Holiday sewing projects from panels and pre-cuts

Everyone has decked the halls, the walls, the chairs, beds and sofas... and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at LQSs [local quilt shops]. Inspiration for decorations and gifts abound and panels, pre-cut bundles and kits are at the ready for your sewing and quilting pleasure! 

Pillows for the beds or cushions for the couch at Stitch Morgantown.

Fabric Project Panels
The Nordic inspired Hygge [pronounced Hoo-guh] Christmas collection from Lewis & Irene has cushions (above) and stockings (below) that feature the Norwegian Tontuu (house elves). I think these pillow and stocking panels would make a great canvas for some hand stitching embellishment, too!

Christmas stockings at Stitch Morgantown.

Winter-themed placemats and table runner from the Snow Day collection from Lewis & Irene. How about a shimmery rayon or metallic thread for the quilting?

Snow Day table placemats and runner at Bernina in Stitches.

Projects with Pre-cuts

Pre-cut strips make the process fast and easy. Ask your local quilt shop for a package of pre-cut strips and a pattern.

Majestic batik strips at Must Stitch Emporium.

The Rockport Basket [Auties Two pattern] is a spacious tote or project bag made with pre-cut batik fabrics from Majestic Batiks.

Rockport Basket at City Square Quilts.

Showcasing an exotic collection of pre-cut prints from M&S Textiles Australia, take the "jelly roll rug" process and make smaller items such as a set of placemats, mug rugs or a table topper. 

Precut strips from M&S Textiles Australia.

Pre-cut Kits
The Walker Bag kit uses festive floral metallic fabrics from Under the Australian Sun collection from The Textile Pantry.

The Walker Bag kit from The Textile Pantry.

This next project is a dual duty item! It's an eyeglasses case but it's also the perfect size to fit a rotary cutter! Travel in style—and in safety—to your next quilting retreat or class.

The Melba eyeglass case kit from The Textile Pantry.

One size fits All

Pillowcases are a one-size-fits-all gift that can be customized to anyone's hobbies or tastes.  Who wouldn't love this Lambkin pillowcase on their bed... using Art Gallery Fabrics.

Lambkin pillowcase at Stitch Morgantown.

I've made at several of these flower baskets in dozens of fabric combinations! The Melba Flower basket pattern is a free download courtesy of The Textile Pantry. 

My red/white/black basket uses two coordinating red yarn-dyed wovens from the Provence Woven collection by Diamond Textiles for the basket base and Squared Elements (inside lining) from Art Gallery Fabrics. Fill your baskets with Christmas cookies, candies or seasonal greenery for a festive table setting.

The Melba Flower Basket pattern from The Textile Pantry.

Make a quick trip to your local quilt shop for patterns, panels and pre-cuts before the big guy in the red suit comes to your house. And I hope you find time to make merry with fabric and stitch during the holidays! 

Improv piecing with pre-cut strips and scraps

"Angle Improv" class with Fabrications 2.5" pre-cut strips
(Strip collection by Blank Quilting Corp.)

Open. Select. Sew!

This is the procedure for working with those packages of pre-cut 2.5" strips. Easy-peasy!

Wanna try it?
I'm teaching a class next week, Tuesday, August 12, on improvisational piecing that uses a package of Fabrications pre-cut strips and scraps from your stash. It can't get any simpler than that!

Every time I use this improvisation piecing technique, I am amazed at the creative possibilities—color, composition, movement. The piecing is easy, the cutting is liberating and the design possibilities are limitless!

Come and join me for a dose of this strippy creativity! Call Pins and Needles Quilt Shop at [423] 668-8734 to register. There are only a couple spaces left.

Here are a few examples of quilts I've made with this technique...

Read about my "3 Sisters" quilt here.

Read about my "3 Sisters" quilt in this blog post.

Detail of quilting: "3 Sisters"

 This one is called "Crimson Inspired." Read details here.

"Crimson Inspired" 

And here is a little peek of a recent project that combines improv piecing with Dresden Plate appliqués. It's just too much fun!

Improvisational piecing with appliqué.

Like the free-motion quilting on these quilts? 

I'm teaching Intro to Free-motion Quilting on your home sewing machine on Saturday, August 16 at Pins and Needles Quilt Shop. This is an absolute beginner class. No previous free-motion experience required. This class fills quickly, so go ahead and sign up for this one while you're at it.

Is it too early for Christmas cheer?

Christmas Slices
17" x 39"

There are 170 days until Christmas.

If you are a maker or crafter, you probably have already compiled your To-Make List of holiday projects and hand-crafted gifts... checking each project off the list as you go. And "Christmas in July," a popular marketing motivation, is a good reminder to us gift-makers that the clock is tick... tick… ticking...

