1 Hue + 4 Fat Quarters = Tutorial for a Fabulous Table Runner

Marny here…I love green! Any green, any value, shade, tint, tone and ranging from blue greens to yellow greens. I just love green.  So here we go. 

Choose 4 fat quarters in four values.  Mine are a light yellow green, a medium yellow green, a medium dark blue green, and a dark yellow forest green.  Remember names are subjective and colors are not accurately photographed on a rainy day in a work room.

These 4 fat quarters are neither blendy nor from a common color scheme.  There is a bit of a discordant conversation going on amongst the various players, but it is a very interesting conversation and the overall product is fabulous.  My advice would be to take a bit of risk with your own favorite hue.  

Showing what remains from the 4 fat quarters of 4 varying greens in 4 values (1 fat quarter of each)

Stack the fat quarters, in no particular order, on top of one another.  Orient the stack so that the long edge of your fat quarters (21'') runs from left to right and the short edge of your fat quarters (18'')  runs from your tummy to a point away from you.  Cut a 1 ½'',a 3 ½'',a 5 ½'' and an 8 ½'' strip.  (These cuts add up to 19'' so you need to cut them along the long edge as described.)

Make 4 piles.  Each pile will have one of each size of strip (1 ½'', 3 ½'', 5 ½'', 8 ½'')
and will have one strip from each color.

Sew each of the piles into a unit using ¼'' seams and pressing each seam open.  I chose to make all 4 units in the same order: starting from the top with a 5 ½'' strip, next the 1 ½'' strip, the 3 ½'' strip and finally the 8 ½'' strip.  You might choose to place your strips in some other order.  There are lots of perfectly wonderful ways to do this.  You do want it to end up, though, so you are not sewing two of the same colors together when you sew units to one another.

First unit

Second unit

Third unit

Fourth unit

Trim the sides of the units. Mine are trimmed to 17'' wide.  The height is 17 ½'' unfinished and determined by the strips being sewn together. 

Time for some design choices.  This layout has each unit with the 8 ½'' strip at the bottom.  But the distribution of the lightest fabric seemed off when I fiddled around arranging the blocks this way.

My solution was to turn one unit (3rd one down) and let two 8 ½'' segments land next to one another.  Since I love the juxtaposition of the medium dark blue green and the medium yellow green I am very happy to have them meet in the middle!

Sewn together and out in daylight.  Now for figuring out whether to quilt it, or just face and flip, or ?.

Till Tuesday…

Sliced Bread from Modern Quilt Relish Video 2

We're debuting our second video in the series for the free printable pattern Sliced Bread.  Clearly we are still learning (very evident at the end of the video).  But as they say, you have to start somewhere.

Anyway, this video covers "two ruler" cutting skills.  There is a nice little demonstration on how to cut without having to flip fabric or rulers around.  Take a look!




You can click on the label Sliced Bread Free Quilt Pattern to get to the posts with all the directions for making the modern baby quilt.

Next week we'll be making a strip set and subcutting it into the correct segments for the quilt.

We've started a Pinterest Board for our videos.  Hopefully it will grow and, fingers crossed, become more professional.

We are hard at work sewing, designing and writing our next project.  Hopefully we can share more specifics soon.

Till Tuesday

Easy Modern Baby Quilt Printable Recipe

Marny here...lots to share this week. 

First, please note our new look!  We are so excited to start showing it off.  We have to thank Lindsey, our logo designer, for translating our requests into a fresh, modern new look for Modern Quilt Relish.  You will be hearing a bit more about Lindsey in the coming months.  She is a wonderful designer with diverse experience and technological skills.

Lindsey can be reached at: Lindsey@lindseybuck.com

Also take a look to the right of the post to see our new "button".  You can grab it using the html code and put it on your blogs or just share the Modern Quilt Relish jar as you see fit.  In the future our buttons might have reasons, like quilt-a-longs, etc.  But for now it leads you back to our blog in general.

Now for the printable recipe of Sliced Bread as promised in last week's post.  You can just click on the link, scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page it sends you to and click on the "print page" option.  The pattern appears below as well.

We are also experimenting with video.  Here is one on choosing fabric for our Sliced Bread quilt.  The video will also be on YouTube.

