Take That, Scrap Bin! / Beauties Pageant 331

I am making good progress on my scrappy Falling Stars. I am even—ahem!—ahead of the sew-along schedule.

I’m past the halfway point of making blocks and couldn’t resist throwing some of them on my design board, just to appreciate the effect created by all that value play.

It’s pretty fabulous, right? What’s so much fun about scrappy projects is appreciating the overall quilt top and then getting really close and seeing the small parts that make it up. Take a look at these ...

 

There are so many low-volume prints in the background. Really, that’s what instigated me to embark on this project: I have a small drawer full of low-volume scraps, and this project decimated it. I managed to squeak out enough black prints to fulfill the pattern’s requirements, but I did have to purchase some of the brown-grays. And of course, cutting into them creates—you guessed it!—more scraps. Blerg!

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Ornament Collection Quilt / Beauties Pageant 303

When I learned that one of my sisters-in-law likes Rifle Paper Co’s designs, I took it as an opportunity to—ahem!—buy some fabric. I chose selections from multiple lines to curate a collection of wintery scenes, Nutcracker motifs, and Christmas decorations. 



The oversize baubles and balls in my Ornament Collection quilt pattern were the perfect venue for these prints. I loved using big swaths of the fabrics to feature the sweet designs instead of cutting them into tiny bits. 

And I am smitten with the palette. There were so many colors in the fabrics to choose from. I homed in on grayish blue, orangey red, apple green, and forest green. I am a sucker for nontraditional holiday palettes!

My friend Ophelia gave this project her special panto treatment with a swirly holly-and-berry design, and I found the perfect striped fabric for the binding, one that plays off the grayish blue in the ornament frames. I hope I can get my hands on more of it because I have a bunch of fabric leftover, and naturally, I’m planning on a near-identical Ornament Collection for my other sister-in-law, who is also a fan of Rifle Paper. : )

We’re less than five months out from Christmas ... Is anyone else sewing now for the holidays?!
 

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Ornament Collection Pattern Release / Beauties Pageant 273

Ornament Collection, the design I’ve been talking about the past few weeks, is done, and I’ve released the pattern out into the world!

Instructions include two projects that are appropriate for confident beginners and above: a large throw-size quilt and a table runner. If your weekend sewing plans are open, you can start your project today and have a quilt top finished before the turkey is on the table next Thursday. (If you don’t celebrate American Thanksgiving, the turkey is optional but recommended.)

This pattern is especially suited to those of you who want to ...

* Sew a big quilt fast—the throw finishes at 70" x 73.5"



* Use leftover squares from a layer cake—the runner requires just five squares 10" x 10"



* Maximize your precuts—you can sew two throws and two runners with a single layer cake (although fat quarters work, too!)



* Celebrate the holidays by making big, bold blocks—the ball blocks finish at 13.5" x 14.5", and the bauble blocks finish at 8.5" x 14.5"

For my first Ornament Collection project, pictured at the top of the post, I opened up a layer cake of Twas by Jill Howarth for Riley Blake. The red, green, and pink palette is the perfect complement to the vintage vibe of Twas.

My next version, which I am in the process of piecing now, incorporates prints from Rifle Paper Co.’s holiday lines for Cotton and Steel. I’m using another light background with this second quilt because it’s more in line with my personal aesthetic .... and a cream or a white doesn’t show the Golden Retriever hair the way a dark background would! I love nontraditional Christmas palettes, and the pale blue and orangey-red I am using will change things up nicely ...

A green background would be equally fabulous, though, and drive home the idea that these are ornaments hanging on the tree. Here is the throw mocked up with Cozy Wonderland by Fancy That Design House for Moda ...

I am very pleased with how my first Ornament Collection came out. I received some expert advice about quilting options for my second version and will share that in a future post! Until then, this is my favorite finish for November, so I am linking up over at Quilting Jet Girl!

All PDF Patterns 25% Off

To celebrate the release of Ornament Collection, all PDF patterns (excluding the Almost Free for Charity patterns) are 25% off through 11/30/2024. No code required. This is my Black Friday sale—snag your good buys now!

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Let's Talk Table Runners / Beauties Pageant 272

In the 10-plus years I’ve been quilting, I have made a total of three table runners. On one hand, I have limited places in my house I’d display a runner. My children (and/or dogs) may do bad things to a table runner (there was an applesauce incident on the kitchen table just this past week!). And putting covers on my pretty table tops doesn’t seem really “me.”

On the other, if I made more runners, I would have more-frequent finishes, and wouldn’t that be nice?

When designing my Ornament Collection pattern (releasing next Tuesday, November 19), I added a runner option. The sample I’ve made so far is the throw, and it’s a generously sized throw at that. But I figured that some people might want a smaller, faster finish. What I didn’t consider until Anne (@batiksbythebay) mentioned it to me on Instagram is that people who live in the southern hemisphere celebrate Christmas in the summer. They have little need for a Christmas-themed throw. Of course! Why didn’t I consider that? Needless to say, all future Christmas designs from me will include the option of a smaller finish for that very reason.

Me with a freshly longarmed Ornament Collection. Picture and quilting by Ophelia Chang.

Because I am a runner newbie, however, I had to ask Anne how she would orient the ornaments in a runner.

Should they all be right side up (as I would prefer on a runner displayed on a console placed against a wall)?

Or should the baubles be upside down (as I would prefer on a runner displayed on a kitchen island)?

