The Quilty Fun Sew Along - Week 20 - The Big Finish!!! ...

Hello cute people!

Today the big finish of the

Quilty Fun Sew Along

 is here at last.

A big thank you to all

 of you quilty fun-ers out there,

and to all of those who

 played a sew along hostess with the most-est! 

And of course Kimberly and the girls at 

Fat Quarter Shop

 for being large and in charge 

and for 

sponsoring all of the giveaways!

Quilty Fun

Lessons in Scrappy Patchwork

I've had so much fun seeing everyone

 playing with all of the blocks in my book:)

It has given me such a thrill 

knowing that you all have been 

choosing your fabrics ...

cutting them all up into

 cute little pieces ...

and then sewing away 
to make cute little blocks
  each and every week.

Hasn't it been a blast 

having lots of 

 *quilty fun* together???

So now onto the last steps!

When all of your blocks and 

inner sashings are complete ...

It's time to make the borders!

Click here for download 20…

the borders instruction PDF. 

Now let's talk a little about the binding!

I used my 2 1/2" scrappy stash basket 

to pull fabrics for my scrappy binding:)

I just love a scrappy binding don't you?

I didn't join these strips on the diagonal ...

but just straight seams:)

Remember to press the seams 

open after sewing for less bulk:)

If you need a refresher 

on how I do my binding ...

click here

and

click here

 for my binding tutorials:)

Once your scrappy binding is prepared ...

put it in a safe place until you are ready to sew it on.

So now lets talk about my scrappy backing!

Of course you don't need to make a scrappy backing …

you can just do one fabric and make the label just like the PDF instructions.

But if you want to make a 

scrappy back like me ...

here is how I did mine:)

I used 24 fat quarters of what I have always called

 "busy backgrounds" fabric.

this means fabric with an assortment of prints

 on a white or cream background.

I cut each fat quarter into 16 1/2" square ...

for a total of 24.

*(a 16 1/2" square ruler works perfectly for this)

Click here for download 21...

  the free label pattern that I designed especially for this quilt along!

(embroidery close-up)

After you have finished your 

"bee in my bonnet" label ...

it will measure 16 1/2" square.

Sew all of the busy background squares together 

with the label in the center.

Make sure that when you or your quilter is preparing to quilt ...

that the backing is on straight and centered with the quilt front.

After quilting ...

when you trim off the excess backing fabric it will look like this!

I love how the scrappy backing looks

 with the scrappy binding...

YaY!

Congratulations!!! ...

 you are finished with your 

Quilty Fun Sampler:)

But wait!!! ...

 you are not finished 

sewing along with me ...

because one week from today 

I will be announcing the next 

Bee in my Bonnet Sew Along

and we will be using 

Great Granny Squared

as our instruction manual:)

YaY!!!

Until then…

have a quilty kind of day ...

and I hope that you had fun

 being the boss of your own quilt:)

xx

Lori

P.S. Don't forget to upload your photos

to the Flickr group to enter onto this weeks giveaways which are ...

Two of the large size Aurifil

 Bee in my Bonnet "Happy Colors" 

along with ... 

Two sets of Alphabitties:)

***Choose + cut + sew + upload = WIN

YaY!

The Quilty Fun Sew Along - Week 19 - Bumble Bee!!! ...

Good morning cute people!

Today brings us on week 19 of the

 Quilty Fun Sew Along:)

I was out of town and unable to post on the mittens...Week 17:)

Thanks to my friend Trish who hosted 

that weeks post on her lovely blog;

Notes of Sincerity.

Big hugs Trish!!!…you're a sweetie:)

And last week was hosted by the lovely and talented

 Charise from Charise Creates 

I'm so glad that she hosted her week so beautifully because

I had big time problems with blogger last week

and finally gave up after losing my post twice!

PS…is anyone else having this issue?

This is Bumble Bee week and is hosted by my super sweet friend 

Ayumi from Pink Penguin

Click here 

to visit her cute blog and to get this weeks PDF

and giveaway information:)

The Bumble Bee is the last block for the Quilty Fun Sampler

 that we have all been making for the sew along…

YaY!

Next week I will be hosting for the finishing up part.

I will tell you that you can 

cut 5 - 1 1/2" x 23 1/2" 

sashing strips to join all of the center sections together:)

I sewed my entire quilt top together before 

I did the embroidery on the Bumble Bee…

because as the designer,

I wanted to wait and see exactly what I wanted to embroider.

But I normally would do the embroidery

 on the block before it is sewn into the quilt…

it's much easier to get to that way:)

So download this weeks PDF for the embroidery pattern…

choose floss that matches the fabrics in your quilt and start stitching!

For those who are new to embroidery…

don't be intimidated!

It's not as hard as you may have built it up in your mind to be!

If you need a little hand holding…

(as we all do …hehe)

you can click here

 to see my beginning embroidery video tutorials on YouTube…

brought to you by the Fat Quarter Shop channel!

Have a quilty kind of day and remember…

you are the boss of your own quilt!

xx

Lori

A Spool "Quilty" Tutorial!!!….

Last fall I made this 15" x 15" sewing spools "quilty" for a friend.

Because this week in the sew along we did the spools…

I thought it would be fun to show it to you!

This is my Fall Leaves Quilty from the book.

Do you all know what a "quilty" is?

I explain it all in my book but I'll tell you again:)

I've always loved to make little quilts

 to hang on the wall or use as a

 little table topper in place of a doily…

so I like to call them "quiltys" instead of "doilies"

I used my fall leaves block to 

make a quilty for the book…

but most of my blocks in there

 will work just as well!

For this one…

I just made 9 of my sewing spool blocks.

Easy peasy!

I cut 6 - 1" x 3 1/2" sashings for in-between the blocks

 when sewing the blocks together 

(two sashings per row)

Then I cut 4 - 1" x 10 1/2" sashings to go between the two rows

and for the top and the bottom.

Then I cut 2 - 1" x 11 1/2" and sewed to the sides.

I pressed my seam allowances toward all of the sashing strips:)

I cut 2 - 2 1/2" x 11 1/2" border strips and added to the sides…

then added 2 - 2 1/2" x 15 1/2" onto the top and bottom.

YaY!

Cute and ready for quilting:)

I chose a fat quarter of my aqua numbers print

 from my Gracie Girl collection for the back.

I layered it with batting in-between..

 cut about 1" larger all the way around…

and machine quilted it:)

(I highly recommend using a walking foot

 when you are straight stitch machine quilting:)

I decided to add rid-rac inside the binding for an extra cute little touch.

You will need about 70" of prepared binding for this quilty…

so cut 2 - 2 1/2" x WOF strips and prepare it.

I have a tutorial from a few years ago on 

how I bind my quilts and also how I add rid-rac.

Click here 

if you want to check it out!

And just as easy as pie…

I made a cute little gift

 using just bits and bobs

 from my 2 1/2" strips

 scrappy stash basket:)

I love making something out of leftovers that could easily have just been thrown away:) 

Because I cut my leftovers into usable sizes…

they are always ready for a sweet little project:)

click here 

for my scrappy stash tutorial and 

to learn how I save my leftovers 

so that they can easily be used)

I hope you enjoyed this little project…

let me know if you'd like to see more ideas on

 different ways to use my Quilty Fun blocks!

Have a quilty kind of day…

and sew it like you mean it!!!

xx

Lori