Double-Sided Diamond Quilt / Beauties Pageant 230

The Double-Sided Diamond Quilt is one of my Almost Free for Charity PDF patterns. 

It’s just $3 in my Etsy shop, $1 of which goes to an organization supporting the Down syndrome community.

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I’ve been on a roll these past few weeks with posts about precuts. First, I revealed a finished quilt of 2.5-inch strips. Then I followed up with some recommended jelly roll patterns and projects for 2.5-inch squares. So I thought I’d talk a bit about layer cakes today.

First of all, for any precut newbies out there: Layer cakes are collections of 10-inch squares. Each one usually contains 42 squares, but that number can vary from one manufacturer to another. 

I love layer cakes for their versatility—there are just so many smaller shapes I can cut from them! They’re also fabulous to use as 10-inch squares, however, and that was something I explored in this quilt ...

This is my Double-Sided Diamond Quilt, and it’s my love song to big blocks. The top uses 10-inch squares to supersize half-square triangles, creating a show-stopping project.

Because the top requires just 24 layer cake squares and the one I had contained 42, I designed a coordinating backing of small diamonds, making this project two quilts in one.

I’ve been meaning to make this pattern again but haven’t been successful fitting it into my to-sew schedule. The next-best option was to play with the design in Electric Quilt and explore the possibilities.

My original Double-Side Diamond Quilt was made with Little Ruby, a collection from Moda by Bonnie and Camille. Bonnie has since retired. Camille is still designing fabric, though, and most recent collection, Lighthearted, just shipped to stores this month. Lighthearted features the trademark B&C palette ...

I use so many solids as backgrounds, it was nice to see this design mocked up with those tiny hearts in the background.

And a backing that pulls out the pink (with just the slightest bit of orange) from the collection makes a beautiful companion for the front. Red and green is my favorite complementary pair. This mocked-up combination does not disappoint!

I’ll work on some additional mockups in the upcoming week. Do you have any requests? EQ and I are at your service!

The Double-Sided Diamond Quilt went out free to newsletter subscribers back in May. Now it is one of my Almost Free for Charity PDF patterns. It’s just $3 in my Etsy shop, $1 of which goes to an organization supporting the Down syndrome community. (To subscribe to the newsletter and receive future free patterns in your inbox, click here.)

On that note, next month is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. To read about my story raising a son with Down syndrome, read this post.

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
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• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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So Many 2.5-Inch Squares, So Little Time / Beauties Pageant 229

Ever since last week’s post, I’ve had precuts on my mind—namely, minicharm packs and the 2.5-inch squares in them. It’s rare that I purchase minicharm packs because they don’t contain that much fabric and the project options for them are limited. But I’m a big fan of 2.5-inch squares overall. In fact, my scraps are stored in two forms: Substantial pieces are sorted by color and put in a drawer; odd-shaped pieces are cut into 2.5-inch squares and stored in a plastic bin. Currently, that plastic bin is overflowing. It’s a treasure chest of different fabric collections and colors, and I get excited thinking of the potential that lies there. But what does one do with an abundance of 2.5-inch squares? I looked back in the From Bolt to Beauty archives and came up with a list of projects large and small.

 

Granny Square Quilt

I finished my Scrappy Granny Square Quilt back in 2021. I cut and sewed over twelve hundred squares for it, so as you can imagine, it was a slow project, one I picked up to make a block or two and then put down for a few weeks (or months). There is no pattern for this. I simply pieced the a block as laid out below, trimmed it while trying to maintain those points, and sewed everything together with a 1.5-inch (unfinished) sashing. For more pictures of this finish, click here.

 

Pixelated Picture Quilt

Pixelated picture quilts had a moment in the spring of 2022 when Tilda released its free Embroidery Flowers pattern. I quickly scooped up a kit that included all 46 colors to make the project, but there are bunches of pixelated quilts out there. Kitchen Table Quilting’s fire truck tutorial is another one (learn more about my version here and here). If a quick Google search doesn’t give you options that pique your interest, you could use a cross-stitch pattern to make something that does.

 

Hexagon Projects

Minicharm squares are the perfect size to make projects that incorporate the hexagon technique pioneered by Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft. I’ve made multiple, all of which have been pillows or bags. And although I steer away from using commercially produced minicharm packs, the Market Bag I sewed required just one. Read more about my hexagon projects at these links:

• A rainbow pillow
• A pillow in Denyse Schmidt fabrics
• A hexagon-adorned Market Bag

Are you like me, not-so-secretly sitting on a stash of 2.5-inch squares. And if so, what do you plan on doing with them? Inspire us with your ideas in the comments!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Two Patterns for National Sew a Jelly Roll Day / Beauties Pageant 228

Have you heard about National Sew a Jelly Roll Day? (It’s a real thing, up there with National Golden Retriever Day and National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!) On the third Saturday of September each year, we’re encouraged to unroll those lovely bundles of strips and get to quilt making!

Thimble Blossoms’ Patchwork Sky

One jelly roll pattern I sewed recently and wanted to recommend to you is Thimble Blossoms’ Patchwork Sky. (Thimble Blossoms is Camille Roskelley’s pattern company.) This project turned me into a fan of strip sewing—that is, sewing the strips together length-wise and then cutting them into usable units for the quilt top. 

That technique makes the 16-patches in between the big stars go together much faster, while still maintaining the super-scrappy, I-pieced-all-these-little-squares-individually look.

I had hoped to have my Patchwork Sky all quilted and bound for a National Sew a Jelly Roll Day debut—after all, it’s been basted since June!—but here you see the project as a flimsy. I am planning on quilting double lines on an angle all over this top and binding it with Grunge in wild ginger (the stars are Grunge in blue steel). Here’s hoping it crosses the finish line before the end of the year!

Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt

Regular readers are familiar with the second pattern I wanted to showcase today. It’s my own Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt. This humble pattern has been my most successful to date, and the ombre version was so well received that I recently updated the cover of the PDF version with it.

Patchwork Sky is not a weekend project, but the child and lap sizes of Ridiculously Easy are. Personally, I think the lap size is the project’s sweet spot, because it calls for 29 strips and jelly rolls usually contain 40. In other words, there is a little wiggle room for you to select the fabrics that work best with your background fabric.

The pattern requires sewing long columns together (it is not a block-based pattern) and includes tips on getting great results. If you’re a new sewist, I recommend making one of the smaller sizes before embarking on one of the larger sizes.

Will you be at your machine on National Sew a Jelly Roll Day? If so, we’d love to hear what you plan on making!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter