Blog | Bonjour Quilts

Behind-the-Scenes of a Quilt Pattern Business

October 27, 2018 By Kirsty 160 Comments

There’s been a few articles here and there in the craft sphere about free quilt patterns that I’ve been mulling over. I have my own opinions, but I was curious how my readers felt about the issue. So I decided to ask them! Here’s an excerpt from my most recent newsletter:

I’ve read a few articles about free content on blogs (free downloadable patterns, in particular) and how it is hurting the quilting industry. What say you?

As you know, I have both – a pattern shop and some patterns that are free to download. The latter help me get my name out there (via Pinterest and Facebook sharing) and get people signed up to my email list (where I can nurture a relationship with them). It also offers a risk-free way (for customers) to check out my patterns before buying.

But on the other hand, is it conditioning people to expect patterns for free? Is it encouraging a lack of respect for intellectual property ?

If a business site offers free content, do you accept they have to make money some other way (adverts, sponsored posts, affiliate links)? Or does it kind of offend you?

I spend a lot of timing thinking about these things, but I’m not sure if the average quilter does too? Are you interested in how a quilt blog stays afloat, what costs are involved? I understand if you don’t – there are many things I buy that I don’t feel compelled to know the ‘how” of its creation/business model!

Let me know your thoughts (just reply to this email). I’m keen to hear what consumers think of this issue. The quilting industry needs to serve its customers, but without killing off small businesses.

I received 94 replies and the majority understood that a business has to make money. They were very supportive and advised me to keep doing what I was doing (thank you!).

There were also a few replies that showed not everyone understands what goes into running a craft blog/pattern store, especially the costs incurred by owners. So I thought I’d outline some of the details behind the running of Bonjour Quilts, in an effort to show why pattern designers need to make money somewhere in order to survive. And let’s be honest – it’s better that they thrive, not “just survive”, because just surviving gets tiring very quickly and encourages business abandonment.

So let’s have a look at what it costs me to run my online business. And then I’ll show you how easy it is to support your favourite quilt blogs/quilt pattern designers.

Costs to Run a Quilt Blog – Annual Overheads

Although my blog started on a free blogging platform (blogspot), I now have a website (created for me by Teresa at A Fearless Venture) with a custom pattern shop that uses Sendowl. I worked hard to recoup those set-up costs last year so I’m only listing recurring annual costs here (in $US). But do keep in mind I’ve put several thousand dollars into my website and pattern shop over the past few years.

Website domain (Hover*) – $15

Website hosting (Lightning Base*) – $240

Site backup (VaultPress) – $165

Illustration software (Gliffy) – $95

Photoshop – $120

Email software (ConvertKit*) – $1345

G Suite email address – $60

SendOwl* – $180

Tailwind* – $120

Craft Industry Alliance* – $60

There is no line item for the cost of my time here. I’ll get to that later.

Add it all up and I have at the very minimum costs of $2400. With an average pattern price of $10, I need to sell 240 patterns every year to break even on my overheads.

But Bonjour Quilts doesn’t exist just to be a website – it has to produce patterns. So let’s have a look at those costs too.

PDF Quilt Pattern Production Costs.

Firstly, I can’t vouch for others’ costs, only my own. I know that there are cheaper ways (beware ye the risks!) of doing things, but this is what works for me. It’s important to me to produce a quality pattern that I have sewn myself and that has been technically edited by an industry professional. Do mistakes still occur? Sometimes. But I’m doing my best and learning all the time.

So – here’s an estimate of what it costs me to produce a pattern (all amounts are $US).

Technical editing – $100 – 150 (depending on pattern difficulty/length)

Graphic design – $200 – 300 depending on whether the template has already been set up (first pattern is most expensive).

Sample materials – $200

Please note that this doesn’t take into account the time it takes me to design the quilt, sew the sample, photograph the sample and edit the photographs. It also doesn’t take long-arming into account, as I probably send out only 30% of my quilts.

So the costs that come out of my pocket to create a quilt pattern are $500 – $650 (remembering that this doesn’t cover any of my time). Taking a $10 pattern price again for ease, you can see a pattern has to sell at least 50 – 65 copies to break even.

