Granny's Medallion Quilt

A few years back, I came across a quilt that my friend Amy of Diary of a Quilter had taken a photo of at a quilting retreat and posted it on her blog. The moment I saw it, I was obsessed. It was one of the most beautiful quilts I had ever seen. I reached out to Amy to get more info on who the maker of the quilt was.

Once I had the makers information, I reached out and asked about a pattern for the quilt. It wasn't until I took at look at her Instagram that I realized that it was actually someone that I knew and had met a couple years prior at the Spring Quilt Market in 2016. I had been sitting in a room waiting for the Tula Pink schoolhouse to begin when the woman sitting next to me struck up a conversation. She was very friendly and we got to know each other a little in the 15 minutes we chatted before the class began.  Little did I realize at the time, just how talented the woman I was sitting next to was! Her name is Paula McKinlay and she teaches classes to make her quilt designs at quilting retreats.

When I contacted Paula, she graciously offered to send me the pattern so that I could make the quilt since I live out of state and wouldn't be able to attend one of her classes. I was so excited!

Then, I found out I was going to have a baby girl, and this quilt couldn't have been more perfect! 

It took me some time to pick out my fabrics. I knew that I wanted to make mine in colors very similar to Paula's original quilt, but I wanted to put my flair into it with fussy cutting the center of the star. All while making the quilt I had this idea of doing a hand appliquéd scallop border for the final border. The original pattern calls for plus blocks- which are just as cute as can be, but I took a leap and started making half circles to hand appliqué. It took a while to complete that final border, but when I finished that last stitch I was so happy that I had done it. I love the way it turned out. 

I used various fabrics from my stash to make the quilt, Paint Brush Studios Shell Pink solid for the sashing and backing, and hand quilted it with Aurifil 12wt thread. 

I finished just in the nick of time before our sweet baby girl arrived this summer. She is just as cute as can be and we are so in love with her. I've been taking time away from sewing to soak in all of the snuggles, and I have been moving every moment of it, so I'll be back sometime...

as you know, "Babies don't keep."

xoxo, Ashley

P.S. For those interested in making the Granny Medallion quilt, you can email Paula at pauladmckinlay@gmail.com and she can sell you the pattern.

Patchwork Needle Book

I love a good sew-along and I have found some fun ones this year on Instagram!

 Last month my friend Mary (Molly Flanders Blog and Sunny Day Supply Shop) held a needle book sew-along and it was so much fun. I have been needing a needle book, so I was happy to have incentive to make one! 

I used the free Butterfly Charm Block Paper Piecing Pattern by Lily Ella to make the butterfly for the front and then followed Amy of nanaCompany's needle book tutorial to make the needle book. It was a fun little make! 

Do you like Sew-A-Longs? The very first one that I participated in was the Scrappy Trip Along back in 2011. This year I also jumped on the #mushroomsewalong bandwagon and will share what I made soon! There is also Farmers Wife Sew-Along just starting up and I am so tempted! 

La Passacaglia Progress + Black Friday Fabric Sales

I share most of my step by step progress of my La Passacaglia Quilt on IG, but I still like to post updates here too every once in a while... So here are some pictures of my progress so far. 

(I could tell you about the fabrics, process, etc... but I think this time I'll just let the pictures do the talking. ;)

Well... Black Friday is upon us...

And I can't help but share some great fabric sales.

The Fat Quarter Shop: 25% off all orders from Friday Nov. 27 until Saturday Nov. 28 at Midnight CST. (excludes purchases of gift cards. No code necessary.)

Fort Worth Fabric Studio: Friday Nov. 27- Sat. Nov 28, all Riley Blake & Michael Miller is 15-25% off (no code necessary, prices reflected in the cart)

FabricCadabra: 20% off all orders Fri Nov. 27- Mon. Nov. 29. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

xoxo, Ashley

Happy Mail Mini Quilt Swap

One of my very favorite things to make and receive are mini quilts. I love them because they are the perfect way to try out a block or two of a quilt you've been wanting to make, or the perfect size to design something intricate that you may not want or have the time to do in a full size quilt.

I joined a couple mini quilt swaps this year and have had such a fun time with them that I decided to host my own. I wanted it to be small, just a handful of friends. I named it the Happy Mail Mini Quilt Swap, because who doesn’t love a bit of happy mail?!

It has been so much fun! Big swaps are fun too of course, but this one was extra fun because I knew everyone involved. 

Once the partners were divvied up, I found out that the friend I would be creating a mini for was Ayumi of Pink Penguin. Talk about intimidating! She is incredible! She just came out with her very own fabric line! (Lighthearted Fabric) Ayumi is one of the very first "sewing bloggers" that I started following when I started blogging/sewing. She is sooo talented, so to say I was nervous to create something for her, is an understatement! 

