Urban Allotment Hachi Style Quilt

This is my Urban Allotment Quilt. I made it for my neighbors who created a rather unique little vegetable garden in their front yard. They are moving out of the city and will have lots of room for a really big garden on their new property. But this quilt will be a reminder of their little urban garden, which somehow, our neighborhood ground hog never found. One of life’s great mysteries!

I choose the grey borders because their garden is a cluster of round, raised bed, bordered by large rocks.

The rock surrounded raised beds on a snowy day.

I used the Bernina #4 stitch, increasing the stitch length to 2.5 to create the texture in the borders.

This is another quilt in the Japanese Hachi style. The unexpected guests are the chickens! They may be expected on a farm, but clearly not IN the vegetable patch!

The large blueberry print, the cherries and the sugar snap prints are all part of my Dogs at the Farmer’s Market Spoonflower Collection. And the backing of this quilt is the Dogs at the Farmer’s Market feature fabric. The Farmer’s Market is a major event in our urban village, and the print has 2 dogs who they know. More reminders of our neighborhood when they are at their new place!

Here’s the quilt back.

Back in 2015, I made another quilt using the Dogs at my Farmer’s Market Market, fussy cutting the fabrics to make the quilt blocks. This new quilt is very different and it was fun to use the fabrics in a new way.

Lined Drawstring Bags

I'm seeing drawstring bags everywhere:  on-line, in catalogs and on social media.  The are easy to sew and fun to use.  They are also a great way to show off a fabric you really love.  I've used several of my "Dogs at the Farmers Market" fabrics printed by Spoonflower.com for these 3 bags.

The pattern I used for my bags is the "Lined Drawstring Bag" designed by Jeni Baker. (I reviewed Jenis's new book, Quilting Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle in my last post).  She has a free tutorial on her blog, Incolororder.com for a 10 x 7 inch "Everything Bag."

She also has a PDF pattern for purchase which is what I have.  The purchased pattern has instructions for 8 different bags from "Tiny Bag" to "Laundry Bag" as well as a worksheet for making any size custom bag. I love my 13 x 8 x 4 in project bag.  It's the perfect size for my tablet, a notepad and some other gear.  

Got stuff to tote?  Make yourself a happy drawstring bag to put it in!

"Dogs at the Farmer's Market" Fabric Collection: Quick Projects

Here are a couple quick projects using the fabric I designed, "Dogs at the Farmers Market" available from Spoonflower.com.   I've listed fabric requirements and cutting directions but not sewing instructions.

Dogs at the Farmers Market Table Runner 14 x 35.5 inches

Fabric Supplies:

• 1 Fat Quarter Farmers Market Cherries
• 1 Fat Quarter Dogs at the Farmers Market
• 1/3 yard Width of Fabric  Kona® Cotton "Alegria" 405
• 1/2 yard x Width of Fabric fabric of your choice for back
• Scrap of quilt batting 14.5 x 36 "

Cutting Instructions:

Cherries at the Farmers Market

• Cut 2 rectangles 6.5 inches high x 14.5 inches wide
• Cut 1 rectangle 5 inches high x 5.75 inches wide

Dogs at the Farmers Market

• Fussy cut 2 rectangles 9.75 inches high x 14.5 inches wide

Kona® Alegria Solid Blue

• Cut 2 charms squares 5 inches x 5 inches
• Cut 3 binding strips the width you prefer 2 to 2.5 inches x width of fabric

Backing

• Cut 1 piece 15.5 inches high x width fabric of your choice

I assembled my table runner by the Quilt As You Go method, but it can be pieced any way you prefer.  If not using this method, piece the blocks, sandwich the table runner and quilt as desired.  Make a binding from the strips and sew it onto the table runner. Enjoy!

13.5 inch finished 9 Patch Block

Here is a 9 patch block using 5 x 5 inch squares.  This block finishes at 13.5 inches. 

Fabric Requirements

• 1 Fat Quarter  Paired Springers and Golden Retrievers
• 1 Fat Quarter   Farmers Market Cherries
• 1 5 x 5 inch Charm Square Kona® Cotton Alegria 405 or color of your choice

This could be one block in a quilt.  With a single Fat Quarter of the Paired Springers and Golden Retrievers you will be able make another block like this one using just Springer Spaniels or you could make 3 blocks mixing up the Springers and Golden Retrievers in each 9 patch blocks. 

I used my 9 Patch Block to make a pillow cover, using red ric-rac as a detail. Like the block, it finished at 13.5 inches, an odd size for a pre-made pillow form.  But a 14 inch pillow form with some stuffing removed works just fine!

13.5 inch Pillow Cover with Ric-Rac detail

Dogs at the Farmer's Market Fat Quarter Friendly Quilt

Here's my "Dogs at the Farmer's Market, Fat Quarter Friendly Quilt." 

Getting fabric I designed and printed at Spoonflower.com was a thrill.  Making a quilt using my very own "fabric collection" was just so much fun!  

This quilt is my original design.  I have included the traditional "Mississippi" star block, found in the Block Library of Electric Quilt 7, to help unify the fussy cut blocks.  I wanted to create a pattern that could make a quilt just using a single fat quarter (FQ) of the focus fabric.  I used all the fabrics in my "Dogs at the Farmer's Market Collection", but this quilt could be made with just 1 FQ of the focus fabric, 1 FQ of the Blueberries and Flowers and 1 FQ of the Cherries on Light Blue with the addition of solids and/or fabrics from your stash.

The solid color fabrics used in the quilt are all Kona® Cotton solids.  Here are the Kona® colors which coordinate well with the Dogs at the Farmers Market Collection.  

Kona® color and number                    Color best with:

• Periwinkle 1285  (medium blue)          entire collection
• Surf 32  (light royal)                            entire collection
• Alegria 405 (peacock blue)                cherries on darker blue, less good with collection 
• Cayenne 355  (deep red)                    entire collection
• Cinnamon 1075  (reddish brown)       Springer Spaniel and Terrier
• Amber 1479 (deep gold)                     Springer Spaniel and Terrier     
• Cappuccino 406  (brown)                   Springer Spaniel and Terrier
• Creamsicle  185  (peach)                     Golden Retriever, Coneflowers but looks with everything
• Primrose 274 (pink)                             coneflowers
• Lime 1192  (medium green)                  entire collection
• Palm 31  (deep green)                          entire collection
• Sunflower 353 (bright deep yellow)    entire collection
• Silver 1333  (light grey)                         entire collection, Pointer
• Graphite 295 (medium grey)                entire collection, Pointer and Big Black Dog

I used 1 yard of the focus fabric on the back (not the full WOF) with a strip of Creamsicle Kona® cotton and another of my Coneflower design.  Because dogs on the front of the quilt are all fussy-cut, I wanted to show the entire scene at the Farmer's Market on the back!

"Dogs at the Farmer's Market FQ Friendly Quilt" Back

I haven't written instructions for this quilt pattern but if you would like to make one for yourself, leave me a comment and I will write up the pattern.

If you would like to purchase any of these fabrics, you may do so at Dogs At the Farmers Market, Spoonflower.com.  If you click on the "Collection" in the Right hand bar, another window will open with large swatches of all the fabrics.  Spoonflower offers a wide variety of base fabrics to choose from. I printed on Kona® since I was that fabric I used for my solid colors. 

In my next post I'll show some quick and fun projects.  I will include the cutting directions for those projects.