I was really happy to see that the new organic line, Monaco, by Jennifer Moore of Monaluna has a number of really great boyish prints (ah, those scooters!). I like these prints because they lend themselves well for a baby boy quilt, but would also be perfect for a gender neutral quilt.

I decided to go with my original Spotted Squares design (done previously here and here), because I love how it shows off a good portion of the prints. Since I was using fat quarters of each of the prints, I went with 9″ squares, which results in a pretty perfect baby quilt size (about 43″ x 51″ or so).

And now I just have to pick and purchase a backing… I love the scooters, but I also think the turquoise double dot print would make a nice backing – what do you all think?

I’ve been wanting to make one of these plus quilts since I saw this one. You already know of my love of patchwork quilts and 3 1/2 ” squares, so it wasn’t too far of a jump to rearrange the squares into this fun plus pattern. My initial thought was that I’d use just one print, the Amy Butler pink coriander, and pair it with lots of solids in shades of gray. Turns out that the gray solids I have here don’t really play so nicely together, so instead I started pulling out various shades of pink solids. Then I discovered two lovely Liberty of London prints I had on hand that also included the same dark pink as the Amy Butler print. And from there it was only a matter of time before I had added in a whole variety of oranges, yellows and a light green. The end result is a bright, summer sherbet-y bunch of colors… perfect for August, I think!

In between relaxing at the beach I also had a chance to take a quick trip to Blueberry Hill to visit with Heather Ross, Liesl Gibson, and the weekend sewing group. Unfortunately my camera remained in the car the whole time, but hopefully there will be some photos popping up from their weekend – looks like it was a great group and I’m sure they all had a blast!

I’ll leave you with this photo of fabric squares, which shows the only crafting I did this weekend. Hopefully these squares will transform themselves into a quilt top this week!

As with the first, this one contains 16 blocks, arranged 4 blocks by 4 blocks. I think I burn out after about 12 of these blocks, then I push myself to make a few more to make the quilt large enough. You definitely won’t find me making one any larger than this!

I’m looking forward to seeing this quilted. I’m still debating about how to quilt it – I’m a little concerned about quilting over the section where the points all come together… it’s a bit lumpy!

(If you’re trying out the starburst tutorial, you might want to play around with the direction you iron the seams – I ironed mine open, but I probably should have tested ironing the seams in alternating directions.)

In other news, some of you might have noticed my updated blog design (if you’re reading this through a reader, click through to check out the new design!). My sister, who hates change, urged me to keep it as it was, but I’m hoping that these new changes will make it easier to find some of my older projects. You can now find tabs along the top for tutorials, quilts, clothing & household goods. At the moment, quilts can be sorted by most recent, type, or most commented.

In the future, these changes will hopefully speed up the site, loading images faster (not in place yet, but hopefully soon!). I’ve had a few problems with images overlapping for people with smaller screen resolutions, so this new design should help with that.

I hope you’ll like these new changes, but of course if you find things that aren’t working correctly, do let me know!

Since I had some extra charm packs, and the desire to sew a couple of quick quilts, I made up some half square triangles and sewed them together for this cute little mini quilt. My favorite part of this one has to be the quilting, which was inspired by the quilting Kate did on this mini quilt.

I went for fewer lines, but I love the chevron stripe pattern, especially on the backing, which is a super soft Amy Butler solid.

It’s bound in some more AB solids  in a darker pink with a couple orange sections. This would make a great quilt for a newborn, and might also transition nicely into a security blanket/quilt for a toddler.

Since I had such fun with the quilting, I made up a second charm square quilt with the same fabrics and the same backing, and did a similar quilting pattern. Cute as a little matched set, no?

The baby quilt is already on its way to a new owner, but the mini version is still available in the shop.

Then one day earlier this year I got an email from Raven, who blogs over at Oversewn. I had been reading her blog for a while and knew that she was an avid Featherweight collector (I wonder if she found any at yard sales?!). I was absolutely thrilled to read her email and to find out that she was suggesting a swap – a Featherweight from her collection for one of my quilts. I hesitated for a second, since I was sure I’d be getting the better end of the deal… in the end we did go through with the swap and now I know for certain that’s true – this machine is a beauty!

It’s absolutely gorgeous and it sews like a dream! I couldn’t be happier! (Thanks again, Raven!!)

