Tutorial Reboot Featuring Guest Blogger Nicole Daksiewicz

Revisited Quilting Tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Co

nicole modern handcraft tutorial reboot

Hello, my name is Nicole Daksiewicz and I sew and blog over at Modern Handcraft, where I share my current projects and free sewing tutorials. I was so excited when they contacted me about joining the Tutorial Re-boot series here at Missouri Star Quilt Company. I have been a huge fan of the website and of Jenny’s since I first started quilting, and since joining the Sizzix Design team where they offer a huge assortment of MSQC dies that are so helpful!

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

One of the reasons I started quilting is that I was searching for nursery decor when I was pregnant with my first son and just couldn’t find anything that I loved. Fast forward to today’s project – my take on the Chopped Block Quilt which is a quilt I am making for my son’s Star Wars themed room. Kids bedding is a tricky one, usually the bed sets you find at the store are cheap quality and are not exactly the colors your child wants in his room. Luckily MSQC has a great assortment of novelty fabrics, including the Star Wars fabric I used in this project along with a pop of color that my son loves and matches the artwork we bought for his room.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

The quilt I chose, the Chopped Block, is a beautifully simple quilt that was so so much fun to make. It can be very modern in appearance depending on the fabrics used and is a perfect project for a quilter that is just starting out! In the YouTube tutorial, Jenny uses pre-cut jelly rolls and charm packs.

The fabric we wanted to use unfortunately did not come in pre-cuts, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t use them, we just had to do a little math using the fabric allowance chart and do a little extra cutting.

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For my fabrics I chose to use Kona White as my main fabric for my background, backing and binding. The remaining prints for the blocks are Kona Bahama Blue solid, Star Wars Grid in Black, Star Wars Logo in Black and Blueberry Park neutral black strand. One yard of each print fabric is the perfect amount for the size quilt I made with just a little left over for some pillows.

Once you have all of your fabrics prepped, it’s time to make each block. We will start with a patterned center for the first block. You will make the same number of patterned center blocks as solid center blocks since you will be cutting and shuffling in the next step. Take your 4.5″ patterned square and join a 4.5″ x 2.5″ solid strip of fabric to each side, press seams.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Add your 8.5″ x 2.5″ solid strips to the remaining sides, press seams.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Now add your 8.5″ x 2.5″ patterned strips to two sides, press seams.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Add the final patterned 12.5″ x 2.5″ strips to the remaining sides, press seams.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

For the chop and shuffle step you will first need to cut your blocks into 4 sections, in half and in half again. The trick I have for making cutting the blocks is to line up your outside middle square line to the 2″ line on a ruler and the outside line of the middle fabric to the 4″ line on the ruler. This will make for fast cuts and ensure that everything is nice and straight.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

You will join two pieces of solid center block with patterned center block to create the chopped block design, isn’t that fun?!

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Once you get into the groove of sewing all of your parts together this is a fantastic project for chain piecing. It comes together really fast!

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Before you know it you will have a whole stack of Chopped Blocks finished! The instructions now have border information for you to use. I altered my twin size a bit and left the half blocks off of the top and bottom and just went with a 6″ border around the entire quilt. My son’s bunk bed is a little smaller than a normal twin sized bed so making it a little smaller so it will fit inside the bed nicely.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

I hope you enjoy this project as much as I did! The video instructions are fantastic and I honestly believe beginners to expert quilters would enjoy making this quilt. Here are some more photos of my finished quilt along with the inspiration for my color choices.

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Make a Star Wars Quilt using the Chopped Block Pattern! Free Step by Step Instructions and Video Tutorial!

Thank you so much for allowing me to share my version of the Chopped Block Quilt with you here at MSQC!

You can find more of my work at the following places:

Website: www.modernhandcraft.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/modernhandcraft

Facebook: www.facebook.com/modernhandcraft

Tutorial Reboot: Irish Chain Quilt Featuring Guest Blogger Heather Jones

Revisited Quilting Tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Co

heather jones tutorial reboot

Hello! I’m Heather Jones of Heather Jones Studio and author of the new book Quilt Local: Finding Inspiration in the Everyday (STC Craft | A Melanie Falick Book, 2015). I’m so excited to be guest blogging here at the Missouri Star Quilt Company Blog today. I’ve been a huge fan of Jenny’s for a long time and I especially love how accessible she makes quilting with all of her great free tutorials! I began quilting regularly about five years ago, although I have loved quilts my whole life. But, my great-great aunt Ollie is the only person in my family who quilted, so I didn’t grow up with quilts being made around me. So for many years I was kind of intimidated to start quilting, although I loved them so much. Lucky for us all, we have Jenny to teach us and virtually hold our hands throughout the process so can make just about anything with her help.

