Hi, all!
Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop and Quilt-Along! We've got a whole bunch of fabulous ideas and tutorials coming your way over the next twelve days, guaranteed to jump start your Christmas spirit - and a fun Christmas quilt that you can make in twelve days if you've got about an hour a day to work on it. What more could you ask for?
What more could you ask for, you say? Well how about a GIVEAWAY??!?!? FIGO Fabrics has stepped up and is offering a fat quarter bundle of their fun new Christmas line, Wintertide...
Here's the entry form:
(Remember to click SUBMIT!)
NOTE: Jamie of L'Fair Quilts, the first stop on our hop, is right smack dab in the path of Hurricane Barry this weekend and may not have had internet service in time to get the entry form on her blogpost before the storm hit. So if there is no entry form on her blog, please feel free to come back here and enter again! And say a prayer for Jamie and all the others in the path of the storm....
And here's the line-up of bloggers for this year's Hop...
Sunday, July 14th
Monday, July 15th
Tuesday, July 16th
Wednesday, July 17th
Thursday, July 18th
Friday, July 19th
Saturday, July 20th
Sunday, July 21st
Monday, July 22nd
Tuesday, July 23rd
Wednesday, July 24th
Thursday, July 25th
Click on that day's blog link and take a few minutes each day to drop by the Blog Hop participants, take a look around, and leave a comment to let them know you were there - they've worked long and hard to share some Christmas goodness with you!
Today we have gifts to unwrap from both Jamie of L'Fair Quilts and Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts. They are two of my oldest blog friends - we met online way back when I first started blogging in 2009 - and they are some of the most creative people I know! Jamie introduced me to the wonder of bonus HSTs and Sharon is a prolific scrap quilter. You're going to love their blogs!!
And each day on this blog there will be instructions for a little bit more of this year's Christmas quilt, which I'm calling "My Favorite Things"...
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Day One - Cutting!
If you've been following along, you'll know that in the past few weeks I've shared a design coloring sheet and inspiration shots (here), a tutorial for a sample block (here), and a guide to figuring out how much fabric you will need for your design (here). Please read through those posts if you haven't already, because they contain key information for making this quilt successfully. I also recommend that you make a sample block (it doesn't take long) as it is a great way to work out any problems you might have before you start with your good fabric, and get over any fear you might have of working with triangles.
If you've done all that, it's time to start cutting! For best results, I always press my fabric before starting - because usually the selvages need lining up properly to get straight cuts. A few minutes here will make the whole cutting job much easier!
I'm going to give you the cutting instructions for my version of this quilt, but if you've designed your own (see two paragraphs above) you'll obviously be using your own. Here's a picture of my design:
Using that picture, I created the following charts to determine how much fabric I needed and how to cut it:
I'm going to give you the cutting instructions for my version of this quilt, but if you've designed your own (see two paragraphs above) you'll obviously be using your own. Here's a picture of my design:
Using that picture, I created the following charts to determine how much fabric I needed and how to cut it:
Then I combined the information they contained into one chart to see what I needed to cut:
For this quilt, you can get 20 3.5" triangles from a 40" long width-of-fabric (WOF) strip, and 16 4.5" triangles from the same length. You can get 8 5" squares, each square yielding 2 5" right triangles for the corners.
NOTE: Please refer back to this post if you need direction on how to cut out triangles. There are pretty comprehensive directions there, and it seems silly to repeat it all here!
So from my first color, I need 20 5" right triangles, which means I need 10 5" squares. For ten squares, I'll need two 5"xWOF strips. I'll cut those WOF strips first, because I'll be able to cut some of my smaller triangles from the leftovers. Cut eight squares from one strip, then cut two from the other strip. Cut them diagonally for the 20 right square triangles you need.
Now trim the WOF strip to 4.5" wide and cut four 4.5" triangles. Then trim the WOF strip to 3.5" wide and cut as many of the 12 3.5" triangles from it as you can. I was able to get all of my Color #1 pieces from the two 5" wide strips. You may not be able to if your fabric is not as wide. If you can't, cut a 3.5"xWOF strip and cut the remaining 3.5" triangles you need.
Continue with the rest of the colors. Keep them someplace safe - it's really frustrating to get to the end and find out you're short a triangle or two! I use a see-through project bag for mine, but a shoebox would work just as well. Just find a way to corral all those pieces!
Cut all of your pieces out today, because block-making starts tomorrow! It shouldn't take more than an hour or so today, and the blocks take about an hour each to make, too.
You may want to do a little setting up to prepare for tomorrow, too. For best results, you should iron every seam before you sew the next one, so having an iron and ironing surface right at hand will be really useful. Either that, or you're going to get a lot of exercise getting up and down!
I'm looking forward to showing you how to make this quilt - it's a lot of fun to make, and rather addictive. I say that with confidence, because I'm on my third version right now!
See you tomorrow!
Hugs!
Sarah
So excited about the blog hop! And also about our sponsor - so generous of them! xx
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas in July!
ReplyDeleteI am going to watch and save this - rather busy right now. Excited to see everyone's posts during this hop.
ReplyDeleteAnd we're off! Time to do all of the cutting! This is going to be an exciting quilt--the others I see will most likely go in the 'ideas' folder but I am making yours this month!
ReplyDeleteI, too, am hoping Jamie stays safe. Her email back to me said high winds and no power. This will be another wonderful event, and I, from the past years, know we will see some wonderful new projects and generous sponsor.
ReplyDeleteCan’t wait to see what’s next!
ReplyDeleteHere's to another successful blog hop!
ReplyDeleteOh this sounds like tons of fun....Thank you and thank you to the sponsor as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing great things on the hop. thanks for hosting. Merry Christmas🎄⛄🎄
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas in July!☃️⛄❄
ReplyDelete