Sliced Bread from Modern Quilt Relish

Sliced Bread, an easy modern baby quilt from Modern Quilt Relish. It finishes 44" square. We love the simplicity of this quilt.  Choose a lively Focus Fabric and a high contrast Background or make the contrast more subtle.  The choice is yours!  Please note the Background Fabric should be nondirectional. Sliced Bread is a perfect quilt for less experienced quilters.  The number of seam allowances from left to right is the same as the number from top to bottom.  So, as long as your "quarter inch" seam allowance is consistent you should end up with a square.   All seams are pressed open.  WOF = width of fabric.  Remove selvages. Fabric Requirements:  42" useable width     Focus Fabric:  1 yard for both squares and binding   (OR  5/8 yard for squares and 1/2 yard of a different fabric for binding)     Nondirectional Background Fabric:  1 1/4 yard  Backing:  2 1/8 yards pieced.  (One 54" piece and two 10" pieces sewn end to end,  trimmed to 54" long and then seamed to the 54" piece.) Cutting Instructions:     Focus Fabric:  Cut three 6 1/2" x WOF strips.   From one cut a total of four 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" squares.  Put aside the other two for strip sets. Cut five 2 1/2" WOF strips for binding.     Background Fabric:  Cut nine 4 1/2" x WOF strips.         Strips 1 & 2:  Put aside to use in strip sets.         Strips 3-7:  Cut each of these into a 4 1/2" x 36 1/2" rectangle.  Five total.   (OR wait to cut these until you measure your completed pieced strips.)         Strips 8 & 9:  Add leftovers from the above strips to create two strips 4 1/2" x 44 1/2".    (Or you can wait until you measure your pieced quilt top and cut them that length.)   Piecing Instructions:  Press all seams open. Step 1.  Take one 6 1/2" x WOF strip of Focus Fabric and  one 4 1/2" x WOF strip of Background.  Seam them together along their length.   Step 2.  Cut this strip set into six units 6 1/2" x 10 1/2".   Step 3.  Repeat Steps 1 and 2.  You will have twelve units total. Step 4.  Following the orientation shown in the diagram,  seam three of these units together.   Step 5.  Add one 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" square of Focus Fabric as diagramed. Step 6.  Repeat Steps 4 & 5 three more times.  You will have four pieced strips. Step 7.  Seam a 4 1/2" x 36 1/2" strip of Background fabric to the top edge of  each of these pieced strips. Step 8.  Seam the units created in Step 7 together as seen below. Step 9.  Seam the remaining 4 1/2" x 36 1/2" strip of Background to the bottom edge of this. Step 10.  Seam one 4 1/2" x 44 1/2" strip of Background to the left edge and one  to the right edge. Step 12.  Quilt, Bind and Savor.

Ignore the little "add comment" button immediately below this--it is an artifact I didn't know I'd copied and pasted into this post.  (Just when you think you've got it???)  If you'd like to comment do so in the regular way.  Till Tuesday...

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Announcing a Free, Easy Modern Baby Quilt Pattern Ahead, Pass it on!

Marny here...Baby showers are so much fun.  They are such a celebration!

You get to make amusing little decorations. 

Serve candy disguised as placecards

Share a meal with friends.

And the gifts are always so much fun to look at and explore.  Wonderful books, hand knit items, adorable clothes, stuffed animals and of course, baby quilts.

Sliced Bread Quilt completed and heading to a new home!

Among the UFO's discovered in my sewing room cleanup was a really simple, really cute baby quilt top I finished long ago.  (This has been shown unfinished in the past on our blog.)  I always loved this two fabric quilt with its open space and the simple repetition of shape.  The bubble fabric is so cheerful and features transparency!

As you can see it is a Free Spirit fabric.  Sadly, I don't think it is available any longer.

I took it (and three other baby quilt tops) to April.  She put a rush on it and I was able to bind and happily present it at a baby shower for the special mom to be!  (Hint, Jill is the special grandmother to be!)

Close up of active quilting and pieced binding on Sliced Bread Quilt

The pattern is such a clean design and is so doable and easy!  It occurred to me others would like a simple quilt ready to give to the next lucky baby coming their way.  So get ready.

We will be sharing printable instructions next Tuesday, September 11th.  Please pass the information on!  The more the merrier!  Share on Facebook and Pinterest and on your blogs and any other way you see fit.  Thank you!

Sliced Bread Quilt Free Printable Pattern coming soon to the Modern Quilt Relish blog. 

See you then.

A Tutorial for Quick Decorative Towels

Marny here...

Recently the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild met.  Although I'd known there was to be an exchange of some sort of holiday item for weeks, I was caught with overly ambitious plans and too little time to complete them.  This simple little idea popped into my head.  I had the adorable Riley Blake precut 5" squares already and a quick trip into Target supplied me with the "finger tip" towels. 

They turned out so cute I thought I would share the steps I took.   