So how does this help you? Well, Raven has decided to raise money for the Santa Barbara Birth Center for the help and support she received during her recent miscarriage. The money will be used to open a facility and pay for the renovating and the initial operating costs. By donating $1 – $5, you’ll receive the same number of entries into Raven’s giveaway.

(photo borrowed from Raven’s site)

The big prize is another gorgeous Featherweight, this one in white, and along the way there will be other great prizes – (out of print Heather Ross… need I say more?!). You can check out the other prizes and read all the official rules over here on this post. Then head over to the Santa Barbara Birth Center website to donate (you’ll see a donate button on their site on the right hand side). And lastly, go to this post and leave a comment for each dollar you’ve donated (up to 5). Raven will keep this giveaway open through August, or until her donation goal is met!

[And now for a word of warning - this tutorial is more about the process I used when putting together these blocks. It may not be the best way to do it, and you might find something that works better for you, but these are the steps I took. Also, please note ahead of time that this particular method does create some waste, so keep that in mind if you plan on making these blocks with your favorite fabrics!

Oh, and one last thing, I'm sure some of this might be unclear, mainly since I wrote it in a hurry before work this morning -- feel free to ask questions!]

Let’s get started! You’ll need a variety of scraps – for 10″ blocks, you’ll need scraps that are at least 6″ in length and a variety of widths. To start, I pull out about 5 or 6 scraps which would make up half the square and I lay them out and kind of visualize the rectangular shape I’ll be making. I’ve been making 10″ blocks, so each trimmed half square block will measure 5.25″ x 10″.

I start from the left side and grab a piece that’s about 6″ long (since the points line up in the center, you’ll need pieces that extend at least 5.5 – 6″ from where the center point will be.The next piece will need to be slightly longer, since it’s on a diagonal – about  7″ or so, and so on. I lay mine out on my cutting mat so I can check to make sure that the pieces will cover the area I need for the rectangle. When you’re starting out, it might help to cut a piece of paper to the 5.25″ x 10″ size and lay your pieces over the paper so you can be sure they’re large enough to cover that area, keeping your seam allowances in mind (I find that bigger is always better, since you can just trim it down to size later!)

Start with the two pieces on the left, and with right sides together, angle the second piece on top of the first and sew, going from the longest part of the first piece and angling down so you have a wedge shape. I recommend that you sew an angle that doesn’t go directly to the point of the first piece of fabric. You’ll want your points to match up about 1/4″ – 1/2″ or so away from the edge of the fabric so that you’ll be able to trim it to the correct size later. (it may help to read through the rest of the tutorial first so you can see what I mean).

Trim the excess fabric and iron seams open.

Add the next piece of fabric. With right sides together, make sure that this next piece of fabric is about 1/4″ away from the point where the fabrics are coming together. This will ensure that your points meet when you add this next strip, sewing with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Trim excess fabric and press.

As you sew the pieces together, you can check to make sure that your sizes are correct. As you can see in the photo above, you should have about 6″ in length from where the fabrics meet at the point, and you should have about the same distance in height.

Keep in mind that you’ll want to make sure that the point where your fabrics meet isn’t on the very edge of the fabric, but rather about a 1/4″ in from the edge, as you can see above. When you trim it down to size, you’ll need this extra 1/4″ for the seam allowance so you can sew the two halves together. (this might not make sense right now, but it will later when you go to trim it).

Continue sewing the pieces until you’ve pieced enough fabric to cover the necessary area.

Trim the block to size. As you can see from the photo, you’ll position the point in the middle and then will trim 5″ away from the point on each edge. Trim the bottom edge 1/4″ below the point (I position the point where the fabrics meet on an intersecting line on my cutting mat and then using a clear ruler you can easily make sure that you’re trimming 1/4″ below that point). Trim the top edge 5 1/4″ from the bottom edge.

And here you can see two finished blocks – you can see that they’re both trimmed to 5.25″ x 10″, leaving 1/4″ below the point where the fabrics meet at the center).

Sew them together, matching the center points and iron the seam open. Since there’s so much fabric meeting right at the middle, it will be hard to iron and there will be a slight bump right there in the center. I used extra steam and pressed quite hard to make it as flat as possible. Your resulting block will be 10″ square.

Stand back and admire your crazy new starburst block! (and then go make a bunch more for an entire crazy starburst quilt!)

A couple people mentioned Gwen Marston’s Liberated Quiltmaking II book. Even though I own this book, I’m a little embarrassed to say that I had no idea that Gwen had included a similar quilt in her book. Last night I got the book out so I could take a look, and sure enough, she has a very similar quilt out of solids on page 47.