PDF vs Paper Patterns

Several replies to my newsletter question asked why PDF patterns weren’t cheaper than paper copies. After all, isn’t the main cost of a pattern the paper it’s printed on? I hope the annual overhead and pattern production costs I’ve outlined above show that this isn’t the case. A pattern, whether it’s paper or PDF, needs to cover production and overhead costs, as well as the intellectual work of the author. The couple of dollars it takes to print the pattern are a small portion of this cost.

There’s also another factor that needs to be considered in pattern pricing – selling wholesale.

Wholesale Pattern Sales

I’m a little on the fence with wholesale pattern selling. If you’re a quilt pattern designer having success in this area I’d love to hear from you!

Selling wholesale directly is quite simple. A quilt shop contacts you and purchases the patterns at half price. They then sell the patterns in their shop at the recommended retail price. This is why it’s important for a pattern designer to sell their patterns, both paper and PDF, at the same price. No quilt shop will want to carry your patterns if they know you’re offering the PDF version at a cheaper price (and rightly so!). The quilt shops would then have a whole bunch of patterns they can’t sell, or have to sell at close to cost price. So this is one reason why PDF and paper need to be priced the same – so it remains attractive to quilt shops to carry your patterns.

Selling wholesale through a distributor is another option. The distributor takes another cut of the pattern price, but the upside is they’ve a huge number of quilt shops on their books and can expose them to your patterns. The downside is they’ve a huge number of pattern designers on their books and your patterns won’t receive any special sales treatment. Distributors offer a service and have their own costs – it’s up to each quilt pattern designer to decide if that works for their business.

Here’s an indicative outline of the cost breakdown when selling wholesale through a distributor.

Paper pattern sells at $10 on designer’s website (pattern designer receives $10 per sale).

Paper Pattern sells at $5 wholesale to a quilt shop (pattern designer receives $5 per sale, quilt shop gets $5).

Paper pattern sells at $5 wholesale through a distributor (pattern designer receives $3.5 per sale, quilt shop gets $5, distributor gets $1.5)

The important thing to remember is that the quilt pattern designer PAYS FOR THE PATTERN PRINTING AND “PRINTER TO DISTRIBUTOR” POSTAGE.

Printing costs depend on how long your pattern is (more pages = more $) and how many you order. (Larger print runs are cheaper $ per pattern, but if your pattern doesn’t sell well then you’re stuck with a lot of money tied up in stock you can’t sell). Pattern printing costs can therefore vary greatly, but mine run in the $1.50 – $2 range per pattern. As you can see, there’s not much money left over from the $3.5 that goes to the designer in a wholesale distribution model.

When a distributor places a bulk order, the cost to send those patterns to the distributor is around $10-$20. It’s actually possible (if you have a paper hungry pattern or the distributor order isn’t very big) to LOSE MONEY when you sell paper patterns! This is why it’s really important to minimise the number of pages in a pattern. This is naturally at odds with a designer’s desire to give you as much instruction as possible. It’s quite conflicting!

So to recap – pattern costs are those directly related to producing the pattern and the overheads of the business.

To sell paper patterns, the designer has to be able to cover the printing and the pattern/overhead costs with the profits within a wholesale distributor model. Patterns sold for less than $10 make this very, very difficult.

To ensure quilt shops continue to stock paper patterns, the PDF patterns have to remain at the same price as paper. This ensures quilt shops aren’t undercut and helps offset the very narrow profit margins for the designer in the wholesale distributor model.

I hope this helps to show why designers can’t offer the patterns any cheaper than we currently do.

Additional Costs

There are other costs that aren’t captured above. One of these are fees. Paypal, Stripe (credit card payment provider) and bank transfers bleed small amounts of money away from each sale amount. 3% here, 2% there, bank exchange rates for those that don’t live in the US. They all add up to eat into profit margins. Once I change my shop over to Shopify, they will start taking a cut of my sales too. I’m not mad about it – it’s a cost of doing business.

What else? Quilting tools, fabric, rotary cutter blades, long arm quilting, thread, sewing machine repairs and servicing, electricity. Taxes – can’t forget those. Or the accountant. If you have a booth at Market, that’s a big expense (especially if travelling from Australia) Oh, and bar codes. If you sell paper patterns, you have to pay for bar codes. You get the drift – businesses have lots of costs.