As I was planning the mini I wanted to create, I remembered a picture that I came across 2 years ago on Pinterest. At the time, the picture that I had pinned didn't have a link. So with the help of friends on IG, I discovered that it was a picture from the Japanese magazine Couturier. I don't speak Japanese, so I am not sure what is said about the quilt, but I decided to make something that was inspired by this image. 

Image Source 

I started by making 5 inch quilt blocks. (I made roughly 16 but only 12 made the cut.)  After each block was made, I took the block, batting, and 5 inch square of backing fabric and put them right sides together and then stitched around the entire block leaving a 3 inch opening to turn the block right side out. Then I whip stitched the opening closed (I know I should have done a ladder stitch, but for some reason I just can't get the hang of it.) Then I hand quilted each block with 12 wt white aurifil thread. 

Essentially I had 12 coasters when I was all done. 

I arranged them in the order I wanted and then it was time to stitch them together. I took my blocks, starting with 2, and put them right sides together and whip stitched the edge. If you have done EPP, you will probably know what I am talking about. (the trick was just catching the front quilt block fabric- I'll explain later.) Once the two were connected, I opened up the blocks and added the next one on. I created 3 rows of 4. Once the rows were assembled, I put the rows right sides together and did the same thing all along the edges to connect them- again, just catching the front fabric with my needle and taking small, tight whip stitches. Once the rows were all sewn together, I laid the quilt face down on a table and carefully whip stitched the back of the blocks together.  

This probably doesn't make a lot of sense as you are reading it, but the reason I did it this way was because just like in EPP, you don't want your stitches to be visible from the front when you are looking at it. So with piecing the blocks together just like EPP, the stitches aren't visible- the only difference is the back wouldn't be "hidden" with a quilt back, so that is why the whip stitches were necessary on the back, they kinda "closed up" the seams and hid my first whip stitches in between the blocks. 

In the end, this quilt is pretty much all hand pieced, with the exception of using my machine to sew around the edges of the blocks as mentioned before. 

I had so much fun creating the blocks. Most of them were hand appliqued, but all of them were of my own design. If I wanted to create something- like this pink penguin (a nod to Ayumi's blog), I just found a picture online to eyeball and drew out my pieces by hand to create my tiny patchwork. The blocks aren't perfect by any means, but overall I love the effect of the quilt. 

I hope my directions make sense! Be sure to let me know if you have any questions and I will be sure to answer them! 

Hope y'all have a wonderful week! 

Happy Sewing!

xoxo, Ashley

Mini Quilt | Kaffe Fassett Pickle Dish

Do you ever get an idea in your head, and even though you have a million other things you should/need to be doing instead, you just can't seem to shake it? THAT was totally me for the last couple weeks! I have been wanting to make a pickle dish quilt ever since I saw one in my local quilt shop {Sew to Speak} by the amazing Mary Dugan of Molly Flanders. 

My photos are courtesy of my phone and instagram... sorry they aren't the greatest! 

 Then my friend Rachel started making one. She would bring it to work on when we would get together and I fell in love with the idea of making one myself! Obviously I couldn't add another WIP {work in progress} to my growing pile, so I decided to make one block and turn it into a mini. I had package to send Rach that I had been putting together for her and figured that a pickle dish mini was the perfect thing to finish off the package. 

 There are 3 patterns for a pickle dish quilt that I am aware of. There is a fabulous {and free} tutorial with step by step pictures and templates by Aneela Hoey. Then there is one called Gypsy Kisses by Sarah Fielke in the Material Obsession 2 book. And the last one is by Kaffe Fassett in the Quilt Romance book.  

The Sarah Fielke and Kaffe Fassett pickle dish look very similar to my eye. I am sure if you had one of each quilt side by side, you would see that there are definitely differences in them, as they are assembled using different techniques, but at a glance they look the similar.

The one that I have seen by Mary, and that my friend Rachel is making is the Sarah Fielke Gypsy Kisses version. I haven't read the pattern, but I am pretty sure it involves hand applique and machine piecing. I have never done applique before so that kinda scared me! So I did a little research and found that the Kaffe Fassett one is all machine pieced. That seemed a little safer for me to try, but I have to admit- the curved piecing was kinda freaking me out! I have never sewed with curves when it comes to patchwork! So I tried to muster up the confidence needed and ordered the Kaffe Fassett book.

 I started working as soon as the book arrived. The pattern is great and very straight forward. The only changes that I made to it was I didn't add the final piece to the outside of the block to make it "square". I liked it curved around the edges since it is just a mini quilt. I also made my own center template by taping 4 of the "template B" pieces together to create one center piece of fabric instead of 4 separate pieces. 

(I cut the seam allowance off of the 2 straight edges, but left the seam allowance on the curved edge and then taped them to create one template.)