Make a gorgeous Irish Chain Quilt with Jenny Doan and Heather Jones!

Today, I’m sharing a quilt I made using Jenny’s Irish Chain tutorial. If you’re familiar with my own work, it should be no surprise at all that I’m drawn to minimalist designs, and when paired down to two solids colors, the Irish Chain is a perfect project. I have always wanted to make one of these designs so this was the perfect opportunity for me to finally get started. It’s a simple pattern that uses a nine patch block and a square of background fabric, and when arranged in this manner, the nine patch blocks create chains throughout the design.

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In Jenny’s tutorial she uses precut strips of fabric for her blocks, which is certainly a great choice for this project. I however, picked two colors of Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton, Sky for the background and Pickle for the chains, so I cut my strips from yardage.

I made a twin sized version using 3 ¾ yards of Sky, 1 ¾ yards of Pickle, and 4 1/8 yards of Kona Fog for the back. I also used an additional ½ yard of Sky for the binding.

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As I mentioned, Jenny’s tutorial used a jelly roll precut, which is fabric cut in 2 ½” x WOF (width of fabric) strips.

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So, I cut my yardage in those sizes, specifically cutting (19) 2 ½” x WOF strips of Sky and (23) 2 ½” x WOF strips of Pickle. I also cut (72) 6 ½” x 6 ½” squares of Sky for the background blocks out of my yardage.

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The nine patch blocks are made out of strip sets, and for this size quilt, you need nine outside strips, made of two Pickle strips and one Sky, with the Pickle on the outside of the strip set, as shown above. You also need five inside strip sets, using one Pickle and two Sky, with the Pickle on the inside of the strip set.

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Each nine patch is made out of two outside strip sets and one inside strip set.

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One the strip sets are made, construction is so easy, and with a little chain piecing, these blocks come together very quickly. Jenny shares tips in her tutorial to make sure the seams nestle throughout the blocks that make all those little square line up so neatly!

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And once the nine patch blocks are finished, it’s just a matter of alternating them with the background blocks to make the chains throughout the pattern.

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Once the top and back were finished, I quilted it with my go-to allover freehand figure eight design. This has become my favorite quilting design because of its simplicity and I think it works well with so many quilt patterns. I used Aurifil 2600 (Dove) 40 weight for the quilting, which I think works really well with the colors in my quilt.

Make an Irish Chain Quilt with this Free Tutorial!

I used Sky for the binding and I love how it disappears into the background of the design.

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And here’s a shot of the back, where you can see the Kona Fog that I used for the backing. It’s a bit darker blue that I think works really well with both the Sky and the Pickle.

Thanks so much for letting me share my project with you here at MSQC!

You can see more of me and my work at the following places around the web:

Blog: www.HeatherJonesStudio.com/blog
Instagram: www.instagram.com/heatherjonesstudio
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/OliveAndOllie

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irish chain pinnable 2

Tutorial Reboot: Broken Bars Quilt Featuring Guest Blogger Cristina Tepsick

Revisited Quilting Tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Co

cristina

Hi Y’all. I’m Cristina Tepsick from Pretty Little Quilts and I’m really excited to be here today! I’m a mother of three, an active duty member of the US Air Force, and a quilter. I started quilting a few years ago to occupy my time when I had to be separated from my family, and although those months were miserably lonely, quilting gave me a tangible way that I could express my love for them. It makes me teary just thinking about it, but I don’t want to depress everyone, so let’s get started with the tutorial!

broken bars cristina pinnable

Today I’m going to be showing you what I did with Jenny’s Broken Bars tutorial. When I was looking at her quilt it reminded me of rows of books. I absolutely love reading, so I knew this was the project for me. It’s such a simple project that yields some amazing results.

