The Cutting Table Quilt Blog - A Blog for Quilters by Quilters
Quilting should be fun and we give you easy quilting projects, quick quilting how-to tutorials, and commentary to keep you smiling till the very last stitch.
you know…April Cornell. 
(har-har) I just couldn’t resist any longer. I just had to rip open a honey-bun. Oh the possibilities I have found playing with the beautiful color combinations.
Mmmm…..I can’t wait to show you.
Have a great WEDNESDAY!! (can you believe that this week is almost halfway over!??!)
*Just a reminder to head on over the the forums, answer my ridiculous question and you’ll be entered in our giveaway! Fun for all. (hey free fabric anytime = a good time to me!)
So this is an AMAZING, fun and fast way to make a block, that has the look of a “string quilt” block or an hourglass block. The cool thing about this idea is that you are able to either make it very matchy-matchy or you have the freedom to make it very random and scrappy. Their are also a lot of other ways to put it together, and you achieve a totally different look however you choose to lay it out!
All kinds of ideas are mulling around in my head of what else is possible with this technique. Jelly Rolls make this so easy, too! (I already have plans to piece one with honey bun strips.) I can’t wait to show you! I swear, once you try it you will be SO hooked.
Here is the ‘Main’ tutorial for the technique…..Oh man, you are gonna love it.
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This was a fun one for me! I thought I had done just about as much as I could with this honey bun…and yet, I still wanted to try one more thing! I had noticed a few double hourglass quilts online and really wanted to try my hand at making the block. However, the tutorials I found were difficult at best. So here is a quick explanation of what I did to make my blocks…
Start by dividing your strips into light and dark sets. These need to be at least 14″ long. Select one light and one dark strip then sew them together…
Next take your large square ruler…see that diagonal line that runs from corner to corner?? That is a 45 degree angle line Now turn your ruler so that the 45degree line is at the bottom of your fabric and the corner is at the bottom edge of your fabric….
Cut your fabric along the outer edge of the ruler to start your first triangle.
Now slide your ruler up so the 45 degree angle is at the top of your fabric…
Now, cut that angle. You should have a triangle that looks like this:
Now you will want to continue sliding your ruler up and down and cutting triangles until you have four.
You should have two matching sets of two that match each other…lay them out opposite each other, 
then pin like crazy, 
and sew them together in traditional hourglass style…
Here is your complete block…(I know the fabric doesn’t match) (I didn’t quite have enough to do this last block! So, I had to improvise!)
Now for the table runner part:
Finished
I took my blocks and laid them out in a three by six pattern. I added a couple of extra strips in between the two end rows and the middle . Then added a red border as a frame! It was machine quilted but, I think it would look great with a stitch in the ditch or cross hatch design too! 
Finished
Have fun trying something new today! Enjoy!
yes, its from the same honey bun! Fresh, by Deb Strain. We seem to have a bit of a notebook buying problem around here! I think it leads back to my dad who always has (and still does) shopped the back to school sales! Stocking up on notebooks! We write a lot, take lots of notes, make lists of everything. and its spreading…we recently found a notebook full of lists made by Hillary’s daughter Ally…things like “the ten things I love…” followed closely by “the ten things I hate…”(and many more lists)! We LOVED reading through her lists! My boys draw pictures all the time (I have notebooks filled with drawings) and my daughter Hannah sits and writes…she is constantly asking me to spell words for her. Her most recent thing has been listing all of her relatives by name and listing them in families. Then she orders them by age! Its so funny but, hey she’s keeping busy right?! (a tiny bit of OCD? I don’t know where she gets that? 
)
So, on to the project!
We are making an adorable cover for your standard 70 sheet notebook.
The first thing you will do is select eleven strips from your honey bun. Cut them down to 18″ in length. Then lay them out and start sewing them together. you will then have a piece of fabric that looks something like this:
Next, you will add your fusible fleece liner to make this baby a bit more sturdy: 
I would cut it smaller than your seam allowances from top to bottom, and the same size from end to end. (mine is 9″ x 18″)Because you don’t want those seams to be too bulky when you flip it around and I didn’t want mine to show at the top and bottom of the notebook. (You will catch it in your side seams.)Iron it to the wrong side of the fabric.
Next, you’ll cut two pieces of a coordinating fabric. 8 1/2″ x 11″
Fold and iron one edge of each piece and sew under.
If you would like to add a pocket to the inside flap…now would be the best time! Just cut a piece of fabric (mine is 3 1/2″ x 10″) fold it in half to make it 31/2″ x 5″. sew it right sides together. leave a space to flip it. Turn it right side out…poke out your corners, and sew in place! Instant pocket!
Next, you will pin all your layers, right sides together: I also wanted to add a little piece of grosgrain ribbon for a bookmark! Pin it all!!!
Now sew all your layers together, flip it right side out and push out those corners! As one final step, you will sew a little seam in between your flaps at the top and bottom of your notebook cover as shown:
And…your finally done! Here is a photo of the finished product! 
aaww so cute!
Alright, coming soon…this is it! I think I have finally exhausted this honey bun! and now….a sneak peek:
Yup, that’s all you get! I wont say when it will be finished or what it is! Let’s just say I love it…and I think you will too! Just wait and see!
Have a lovely day!
~Natalie
So here is the final picture of my quilt!
It’s so cute! It’s not big enough for a twin size bed but it’s going to be a fabulous playtime, picnic, & cuddle blanket!
It takes 1 honeybun, a partial charm pack and some background fabric (I think it’s around 1 3/4 yds… don’t quote me on that though ) It calls for it to be mostly fat quarters on the pattern, and the strips are instructed to be cut to 2 1/2″ x 17″ but I had access to a honeybun in Soiree whose strips are precut at – 1 1/2″ so I decided that I would just double the amount of 17″ strips and it would be perfect! So off I went arranging strips… 
…and skipping most of the cutting section of the pattern. Woohoo! I love being able to skip a step! It did require most of the honey bun, with only a small section leftover.
Camille of Thimble Blossoms singled out one section as tricky, the part of cutting and applying the wavy edge. After reading it over I thought “shoot, no problem” and started off. I ended up not cutting my applique seam ‘n’ sew material right, though not tragically. I cut on the lines I drew, instead of in-between them, so I had to draw an extra section of the wavy line. Then after applying it and securely stitching the edge down your supposed to trim the excess strip pieced material on the underside of the quilt. Here’s the picture I took while thinking I might tutorial this…
… If you’ll notice I had the fabric spread apart, lined up my scissors, and took the picture without a second thought. Until I was checking the picture and realized my scissors were in place to cut off the top of the quilt… oops!
I had to laugh at myself!
So, I reset my fabric and scissors, took the right picture and thanked my lucky stars that I had been trying to tutorial this because other wise I might have royally screwed up this quilt top!
It was a good reminder to go slow and pay attention! While this part is not incredibly tricky you do still want to pay attention 
The only real problem I had was that it calls for one strip to be pieced together to a length of around 60″ because it needs to go across the entire bottom of the quilt.
As shown here.
Since I was using a honeybun you know that they traditionally only have one strip of each fabric… hmm… so, I had to find two strips that were similar enough that when pieced together it wasn’t that noticeable that the two fabrics were different… Thankfully the multi colored stripes were perfect and I just had to line up the seam under one of the applique petals (which was not hard because really you can put the flower wherever you want!) and voila! I had an approximately 88″ long strip which I then trimmed 17″ off of. Then I added the 17″ piece to the tall section of 17″ strips for the side of the quilt and was left with a piece approximately 70″ long. Still, plenty long enough to stretch across the bottom of the quilt to give it that fun pieced look!
Everything else was pretty simple.
The pattern was well explained and the applique was mostly simple large shapes that were easy to work with (This was my first applique project on my own so I appreciated the large shapes ).
I did a straight stitch, free motion, faux applique technique on the polka dots and flowers. It worked out pretty well, though needle turned would also be beautiful!
I think the biggest thing to remember when making this pattern is that it is not a bed size quilt. It could easily be made into one with a little measuring and planning ahead. As it stands, it will make a fun, happy quilt that any little girl would love to cuddle up and play in!
I would definitely recommend this pattern!
I would place the level of this pattern at beginner to intermediate.
It’s the perfect pattern for the beginner looking to explore the world of applique, without too much stress!
Enjoy, and happy quilting!
Easy Mod Podge French pots. Great tutorial!
beautiful quilt with fabric from Bunny Hill
pretty quilt
