Stripe Shuffle Pattern Release

Do you have a list of things you want to do 'someday'? Things that don't have a deadline and so keep getting put off while you take care of the things that have the extra urgency given by someone else's expectation that you'll do them? My 'someday' list is either impressive or scary, depending on how you look at it, but it is ever so slightly shorter today as I get to cross off adding this pattern to my shop.

This pattern release has been a looooooong time coming! Back in 2018 I made the quilt top and shared the free pattern for it as my 5th blogging anniversary celebration. Last year, during WIPS-B-GONE, I finally finished that quilt and now I have updated the pattern to include instructions for baby and queen sizes along with the throw size. After spending years on my 'someday' list, the Stripe Shuffle pattern is now available!

The Stripe Shuffle block is stash-friendly and super-quick to piece. If you're looking for a last-minute graduation or wedding gift idea, this would work perfectly. It would look great in so many different colours, too! I couldn't resist mocking it up in a few variations. Of course, I love how it looks in all blues.

Spring colours are so pretty, too.

And the fall colours version makes me want a drink of hot apple cider.

What colours would you use? Or what should I mockup next? It's so fun seeing how a pattern would look in different colours.

Zach was my quilt holder the day I went out to get pictures for the cover of the pattern and for this post. It was windier than I was expecting, so it wasn't as quick as he might have liked. Quilts don't like to hang flat and straight when the wind is blowing even a little! 

Thankfully Zach humoured me long enough to get what I needed. I so appreciate my guys who go along with my quilt holding requests!

The quilting on my Stripe Shuffle was started in 2018 on my Kenmore machine, then finished last year on my Janome 6700. I quilted a daisy chain in the middle white stripes and wishbones in the outer white stripes. When I finished that, I felt like it still needed something more, so I added a string of large pebbles down the center of each of the wide teal, black, and grey stripes. The narrow coloured stripes aren't quilted.

For the quilting thread, I used white, black, a couple of greys, and a couple of teals to try to match the fabrics as much as possible. The colours don't show up well in this picture of the back, but the texture sure does!

It has been a while since I did such dense custom quilting on something that wasn't a mini or baby quilt and at times I felt like the quilting was never going to be finished! At the same time, it was nice to take my time and work through quilting each individual design. I love that there are many ways to make a quilt, so we can do what we feel like in the moment. Dense custom quilting? Go for it! A quick, all-over meander with some flowers thrown in? Perfect choice! Hand quilting? It'll be gorgeous!

If what you feel like making in this moment is your own Stripe Shuffle quilt, you can pick up a copy of the pattern in my shop!

My First Quilt with Sarah Ruiz

Welcome to another My First Quilt interview! Today we get to learn about Sarah Ruiz's first quilt.

Sarah is a quilter and aerospace engineer living in Houston, Texas. She is also a quilting teacher, a pattern designer, and a tech editor.

You can connect with Sarah at her website and on Instagram.

Here's Sarah and her first quilt!

What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?

I have 2 answers to this question. I made my first quilt *top* in 2003 -- it was a t-shirt quilt that I made with shirts from several 5K and 10K races I had run over the preceding few years. I worked on it at my parents' house using my mom's 1970s-era sewing machine. I never finished it, so it remains my longest-running WIP! Here's a post about it.

A more appropriate answer is that I made my first *finished* quilt in early 2012. At this point I had made a couple simple sewing projects like a pillowcase and tote bag, and decided to make a quilt for a friend's baby. Here's a post about that one.

What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?

It was simple patchwork squares -- very beginner friendly! I quilted it myself on my $100 sewing machine by stitching in the ditch. At the time, I didn't know anything about longarms or that quilting was something you could have someone else do.

Who taught you to make the quilt?

Blog tutorials plus a class on binding that I took at my local Joann store! I did not have anyone in my immediate family who sewed or quilted, and I consider myself self-taught. Each time I wanted to do something new, I'd look up an internet tutorial or simply learn by trial and error.

Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?

Yes and no. I still think the color palette -- which I pulled directly from the white fabric print -- is nice, but if I were making this quilt today I would look for different prints and/or more variation in tone and value.

Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?

There was an 8-year gap between my "first" first quilt (the t-shirt top) and my "second" first quilt (the baby quilt). I didn't have a sewing machine, and was occupied with other creative pursuits plus working part-time on a master's degree. But after finally buying my own sewing machine in 2011 and making that baby quilt in early 2012, I was off to the races and haven't stopped since.

Where is the quilt now?

I gifted it to my friend who was having her first child. As far as I know, they still have it! Looking back, the quilt is somewhat wonky, and the fabrics aren't the same quality that I would use today -- but my friend has assured me that she enjoys being the owner of my very first quilt, flaws and all.

Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?

Just to have fun and buckle up for more! I love the quilting journey I've been on since making that quilt. Thirteen years later, my skills are significantly more developed and I have many new tools and notions. I have a much nicer sewing machine, a longarm, several bins of fabric, a dedicated sewing space, and all sorts of associated paraphernalia. But that first quilt is still a perfectly lovely quilt - and it was made without all of the bells and whistles. There are a lot of different ways to make a quilt you love.

Thanks, Sarah, for sharing the story of your first quilt(s)!