I used a fat quarter bundle of Magnolia fabric by Camelot Designs, and coordinated it with some Bella Solids. Although this fabric is modern, the warm color palette and florals really give it a romantic feel, and in the quilt it reminds me of a Jane Austen library.

To make the quilt, I first took my fat quarters and paired them up in sets of two.

Then I cut the pairs of fabric into strips between 7-11 inches. In Jenny’s tutorial you’ll see how she made hers into 10in strips and I used her method, with the exception of changing up the sizes. You really want to vary your strip sizes of your patterned fabric to give it that authentic bookshelf feel.

To give it a little more detail, I cut smaller strips of fabric (1in-2in) from each of the fat quarters and used the coordinating fabric (from the sets) to give it a little more interest. Let me show you how I did it in this one:

First took a set of 10in strips. Then I cut some 1 1/2in strips off the bottom.

I had a remaining 7in strip piece that I cut into three parts and sewed the 1 1/2 strips of the alternating fabric in between. Then I cut a strip of white fabric and sewed it to the top. My final rows were 12in, but I cut the white strips so the row would be a little taller so I could trim them down later. (Note: Since each of the colored fabric are different sizes, each of your white strips will also be different sizes to meet the 12in row size.)

Once you have that all together, just use your ruler to cut your “bars”. I varied the width of each of mine from 2in-3 1/2in, but the great thing about this project, is there are no specific rules, so you cut them however you like.

I made each of my strip sets different, and the funnest part was sewing them together into blocks. A good tip in Jenny’s tutorial that I would like to emphasize is deciding how many bars (or books) you want in each block, because the more bars you add the wonkier it gets. Each of my blocks were 10 bars (or about 20 inches) and I had used two per row.

Then the hard part was done. It’s a no borders quilt, but you could absolutely add borders or strips of fabric between each row to make it look more like a bookshelf.

This was a really fun and easy project and I hope it gives you some inspiration for making your own quilt!! To see more of my work you can follow my blog, Pretty Little Quilts, or follow me on Instagram @prettylittlequilts.

THANK YOU, Cristina!! We loved having you and love what you’ve done with the Broken Bars pattern!!! If you’ve made it this far in the post, we’ve decided to do a little giveaway to go with this fun project! We’re giving away 1 Magnolia Fat Quarter Bundle to one quilter! Here’s what you have to do to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

cristina pinnable

Tutorial Reboot: The Sunny Skies Quilt Featuring Guest Blogger Megan Pitz

Revisited Quilting Tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Co

Make the Sunny Skies Quilt with this Easy Step by Step Tutorial!

Hello, Friends! I’m Megan Pitz from Canoe Ridge Creations and I am so thrilled to be guest blogging over here on the Missouri Star Quilt Company blog today. For me quilting has always been a family tradition — taught by my mother and grandmother, I made my first quilt when I was 12 as a 4-H project. One quilt lead to another, and another, and another (with a few Works In Progress mixed in between) and now fifteen years later it’s become a part of my everyday. I started Canoe Ridge Creations less than five years ago, first as a blog journalling my finishes for family & friends, and it now includes several mini quilting clubs, a pattern line, and my works in several books & magazine publications. Being able to share my passion for quilting & pass it along to others is the best!

Make the Sunny Skies Quilt with this Easy Step by Step Tutorial!

Today I’m sharing my version of the MSQC Sunny Skies tutorial & quilt. I love how this pattern is made with two relatively simple components — a 16-patch & chevron block — but when arranged the right way, it gives a more complex design. Fresh, modern, and so fun! Jenny’s video tutorials are always fabulously easy to follow. I love how you can pause & start the videos as you please. It felt like Jenny was just another sewing friend hanging out in my studio, I love it!

Here, you can watch the free tutorial!

The original version includes two borders, but I’m personally not one to use borders in my quilts. So instead I opted to skip the borders and make my quilt a little larger & square.

Make the Sunny Skies Quilt with this Easy Step by Step Tutorial!

For my quilt I used one jelly roll of Corey Yoder’s Prairie from Moda, 2 3/4 yards accent fabric (Peacock Bella Solids), and 2 yards background fabric (White Bleached Bella Solid). With just a bit more fabric than the original pattern calls for, I was able to use almost the entire jelly roll and finish with a 64″ x 64″ quilt — perfect throw size!

