Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

It’s August??? It’s August! How did that happen??? It must have sneaked up behind me when I wasn’t looking….

The good news is that today is the Thursday after the first Friday of a new month! And guess what that means?

Yep, you got it! NEW PATTERNS!

NEW VRD Rose Card Patterns for August

Aren’t they awesome? Definitely something for everyone this month from panel quilts to modern quilts. I bet you’re already picking which ones you’re going to make, am I right? I must confess that Drizzle rather fascinates me and I am looking forward to giving it a try soon. Hmm, a new tutorial, perhaps? Or maybe several as all of the new patterns are great.

I know I probably say it every month, but our VRD designers keep surprising me with their innovative, fun, and easy to make patterns.

PSST! Here’s the good news — you can order a set of all 5 print patterns for $8.95 HERE. Sorry, but we do not offer digital sets of patterns at this time unless you sign up for a Pattern Club (see below for more info), but you can peruse all of our digital patterns (including our newest patterns this month) HERE.

But wait! There’s more! Tehehe — you knew I was going to say that.

We have a new table runner and snack mat for August, too.

Here is Honey, my most recent table runner pattern. It is quick and oh so satisfying because it uses many different fabrics. You can get the Honey print pattern HERE or the digital pattern HERE.

A lot of folks have already been asking about the fabric I used for the runner. It’s called Honey & Lavender by Deb Strain for Moda. It is available in quilt shops right now. As the runner uses fat eighths, you can find a fat eighth collection HERE just in case you can’t find it at your local quilt shop, because these fabrics seem to fly right off the shelves.

There’s also a new Snack Mat for August, too.

Awww! Isn’t this the cutest l’il watermelon slice? You can get the print snack mat pattern HERE or the digital snack mat pattern HERE.

Please forgive me for repeating myself, but as we have a lot of new subscribers and blog readers, I thought I’d remind all of you that you can get the new print patterns delivered right to your postal mail box every month if you live the USA.

If you want to get digital patterns every month, YOU CAN TOO!

All you have to do is follow one of the links to the appropriate Club form, below, and select “International” on the form in order to sign up to get digital pattern collections emailed to your inbox every month (you do not have to live outside the USA to sign up for digital patterns).

HERE you will find the form to fill out to sign up to receive the 5 main patterns each and every month (select “International” if you want the digital pattern sets).

OR

HERE you will find the form to fill out to sign up to receive the 5 main patterns in addition to table runners and/or accessory patterns (select “International” if you want the digital pattern sets).

Patterns always ship FREE, too. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and sign up to get your monthly card sets delivered right to your doorstep or your email inbox. Never miss a new pattern!

I hope you enjoyed last week’s post, 11 Awesome Ways to Incorporate Quilts into Your Life. Now that you know what to do with your quilts beyond the basics, let’s make more quilts. YEAH!

Ready for another Summer Quilt Tutorial???

VRD Weave Quilt Tutorial

This being the last month of summer, I was in the mood for a late summer warm and sunny feeling quilt and I think you’ll agree that my version of Running Doe’s Weave quilt pattern certainly feels like an warm hazy lazy August afternoon.

You can get your own print Weave pattern HERE or the digital Weave pattern HERE.

Sit back and enjoy this Weave tutorial.

For my Weave quilt today, I am using fabric from the Garnet Glow Batik Collection by our quilting partners, Hoffman California-International Fabrics.

Did you happen see my Berry-Licious tutorial a while back? I used the same fabric collection for that table runner as I am using for Weave. You can check out the Berry-Licious Table Runner Quilt Tutorial HERE.

Okay, let’s get started!

First thing you need to do is decide how you will arrange your fabrics. As you will see later in the tutorial, I had 6 lighter fat quarters and 6 darker fat quilters so I decided to alternate my lights and darks. This decision influenced how I cut my rectangles because 6 fabrics are cut one way and the other 6 fabrics are cut a different way.

The rectangles are simple to cut with a basic 6″ or 6.5″ x 24″ ruler and an 18″ x 24″ cutting mat. Simply lay the fat quarter out on your mat with the 22″ side horizontal and the 18″ vertical. Cut strips according to the size in the pattern and then cut the strips into rectangles. I was able to comfortably layer 3 fat quarters at a time to cut — do likewise if you feel comfortable.

Did you know that if your rotary cutter starts skipping while you cut, it’s probably time to change your rotary blade?

After cutting all of your fat quarters into rectangles, go ahead and cut your accent fabric into rectangles, too.

Now it’s time to sew the accent strips between matching rectangles. There are actually 2 different rows, so make sure to keep your fabrics straight.

Then press your rows. The middle photo shows my pile of rows ready to get pressed (and maybe untangled! LOL!).

The great news is that it doesn’t really matter which way you press your seams because the seams are all offset when you sew the rows together. This is really great and makes Weave a beginner friendly project.

Just a quick tip — while I was pressing my rows, I folded each row in half and pressed a crease for the center of the row. That way, as I pin the rows together, I can match up the centers so my quilt will come out straight and not skewed or twisted.

The rows are finished, so let’s put the rows up on the design wall. My plan, as I mentioned above is the alternate lighter and darker strips. Huh. A few strips up on my design board and I’m already rearranging.

All the strips are up. Hmm. Not quite. Arrange some more. There are 12 rows in this quilt and I don’t like how the lights and darks are not completely balanced. Back to the drawing board……what can I do now?

Let’s try it again.

AHA! I know what I’m gong to do — I am going to add another light row to the bottom because I always find an odd number more pleasing than an . I have an extra fat quarter for the top row, which would give the illusion of a top/bottom border if they are the same as well as some leftover accent fabric. It would also give me some visual balance with lights at the top and bottom instead of a light at the top and a dark at the bottom. Let’s go with that!

I know it’s hard to visualize right now, but trust me that the extra light strip at the bottom makes all the difference!

If I make this again in the future, I don’t think I’ll try to alternate lights and darks — I think random would probably be easier to put together.

Whew — I wasn’t sure I’d ever figure it out, but boy oh boy, am I glad that I did! Time to sew the rows together before I change my mind.

Remember when I pressed a crease in the center of each row? Now I am going to match up the centers of each row and then smooth the rows all the way to the ends. I put a pin in my center crease, and lined up the outside edges.

See the pin in the second photo, perpendicular to the edge at the end of the row? I think that’s probably the most important pin in the whole pinning the layers process — I keeps the rows square and keeps the rows from sliding and skewing when I am sewing. Thanks, Pat P. for teaching this important little trick to me when I was a beginning quilter.

My plan is to sew the rows into pairs, sew the pairs into quads, and then sew the quads together. I will add the 13th row to the last quad (so it will actually have 5 strips in it before I sew it to the previous quad).

Yay! It too me less time to sew the rows together than it did for me to arrange the rows to my liking. Figures……..

Sorry, Weave is a bit too big for me to show you the whole thing on my design wall.

Let’s go outside!

Here it is — Miss America. Ummmm, maybe not. Seriously, though, here is my Weave quilt top.

I love the warm saturated colors! Maybe I should have picked a slightly darker accent, but I do like its subtlety. It really is a late summer sun-kissed quilt. Now I just need to get it layered so I can quilt it……

Well, I think that’s about it for me this week.

Until next Thursday —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD