Three Pretty Projects for Spring

 Happy Spring!  It's the first day of spring here in the Northern Hemisphere and as I write this email, I'm admiring a flock of blue jays munching on acorns in our front yard.  It feels like a harbinger of all the good things we have to look forward to with the return of spring—songbirds, chartreuse leaves, spring flowers, sunshiny days, warmer weather, open windows... ahhh.

To celebrate the loveliest season, I've got three pretty projects to share with you.  First up is Scrap Basket, a charming lap quilt made with a precut stack of 10" squares.  Simply pieced blocks make this 70" square throw quilt a great project for a beginning quilter.

I made my Scrap Basket quilt with fabric from The Seamstress collection by Edyta Sitar for Andover Fabrics and while I LOVE the soft vintage look, I think this quilt would be fabulous in virtually any fabric collection or made with scrappy fabrics from a stash.  You can find the downloadable pattern for Scrap Basket in my Etsy shop:  

My Bloomerie quilt is also made with a layer cake of 10" squares, in this case, Strawberry Lemonade by Sherri & Chelsi for Moda Fabrics.  This 58" x 66" throw quilt features two different flower blocks—the bigger flowers are a great way to showcase your favorite prints!  The Bloomerie quilt pattern is appropriate for a confident beginning quilter.

You can find the pattern for Bloomerie in the Late Spring 2024 special interest issue of Quilter's World magazine—Bright & Colorful Quilts—available on newsstands now.  You can also purchase a digital copy of the issue online.  

And finally here's another precut friendly quilt pattern that's a celebration of pollinators and pretty flowers.  It's my Butterfly Ballet quilt and it's made with a charm pack of Bee Dots fabric by Lori Holt for Riley Blake Designs.

You can find the pattern for Butterfly Ballet in the current issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine, on newsstands now, or online at the Quilting Daily website.  Butterfly Ballet finishes at 30" square and it's appropriate for confident beginning quilters.

I don't know if it's the lift of spring or the color in these pretty projects, but I am feeling INSPIRED—I hope you feel the same.  Happy quilting ahead! 🌷🌷🌷

—jen

February Freebie and a Bundle Up Lap Quilt!

Happy February!  It's hard to believe how quickly this month is flying by!

Here's a quick little project that you can stitch up this weekend, just in time for Valentine's Day.

This sweet mini charm pack friendly quilt made its first appearance as a Moda Bake Shop tutorial.  It was originally called Christmas Candy and featured pretty embroidered poinsettias and vines.

It was such a fast and easy project, not to mention a great way to use a mini charm pack, that I decided to make a Halloween version, this time finished as a pillow.

Not content to stop there, I made another mini quilt version —this time for spring.

And now at long last, I've made a Valentine's Day version.  Don't have a mini charm pack on hand for this weekend?  No worries!  I made this little quilt with 2½" squares that I cut from my stash—no shopping required.  I'm not sure that's a good thing, but it is possible. 😂

I've written up a quick pattern that applies to all of the "Candy" projects.  The pattern includes instructions for finishing the project either as a mini quilt or as a pillow.  Here's the link:  

Valentine's Day Candy free pattern

And if you'd like to make the Spring, Halloween and/or Christmas versions, here are links to all of the embroidery patterns:

Spring Candy embroidery
Halloween Candy embroidery
Christmas candy embroidery


It's been a bit, but I had so much fun making the cozy blocks for the Bundle Up Quilt-Along, that after the holidays I kept on making them!  I turned all of those extra blocks into a row style oversized lap quilt—call it Bundle Up 2.0.  This quilt was so much fun to make with lots of opportunity to incorporate more color (pink!) and extra prints—and at 69" x 74", it's the perfect size to actually bundle up with!

The updated Bundle Up pattern, including fabric requirements, cutting instructions and directions for both the Quilt-Along wall hanging and the lap quilt version, is available for download in my Etsy shop.  And don't worry, if you've already purchased the original Bundle Up pattern, I'll be emailing the updated version directly to you at no extra cost.  Woohoo!

Phew!  After several months, I think I've finally gotten the winter quilts out of my system.  Time to move on to spring!  I'll be back here in March with a new project and I promise, no chambray!

Thank you so much for your continued support!  🩷🩷🩷

—jen

Two New Projects for Valentine's Day

 Happy 2024!!  I hope your new year is off to a good start! 

It's been a beautiful day here in New Hampshire—a bluebird day—cold but with cloudless bright blue skies. And between the sun and the new Valentine's Day projects I've got to share with you today, I'm feeling fine! 

First up is Change of Heart.  It's a 63½" x 75½" throw quilt featuring striped heart blocks and pretty pink and cream sashing.  Here's a picture of Change of Heart on another bluebird day.  Just look at that blue sky—and, of course, the quilt! :)

Change of Heart is a scrappy, fat quarter friendly quilt—ideal for giving your stash a little love or as an excuse to treat yourself to a fat-quarter bundle.

Change of Heart is a fun quilt to make with lots of opportunity for variety in pattern and color, and with time-saving strip piecing and stitch-and-flip corners it comes together quickly.  It's a great quilt for Valentine's Day, but also a perfect year-round gift for the heart lover in your life.

Next up is the Big Love Pillow Sham—my first finish of 2024!  This simple but striking pillow finishes at 12" x 20".  If you've made my Boo Pillow, you'll be happy to know that you can use the same pillow form for both pillows!

Big Love features scrappy letter blocks paired with twin hearts.  I made mine with leftover chambray and pink scraps from my stash and I LOVE the combination, but here's a peek at what Big Love might look like with a lighter, low volume background.

The twin hearts are made with a few smaller pieces, but even so, this pillow is a fast finish—make one for yourself and one for someone you love!  And if you don't want to bother with the little hearts, the pattern also includes brief instructions for a simple alternate "L" block.

The patterns for Change of Heart and Big Love are both available for download in my Etsy shop, just click on the image below.

    

🩷🩷🩷

—jen

Bundle Up QAL - Quick Addition to Cutting for Assembly

If you're making the Bundle Up quilt or plan to in the future, you'll want to read on.  If not, Happy Holidays!

Thanks to the keen eyes and super fast quilting skills of Kelly Wyatt (this community is the best!!), you'll need to make one addition to your background cutting in order to assemble your quilt.

You'll need to cut from your background fabric:

• 2 rectangles 1" x 5"

You'll use these in section 2 of the quilt top (step 2, page 1 of the assembly instructions).  The instructions and diagrams referred to this shape, but somehow it was dropped from the original cutting sheet.  I've corrected the cutting sheet so if you haven't yet downloaded it or want to download a new one, the original link takes you to the corrected sheet.

And now that's a wrap!  😂

Happy Holidays!!

—jen

Helpful links:
Bundle Up Quilt-Along Page
Bundle Up Materials List
Bundle Up Cutting
Bundle Up Day 2 - Shoo Fly/Star Blocks
Bundle Up Day 3 - Pinwheels/Snowflake
Bundle Up Day 4 - Brrr
Bundle Up Day 5 - Hat
Bundle Up Day 6 - Mittens
Bundle Up Day 7 - Socks
Bundle Up Day 8 - Assembly

Bundle Up complete pattern

Bundle Up QAL Day 8 - Assembly - That's a Wrap!

 

After four weeks of quilting together, we've come to the final day of the Bundle Up Quilt-Along.  I'm always a little sad to reach the end of the QAL.  It's so much fun to connect with you all and it keeps my holiday spirit humming along all month.:)  But, the good part about reaching the end is getting to see some finished quilts!

I'm so happy with how my Bundle Up quilt turned out.  After assembling it, I machine quilted it using the "Surf" pattern by Anne Bright Designs.  I've used Surf before and it's a great one for both watery and wintery quilts.  I quilted my quilt with a gray-blue thread that melts away into the background and doesn't fight the white too much.  I bound my quilt with a diagonal red and white stripe and I love how it contributes to the subtle Christmassy vibe of the quilt and adds another pop of interest.  So fun!

I'm sure you're excited to begin assembling your Bundle Up quilt, so without further delay, here's the link to today's two-page assembly instruction sheet:

I'd love to see your finished Bundle Up quilts!  If you post on social media, please tag me @jendalyquilts and use the #bundleupqal.  Or if you prefer, you can always drop me an email me at jendalyquilts@gmail.com.

If you haven't been able to quilt along with us this month, the individual Bundle Up instruction sheets will remain available through December 29th (see the helpful links below).  The complete Bundle Up pattern will also be available for download in my Etsy shop indefinitely.

I'm already starting to think of ideas for next year's Christmas quilt-along!  It's hard to believe, but it will be our tenth annual QAL—time flies!  I'll announce next year's QAL in November of 2024.  If you're an email subscriber, you'll receive a notification in your inbox.

In the meantime, thank you so much for quilting/following along with me this year!  It's the quilty highlight of my Christmas season and I can't thank you enough for your support!  I hope you have a wonderful holiday and a happy and healthy new year and don't forget to bundle up!

Warmly,
—jen

Helpful links:
Bundle Up Quilt-Along Page
Bundle Up Materials List
Bundle Up Cutting
Bundle Up Day 2 - Shoo Fly/Star Blocks
Bundle Up Day 3 - Pinwheels/Snowflake
Bundle Up Day 4 - Brrr
Bundle Up Day 5 - Hat
Bundle Up Day 6 - Mittens
Bundle Up Day 7 - Socks

Bundle Up complete pattern

Bundle Up QAL Day 7 - Socks

🎵 Oh the weather outside is frightful! 🎶

The weather is truly frightful here this morning in New Hampshire.  I wish I could say that we're getting snow, but instead it's pouring rain and windy.  Our power is actually out, but thankfully we have a generator and a lot of extension cords so I'm still able to release today's pattern—phew—but this post is going to be short and sweet!  

The upside of the frightful weather is that it's a perfect day for cozy socks!  To wear them and to make them (if you have power!!).  Here's the link for today's instruction sheet (two pages again today):

It's hard to believe that these cute little socks are the last of the blocks for our projects.  Thursday will be the final day of the quilt-along and we'll be assembling our Bundle Up quilts—I can't wait to see how they all come together.  In the meantime, stay cozy!

—jen

Helpful links:
Bundle Up Quilt-Along Page
Bundle Up Materials List
Bundle Up Cutting
Bundle Up Day 2 - Shoo Fly/Star Blocks
Bundle Up Day 3 - Pinwheels/Snowflake
Bundle Up Day 4 - Brrr
Bundle Up Day 5 - Hat
Bundle Up Day 6 - Mittens

Bundle Up complete pattern

Bundle Up QAL Day 6 - Mittens

I'm always surprised by how much time seems to accelerate during the holidays!  One of my favorite parts of our annual Christmas Quilt-Along is that it gives me an excuse to take a few moments here and there to slow down and create just for the fun of it.  I hope it does the same for you! :)

Speaking of fun—today we're moving on to the mitten blocks.  I 🩵 these mittens!!  They're super easy to make and the little holly/berry inset gives them a subtle Christmassy vibe.  I think they'd be cute in any color (and I'm thinking of making more just for fun 😉), but that turquoise really makes my heart sing!

Ready to get started on your mittens?  Here's the link for today's instruction sheet (two pages again today):

Have fun making your mittens and have a great weekend!  I'll be back here Monday with our final blocks—cozy socks.  Can't wait!

—jen

Helpful links:
Bundle Up Quilt-Along Page
Bundle Up Materials List
Bundle Up Cutting
Bundle Up Day 2 - Shoo Fly/Star Blocks
Bundle Up Day 3 - Pinwheels/Snowflake
Bundle Up Day 4 - Brrr
Bundle Up Day 5 - Hat

Bundle Up complete pattern