I was super excited to cut into my Liberty Bloomsbury Gardens stash and I knew they would pair perfectly with some of my Cotton + Steel and Anna Maria Horner stash. I used Kona Charcoal as the background, backing, and binding of the quilt. Then I hand quilted it with Valdani pearl cotton. I pin basted the layers together for quilting but I didn't use a hoop to stretch it out as I quilted it. I just wanted it to have a loose, soft, puckery feel to it and I really loved the result! 

(I definitely wouldn't use this method for a whole quilt, but since it's a mini and is just hanging on the wall, I figured it was ok.)

Now that I have made one block, I feel like I can go on with my other WIP's and I don't have a pickle dish quilt in the back of my mind....ok... ok... who am I kidding?! Now I want to make another pickle dish more than ever! 

I definitely need to make a mini for myself to hang on my mini wall and I'm totally adding a full pickle dish to my bucket list for sure!! I'm afraid I've awakened a pickle dish monster inside me! ha ha ;)

I hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Happy Sewing!

xoxo, Ashley

AMH Little Folks Voile Quilt

 Remember when I went fabric crazy 2 years ago and bought a half yard of every AMH print in voile that I could get my hands on?  It was a brief, break of insanity... But- in my defense- they were on a $6 sale! I couldn't help myself!!  They are the softest, yummiest, amazing fabrics ever! I am obsessed! 

Shortly afterwards, I joined a Fabric-aholics Anonymous program.

"Hi- My name is Ashley and it has been 1 day since I made a fabric purchase."

JUST KIDDING! 

That's only for people that can't control their fabric purchases.  I don't have a problem... Do I? ;) Mwahahahahaha!!

 Ok... In all reality- it was one of the best fabric purchases I've ever made! No regrets here! Just come snuggle this quilt, and you'll see why!

I decided to make a square patchwork quilt first. I didn't dare slice and dice those gorgeous fabrics too much! I went with a 6 inch squares to create my quilt top- 14 squares across, 14 squares down- which makes it roughly 6.5' squared. Perfect for two to snuggle on the couch with! 

Once I pieced the quilt, I decided to hand quilt it to make it extra soft and give it a good drape. I used Valdani pearl cotton in varying colors and opted for orange peel quilting. (I seriously cut a piece of cardboard and used it as my template and traced the design with a washable fabric marker- MacGuyver moment people!) 

Its backed with voile and I used Soft and Warm batting, which is pretty thin, so this quilt is super lightweight and thin. I can use it year round!

 I worked at a tortoise pace while hand quilting it, so it took forever (over a year start to finish on this quilt- which is so unlike me! ha ha) I would just pick it up every month or so and work on it while sitting on the couch in the evenings, but it was always there in the back of my mind- that looming UFO (un-finished object) project begging me to finish it. So when our family recently moved, I unpacked this beauty and worked on it for a couple weeks straight until it was complete! 

It's been in use for a few months now, and everyone in our family fights over getting to use it! If all four of us squeeze onto the love seat, we can just fit underneath it (if nobody moves! ha ha)

I love that they all love it as much as I do! :)

 Well, I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend! Mine is full of stuffing and addressing our family Christmas cards, the ward Christmas party, and a day trip to one of my new favorite cities- Charlotte! Hope I can squeeze in some sewing time too! ;)

xoxo, Ashley

P.S.- The winner of the Cotton + Steel Splash Bundle is: 

Amy Harvard

Amy HarwardDecember 8, 2014 at 1:11 AM

Love your mini! Thanks for the chance to win :). 

Congrats Amy! I will be contacting you soon!

Marcelle Medallion Pillow

A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to make a Marcelle Medallion quilt- even though I had about a million other projects going on at the same time. 

I am kinda weird about finishing things when I start them, and I tend not to have too many W.I.P. (work in progress) projects lying around. Instead, I try to work on something until I finish it before starting another project..... but this time I threw caution to the wind and started my Marcelle Medallion since I was so excited and everyone else was doing it! ;)

I loved making my center medallion for the quilt, but once I finished it, other projects took precedence and I was forced to put my budding Marcelle away. For months it was eating at me that I had such a beautiful WIP that I couldn't get to and knew I wouldn't be able to get to for a while. So, one afternoon, I decided to turn her into something smaller than originally planned and got to hand stitching...

I knew a pillow would be the perfect project and I had a dear friend that moved across town, so a house warming gift was in order... 

I used double fold bias to finish the edge of the pillow and give it a pop of pattern/color. I opted for an envelope closure. I used a cute little twill tape label that says "stitched with love" that I found at this darling etsy shop.

I definitely have plans to make a full Marcelle Medallion quilt in the near future. I love, loooove the pattern and I have been so inspired by the other quilts I have seen in the land of sewing blogs. I can't wait!