Make the Sunny Skies Quilt with this Easy Step by Step Tutorial!

The Sunny Skies chevron blocks are constructed by placing a background rectangle and accent fabric square together, sewing on the diagonal, trimming the excess corner and pressing. I decided to stitch & trim these “bonus triangles” to 3″ finished (3 1/2″ unfinished) Half Square Triangles and then them into a coordinating baby quilt. You can read more about it right here. That means you can essentially get TWO QUILTS out of one by using this tutorial — double bonus!

Make the Sunny Skies Quilt with this Easy Step by Step Tutorial!

Thanks so much to the MSQC crew for letting me share my project with you all today — it’s been so much fun!

Here are some other places you can find Megan on the web:

 

Tutorial Reboot: Valentine Heart Quilt Featuring Guest Blogger Christie Hurst

 It’s time for another Tutorial Reboot! This month we want to introduce you to Christie Hurst! We know you’re going to love this one!! 🙂

Make a Valentine Heart Quilt! Free Tutorial!

Hello! My name is Christie and I blog over at Lemon Squeezy Home and also Love From Ruby.

Make a Valentine Heart Quilt! Free Tutorial!

 

Love From Ruby is the whole reason I chose to use the Valentine Heart Quilt Tutorial in the first place! I have a two year old daughter with a congenital heart defect so anything with hearts makes me smile. This quilt will be donated to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit on December 17, which marks two years since my Ruby had her open heart surgery.

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

You can watch the video tutorial from Jenny Doan here!

I love how this quilt turned out! The video tutorial is very clear and easy to follow. I chose to make a baby quilt in boy colors. There are just not enough boy heart themed items sometimes!

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

I didn’t always love to quilt. It hasn’t been until this summer that I’ve started to quilt more and I’m hooked. Initially I was pretty sure I hated it when I made my first quilt, ha! I haven’t made a lot of quilts, but I am learning more with every quilt I finish! This heart quilt is my 10th.
Heart Quilt // love from ruby
I’m in the process of making another with my sisters for my Aunt for Christmas. There is just something about giving a quilt to someone that I love–I feel I am wrapping them with my love when nothing else seems to suffice sometimes.

Simple Heart Quilt Tutorial and it's FREE!!

To make this baby quilt, you need 1 Ocean Cotton+Steel Basics charm pack (will not use all), 1.5 yards Kona White for the background and sashing, 1/2 yard XO Night Owl Cotton + Steel for the binding (will have plenty of that left over) and 1.75 yards Dottie Bluebird for the backing. And of course batting, thread, and time. Though I love baby quilts because they are so quick to make!

So you will need to use:

-24 charm pack squares: 4 squares of 6 different matched fabrics

-twenty-four 2.5″ white squares. I cut 2.5″ strips and then cut that into squares.

-twelve 5″ white squares

-twelve 2.5″ x 9.5″ strips white fabric

-twelve 2.5″ x 13.5″ strips white fabric

-sashing 4″ wide (I didn’t get the exact length measurement on this, so sorry!)

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

The video has you iron the white squares in half diagonally but I drew them. On the 5″ squares you draw from corner to corner, then measure half inch a way and sew down that as well. In the video she saves them for a cute little centerpiece made from the smaller triangles sewn together, but we will use ours in the quilt so hang onto them!

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

So you will use the larger triangle for the hearts, and save the smaller one for the border.

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

Sew along all the lines and you’ll end up with this. Make sure to press well!

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

Sew one side of the heart together top to bottom and repeat with the other side.

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Match the seams up and pin, then sew the two sides of the heart together.

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

Now add the sashing. Do the 9.5″ strips on the sides first, and then the top and bottom 13/5″. I like to pin from the middle out and then sew. It helps to keep it from getting wavy. This is especially important the longer your sashing pieces are.

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

Make sure to press well throughout the entire making of the quilt block.

I’m sorry I didn’t record the exact measurements of the sashing everywhere, but measure the middle of the quilt and the edges for an accurate sashing measurement. As I said, I used the smaller triangles cut off from the 5″ squares at the beginning so you will have to factor in those squares as well.

Heart Quilt // love from ruby

If you want to learn more about how you can help families who are affected by a congenital heart defect, then click HERE.

love from ruby

Thank you so much for having me MSQC!