Using "Tula's True Colors" in Fabric Café's® Pattern "Attraction"

Last week I showed you a quilt using all the fabric’s in Tula Pink’s new line “Tula’s True Colors” by Free Spirit. For this quilt pattern, “Attraction” from Fabric Café, I chose 1 yard of 3 different fabrics in Tula’s line. (All of Fabric Cafe’s quilt patterns use just 3 one yard cuts).

I picked a blue, an aqua and a yellow green. These are analogous colors on the color wheel—they are positioned right next to each other. It’s a guarantee that the colors will all play well together!

This is a great pattern and it sews up super fast. I found I had a free hour one morning and that was all I needed to cut out the fabric. Then it just took an afternoon to put it together.

I like how the small squares seem to dance across the design.

i think it would look just as great using the hot colors in “Tula’s True Colors”. And I’d love to see this quilt with 2 analogous colors on the color wheel, and one complimentary color from the opposite side of the color wheel. I think that would make a spectacular quilt!

Four Patch Quilt: "Four Patch for the Fourth"

The quilt which I started cutting out in my post last week is done in time for the Fourth of July! This is my design, a simple four patch block quilt that I call “Four Patch for the Fourth.” It’s a small quilt…just big enough for two little children to sit on together.

It’s a easy quilt and sews up quickly.

I love blocks that have 4 sections such as this four patch block or pinwheel blocks. In order to have the seams on the back of the block lie as flat as possible, the seams and be “spun”. The top seam can be gently opened up so that one side of the seam can be pressed upward and the other side pressed downward. The result is a tiny four patch on the back of the block. I think of these tiny central blocks as a hidden quilt in a quilt!

The back of a 4 patch block with the seams “spun”. Note how each of the four seams is pressed toward a different patch, so the seams look like the vanes in a windmill.

All the quilting in this quilt was done with a walking foot. Each of the square blocks as been quilted and there is diagonal quilting across the large blocks to anchor them.

It’s easy to keep a long diagonal course of quilting straight by marking it using painter’s tape. Lay down the tape, quilt the line just beside the tape, not ON the tape. Then remove the tape. Do not leave the tape on the quilt for a long time. I find I can tape 2 diagonal lines at a time. But if I tape more than 2 diagonals, the tape tends to lift off the quilt as I’m stitching. Once the long diagonal line is quilted, additional lines of quilting can be added following the initial diagonal line with the edge of the walking foot. Remove the tape before addition parallel lines of stitching. The tape could be left in place but it’s easier to quilt additional lines without the tape on the quilt.

Don’t use masking tape which may leave glue residue on the fabric.

This quilt looks great on the back of a rocking chair too. I like summer quilts that are on the small size. It’s just too hot in the summer to have a big lap quilt.

Here’s my Fourth of July quilt with Douglas, a classic Waldorf type doll which I made.

Ready for Staying at Home on July 4th, 2020.

Have a safe, happy, and healthy weekend!

Four Patch Quilt for Fourth of July

“Can she do it???”

I got this collection of fabrics in the mail from Bits ‘n Pieces Quilt Shop in New Hampshire yesterday. The two focus fabrics and a different red fabric were one of their weekly “3 yard picks” that they showcase on their Sunday Facebook Live at 1 PM EDT.

So I have 10 days from today to get a quilt made for the Fourth of July holiday to make this 37 x 45 inch quilt.

The two feature fabrics were designed by Beth Albert for a line called “American Spirit” printed by 3 Wishes Fabric ™. The dark blue tonal is for the back of the quilt is “Shadow Play” by Maywood studio. Then there is a one of the Kona® cotton reds from my stash and a white on white with a cherry design which has been in my stash for years.

Here’s a mock up of the quilt I designed in Electric Quilt 8. First as a line drawing, and then as a mock up with the focus fabrics shown.

If you want to make this four patch quilt, here is the information you need to cut the pieces. This isn’t a pattern but this does give the information needed to make this quilt.

The four patch blocks are cut as 4 1/2 inch squares and the large feature fabric blocks are cut as 8 1/2 inch squares. The completed blocks will finish at 8 inches square. The tiny white outer border is cut at 1 inch and finishes at 1/2 inch. The outer border is 2 inches wide. The red border blocks are cut at 2 1/2 inches square. The top and bottom blue border strips are cut at 7 1/4 x 21/2 inches and the blue side border strips are cut at 9 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches.

“It should go together quickly" she said. We’ll see whether or not that’s really true!