Twisted Squares in Modern Patchwork

I'm excited to share that I have a quilt featured in the September/October issue of Modern Patchwork magazine! The quilt is called Twisted Squares, and I used the Zentastic fabric collection from Contempo Studio to make it. 

I'd been playing around with this block for a while--12" blocks in four rows of three blocks, just one large block, and then ultimately this four-block version. I really like the design created in the center where the four blocks come together. The blocks measure 24" square. 

I had fun picking the fabrics for this quilt--the Zentastic line has a lot of single-color prints with simple designs--circles, asterisks, wavy lines--so I had plenty of colors to choose from! 

This issue's cover; my quilt mostly coordinates, colorwise! 

Here's the spread with the photo inside. 

I love the texture Diane created with the quilting. She had previously quilted a quilt of mine with the illusion of overlapping pieces, like this one, and I asked her to use the same treatment--to give each color/position its own stitch pattern to help along that overlapping feeling. She did a great job! I especially love the lines in the block centers. 

Find the September/October issue of Modern Patchwork here.
See more of what's in the issue here.
See the Zentastic fabric collection here.

Everyone's a Star Quilt Along - Week 5

I'm over @Sewinlovewithfabric today showing how to assemble the Everyone's a Star Quilt Along using Contempo's Zentastic fabrics. 

I assembled this by adding sewing the sashing strips and squares to each block, rather than assembling sashing rows separately from block rows. 

(Check out the blog post to see a visual.)

p.s. Notice those lovely brown leaves in the background? That was yesterday. Today there's snow on the ground. Happy spring?

Everyone's a Star Quilt Along - Week 4

I'm part of the Everyone's a Star Quilt Along @Sewinlovewithfabric. The Quilt Along is in its 4th week--next week it'll be time to assemble the quilt! I'm making the quilt using the Zentastic fabric collection.

Here's my digital rendering for the entire quilt. I used the same white background print and black and gray coordinates in each block, and then chose one bright print as an accent. 

Scrappy, but organized. 

These are my Star #3 blocks--four different colors. 

You can find the tutorial for these blocks here.

I made the blocks just like the tutorial, except when I was cutting the 2-1/2" x 4-1/2" black pieces, I cut half of them from a 4-1/2" wide strip (so I cut 2-1/2" segments) and half from a 2-1/2" strip (where I cut 4-1/2" segments). This allowed me to keep the directional black print all going in the same direction. 

One more week and this quilt top is finished! 

Everyone's a Star Quilt Along

I'm part of the Everyone's a Star Quilt Along @Sewinlovewithfabric. 

Do you know what's great about a quilt along? The peer pressure. Five weeks to make the quilt. It's doable, and if everybody else is doing it, you can too! You won't end up with another half-finished quilt to hide in a drawer. 

Plus the design uses a variety of simple star blocks, and I don't know about you, but I love star blocks! And I love a quilt that doesn't require making the same block over and over again. If you're looking for a fun and easy star sampler quilt to make, give this one a try! 

I'm making the quilt using the Zentastic fabric collection.

Here's my digital rendering. I used the same white background print and black and gray coordinates in each block, and then chose one bright print as an accent. 

Scrappy, but organized. 

These are my Star #2 blocks--four different colors. 

You can find the tutorial for these blocks here.

The only difference in how I made the blocks is that I accounted for the black fabric in my quilt being directional, so when I cut the two black squares diagonally in half for each block, I cut them like this (note how the pattern runs in a different direction in each square): 

You definitely don't have to do this--if you're using a directional print, you can ignore that completely. But remember up above when I described my quilt as "organized scrappy?" Yep. That "organized" bit compelled me to make sure all of my black pieces run in the same direction! 

If you're just catching onto the Quilt Along, here are my Star #1 blocks. 

You can find the tutorial here.

Here's the cutting chart. Click here for a printable pdf.