Another "impetus for making" is Blank Quilting's new Color Story pre-cut strip sets. These 20-strip packs (half the size of the 40-strip packs) come in various colorways and are perfect for those smaller, get-it-done-in-a-weekend projects. Contact YLQS [your local quilt shop] to see which color stories they have coming in.

This holiday wall hanging is a prime example of a weekend project! It's a variation of Tammy Silvers' [Tamarinis] Celebration Slices pattern. I finished paper piecing it in an evening using Blank Quilting's green strip set along with coordinating prints from Blank's summer fabric collections and blender lines.

Fabric stats:
Border print—Bellagio 6889 white
Inner border—Paradiso 6966 red
blue background—Splash and Sachet blenders
greens for tree—Color Story 2.5" pre-cut strips (green colorway)

I'd rate this paper pricing project at a beginner level. I copied the paper patterns at 85% to accommodate the 2.5" width of the pre-cut strip assortment (or you could absolutely copy at 100% and use fat quarters as the pattern directs). The pattern also includes appliqué shapes for ball ornaments and a star tree topper (see pattern picture below) that are fused on after it's quilted.

For quilters living in east Tennessee, you can stop in at these quilt shops for the pattern: The Cherry Pit, and Dizzy Divas Fabric Shop, and Loose Threads. If you contact any of these shops, please tell them you saw this project here at my FiberAntics by Veronica blog.

"Celebration Slices" pattern by Tammy Silvers.
Color Story pre-cut 2.5" strips by Blank Quilting (20 strip packs).

This little quilt can be used as a wall-hanging or table topper, but the extended vertical format (my unquilted top is 17" wide x 39" tall) makes it so apropos to hang on a door. Now, wouldn't that be a festive and welcoming display on your front door?!?

Go and make something merry! Tick, tock… tick, tock...

Pandora and Spring Bouquet

Quilts can help stave away the chill when there's a deep freeze outside—whether you're snuggled up beneath one, or piecing the top for a new one. This is Pandora. It's a pattern designed by one of my fabulous pattern designer friends, Chris Hoover, at Whirligig Designs.

"Pandora" made with a package of Spring Bouquet pre-cut strips

I just finished piecing this top using a pre-cut strip collection called Spring Bouquet. (Gee… if we "Think Spring," will the frost melt??) This is a strip collection of all metallics: swirls, mini leaves, small scale geometrics and tiny flowers. "Spring bouquet" adequately describes the rich, warm and vibrant colors in this color scheme.

After auditioning several possibilities for the setting triangles, I chose a creamy white metallic. The neutral color provided an unobtrusive background which did not compete with the saturated colors of the 9-patch blocks. It framed the composition nicely.

Spring Bouquet pre-cut strips from Blank Quilting.

The centers of the 9-patch blocks are various fabrics from additional collections. If you decide to create a Pandora quilt yourself, you could pull fabrics from your scrap basket for these 4.5" center patches, or the pattern provides a yardage amount.

Strip sets await.

This is the next strip quilt project for which I'll be using the Prairie Wagon collection. These strip sets are patiently awaiting assembly while basking in the morning sunlight. I hope the sunlight and your quilts are keeping you warm these cold, frosty days.

Practice your free-motion quilting on "pre-marked" strip quilts

Hey there all you free-motion quilting newbies! You know how I suggest to you in my "Into to Free-motion Quilting" classes that an excellent way to get some free-motion practice under your belt is by quilting charity quilts?

Practice free-motion quilting on strip quilts. 

Well, here's a thought on getting in some free-motion practice as well as getting experience with making your motifs a consistent size—think "pre-cut strip quilts!"

My guild, the Choo Choo Quilters, had a guild program earlier this year on using pre-cut 2.5" strips to make fast and easy lap quilts. (The program presenter called them "lasagna quilts" and I kept wanting to call them "noodle quilts.") Anyway, we sewed the pre-cut strips end to end, similar to the 1600" quilt and got results similar to this example.

I got around to quilting one of theses strip quilts (shown in the first picture) and realized that the pieced strips automatically create guidelines that are 2" apart. This is a perfect space to practice continuous-line free-motion patterns—and you don't need to mark the quilt top! So, if you want some practice quilting loop-the-loops, waves, or another continuous line design, try it on a strippy quilt like these.

Examples of strip quilts made by members of the Choo Choo Quilters Guild
Chattanooga, Tennessee.

This quilter added a flying geese border to her strip quilt.

The Choo Choo Quilters Guild is having it's annual Cuddle Quilt workshop this Saturday, August 17. Guild members will get together and spend the day making lap-size quilts for a local day-care facility.

