Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along - Day 5

Welcome back for Day 5 of the Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along!  Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!  With fresh snow on the ground here in New Hampshire and more on the way, my Christmas spirit is definitely on the rise, so let's get started!

Today we'll be making green peppermint blocks.  Or should I say spearmint or wintergreen blocks?  Either way, these blocks are super sweet and minty fresh!  Hmmm... "minty fresh," am I crazy or is that a cute name for this block?!

Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along - Day 4

Woohoo!  It's Friday and Day 4 of the Quilt-Along!  Today we'll be making half-square-triangle units... only kidding!!  As promised we're moving on to something new—split quarter-square triangles.

These fun little units are so cute when they're combined to make Double Pinwheel blocks, just like the one pictured above.  We're going to be doing something different with our split quarter-square triangles, or "SQST"s, but I'm going to save that reveal for another day!  Now let's get started...

Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along - Day 3

Wow, it's Day 3 already—welcome!!

You may have surmised from the above picture that we're making half-square-triangle units again!  These will be smaller HST units and we'll be making quite a few of them.  We won't be making the star pictured above for this project, but I'm definitely filing the idea away for another time—I love the red and green polka dots together!

Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along - Day 2

Welcome back for Day 2 of the Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along!  I hope you all had a good weekend and that your fabrics are cut and ready to go!

Today we'll be making half-square triangle units in both red and green.  The method we'll be using makes 8 half-square-triangle units at a time—some quilters refer to it as the "Magic 8" method.  I like to make the half-square-triangle (or "HST") units a bit bigger than they need to be to start out with and then trim them down to ensure that the HST units are the exact size that I need, so that's the approach we'll be taking today.

Ready to sew?  Here we go!

Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along - Day 1

❄❄❄Update:  The complete pattern for Sweet Shoppe is now available for download on my Etsy shop.  The pattern includes material requirements, step-by-step instructions, and full color diagrams to help you on your way.  Click here to view the pattern.❄❄❄

Welcome to Day 1 of the Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along!!  I'm so happy that you're joining us for the fun!

The inspiration for this year's quilt-along is Christmas candy—candy canes, peppermints, anything sugary and sweet, as long as it's red, green and white.

These are the fabrics that I chose for my Sweet Shoppe quilt.  The green isn't quite a mint green, but I just love yellowy-green right now and I couldn't help myself!

Just in case you missed my last post, here's a complete list of what you'll need for this year's Quilt-Along:

• 3 fat quarters - red prints
• 3 fat quarters - green prints (you can get away with 2 fat quarters and 1 fat eighth)
• ⅛ yard gray print
• 1½ yard white fabric for background (I'm using a solid)
• ⅓ yard fabric for binding
• 1⅔ yard fabric for backing
• 26" x 60" piece of batting

I'll be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between now and Christmas and we'll wrap up on the 22nd—no pun intended!  I'll reveal a different block or component with each post and we'll work on assembling the quilt during the last week.  Some of the pieces we'll be working with are small, but this project is suitable for most quilters.

So, without further ado, let's get started!

2017 Christmas Quilt-Along Starts this Friday!

♫It's the most wonderful time of the year♫... time for my annual Christmas Quilt-Along!!

The Quilt-Along starts this Friday, December 1st.  This year's project will be pretty straightforward—with standard piecing and blocks suitable for all quilters.

Here's what you'll need for this year's Quilt-Along:

• 3 fat quarters - red prints
• 3 fat quarters - green prints (you can get away with 2 fat quarters and 1 fat eighth)
• ⅛ yard gray print
• 1½ yard white fabric for background (I'm using a solid)
• ⅓ yard fabric for binding
• 1⅔ yard fabric for backing
• 26" x 60" piece of batting

Wondering what shades of red and green to buy?  Here's a hint...

This year I'll be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between December 1st and December 22nd, that way you'll have the weekends to catch up if necessary.  You can follow along with the Quilt-Along here or on Instagram and Facebook @JenDalyQuilts.  

I can't wait to get started and hope to see you back here Friday!

Wool Appliqué - Free Pattern

Tomorrow I'm teaching a Wool Appliqué class at a local Sew-op and I've had so much fun stitching up samples for the class, that I thought I'd share the love and make the appliqué pattern available to all!

Here's a peek at the pattern:

Here's one of the finished samples popped into a 5" x 7" frame:

And the second made into a 12" x 16" pillow:

I cut the background fabric for both projects into an 8" x 10" rectangle.  To stitch the samples, I used two strands of embroidery floss and a Blanket Stitch for the topmost shapes and a single strand of embroidery floss and a Whipstitch for the stem and the larger, bottommost shapes.

To finish the framed version, I layered the stitched project with a thin piece of batting, wrapped both around the glass that came with the 5" x 7" frame, and inserted the unit into the frame.  

For the pillow version, after stitching, I trimmed the background down to a 5" x 7" rectangle and added scrappy squares and strips around it to make it into a 12½" x 16½" unfinished pillow top.  I used an envelope closure for the back of the pillow and inserted a 12" x 16" pillow form.

If you'd like to make your own little wool appliqué project, you can find a pdf of the pattern here.  

Happy Stitching!