Ever since Lo & Behold Stitchery released her Vintage Lace Quilt Pattern I have had my eye on it! I love the delicate, modern vibes and all the negative space in it, and I knew it would be the perfect quilt to do with solids. I had a busy summer but am thrilled I finally got around to making this gorgeous quilt!
To make things easy and speed up the process, I decided to cut out all my pieces with my AccuQuilt Go! Cutting System. If you’re not yet familiar with AccuQuilt, let me tell you about it! To be honest with you, at first I was pretty skeptical! The space in my sewing room is limited and I knew I did not want just another expensive toy to take up space. Turns out, this fabric cutting machine has totally revolutionized the way I look at quilting. I can easily and quickly cut out pieces for large quilts without putting strain on my shoulders and wrists the way traditional rotary cutting would. (I have Arthritis so pain-free is a total win!!) Not only is using the AccuQuilt quick, easy, and painless, but it’s way more precise too! Click here if you want to read more about my AccuQuilt and click here to see the first project that I made with it!
The day is finally here and I get to officially release my first quilt pattern to you all!
I designed this quilt to be easy enough for anyone at any level, so if you’ve never made a quilt before, this is a great place to start! If you’ve been quilting for years, I am sure you’ll have fun making the Explore Quilt too! You can choose from 3 sizes: Pillow, Baby, and Throw! I’m toying around with the idea of scaling down even further to make a mug-rug size. Would you be into an extension pattern for some tiny piecing?
Oh and by the way, this is also the launch of my very first newsletter! Yay! Sign up today so you can be in on the very beginning! When I start sending them out, please do share feedback with me about what you like/don’t like/want to see more of!
Quilt-A-Long Overview!
Have you heard that I will be hosting a QUILT-A-LONG for the new Explore quilt pattern? (I’ve been talking all about it on my Instagram!)
I have planned for the Explore Quilt-A-Long to be super laid back in terms of time commitment, so anyone can do it. I want to let you know we are going to make this thing in its entirety from START to FINISH during this QAL! I am not about unfinished projects! But do not worry, the Quilt-a-Long will be spread out through 7 weeks to make sure we all have plenty of time to finish!
What you need to know about this QAL timeline:
Like I said, we are taking things SLOW. I have things set out in a neat weekly timeline, but some things may actually take more or less time for you. For instance, if you plan on doing tons of intricate hand quilting, you might want to get started on the hand quilting a little early. I am 100% all for working at your own pace, but if you want to be entered to win prizes, you’ve just gotta be careful to post your photos during the correct week!
Oh that’s right, there will be PRIZES!
Each week we will have a prize or two, courtesy of some amazing sponsors! To be entered to win the prize, simply post the corresponding picture for that week’s prompt on Instagram using #ExploreQAL and make sure you register for the QAL at this link here. I will draw each winner at the end of each week, the morning that the next prompt begins. All the prize info will be sent out in the weekly Quilt-A-Long emails you’ll get when you register.
Here’s a shoutout for some of our sponsors! Go check them out!!
The #ExploreQAL is going to have a super awesome grand prize! You will only be eligible to win the grand prize if you post your corresponding photos during each week of the QAL!
This sewing machine is an amazing work horse and lightweight enough for you to take it with to sewing groups and classes; I actually learned to sew on an EMERALD and still have the one my parents gave me for my 16th birthday! I would recommend this machine to anyone, which is why I’m so thrilled that I get to give one away!
But Emily, does it really take 8 weeks to make this quilt?
It actually can come together really fast! One of my pattern testers actually made the baby size quilt with HAND QUILTING in less than 3 days, so if you want to go ahead and sew faster than this QAL timeline, go for it! Just remember that to be eligible for the grand prize, you MUST post pictures for the weekly prompt DURING that week!
Without further ado, I want to show off to you the beautiful & creative ways my pattern testers made their own Explore pillows and quilts! I hope these inspire you and give you ideas for what your own will look like!
Womp Womp Womp… Please tell me I am not the only one who has done this before.
Recently I finished a quilt top and was SO thrilled with how it looked and then when I brought it outside into natural lighting for photos, I noticed that some of the white background pieces got mixed up and I somehow used the WRONG SHADE OF WHITE.
In this post, I want to teach you what I did to try to embrace the imperfections instead of ripping out the seams!
Can you believe I have been quilting for YEARS and just made my first quilted tote bag?! Whether you’re wanting to get into quilting and learn the basics, or are a quilt-making machine, this tote bag pattern is a really great project to try! This pattern hack not only follows a completely FREE tutorial, but is specifically designed to teach you how to add interior pockets to your very own Every Adventure Tote!
Here are some of my favorite things about making this Every Adventure Tote:
Uses way less fabric than a whole quilt
Finishes so much faster than a quilt
You can bring it anywhere
Every time someone compliments it, you get to say “THANKS I MADE IT!”
Is it just me or have there been tons of amazing patterns coming out lately?! I’m always so impressed by the amazing creativity of quilt pattern designers and how easy they make it look! I recently got the chance to test @patchworkandpoodles’ newest quilt pattern: Bear Path, and spoiler alert: it’s a fun one!
If you want to purchase this pattern for yourself, you can find it in Patchwork & Poodle’s Pattern shop.
If you are a quilter, I am sure you know that there are myriad ways to obtain an awesome quilt pattern, but not all are the same quality!
I have been through phases where I was too thrifty to purchase patterns and chose to only make quilts if I could find a FREE pattern for it. This method actually introduced me to some of my favorite quilt patterns, but it also resulted in a handful of headaches. The thing about free patterns is that there is often far less thought, effort, and testing that goes into those patterns. This is not always the case, but I ran into a couple doozies that required me to waste fabric and do my own quilt math, which did not thrill me.
I want to tell you about a great, thrifty, way to get really awesome quilt patterns: Quilting Books!
This blog post will outline a review of the book “Modern One-Block Quilts” by Natalia Bonner and Kathleen Whiting (published by C&T Publishing). The book comes complete with 22 different patterns in 3 different sizes (baby, twin, and queen) — that’s 66 variations for one low price, costing less than a couple yards of fabric! Continue Reading →
