let's get campy! birch feather river quilt tutorial

My little Henry man is an avid outdoorsman. And by that I mean he enjoys playing in rocks and occasionally putting them in his mouth. The Hubs is trying to cultivate this into something useful by taking him camping. After an initial failed attempt at backyard camping (lasted all of 1 hour), they have successfully completed an entire night in the tent! Not the tent in the picture above, obviously. An actual tent. Because they didn't want to sleep with bugs and bunnies.

Then Birch fabric goes and comes out with quilts with tiny little campers on them? DONE.

I immediately made Henry a camping inspired quilt. Duh. Like I had a choice.

This is a really simple paver-style (I made that name up) quilt pattern and is a fantastic way to showcase this or any fat quarter bundle. I wish that nugget of knowledge was from my brain, but it's from Callie, the City Craft guru. But she's totally right. The blocks are perfectly sized to show off the pattern of each fabric.

The finished quilt is approximately 42" x 54", which is the perfect size for playing and snuggling. Oh, and camping.

If you're like, "whoa, Tara. That's cute and all, but ain't nobody got time for that!" just jump to the end. I have a time saving solution for you.

On with the tutorial!

sunday stitch vol. 11 - binding scrap garland

Happy Sunday, friends. I have several (read: too many) works in progress this week, so I decided to share something I actually made start-to-finish this week. It is Oh So Simple.

I was making quilt binding for a quilt that I'll share with you later this week. I had a yard of this gorgeous linen/cotton blend fabric cut into 2.5" strips. The way I make my binding leaves me with an abundance of 2.5" triangles.

Rather than just throw them in the scrap pile (or garbage can) I had a light bulb moment: make them into a garland! I've wanted to make one for the boys for awhile, but most of them are pretty girly. I thought this charcoal-brown fabric + manly triangle shape (it's manly, right?) would be just the ticket.

 All I did was take my roll of baker's twine, starting about 12" end from the end, lay the triangle on it, and zigzag stitch on top. Easy peasy.

I laid each triangle apart about 6" or so, but didn't bother measuring. I also let some triangles face right while others faced left. I just made sure I didn't have more than 3 or so facing the same direction to keep it interesting.

In about 20 minutes, I had a wicked pile of garland.

It was long enough to string from one wall of Henry's room to the other. Probably 15' or so total.

I initially was just hanging it here so I could have a photo to show you guys, but I kind of fell in love with it. Even The Hubs likes it, and he tends to rebel against most things that are remotely girly:

Image Via Society6

See? Even the stuffed lumber jack likes it. So manly.

For more sewing project inspiration, visit my friend Maryam over at hi-and-hello. To see all of my Sunday Stitch projects, click here.

What have you guys been sewing this week? Any manly garlands? Brown alcoholic beverages? Bacon?

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quilt club: modern quilting

This month's City Craft Quilt Club assignment was a bit daunting: create a modern quilt (or quilt block). It's the equivalent of saying create "modern cuisine." It can be taken a multitude of different ways. Modern quilts usually have solid, bold colors. But they might be neutrals. And they might have some patterned fabric. Or all patterned fabric. And have mostly straight lines. But maybe curved lines. Whatever.

Basically, don't make it look like an old lady made it in the mid-80's.

Here are all the different liberties that our quilt club members took with this challenge. Enjoy.

Michael blew us all away (again) with his 60's modern inspiration on the bottom.

Shannon's diamond quilt was a girl's best friend (see what I did there?)

And this quilt was a hoot (I can't stop myself...send help)

All the new Kona solids in one quilt. Swoon.

Kristi at Initial K Studio showed off some new lovelies currently available in her shop

This one is my favorite.

Or maybe this one.

My block was kind of an epic fail. But it was SO pretty in my head. Oh well. Live and learn.

I made up for it with this beauty. Tutorial coming next week!

Literally, I want everything Angela makes. Ev-uh-ry-thing.

My sister-in-law Meredith made her first quilt top. Holy moly!
My first quilt was not nearly this nice. I will never show you a picture of it ever. Probably.

Susan rocked this modern square quilt.

Oh my gosh. This is exquisite. All paper piecing. 22 (?) different fabrics. It makes my head hurt. So impressive.

Happy block!

This hand quilted fairy quilt by Callie is out of this world.

Modern quilted mobile by Elizabeth. Award for most creative.

Martha's block.

Nicole's block.

And Nicole's bag.

Momma City Craft's modern goodies.

Tres Modrian.

These Moda blocks from the Modern Quilt Kit are AMAZING!
It's part of a kit you can buy at City Craft here. 

More Moda. All of these go together to make one giant quilt. I think it's for a Paul Bunyan sized fella.

And more Moda.

Working with curves.

Next month we're working on strip quilts. You should totally strip with us. 



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