Robo Boogie All Stacked Up!

My first quarter project as a Benartex Ambassador was oh so much fun to create! It’s a familiar quilt pattern in our Colourwerx catalogue of patterns called ‘All Stacked Up’. The beauty of this ‘looks complicated but it’s not’ pattern design is that it’s oh-so-easy to piece and it looks great in almost any fabric collection out there.

For the fabric I chose a new collection that is super sweet and cute called ‘Robo Boogie’ designed by Irene Staal from Sugaridoo Designs. This new collection from Irene is super cute – the colors are fresh and modern and the designs range from playful robots, widgets, digits and all things that look like computer code. They’re geometric elements; tiny squares, dancing half circles and quirky triangles. Irene’s love for color and her background as a robotics engineer, merge perfectly together in this fabric line.

I started with (1) Fat Quarter bundle of ‘Robo Boogie” and a light gray background fabric from Benartex Fabrics’ Basics line called Chalk Basics. After cutting all of the fabrics according to my ‘All Stacked Up’ pattern instructions, I paired fabrics together to make the blocks. Looks at the super cute designs on the fabrics and the fresh happy colour palette!

Then I made Half Square Triangles for the day. I love this type of familiar repetitive stitching and trimming as I can relax and plan out other projects that would be fun to make! Lots of stitching and lots of trimming!

Then I got my scant 1/4″ sewing mojo going and started to piece the blocks. It was a piecing party with just me and my trusty BERNINA. This is the truly satisfying part about patterns like this – once the fabrics are paired, each pairing of fabrics is pieced in the exact same way to create (3) identical blocks – but take note that one of the blocks’ seams should be pressed in the opposite direction from the other two blocks.

Check out the variety of combinations and blocks that I made – I love the fabrics as the colors are bright and happy and the robot designs are just oh-so-cute!!

Once all the blocks were made, I was ready to start laying out the blocks according to the diagrams in our ‘All Stacked Up’ pattern and start to stitch blocks together to form rows – and then rows together to complete the quilt top. Yay! Almost complete!~

Once the top was completed, I choose a backing fabric. What do you think? This is an Alexander Henry piece from the “Ghastleys” fabric collection. I thought it complimented the fabrics well!

Next it was Teresa’s – at Quilting is my Bliss – turn to do her magic machine quilting. She always does such a wonderful job with all of our quilts and this time was no exception. She chose a fabulously modern edge to edge pattern and quilted the top with a light lemon yellow colored thread. Perfection!

For the binding, I chose to use the teal colored stripe from the collection and cut it on the 45 degree bias so the stripe ‘candy-caned’ down the edges of the quilt. I alway stitch my binding on by machine through the whole process – no hand stitching here! If you’d like to learn my fast method of stitching binding on by machine, I have a tutorial that you can view right here!

Voila! All done…..All in all, it was super fun quilt to make for my for my first ambassador project!

If you’d like to make one of your very own, we currently have ‘Robo Boogie’ fat quarter bundles available in our Colourwerx shop. To make this Small Lap Size (57″ x 65″) you’ll need just one fat quarter bundle with 20 FQ’s, 3/4 yard of a neutral background fabric and the All Stacked Up pattern.

Now I’m looking forward to my 2nd Quarter Ambassador project where I’ll be getting wonky and curvy in the same quilt! Thanks for following along and until our next colour fix! xoxo. Linda

All Stacked Up QuiltAlong: Week 3 – Put It All Together

Welcome back to the last and final week of our All Stacked Up QuiltAlong!  This is the week where we put it all together – albeit some of you may have already finished your quilt top because quite frankly, once you’ve pieced the blocks in Week #2 it’s really hard not to just wanna finish off the top right away!

Here is this week’s companion video for you – enjoy!!

So by now all of your blocks should be pieced and complete – you should have (3) identical blocks from each individual pair of fabrics.

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If you’re just hopping into the QuiltAlong, you might want to review the previous week’s posts right here:

Week #1 – Gather Your Materials & Precut the Fabrics
Week #2 – Piece the Blocks

Lay Out Blocks According to the Quilt Top Diagram —
Once all of your blocks are pieced, you are ready to lay out the blocks according to one of the quilt top diagrams included in the pattern on pages 6-10…..and begin to stitch blocks together to form rows… and stitch rows together to complete the quilt top.

Let me take a moment to explain the diagrams you see there.  Each set of (3) identical blocks has a number – if you kept pairs of fabrics together during the cutting and piecing parts of the project, you would end up with (3) identical blocks of for example, Fabric A & Fabric B …..and (3) additional blocks of Fabric A & Fabric B that are the mirror image of the first three (meaning the positions of Fabric A & Fabric B are reversed in the second set of three identical blocks).

So when looking at for example, the Baby Quilt Size diagram on page 6, you’ll see that the #1 & #2 block sets are the mirrored image of each other. It was just our way when writing the pattern to give you a little extra help for color disbursement and laying out block combinations.

Here’s what my top looks like when laid out on the design board. Again I’m using Shayla Wolf’s from Sassafras Lane Designs newest collection called “Favorite Things”.