Education is another expense that is really important for small business owners. Unless you’ve come across from a comparable employment category, you’ll be learning how to run a small business as you go. It’s important to me to take courses through the year to try and improve how I do things. I’m a member of an online business community and I’ve also taken several “one off” online courses to target particular topics – Sticky Search Engine Optimisation ($149), Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers Master Cse* ($297), Pinterest Traffic Avalanche* ($197). It’s a continuous process of learning and making myself a better business owner, and it’s a process I really enjoy, actually!

Here’s the big one – the additional cost that is really important. As you saw above, none of the costs listed so far cover my work, or the hours of time that I spend in the business.

I Need to Pay Myself a Wage

The average wage in Australia is AUD$85,000 (this is US$60,000). I’d need to sell 6,000 patterns (at $10) a year to make a US$60,000 wage.

The median wage in the US is $45,000. (Given the cost of living in Australia is higher, the two are roughly comparable.) I’d need to sell 4,500 patterns a year to earn that wage.

And I’d have to sell them directly myself, as PDFs, not as paper patterns through a distributor. That’s a tall order!

(Funnily enough, I have 13,000 people on my email list. If everyone on my list bought just one $10 pattern every 2 years, I’d be supported!)

This is why those in the quilting industry have to work hard at developing multiple sources of income – books, courses, workshops, fabric design, offering advertising, using affiliate links, accepting sponsorship deals to try and earn a living wage. They really have to hustle!

You can probably guess I’m not making a living wage from Bonjour Quilts. I am in the black (not in the red), but it will be a while before I can build up the income streams and newsletter list that can support me in that manner. I’ve another job, one that pays me a wage and my superannuation (401K for US readers) so I’m able to contribute to my family while building Bonjour on the sidelines. It’s a lot of work, but I enjoy it.

How You Can Support Your Favourite Quilt Pattern Designer

So you’ve seen the bad news – how about some good news? The good news is that it’s really, really easy to support your favourite quilt pattern designers. You can support them with money, or with actions, or with both.

Support with Money

+Hands down the best thing you can do is purchase a PDF pattern directly from the quilt pattern designer. That puts the most money into their pocket. And the great thing is that it’s an environmentally friendly way to support someone. There’s no trees being chopped down or ink being used. If you don’t get around to making the pattern you can be happy you’ve supported someone with none of the guilt that unused physical products generate.

+If you can’t buy a pattern (PDF or paper) from the designer, the next best thing is to buy their pattern from a quilt store. The quilt pattern designer, quilt store and the distributor’s families will thank you for the support.

+If your favourite designer has a book, a special ruler or designs fabric, purchasing directly from them (rather than through a middle man or Amazon) will pass on the most profit to them.

+If you can, purchase through the affiliate links on your favourite designer’s website. (Only things you were planning to buy anyway – I don’t like the idea of people buying things they don’t really need just to help someone with a commission.) That said, the commissions via affiliate links are very small. But they can add up over time and contribute a small bump of income to a blogger, at absolutely no cost to you the buyer. Amazon is going to pay someone a commission, so it might as well be your favourite designer, right?

Support with Action

I have many newsletter readers who have never purchased a pattern from me. The majority of non-purchasers are people on fixed incomes who say they would like to support me with a purchase, but unfortunately can’t. Luckily, there’s plenty of other things they can do to help.

Even if these readers can’t afford my patterns, they can help to get my work in front of others who can. There are millions of quilters out there, and some of them would love to purchase from me – if only they knew my patterns existed! This is where you can help your favourite quilt pattern designer. Get their name out in front of new readers so they’ve a chance to connect with new customers.

+Pin their photographs to Pinterest. Pinterest is a fantastic traffic generator for blogs and such a great place for people to find new things.

+Post their blog posts and new pattern listings to your Facebook feed, or share it in quilting Facebook Groups (if it’s within the rules). A recommendation is a powerful thing.

+Like their posts on Facebook and Instagram – this encourages both programs to show the photos to other similar users.