Strips are cut and ready for the strip Mystery Quilt.

Our clever Cuddle Quilt Workshop coordinator, Sherry, has devised a Mystery Quilt using the pre-cut 2.5" strips. I have my strips cut and ready to go. Anyone is welcome to join us for the day—it will be fun! The location and time is on the guild's blog.

A Study in free-motion fillers and feathers

After Quasar 45, Crimson Inspired, and the Inspiration Teal and White strip quilt, I'm still infatuated  with Blank Quilting's Fabrications pre-cuts. The Skidoodle colorway is a joyful exuberance of color and... well... "doodles"!

Strip quilt made with Skidoodles collection of pre-cut Fabrications.

You can't help but smile at the swirly squiggles, speckled doodles, wobbly stripes and bright, bold crayon-box color palette. I added an accent of jet black solid to the mix and started stripping.

"A Feather Runs Through It" Skidoodle strip quilt.
48" x 48"

The outside border is created with the odd bits after cutting the blocks from a strip strata. Don't you love the little black triangles running the perimeter like a picket fence? 

The quilting on this piece was an exploration of free-motion fillers and feathers. With the bright pure hues of these fabrics, I was hoping the composition would hold up through all the thread color changes and a diversity of quilting patterns—and it did! Even the jumbo feather that swoops from the upper left to the lower right corners did not disrupt the rhythm.

A free-form feather sweeps through the quilt's center.

I experimented with a variety of free-motion filler patterns.

Pebbles and leafy feathers.

Circles and grids.

The backing fabric is Candy Dots 108" in lilac. With this single piece of wide backing, there is no seam interrupting the surface area and any mismatching of the fabric print is avoided (not to mention it's quicker and less work!).

View of free-motion quilting from the back of the quilt.

Back detail.

Back detail.

And here are the Stats:

6 bobbins of Bottom Line (Superior Threads), 17.75 hours of free-motion quilting with 40 wt. variegated cotton (YLI), 50 wt. cotton solid and variegated (Wonderfil) and 50 wt. cotton MasterPiece (Superior). Tuscany polyester batting (Hobbs) and a finished size of 48.5" x 48.5".

Check with YLS (your local [quilt] shop) for Fabrications pre-cut strip collections. Here is a link to the shop locator on the Blank web site. I hope you pick up a package or two and try some free-motion doodling on your own Skidoodles quilt.

Another Fabrications Strip Quilt

Fabrications strip quilt.

After whetting my quilting curiosity with Fabrications 2.5" strips and making Quasar 45, my mind has been whirling with ideas and possibilities for these fabulous pre-cut gems.

How easy can it get? A beautifully coordinated variety of colors and prints is already chosen... the cutting is done... all you have to do is open - the - package and off you go!

This time I chose the Inspiration colorway: white and teal. This Fabrications bundle is one of Blank Quilting's signature fabric collections that supports ovarian cancer awareness. The dragonfly print and the other coordinating blenders are cool and fresh and the white strips add a nice brightness.

The pattern I used as a starting point is one of the many FREE downloads on the Blank Quilting web site. My version does not have borders and I chose an assymetrical design for the two inserted "flippies" (the vertical black strips).

Here is a view of the full quilt. I like how the random black diagonals create contrast and movement.

Inspiration collection strip quilt.

Below are closeups of the inserted folded black strips—similar to flat piping. The pattern designer calls them "flippies." These folded strips are sandwiched between two adjacent wider strips during the piecing process. (Sure beats trying to sew a narrow 3/4-inch strip! And, much quicker.) These inserts accent the vertical style of the quilt and define a space for two different free motion quilting designs.

Folded strips are inserted during the piecing of the quilt top.

You can see the two different quilting designs below. The narrow black strips define the space and offer a logical separation between the motifs.

Detail of the free-motion quilting.

Yes, there is a thread color change in the center section. [I admit it. I am a color hound and a thread junkie.] The pebbles were quilted with two different colors of Sew Fine, a 50 wt. poly by Superior Thread.

The wind-like swirls on either side of the off-center section were quilted with Tutti, a variegated 50 wt. long staple cotton by Wonderfil (one of my favs!).

View of the free-motion quilting on the back.

The backing fabric is Madison—one of Blank Quilting's 108" wide backing fabrics.

Sketches of free-motion quilting designs.

I often sketch potential quilting designs before I drop the feed dogs. The design process for this quilt was no different.

Sketching allows you to relax while you figure out and fine tune an appropriate design. There are no stitches to pick out if you don't like it, and it serves as a test run before you put needle to the quilt sandwich. Don't bother using an eraser when auditioning your designs on paper... just flip over to a new page in your sketchbook and keep sketching.