Broken Dishes Tutorial Reboot with Guest Quilter April Rosenthal

Revisited Quilting Tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Co
Hello sweet friends! My name is April Rosenthal, mama to three lovies, wife to my high school sweetheart, designer for Moda, and the chickadee behind Prairie Grass Patterns, my quilt pattern company. I started quilting in earnest nearly 15 years ago as a way to cope with infertility–and over the years quilting has become a beautiful part of my story. I look back on the quilts I’ve stitched and patterns I’ve written and fabrics I’ve designed and realize that if I hadn’t had the harrowing trials that led me to quilting, I would have missed some pretty amazing people and experiences.
broken dishes reboot april rosenthal
I’m so excited to be a guest blogger today to show you my version of Jenny’s “Broken Dishes” tutorial!
I decided to use my good friend Amy Smart’s new fabric collection, Gingham Girls–it is SUCH a fun collection full of nostalgic prints and patriotic colors! As soon as I saw it, I knew this fabric needed to be a new soccer quilt for our family–our old one is getting pretty ragged. Once I knew I was making a soccer quilt, I wanted to make something quick and easy to put together–because soccer quilts get USED–but I wanted to do more than just sew squares together.
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I used Jenny’s tutorial exactly as she describes in the video, except with one change: Instead of using charm squares, I upsized to layer cake squares. This one little change means that you can grab 32 layer cake squares and whip out a whole quilt speedy fast! I had a great time stitching around each layer cake pair, as Jenny demonstrates. I was even able to let my 9 year old daughter stitch up a few, it was that easy!
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To make a quilt like mine, simply make 4 sets of layer cake pairs, one dark and one light, all using the same dark color. I used various low volume fabrics for my light choices, because low volume hides grass stains better! These 4 sets will be stitched around, cut apart and reassembled just like the tutorial shows to make 4 identical blocks.
Assemble the blocks to make a jumbo block.
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Make 4 jumbo blocks.
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Stitch 2 blocks together in rows, and then stitch the rows together.
I backed this quilt with a perfect slub denim chambray and machine quilted it with a baptist fan pattern with a swirl. I used this super fun yellow plaid to machine bind with a zigzag stitch, a technique I like to use for quilts that will likely be drug around by tired sweaty children. 😉
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This quilt goes together lightening fast, and I’m super tempted to repeat the process and make a much larger quilt with 9 jumbo blocks just because it would be so easy! Mama’s bed needs a new quilt!
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I would love to see your versions of Jenny’s Broken Dishes tutorial, and get to know you better! You can find me on Instagram @amrosenthal, Facebook at Prairie Grass Patterns, and my website www.aprilrosenthal.com
xoxo
April

Missouri Star Tutorial Reboot Featuring Guest Blogger Amy Smart

Revisited Quilting Tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Co

amy smart tutorial reboot

Hello fellow quilt lovers! My name is Amy Smart. I learned to quilt from my mom when I was growing up, but have been doing it in earnest since the birth of my first baby 17 years ago. I love share my quilting obsession including patterns and tutorials at my site, Diary of a Quilter and recently published a book, Fabulously Fast Quilts.
Jenny Doan MSQC shops

I have been a big fan of Missouri Star Quilt Company and was so excited when they invited me to do an MSQC Tutorial Reboot! Serendipitously, my family had a trip planned to Missouri for Spring Break a few weeks ago and I got to visit Hamilton and the whole Missouri Star Quilt Company extravaganza! You can read more about my adventures in Hamilton in this post, including an amazing grand tour of all the shops by Jenny herself!

Missouri Star Quilt Block

As I looked through the myriad of quilting videos and tutorials from MSQC over the past years, the one I was most excited to make myself was the classic Missouri Star block itself. (Seems appropriate.) I’m a sucker for large quilt blocks, especially stars, and I loved the scale of Jenny’s block. I’m also a big fan of short cuts and quick piecing and I loved Jenny’s method for creating this block quickly using pre-cut 10″ x 10″ squares.

Missouri Star Quilt Block

The large scale of the block lends itself so well to a modern, graphic design. I thought I’d pair a darker, woven solid with some bright, modern prints to change the look a little bit.

Fabric Requirements

I used Peppered Cotton from Studio E in True Taupe as my background (I love the subtle, homespun texture that comes from a woven) paired with a 10″ x 10″ set of precuts from Elizabeth Hartman’s Warm Pacific collection.

Fabric Choices

Each block requires 3 10″ x 10″ squares. So before doing any cutting or piecing, I mixed and matched my 10″ precut squares into 6 sets of contrasting or complementing prints and colors. That way I knew I was getting a nice variety of colors, prints, and combinations.

ruler and rotary cutter

From there I assembly-lined cutting and piecing my blocks. One thing that really helped were these custom rulers from MSQC – they come in 2 1/2″ x 8″ and 5″ x 15″ sizes. They are PERFECT for working with precuts – especially cutting those pre-cut 5″ and 10″ squares on the diagonal, without having to get out a bigger ruler. You can follow along by watching Jenny’s tutorial!

Amy Smart Missouri Star Quilt tutorial

I was originally going to make just a wall size quilt using 4 quilt blocks, but I liked the fabric and the block so much, I added two more blocks for a lap-size quilt. (My quilt finished at 52″ x 75″.) I think I would have kept making more blocks if I’d had more fabric on hand!

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I definitely want to make this pattern again – the blocks come together SO quickly – and because the scale of the finished blocks is 23″ x 23″ so you don’t need to make a lot of them. It would be a quick way to make a large bed quilt.

In the meantime, I’m claiming this quilt as my snuggle quilt to carry around to soccer games, picnics, and Sunday afternoon naps. The bold colors make a statement, but the warm, taupe background will hopefully hide some of the evidence of everyday use.

Missouri Star Quilt Company

Here’s one more parting shot of the giant Missouri Star in the MSQC trims shop. Appropriate, don’t you think? Thanks so much for having me Missouri Star! It was a blast to visit in person, and I’m so excited to have my Missouri Star Quilt as a reminder.

Blog: www.diaryofaquilter.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diaryofaquilter/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diaryofaquilter/

More Quilt Market…

See me up there with Vanessa {V and CO} and Amy {Diary of a Quilter} ?!?!  I ran into them by the Michael Miller booth and couldn’t help myself, I just had to say hi!  Now, can I just say that they are both even sweeter in person than I thought!  It was a quick chit-chat, because well, I already feel like I know them through the blogs.  {know what I mean.}  How funny is that?  We don’t even have to introduce ourselves, we just get right to the “have you decided where you are  moving” blah- blah, blah’s because, we already know what is happening!  Hahah!  Also, I am a HUGE fan of Amy’s and am excited I got to meet her in person!

Now, Jillily’s booth was great!  So cute, in the ‘Ice cream parlor’ theme!  We were so excited, we bought a TON of her new ‘Poke-a-dots’ and can’t wait to share them with you!  We think you will LOVE them. {they are a sticky-reusable thimble.}

So, I am off today to get things ready to drive to the Shop tonight.  I have some major overhauling-redecorating-sprucing up, I am planning for the Shop!  We have so MANY new ideas and plans that we can hardly wait to share with you all!  {squeal-eeek-yay}

Have a great weekend.  {I hope that you get at least a little time to create-sew-or craft}  Whatever you do, be happy.

~Sarah