+If you’ve quilting friends who you think would enjoy a quilt designer’s newsletter, forward the email on to them with a recommendation. It would be great if you could help recruit new readers for them.

+If you see someone online in a quilting forum or a Facebook Group (or in real life at a guild or quilting circle) trying to source a free copy of a paid pattern, please speak up and defend that quilt pattern designer’s copyright. The more people that speak up against pattern theft, the closer we’ll come to stamping it out.

Back to the Free Patterns…

There is a place for freebies. They attract new people to quilting. I believe being able to download a free beginners pattern and give quilting a try opens the craft up to more people. And once we have them hooked, we have a quilter for life! Quilters, for the most part, who’ll go on to improve their skills and buy patterns.

Freebies are also a useful marketing tool. I have a few simple patterns that I use to get people onto my newsletter list. (So it’s really not a freebie – it’s a swap; an email address for a pattern.) On my list they can get to know me and my designs better and decide if they’d like to purchase a pattern. They may also decide they don’t like my style of quilting and unsubscribe. No biggie. This type of try-before-you-buy marketing is not new – think of test driving cars or trying the cheese samples in the deli.

Some other points to ponder on free:

The mass dropping of free patterns by companies when a fabric line debuts to encourage fabric sales. Even if a designer is paid a fee to produce the pattern by the fabric company, is it likely to replace the revenue that the pattern would generate over the entirely of its life? (Anecdotally it would seem quilt shops don’t like these free patterns either – they’d rather sell a pattern to a shopper.)

Are all free patterns technically edited and of good quality?

How much time is needed to support those free patterns? I’ve had people email and ask me to resize my free patterns for them – without paying me for that work. Of course, I politely decline, but why do people expect that I would want to do this work for them for free? No doubt because they think if I’ve worked for free before (free pattern), I’d be happy to work for free again.

In conclusion…

Lots to read and lots to consider. If you’ve made it this far, you’re a legend and obviously care about quilting and the industry. Thank you for your support.

You can read more thoughts on this matter in these places:

A Craft Industry Alliance article on the ethics of free content in the craft industry

Steph Skardal has written about being a Quilt Entrepreneur

Jen Shaffer outlines how she costs her quilt designs

Just surviving isn’t enough – why one artist went back to a day job

I’d love to hear your comments on the issue. Please let me know your thoughts below.

And if you’d like to support this quilter, please join my newsletter or check out my pattern shop.

Thank you – and happy creating!

Kirsty

*affiliate links!

Zed Quilt Pattern

September 29, 2018 By Kirsty 7 Comments

I have a great FQ friendly quilt pattern to share with you today. It’s called Zed (I suppose if you’re American you’d call it Zee 🙂 )

I am on a bit of a mission to reduce my stash so FQ friendly patterns are foremost in my mind at the moment.

The Zed quilt pattern uses two FQs for each row. I’ve gone for a light/dark matching pair, but you could use whatever takes your fancy. Or just use a half yard to make the whole row out of the same fabric.

I’m also considering sewing up the version below (with Carolyn Friedlander basics) and I’ll use a half yard for each of the colours featured in two rows. (This is very convenient for me as the majority of my stash is in half yards.)

Zed is a lap sized quilt that finishes at 53″ x 68″ and is suitable for a confident beginner and beyond.

The Zed quilt pattern is made with HSTs and HRTs (half rectangle triangles). And yes, if you love Bloc_loc rulers as much as I do, then you can trim the HRTs with their large 2:1 HRT ruler.

But if you don’t have that ruler, don’t worry. The pattern includes a link to very clear, photographed steps that show you how to trim your HRTs with a regular ruler.

I’ve included a pro-tip in the instructions to show you how to keep your printed fabric’s pattern facing the same direction across each individual block. This really satisfies the details-nerd inside of me! See – all the same direction:

And for those of you who like to try and get away with as little pinning as possible (yes, I see you there!) you’ll be happy to hear that thorough pressing instructions are included to ensure seam nesting. This makes it quick and easy to sew your blocks together.

The lovely Tara of Tara Sews made a version of the Zed quilt pattern in this Uppercase FQ bundle by Windham fabrics.

I love Tara’s bright, happy version. And so does her cat:

Tara did some great straight line quilting to echo the diagonals in the blocks.