Be sure to check back next week here on the Colourwerx Blog and on Instagram to see my finished ‘All Stacked Up’ quilt and to take part in the “Favorite Things” Instagram tour – Shayla and Windham Fabrics will be giving away fat quarter bundles of the ‘Favorite Things’ collection too! Woo Hoo!

This concludes out All Stacked Up QuiltAlong – I hope you enjoyed it!

Thank you so much for following along and for your continued support!  Look for more Colourwerx QuiltAlongs on our Colourwerx Facebook page or on our website under QuiltAlongs!

Until your next colour fix – happy quilting!  Linda & Carl xxoo

All Stacked Up QuiltAlong: Week 2 – Piece the Blocks

Hello!  And welcome to the second week of our super fast and fun new quiltalong: All Stacked Up.

This week is all about piecing the fun All Stacked Up quilt block. By now you should have your fabrics selected and precut according to pages 1 -2 in the All Stacked Up pattern. You should also have a fairly good idea about which fabrics will be paired together. If you are just joining us this week, please refer back to Week #1’s All Stacked Up QAL blog Post right here.

COMPANION VIDEO –
Each week of the quiltalong, I always post a companion video and this week is no exception….If you’d like to view this week’s companion video to Week #2 of the All Stacked Up QAL, view it here:

Set Your Machine Up for Success —
Before we start the piecing fun, I always think it a good idea to set your sewing machine up for stitching success.

Here are few things I always do when starting a new project that requires precision piecing:
• Lift the stitchplate and clean out all of those dust bunnies;
• Change the needle to a new needle – I prefer the Schmetz 75/11 Quilting Needles for precision piecing;
• Thread your machine with a neutral colored 100% cotton , 50 weight thread – my go-to color and thread is #2615 from Aurifil Thread;

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• And most importantly, have a good idea of how to stitch a scant 1/4″ seam…

What’s a Scant 1/4″ Seam You Say?? —
A scant 1/4″ seam is a hair less than a full 1/4″ seam.

Many machine manufactuers 1/4″ presser feet are FULL 1/4″ seams . In order to sew accurate 1/4″ seams and have our precision pieced blocks turn out to exactly the finished size they need to, we need to stitch scant 1/4″ seams.

If you’ve ever been frustrated by achieving the perfect seam allowance for quilting then I think I have the perfect little tool for you….it’s the Perkins Perfect Piecing Seam Guide and it works like a dream.

Available at most quilt shops and through Amazon, this little ruler is genius! It is quite simple – it has a hole in the middle and a line that runs end to end of the ruler and through the middle of the hole. The line designates a scant 1/4″ seam allowance.

You place the ruler under your presser foot, drop your needle down into the hole and lower your presser foot on to the ruler. You can now clearly see where you need to line up the fabric edge of your units to achieve a scant 1/4″ seam. Look closely!! – more than likely, it will not be lined up with the edge of your 1/4″ presser foot, but rather just under the edge of the foot and a little bit to the left. Once you study this, you can run a piece of painter’s tape or washi tape along the edge of the Perkins Piecing Guide to mark the stitch plate of your machine for scant 1/4″ precision perfect seam piecing! You are ready to go !

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Just a Final Thought on Fabric Pairings —
I know the All Stacked Up pattern says that once you pair fabrics together, they should remain paired together through block piecing, etc….etc…etc…

But really, do they?? Once all of your fabrics are precut and paired up, you do have one final opportunity before piecing to mix up or revise your fabric pairings.

Here’s an example: my first pairing for these fabrics was mixing the green (Fabric A) with the yellow (Fabric B).

But after looking at all of my fabrics, I decided I wanted to mix up the pairings. Now I know from reading the pattern on page 3, that I need (X) amount of units in Fabric A paired with (X) amount of units in Fabric B to make (3) identical blocks. So looking at the pairing on the right side if I wanted to trade out my smaller green Fabric A units for let’s say some smaller lime green Fabric A units, I could! I can mix and match all day – as long as I have the total units for Fabric A and the total units for Fabric B paired in each grouping as specified on page 3 of the pattern.

Let’s take another look at fabric pairings…..here are my first pairings. You can see I’ve got magenta with yellow, green with orange, blue with salmon and so on….

After I precut my fabrics, I revised some of my combinations to create a more color wheel order for the quilt blocks and ended up with these fabric pairings that I like a lot better. In the end, none of my original pairs stayed together and in fact each pair is a completely different combination of fabrics than the other.

So yes, before you start piecing, take a moment to review your fabric pairings ….if you want to switch fabrics from pairing to pairing, heck yes – go ahead ! Just double check that you have the total units needed in the final pairings to make 3 identical blocks.

Piecing the Block —
Referring to the directions in the All Stacked Up pattern on pages 3-4, start by making half square triangles. Add (2) Background Fabric squares to each fabric pairing. Place the square Background Fabrics with the square Fabric A units and make Half Square Triangles – (4) squares in will yield (4) half square triangles out.

Use your square ruler and line up the diagonal line of the ruler on top of the diagonal line of the half square triangle unit to trim and square down each square to the appropriate size.

