I am so excited because today I finally get to show off this beautiful quilt I made using the Fat Quarter Shop's free Layers of Charm Pattern.
When the Fat Quarter Shop contacted me to see if I wanted to participate in this blog hop, I instantly agreed and immediately knew which fabrics I wanted to use - the Mimosa collection Layercake by Windham Fabrics and a Kona charm pack in Coal. They work so beautifully together!
Not only does the Fat Quarter Shop put together a lovely free pattern - you can also watch this video where Kimberly gives you all the quick and easy instructions. This pattern makes a quilt that is 57.5" square and it is so very easy to assemble. (The pattern also includes instructions for sizes ranging from baby, to table runner, all the way to king!)
As I was making this quilt, I realized I have not shared a great way to mark your solid fabrics. I use a Hera marker (mine is by Clover) to make a crease in the fabric versus drawing a line with a pen. You can also see I made a second crease 1/2" over from the first. This is a second trick I want to share.
You can stack about 3 to 5 layers and mark them all at once. Above you can see how the line shows through the layers. This makes marking squares so much faster! And charm packs are so wonderfully lined up, it took me no time at all to have all the marking done.
Then you just follow the crease to sew. You can see how easy it is to see. This was actually the bottom square on a stack of five I marked at once.
For the second trick, you are going to sew on both lines. (Note that the second marked line is away from the fabrics you are sewing together.)
Once you have sewn on both lines, you trim in between the sewing and the pieces you would normally discard are now sewn together.
When these pieces are all pressed open, you have a stack of HSTs that can be used to embellish the back of your quilt or used in a second project.
I turned mine into these nine fun pinwheel blocks!
But I digress - back to the lovely Layers of Charm quilt!
I quilted it with a wonderfully textured echoed floral design and used a stencil to quilt a Fleur-d-lis in the gray space. The wonderful fruity colors in this line really bring summer to those wintry gray days.
This lap quilt was fun and easy to make and the pattern is a great way
to use a layercake. And if you don't have one in your stash, there
are many available at the Fat Quarter Shop. They really have a wonderful selection.
A huge thanks to the Fat Quarter Shop for including me in this blog hop and for this new free short cut quilt pattern. You guys are awesome!
Not only am I excited about this finish, I am also excited to be able to give one lucky reader a $25 gift certificate to do a little shopping at the Fat Quarter Shop - Yep, I'm having a giveaway!
To enter, just leave me a comment letting me know if you have ever used one of the Fat Quarter Shops' shortcut quilt patterns. If so, which ones have you tried. (One entry per person.)
Please make sure you’re not a no-reply blogger (or leave an email address in your comment if you’re not sure). I may not be able to reply to all comments left during the giveaway as it gets a bit overwhelming! But I certainly will try.
Sorry - This giveaway is closed!
The winner is #70 Trisch who is pretty excited.
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Sew Fresh Quilts
My Quilt Infatuation