What strikes me as interesting is the idea that nothing in quilting is really ever completely new, but rather we build on, expand, or discover for ourselves something that may have already been done. When I first started sewing and buying fabrics, a local shopowner kept telling me that same thing – I’d come in excited about a new block or a new piece of fabric and she’d always say “it’s not new, it’s just coming back around again”. Initially I wasn’t sure I believed her, but now that I’ve been sewing for a little longer, I realize that there’s some truth to that (take a look at this Flickr group for new fabrics that have been recreated from old designs).

With this quilt, I feel like I discovered for myself a very similar pattern that Gwen had already discovered. What’s interesting though is that we came to a similar design, but we were initially inspired by different blocks. As Gwen discusses in her book, the blocks she uses to make up the square are based on a student’s error while making liberated star blocks. The resulting shape, when sewn together, creates this fun block. Then when sewn together with other blocks, it also creates a secondary pattern.

My inspiration was spiderweb blocks, as I mentioned in the previous post. I started looking at a number of spiderweb blocks on Flickr and then happened upon this block by Jess which she made for a quilting bee. I loved how the spiderweb was contained within one block. I realized that much of what I like about the spiderweb block is how the fabrics all come together into a point at the center. From there, I realized that I could skip the paper piecing and just use one piece of fabric for each of the wedges. (I just went back and read Jess’s post about this block, and now I see that the quilt bee member had asked for these liberated spiderweb blocks from Gwen’s book Collaborative Quilting (I don’t have that one yet, but maybe I should get it!). So in the end, it turns out that I was inspired by Gwen, even though I didn’t actually know that was the case at the time!)

I put together each half of the square separately, cut each down to size (my blocks are 10″ square), and then sewed the two halves together. Since I did it this way (and since I varied the widths of my wedges) I don’t have that secondary pattern when I put the blocks together. As I learned last night while reading Liberated Quiltmaking II, Gwen sews quarter squares with three fabrics per quarter, and then sews the four together into a square block. If you’re looking to make this type of block, you might want to take a look at Gwen’s method in Liberated Quiltmaking II. She also provides great examples of other types of patterns you can make using this quilt block.

Since my method is a bit different, I’ve put together a quick tutorial for you showing how I constructed these blocks. It’ll be up in the next post!

After realizing that my scrap situation was getting a little out of hand, I needed to make something that would use them up. I wanted to try to make a block where all the points met in the middle, somewhat reminiscent of a spiderweb block, but without the paper piecing (and without the eight-sided web part). I pieced these in an improv-style, grabbing scraps as I went, and not worrying about the sizes of each wedge. I pieced each half individually, then matched them with another half to make each square block.

I made a few blocks to test it out, and I didn’t think they were too bad, but I wasn’t getting a very good reaction from Morgan. Each time I’d make another, he’d wonder aloud why I was making more of them. It got to the point where he’d just shake his head when he saw me reach for the scrap basket. I thought he’d see my vision when it was all sewn together, but to be honest, I’m still not sure he’s feeling it.

You know what though? The more I look at it, the more I like it, and that’s all that matters right?!

But with that said, what’s your opinion? Crazy crazy? Or crazy fun?

(and speaking of crazy fun, this blurry action shot shows my mom using the quilt top as a cape!)

Update: I’ve just posted a tutorial showing my process for creating these blocks. You can find it here!

This new line is called Urban Circus, and it’s another good one! Fun prints of elephants and giraffes and lots of great geometrics. It will be available in two colorways – Earth and Spring. I think they’re both pretty fantastic, but I’m particularly loving the Earth colorway. I’m always looking for interesting prints for baby boy quilts and I think these would be perfect! (those elephants… I just love them!)

Do you want to win some? Laurie’s celebrating 2 years of blogging with a great giveaway! If you haven’t already entered, head on over here to throw your name in the hat. Laurie will select two winners on Friday morning.

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And speaking of great new fabrics, please help me welcome my newest sponsor, Monaluna! I’ve been reading Jennifer’s blog for quite a while now — back in February she posted a little peek at her new, self-produced organic line and I immediately bookmarked it so I’d remember to look for it in the future…

(photo from Jennifer’s blog)

Well, it’s here! And I can’t wait to see it in person. (I definitely have to make something with those scooters.) You can take a look at the entire line, and even purchase yardage right from Jennifer by hopping over to her new website and shop!