Anne said both, and that’s what I’ll do. : )

So, what other runners have I made up to this point?

There was the runner I made for the sideboard in my dining room (and still resides there).

There was the runner I made from Modern Plus Sign Quilts and gifted to a friend.

And then there was the runner I made from a free pattern on Moda Bake Shop and gifted to another friend.

You knew this was coming ... I am soliciting any and all thoughts on quilted runners. Do you sew them? Do you display them? What are your thoughts on the issue of orientation? Thank you in advance!

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New Christmas Pattern on the Horizon! / Beauties Pageant 271

I am always on the lookout for quilt patterns that give especially beautiful prints the spotlight they deserve. It was the reason I designed Pretty in Pluses back in 2021: I loved the large-scale flowers in Anna Maria Horner’s Hindsight line and couldn’t bear to chop them into little pieces, so I created a venue for them to shine. Other versions of the quilt followed, including the pattern’s cover quilt in Heather Ross’s Far, Far Away 2 collection for Windham ...

When it came time to sew with a stashed layer cake of Jill Howarth’s Twas collection for Riley Blake, I knew I wanted to design something special for all those sweet novelty prints. What you see pictured in this post is the beginning of that new pattern. I’m calling it Ornament Collection, a nod to the tradition my mom started with me and my sister (and I’ve continued with my two boys) of marking each holiday season with a new ball or bauble for the Christmas tree.

This quilty collection contains two different ornament designs. You see the ball blocks in this post. There are also bauble blocks. Both block designs were specifically created to work with layer cake squares, but you could just as easily cut the centers of your ornaments from fat quarters (or scraps—but more on that later!).

These blocks are big, friends! And all you need for a generously sized throw quilt is 15 layer cake squares or 8 fat quarters.

This first version isn’t finished, yet I already have a second one—in Rifle Paper Co. prints—in the works. I can’t wait to share more! 

Are you a fan of seasonal sewing? I don’t expect to gift many handmade items this year. If I wrap up a quilt or two in the next six weeks, I’ll be a happy quilter!

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Triangle Pouches, Not a Sandhill Sling / Beauties Pageant 241

If you’ve been keeping up with my posts the past few months, you may recognize the sweet zippered makes in this post. Yes, I sewed some more of Sew Lux’s Triangle Pouches! Using scraps from a Songbook jelly roll (Fancy That Design House for Moda) and a Holiday Essentials Christmas mini-charm pack (Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda), I made two more pouches. (You can read my original post about the Triangle Pouch here.)

Although there are three Triangle Pouches pictured in today’s post, I’ve actually made a total of four—the last of which was sewn with Melody Miller’s Stay Gold collection. It proved to be my favorite thus far, so I’m sad I didn’t think to snap a pic before I wrapped it up with a little plate from the Fish Museum and Circus as my contribution to a guildwide Yankee swap.

Now, you may be thinking that all signs point to the fact that this post is about Triangle Pouches. In fact, it is a post that’s not about a Sandhill Sling finish. : /

I bought a kit to make the popular Noodlehead sling from Stitch Supply Co. back in January 2022. Then, because I had yet to embark on making it despite owning a kit, I signed up for a Sandhill Sling class through my guild this past September.

And here we are, almost four months later, with no finished Sandhill Sling. 

I can summarize the problem in one word: gussets. The exterior bag is completed, with the lining waiting to be inserted, and the outer gusset is off by 3/8 inch. That 3/8 inch has me completely paralyzed. Do I just forge ahead and live with what might seem to some makers like a minor oversight? (In a quilt project, 3/8 inch would almost always have me ripping out lines of stitching.) Or do I unpick the exterior gusset and hope that a second try will improve the situation, when it may actually end up making things worse?

Well, I tell you what I do ... I write a post about Triangle Pouches!

Needless to say, I will be spending the last days of 2023 trying to muster the courage to unpick that gusset. I wish you the best—with sewing, quilting, and beyond—as we wrap up this year and step into the next. : )

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Holiday Quilts I Love / Beauties Pageant 198

As a kid, I loved seeing all the Christmas trinkets my grandmother would unearth every December, from her vintage reindeer candles to her manger scene. Those items were as much a part of the celebration as the tree or the desserts she contributed to the holiday spread.

Although I appreciated the familiarity of my grandmother’s holiday decor and enjoyed revisiting those objects year after year, it took me decades to realize that I’m not much of a seasonal decorator. And I have tried! I have bought some beautiful and meaningful objects over the years, most of which are still (even on December 16) in boxes in my attic. A few years ago, though, I started making quilts with Christmas and winter themes. Finally, I found my way of celebrating the season.

What you see here are the wintry quilts that live at From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters. It’s worth noting that I enjoyed making them so much that I sewed three of these four patterns twice (the twins were gifted years ago).

All of these patterns have their strengths. From top to bottom, the Christmas trees are a great stash buster, Kate Spain’s Chalet pattern makes the most of fat quarters, Camille Roskelley’s Norway design features big, bold blocks, and Gingiber’s Merrily quilt is an interesting way to use panels of a certain size. To read more about these projects—and to see some of their backs—click on the links below.

• Christmas trees (Amy Smart)
  
• Chalet (Kate Spain)
• Merrily (Gingiber)
• Norway (Camille Roskelley)

If you’ve encountered a winter-themed quilt pattern that you’ve loved enough to make twice, I’d love to hear about it!

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