Are You Ready For The 12 Days of Christmas in July?

Hi, all!

Can you believe we're already more than halfway through the year?  And that means it's almost time for the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop and Quilt-Along!  Last week I gave you a sneak peek of one version of this year's quilt-along quilt...

...and now the more traditionally colored version is ready to be revealed!!

I've also designed it in colors appropriate for Quilts of Valor...

I  hope you like this design as much as I do!  And once again, you should be able to make this quilt fairly quickly - I've designed it in steps that take about an hour each day.  I'll be sharing those steps over the twelve days of the hop, between July 14th and July 25th.  

So - do you want to be ready to go on Day 1?  Here's a shopping list - some things, like fabric, you'll definitely need, others, like some specialty rulers, would be really helpful to have, but not completely necessary.

First of all, fabric.  You will need three different fabrics for this quilt.  Looking at the red, white and blue quilt above, let's call the blue A, the white B, and the red C.  For the top only, you'll need the following amounts:

Fabric A:  1 3/4 yards

Fabric B:  2 1/8 yards

Fabric C:  1 3/8 yards

The colors in each top are arranged in the same sequence, so if you prefer one of the other colorations, or one of your own, just choose your fabrics accordingly!

The finished quilt top measures about 68" square.  You will also need approximately 1/2 yard of the fabric of your choice for binding, and approximately 4 yards of backing material.

Now for the rulers.  I used this ruler...

...to make the 8-pointed star block.  I tried to find somewhere that would offer a discount as a sponsorship for this hop, without luck, but it is available on Amazon as a Prime item.  Click here for the link (not an affiliate link!)  If you prefer, I can send a PDF version of the templates for making your own for this quilt. But I highly recommend this template - it's a useful little thing!

And see all those HSTs in the cross block?  Well, those will be very much easier if you have a Bloc-Loc ruler - and I did succeed in getting a sponsorship for those!  

Bloc-Loc is offering a 10% discount to all my readers from now until July 15th if you order on their website.  Just put JULY25TH in the special instructions box, and they will adjust your total after the order is placed to reflect the discount.  I used my 6.5" Half Square Triangle Square Up Ruler for this quilt.  I find it to be a very useful size for anything from 1.5" to 6.5" HSTs, and I have a 12.5" one for larger blocks.  That pretty much covers anything I'm likely to make!  If you want a smaller one, though, the HST blocks in this quilt measure 4.5".

And if you're thinking, like I did once upon a time, that you don't need a Bloc-Loc ruler, you may be right - but I don't think so!  I'm pretty frugal when it comes to fancy rulers, but after buying one and giving it a try, I realized that my life just hadn't been complete before - at least my quilting life!  AND I shelled out the $$ for the larger one too!

So gather your goodies and mark your calendar - the first day of the hop is next Saturday!  We've got 29 fabulous quilt bloggers who'll be sharing some great Christmas projects over the twelve days - you won't want to miss a thing!

Hugs!

Sarah