Hello Quilty Friends!
Happy Thursday to you!
Happy Fall!
Hard to believe it really is Fall now, but I know it’s here whether we’re ready or not. And I’m personally more than ready. We had such a hot and dry summer here in NW PA, so I’m eager for cooler weather.
Fall is definitely my very favorite season with its warm days and cool nights. All the gorgeous colors. The smells of the season. And the sounds. I truly love it all!
Another thing I love about Fall is that I start to feel more energized to get back to my many to-do lists. Summer definitely doesn’t inspire that in me. So now, it’s time to make plans to get things done. What is Fall to you?
I hope you’ve been enjoying our Jump into Fall quilt tutorials. Today’s project is beyond perfect for the season and I know you’re going to be excited to make this one.
VRD Falling Quilt Tutorial
Falling is truly a perfect project for this time of year, especially with all of the yummy fall fabrics at your local quilt shop and favorite online retailers. Falling is a pattern by Catherine, of Running Doe Quilts, who is one of our many talented VRD designers as well as a new VRD partner.
The quilt finishes at a generous 54″ x 72″ and goes together quickly with its oversized blocks and no borders (although you could easily add a border to make it bed-sized if you wanted to).
Get your digital pattern HERE or your print pattern HERE
Catherine even has kits available for the Falling quilt below – get yours HERE before they’re gone. Tell her Tricia sent you!
Okay, time to get going on today’s tutorial.
Of course, our first thing to do is gather up our fabrics. Today I’m using a lovely collection from Hoffman Fabrics called Sweet Breeze. It’s a great choice today as we end summer and slide into fall. Sadly, this is an older fabric collection and probably isn’t available anymore, but happily Jason Yenter has a gorgeous fall collection called Falling Leaves, you can find it HERE – I think his wonderful fabrics would make great Leaves.
Here are our Sweet Breeze fabrics for today’s tutorial in lovely greens, a few browns, with a wee touch of orange.
Let’s go ahead and cut out all the pieces we’ll need for Falling – the background, the Leaf fabrics, and the stems.
All right! All of our pieces are cut and ready to go.
Next we need to pair up our Leaf fabrics as each of the 12 blocks in the quilt uses 2 fabrics. I really love Catherine’s take on the traditional Maple Leaf quilt block, don’t you? She split it down the center so her leaves are two-toned. And the blocks are very big, which adds to the graphic appeal of this quilt.
The pattern suggests making 2 of each Leaf fabric combination, but you can mix and match your fabrics to your heart’s desire if you want, of course. I’m going to stick to the original plan today.
Now we’re ready to sew. We haves lots of Half Square Triangle (HST) units to make for the quilt. I’m going to make 2 matching Leaf blocks before moving on. I don’t want to get all mixed up!
To make HSTs, the first thing you need to do is layer your squares right sides together (RST) and draw a diagonal line – I like to use FriXion erasable pens for marking my fabrics.
Then we’re going to sew 1/4″ away from both sides of our drawn line.
I went ahead and sewed all of the HSTs for my first 2 blocks at one time. Do likewise if you wish.
Next we need to cut on the diagonal lines which will give us 2 HSTs.
All right, let’s head over to the ironing board to press these HSTs open. Don’t forget to cut off the little dog ears on the corners so your piecing will be more accurate.
Let’s make the stems next. Cut your background square in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. Then we’re going to center and sew a stem rectangle between those 2 background triangles. I pressed my seams towards the stem so they wouldn’t show through my background fabric. We need to make 2 of these – 1 for each of our matching Leaf blocks.
Before out stem units are finished, though, we need to trim them to the right size. Take your time when you do this step because you don’t want to miscut and make wonky stems.
Okay, now we’re ready to layout a block and sew it together. Once I’m happy with how the first block turned out, I’m going to make the second matching block. One Leaf pair done, 5 more pairs to go. Repeat the steps above to make 12 total Leaf blocks.
Woohoo! Here are my 12 Leaf blocks.
Now it’s time to arrange the blocks on my design wall. If you want your quilt to have the same movement as the Falling quilt on the cover of the pattern, you will need to flip and flop your blocks like Catherine’s. I only switched 1 or 2 blocks before I liked the arrangement. As you, know sometimes I spend more time arranging the blocks than actually making the quilt. But not today, yay!
You will want to take care while sewing your blocks together because sometimes you are sewing a point to a point. Careful pinning will help keep your points under control and will result in a cleaner and more accurately stitched quilt.
Next we are going to sew the blocks into rows and then sew the rows together to make the quilt top. Oops, this quilt is longer than my flannel wall, so I can’t show you the entire top yet. I told you it was a good sized quilt!
I just had to take my Falling flimsy outside to snap a photo in natural light so I could show you the entire top. Absolutely LOVE it! Can’t wait to finish it.
To complete your quilt, layer it with batting and backing fabric (or fleece like I plan to). Quilt it. Bind it. And don’t forget your label!
Have you made a Falling quilt already? Or if you plan to make one this Fall, please share a photo on our VRD Facebook group – we’d all love to see them!
Well, that’s it for me – I’m heading back to my sewing machine to get some more sewing in.
Take care and I’ll see you right here next week.
Sew. Laugh. Repeat.
Always,
Tricia @ VRD
Villa Rosa Quilts 