For my Zed quilt I went with my favourite wavy, organic lines.

For binding, I used a mix of toothy prints by Carolyn Friedlander to add a stripe-like feel.

And for my backing I had a short run of an IKEA bird print which I matched with some half yards of green from my stash.

I’m not done visiting with this Zed pattern yet. I’ve had a family request for a purple version, so I’m working on that this weekend.

I really like the Tequila Sunrise vibe this quilt is giving me.

If you’d like to make your own Zed quilt then come on over to the Pattern Shop and buy yourself a copy!

And don’t forget to show me what you’ve made (either email or Instagram or Facebook). I really love to see what people make with all my patterns.

Hope you’re having a fantastic weekend!

Cheers,

Kirsty

Fish Quilt Block (and some Scrap Quilt Ideas)

September 18, 2018 By Kirsty 28 Comments

I’m always on the lookout for scrap quilt ideas – how about you? To me, a good scrap quilt pattern has simple repetitive blocks that let me have fun mixing and matching all of my most loved scrap fabrics.

Last week I wrote a post about Quarter Square Triangles and this scrappy fish quilt block uses a QST variant called the Hourglass block. It’s a simple but really fun block for a baby quilt, and I’ll give you some layout ideas at the end of the post. So let’s have a look, shall we?

This fish quilt block has three parts: a flying geese head, a square body and a Quarter Square Triangle tail.

The block is 3-1/2″ x 8″ unfinished (with seam allowance) and will be 3″ x 7-1/2″ when sewn into a quilt.

We’ll make the fish 2 at a time (as the method for making Hourglass blocks creates 2 at a time).

Scrap Fabric Requirements

If you’re using directional print fabric, read all the instructions first before you cut so you can see how to align the print all the way across your fish block.

For each pair of fish blocks you’ll need the following fabric pieces:

Scrap:

4-1/2″ square

Two 3-1/2″ squares

Two 2-1/4″ x 3-3/4″ rectangles

Background:

4-1/2″ square

Four 2-1/4″ squares

Sew the Hourglass Block Tail

Take a 4-1/2” background and a 4-1/2″ scrap square. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the background square and pair right sides together with the scrap square. Sew a scant 1⁄4” from either side of the marked line. Cut on the drawn line to yield 2 HST units. Press seams toward the darker fabric.

Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of one of the HST units, perpendicular to the HST centre seam. Place the two HSTs right sides together, making sure different fabrics are facing each other.

Sew a scant 1⁄4” from either side of the marked line. Cut on the drawn line to yield 2 Hourglass units and trim them to 3-1/2” square (I like this ruler* for QST trimming because the extra lines make centring the block easier).

For tips on how to accurately trim Quarter Square Triangle blocks, make sure you check out this post here.

Sew the Flying Geese Head Block

Take two 2-1/4″ background squares and draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of each one. Align one square on one corner of the 2-1/4″ x 3-3/4″ scrap rectangle as shown, then sew on the diagonal line.

Press the corner of the background square away from the unit. Repeat the process with the second background square on the opposite corner of the scrap rectangle. You’ve just made a flying geese unit. Repeat so you have 2 in total.

Trim the flying geese units to 2″ x 3-1/2”, making sure to keep the points centred. I use these Bloc_loc rulers* to trim my flying geese. They’re pricey (as they’re made in the US) but I couldn’t go back to life without them.

Sew the Fish Together

Now you have your fish components it’s time to sew them all together.

I like to press my seams inward. They just sit better for me that way.

A note on directional fabrics. When you sew your Hourglass blocks you’ll get one block in each fabric orientation:

You can see above that it’s easy to rotate your tummy square to match the tail, but it will take a bit of forethought to match the head. If you just remember to cut one flying geese rectangle in each direction of the fabric you’ll be fine.

So, what do we do with these fishies? How can we turn a school of these blocks into a fabulous scrap quilt?

Scrap quilt ideas

The easiest layout would be a lovely ordered layout of fish. I’ve put them all facing the one direction below, but you could alternate directions in the rows, too, for a bit of variation. A colour gradation would also be very pretty.