Discard (1) of the units as you will only need (3) half square triangles for the project.

Piecing the block couldn’t be more simple and chain piecing the (3) individual blocks makes this step go even faster! So go forth and piece all of your fabric pairing to create (3) identical blocks from each fabric pairing following the instructions on pages 3-4 in the All Stacked Up pattern!

That is it for Week #2! I’ll be back next week for Week #3 – our final week- where we’ll be piecing the quilt top together!

Thank you for following along and until then, happy colouricious quilting! L&C xxoo

Oh-my-Kaffe!

It’s no secret that Carl and I are huge (and I mean humongous) Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric fans….so last year when Free Spirit Fabrics asked us to design quilt patterns for some of the future Kaffe collections – we were – to say at the very least – super thrilled!

The Kaffe Fassett Collective (or also known as KFC) includes not only the master of colour and design himself, Kaffe Fassett, but also fellow designers Brandon Mably and Philip Jacobs.

These three designers collaborate and create the gorgeous fabrics you see.  Kaffe’s long time friend and associate – Liza Roos Lucy – wrangles this dynamic trio and also owns/operates the KFC online shop – Glorious Colour – where you can purchase previous released and new KFC fabrics, books and patterns and specialized fabric kits.  She, Philip and Brandon also host the very popular and always inspiring Facebook group, the Kaffe Fassett Collective.  Both sites are saturated with KFC fabrics, patterns and projects to inspire you!

While Brandon and Philip have their own unique design styles (Brandon does the wild and kooky and Philip does the floral & botanicals)  – Kaffe pulls all of their designs together into cohesive collections by personally colouring each design by hand.  What makes their fabrics so uniquely beautiful and wonderfully detailed is that each master pattern is handpainted (a rare thing in this computerized age)  – this “painting” then serves as the master design for the fabric mills to follow for detail, colour, screenprints and registration when they print it on the fabric you then purchase.

This last Spring, three of our quilt designs using the KFC Spring 2017 collection were released as free downloads or kits on the Free Spirit and Craftsy websites – “All Stacked Up”, “Fan Dance” and “Waterfall”.  Links to download the free patterns are at the bottom of the post. The other, “Waterfall” – of which we made two versions – is now available for purchase as a kit on Craftsy.

“All Stacked Up” – Although the overall design  appears complicated with the overlapping and tiled patterns – the single block itself is so simple:  a half square triangle with two coordinating pairs of strips sewn on 2 sides.  Create two or three of the same block, follow the layout and you’ll have this quilt whipped up in no time.

And here’s a tip – organize and pair up your fabrics first and if you cut your strips a half inch larger – you can then trim them to the exact size after adding each one, therefore keeping the block perfectly square.

So give it a try – “All Stacked Up” remains one of the most popular patterns downloaded this year on the Free Spirit site – so kudos to you guys and thank you!  Fabric kits are also available at Hancock’s of Paducah and Waterwheel House Quilt Shop in Vermont!

“Fan Dance” is another free pattern available.  Again, a super easy pattern but this one is super dramatic when complete and allows you to use some of those huge patterned fabrics for the background.  This was a fun one to work up as Brandon’s Can Can ladies served as a constant source of amusement when cutting the fan blades – seeing which part of the lady would show up where – oh my!

Another super easy to piece quilt.  Cut the blades, sew together and appliqué to the background squares.  This is basically 1/4 of a dresden flower block.  I appliquéd my blades on with clear monfilament thread but you could also use a decorative thread to add highlights to the edges of the blades.  Two 1/4 dresden blocks make a “fan” block!

The third quilt – “Waterfall” – remains one of my all time favorites – we designed and made two versions of  this quilt – a cool colourway and a tropical colourway.  These blocks are a bit more labor intensive but well worth it and the fabrics in the kit on Craftsy are to die for!  The block is made of basic shapes – squares and  rectangles with a folded over triangle.  When all pieced together, the result creates lots of secondary patterns and its hard for the eye to see where the individual blocks start or overlap- kinda like a waterfall…. Super fast and gorgeous! (Full disclosure:  I bought the Cool kit for myself).

Teresa Silva of Quilting is my Bliss – did a gorgeous job, as always, machine quilting all of these quilts – her work is always super stunning and I wish we could somehow show better pictures for you.  Many times we have to take the pictures with low exposure to show off the machine quilting but this also makes the fabric look somewhat dull.   Check out the closeups below.

All of these are perfect patterns to pull from your KFC stash or take the opportunity to,  of course,  add to your KFC stash by ordering more!  And I have it on the best authority, that future KFC collections are also equally gorgeous and stunning – look for KFC Spring and Fall 2018 collections to be released very soon!  We posted a sneek peek on our Instagram and Facebook page a few days ago….

Have fun and enjoy!  Until your next colour fix~ xxoo Linda & Carl

Links:
To download the free pattern for All Stacked Up.
To order a fabric kit/pattern for All Stacked Up.
To download the free pattern for Fan Dance.
To purchase the Waterfall – Cool (blues) Colourway fabric kit.
To purchase the Waterfall – Tropical (oranges) Colourway fabric kit.