Start with 5" (Charm) squares.  Seven squares make four bands.
For my three towels (I made another they were so much fun) I used fourteen
charm squares.  No fabrics were repeated on any towel.
Or at least that was my intention.  I have some leftover bands to play with later.

Cut each 5" square in half.  You can stack them and cut them very efficiently.
Perfection is not required.  

Create two piles, each with one half of every charm.
This will give your strip sets a nice variety and keep like fabrics from
ending up too close to one another.

Chain sew pairs together.  Press the seams.  I press them open.

Then seam pairs together.  I really only needed seven fabrics across.
I got a bit ambitious and had to "unsew" a few because my towel
was only so wide.  So measure your towel relative to your strip sets.
You'll need a slightly longer strip set than the width of the towel so that you
are able to fold the ends in using the method described below.
Two additional inches should do it.

Cut the strip set in half lengthwise.  It will be 2 1/2" by the
length of your strip set.

I used one half on one towel and the other half on another towel.  

Next, press this unit in half lenghtwise.

Then, open it up again and press each edge in towards the center pressed line.

Line up the nicely pressed unit on the towel to see how much
the ends need to be folded under.  Press under that amount.
Next, fold the outer most corners towards the center to form a point.

Press again and no raw edges will escape while you are sewing.
The band you have created is probably an 1" to 1 1/4" or so wide.
My towels worked perfectly since they had bands to accommodate
the pieced units.  How did I get so lucky?

I increased my stitch length to a 3.0 (on my machine 2.5 is the default) and
stitched all the way around a bit more than an 1/8" from the edge.
To be truthful I used my trusty edgestitching foot with my needle in
position 6 (as far to the right as it goes).

This is a picture of the edgestitching foot ready for action.  It is hard to see here,
but it has a gate to the right that the fabric slides against.  This keeps the stitching
consistent and straight.  It is very handy for all sorts of sewing, especially for my 1/4" seam.

Each towel got two bands, each from a different strip set.

All ready for the gift exchange!  Very cute and lots of fun to create.

This technique could be expanded for larger towels.  You can cut your own 5" squares from your stash or purchase fabrics for your decor and cut those.   More importantly, use this idea to provide a happy excuse to purchase those wonderful Charm Packs of all sorts of holiday collections!  I'm going to be hunting for Charms appropriate for Halloween, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July.  

Do any of you have simple holiday gift ideas you'd care to share?   Any tutorials you know of for fun items to link our readers to?  Can't wait to hear about them.  Thanks in advance for sharing.  Notice the Handmade with Love little bird on the top right portion of our blog.  Lots to explore there.

Speaking of sharing, feel free to share a link to this tutorial.

Till Tuesday...

Back that Modern Pillow Simply

Last  week we posted that machine satin stitched applique can be a tool for the you and your modern quilt.  Here are the promised easy steps to making a pillow back simply.  It only takes a few minutes to add a back to your pillow front.  Think of the great gifts you can make.

First you need two rectangles of fabric.  They can be two different fabrics as shown here, or they can be the same fabric.  One dimension will be the width of your pillow. In our case that is 12 1/2".  The other dimension is one half of the height of the pillow plus 3 1/2" to 4".  We used 4".  So half of 12 1/2" = 6 1/4".  Add 4" and that is 10 1/4".  So each of our rectangles measures 10 1/4" by 12 1/2".

Next, press 1/4" down to the wrong side along the width of the pillow. (The 12 1/2" side.)

Fold that over and press again.  You now have a folded edge with no raw edges exposed.  Repeat on the other rectangle.

Stitch through the folded edge on each rectangle. 

Place the two rectangles with the stitched edges next to one another.

It is now time to overlap the two rectangles.  They will not show equally on the back.  Plan which fabric you want on the larger top portion of your back and which you want on the smaller lower portion.  Overlap them as you want them to appear in the final pillow.  The rectangle on the top portion is placed over the fabric designated for the lower portion.  Both fabrics are right sides up.

When the above is turned over it will look like the photo below.  Pin this unit to fit the pillow top, right sides together.

Here is what it will look like from the other side of the pinned stack of fabrics.  In all photos the top of the pillow is at the top of the image.

Stitch all the way around the pillow using a 1/4" seam.  Press.  Trim the corners as shown below.

Turn right side out through the overlap and push the corners out with a point turner or the eraser end of a pencil.  Stuff with a pillow form.  Our pillow form is somewhat oversized giving our pillow a plump profile.    

 Front side of the Modern Pillow

Back side of the Modern Pillow

Next week we are going to keep with the theme of backsides....hmmmm....

Till then.