, I mean really well.

I decided the list really worked for me. I am putting together a May list.

May List:

1.) Voile Infinity Scarf. This is going to be a late (?) mother's day gift. I am proud to say I finished the hand quilting on my trip. Done. Sorry for the crappy phone photos from my hotel room.

2.) Embroidery Project. Done and received. I think she loved it. Nailed it.

3.) Whitewashed Quilt. No progress. To be honest, it is not a priority.

4.) Bee Blocks. Started, expected completion this weekend.

5.) Baby Quilt. Done and gifted. They loved it. I will share finished pictures in another post.  Spoiler alert... it was is a boss level good.

6.) Graduation Quilt. A friend is getting his PhD this weekend and Derek and I decided that I would make him a quilt full of inside jokes. We had so much fun picking the centers of these log cabins! He is moving to Arkansas in a couple of months and we wanted him to have a little piece of Chapel Hill to take with him. I decided to keep it simple, but he is sort of a big dude, so a lap quilt for him has to be a little larger than it would be for most people... I am happy that I used pretty much all scraps.

7.) Solids Bee Quilt. I have received all the blocks from the Gamboge group from April and now I am gunning to put this quilt together. Rainbows!

8.) Lucky Star Block. Must keep up with May's block. Must not fall behind.

9.) Drunkard's Medallion Along. I need to add a border to Chrissy's medallion when it gets to me. This is a priority, as the next person needs it by the end of May.

10.) Pillow for Guild Swap. I know what I am going to do for my partner. I just need to go for it. Maybe soon? This is also a priority as it has to be there for June's meeting, I can't let someone down. That is not my style.

That's nothing right? I only have to be in Tennessee most of the rest of the month, so right... this might trickle into June just a smidgen. Ha! Let's see how I do!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced's WiP Wednesday.

A tiny bit of crazy and my month for the Make it Modern Bee

I know I whined a bunch about getting everything finished last time I posted.

Well, guess what? I spent all weekend sewing (well, the time I was not socializing/hosting a batchelorette party) and I am doing great. I am not going to talk about my April goal progress now. That will come later this week along with a whole bunch of pictures. For now I give you this outtake.

I was off on Thursday and Friday (because I spent all last weekend working) and I just made some quilty goodness. By Saturday, I could work on (more) fun stuff.

My design wall was looking lonely so I pulled this stuff out of my WIP box.

Color! Glorious crazy colors! These are so much fun!

Most importantly, May is my month in the Make it Modern Bee. 

Directions for my Bee Mates:

I have chosen the Lone Starburst Block. It is a free PDF paper pieced star designed by Six White Horses. You can click on the link to download the templates.

It finishes at 12.5"x 12.5".

I would like you to do your star in either blue or green fabric on a gray background. I am not picky about the shades of blue or green (really anything from turquoise to lime green, to true blue, anything...). I also do not care what color gray you choose, just use something from your stash. I would ask that you make the narrow band of the star a coordinating solid and the two star colors separate coordinating prints (as in my example below). 

This block is paper pieced. Rather than writing out a tutorial, I thought I would just walk through some tricks I used to make this block, give you a (rough) cutting chart, and direct you to some awesome paper piecing tutorials. If you are a pro at paper piecing just ignore this (better yet, read them and tell me if there is something I can learn).

Tips:

- You need to print 4 copies of the pattern. I start by using paper scissors to roughly cut each star section out (for a total of 8), be sure to not to trim off the gray seam allowance.  Make sure your printer scaling is set to 100% and that you check the scale on the paper to make sure that it printed correctly. The next thing I do is use a pencil to label where I am going to put each fabric (ie. gray, solid, print 1, print 2).

- Adjust your machine's stitch length to 1.

- I start by cutting all of my fabrics for the whole block. I am going to pass on my cutting dimensions, but I warn you they are a tiny bit generous, because I find it easier that way and I want to make this beginner friendly.

Cut: 
8 - 4.5"x 3"- center print (number 1)
16 -1.25"x 5"- coordinating solid (blue or green) (numbers 2 and 3)*
8 - 4"x 1.5" - outside print (Number 4)
8 - 5"x 1.5"- outside print (Number 5)
8 - 4"x 3.5"- gray solid (Number 6)
8 - 5"x 5"- gray solid (Number 7)

*this has been updated to 1.25" wide to make it easier to position.
 
- If you have never paper pieced before here are two tutorials. They are both very good and offer directions.  I am sure there are also tutorials on you tube or elsewhere on the internet. Whatever works for you.

• Fresh Lemons tutorial

• Six White Horses tutorial (I pretty much use this method, except I use a washable clear glue stick to attach the first piece of fabric instead of a pin).

- I use a washable (clear) glue stick to stick my first piece of fabric to the paper and trim as I go using an add-a-quarter ruler (but any ruler will do).

- I leave the paper on until I get half of the star all sewn together. Then I rip off the paper before I sew the two halves together. I have encountered different opinions on this, but I have found this helps me get the seams matching at the end.

- I use lots of pins when I sew together any of the segments to make sure all of the points align. 

Ignore the dirty ironing board... it is gross. Sorry...

- I press the seams with a hot iron and no steam as I am assembling the segments. Then, right before I remove the papers, I add steam and a spritz of Best Press (a spray starch alternative, but I think starch would work the same). This is probably also controversial, but it works for me.

- I also press my segment joining seams open, cause I like the look. But, I am not picky about this.

Whew! If you got through that you deserve a medal. Seriously, thank you for helping me make these block. I am so in love with these stars! I really appreciate you all paper piecing for me.

Thank you.

PS - If you have any questions, email me, message me on Flickr, comment here, whatever works. I am sure I am incredibly unclear and I would be happy to explain.

xoxo