Shoo Fly Garden Quilt Tutorial

Months before I finished the EPP portion of my Hexie Rainbow quilt, I started thinking about what would be my next EPP project. I knew I didn't want to be without one, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. I considered buying a pattern from Jodi at Tales of Cloth (she has some beautiful ones!), but ultimately I decided I wanted to stick with hexies, but play with ones that were smaller than the 1" size I used for the Hexie Rainbow. 

I have to say, ½" hexies are so cute!

Once I settled on the ½" hexies, I needed a plan for them. I remembered the Flowers for Eleni quilt Jodi created with donated hexie flowers back in 2015 (including two flowers from me). There was something about the hexie flowers appliquéd to a background square that I loved, and I've wanted to do something similar ever since. 

I played in EQ8 with some different options. Sashing or no sashing? Offset blocks or straight set or on point? Eventually I settled on this, with shoo fly blocks formed by the stitch-and-flip corners and the cornerstones of the sashing. Ignore the one corner of the block that was added a little wonky and then repeated across the whole quilt; I haven't bothered to go back and fix it, but all the corners will be straight in the quilt. 

My quilt will finish at 54" x 69" and will require 154 hexie flowers. That's 1,078 hexies hand stitched into flowers, then hand stitched to their background squares, so I think I'm good for a travel project for a while 😊 I love having a project to take with me when we're driving around the province or traveling anywhere else, and I don't want to have to keep coming up with a new one, so a multi-year hand stitching project suits me just fine.

I have a few rules for myself as I make the blocks:

1. All the flowers will have yellow centers, and those fabrics will be repeated.

2. That means no yellow flowers.

3. No black flowers, since the shoo fly 'blocks' will be solid black. All other colours are fair game.

4. Flowers can be prints or solids.

5. All the hexies for a flower's petals are made from the same fabric.

6. I'm trying not to repeat fabrics for the flower petals, though it's possible I'll lose track of what I've already used and I'm not going to stress about it if something sneaks in for a second flower.

7. The backgrounds will be solid white and white-on-white prints.

I've been stitching flowers for a few months now and I have 31 made. 

I've also stitched some to their background squares and added the black stitch-and-flip corners so I could get an idea how they'd look together. Even without the sashing, I like where this is going!

For now, they're all hanging out on the side of my design wall, keeping my Kitchen Party blocks company. I love watching the collection grow!

Want to make a Shoo Fly Garden quilt of your own? Here's how!

For each block, you'll need:

• scraps for the flower petal hexies and the flower center hexie
• ½" hexie papers (see below for mine)
• 4 ½" square of white solid or tone-on-tone print
• 4 1 ½" squares of black solid
• thread to match your hexies
• thread or glue for basting the hexies
• small pins (optional, but very helpful)

Make a block

1. Print and cut out the hexie papers. Be sure to print at 'actual size' or '100% scaling'. The sides of the hexies should measure exactly ½".

2. Pin the hexie papers to the wrong side of your fabric scraps, leaving enough room between them for the seam allowance. A ¼" seam allowance looks huge compared to the ½" hexie paper, but you still need that full ¼" seam allowance. I love these tiny Clover applique pins for this, especially with the ½" hexies.

3. Cut out the fabric hexies. This doesn't need to be precise, as long as you have a good seam allowance. Because they're so small, they're easy to cut with scissors, which is what I've been doing. You need 6 for the flower petals and 1 for the flower center.

4. Thread baste or glue baste the hexies. I prefer to thread baste, only going through the fabric, not the papers. I have a tutorial on how to prepare shapes for English Paper Piecing you can check out if you've never done it before.

5. Once your hexies are all basted, stitch the flower together using a thread that blends with your fabric. I prefer to use a whip stitch, but you can also try the flat back method of stitching EPP to see what you prefer. Once the flower is stitched, remove the papers.

6. Fold the background square in half horizontally and vertically and finger press it to create creases. Using the creases to help, center the flower on the background square and pin it in place.

7. Again using a thread that blends with the fabric of your flower, stitch the flower to the background. I love the ladder stitch for this because it's almost completely invisible. You could also stitch them by machine if you prefer.

8. For the stitch-and-flip corners, you can draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the wrong side of the black 1 ½" squares or you can eyeball it, which is what I've been doing. Normally I draw the lines, but these squares are small enough I'm comfortable winging it. Place a black square on the corner of the background square as shown and stitch from corner to corner.

9. Repeat for the other three corners.

10. Trim off the excess, leaving a ¼" seam allowance. 

11. Press the black triangles open. You have a finished block! Now go make a whole bunch more 😂

To make a quilt top

I don't have any pictures of this part because it's going to be quite a while yet before I get there!

1. Once you have all your blocks made, lay them out in whatever size layout you planned. Mine will be 11 x 14 (eventually). Here's how it would look for a 9 x 9 (44" square) baby quilt.

2. Cut your sashing and cornerstones.

• Sashing - 1 ½" x 4 ½" rectangles
• Cornerstones 1 ½" squares

3. Stitch the blocks, sashing, and cornerstones together into rows. Press the seams either open or towards the sashing.

4. Stitch the rows together to complete the quilt top.

If you make a Shoo Fly Garden block (or blocks), I'd love to see! Please tag me if you share it on social media or you can send me an email at devotedquilter@gmail.com.

My Hexie Rainbow quilt top took 8 years to make. I wonder how long my Shoo Fly Garden top will take!