Or how about a single, rebel fish? (We all know a red fish, right?)

Perhaps you could add a pair of kissing fish in the middle:

Then there’s this one, which I’m calling The Party Starters:

So lots of scrap quilt fun to be had with this block, to be sure.

I hope this gives you some ideas to help reduce your scrap pile. Do know a someone (a Pisces?) who’d like a fish quilt of their own?

Which is your favourite quilt layout – let me know in the comments.

Happy sewing!

Kirsty

*affiliate link

Quarter Square Triangles

September 8, 2018 By Kirsty 17 Comments

Quarter Square Triangles – what a handy block! Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs) can come in a few forms. You might know them as hourglass blocks or perhaps the hybrid Split Quarter Square Triangle. Let’s take a look at them all, with a downloadable Quarter Square Triangle chart thrown in for good measure!

Quarter Square Triangle Variations

Just so we’re all on the same sheet of music, this is what I mean by QST, hourglass and Split QST blocks (see photo below).

Hourglass blocks are Quarter Square Triangle blocks made with only two fabrics, which creates the hourglass silhouette. Or a bow tie if you read it from side to side instead of up and down. (A)

Quarter Square Triangles have four different colour fabrics in the block. (B)

Split Quarter Square Triangles are made with 3 fabrics and consist of one large triangle and two smaller triangles. (C)

How to sew Quarter Square Triangles

As the name suggests, the QST block is simply four triangles sewn together to give a square.

You could by all means cut four separate triangles and then sew them together to form the Quarter Square Triangle block.

This method is handy if you need an exact layout (you want to know the position of all the fabrics). It’s important to remember to cut your individual triangles such that the straight grains of the fabric are on the outer edge of the block. If the bias grain is on the outside you run the risk of stretching. If you cut your triangles from each fabric like this, you’ll be fine:

This method makes it easy to sew a specific unit but it can be a pain to sew bias edges together. Also, if you need a small block the tiny individual triangles will be a bit tricky to handle. For these reasons I prefer to make my Quarter Square Triangles from Half Square Triangle blocks, and that’s what I’m going to show you today.

Hourglass blocks

To make the Hourglass variant of a Quarter Square Triangle you’ll start with 2 oversized squares which you’ll use to make 2 identical HSTs. You will then sew the 2 HSTs together and cut them apart to yield 2 identical hourglass blocks.

When you’ve made your 2 HSTs it helps to press the seams both toward the same fabric. Then put them right sides together, but with different colours opposite each other (the seam will nest). You can see the purple faces the mauve below, and the seam is nested.

Draw a diagonal perpendicular to the direction of the seam, as seen below. Make sure it is at 90 degrees to your seam, otherwise you’ll have trouble maintaining your points in the corner.

Sew a seam a quarter inch either side of the drawn line. Cut the units apart along the drawn line and press your hourglass units open.

So 2 squares make 2 HSTs, which are then used to make 2 hourglass blocks. Don’t worry, I’ll talk about starting square size and trimming a bit further on.

Quarter Square Triangles

This “true” Quarter Square Triangle is made from 2 different HSTs blocks, instead of 2 identical HSTs.

The process is the same – the HSTs are placed right sides together, seams nesting, with a diagonal drawn perpendicular to the HST seams. Two HSTs will yield two QSTs.

One thing to note here is that the 2 Quarter Square Triangles produced will NOT be identical – so keep that in mind when you’re planning your design.

Split Quarter Square Triangles

This nifty little unit is made by replacing one of the HST units with a solid square.

The HST unit is placed right sides together with the square and a diagonal is again drawn perpendicular to the HST seam. One HST and one square will yield 2 SQSTs.

Again, the 2 Split Quarter Square Triangles produced will NOT be identical – they are mirror images.

Quarter Square Triangle Chart

Let’s talk about the size of the starting squares needed to make Quarter Square Triangle blocks.

I make my Quarter Square Triangles the same way I make my Half Square Triangles – oversized. I prefer to make them a little on the large size and then trim them back to give really accurate blocks.

If however you’ve perfected your quarter inch seam and really don’t like trimming, then you can create your Quarter Square Triangles with this formula:

Starting square size = finished QST size + 1-1/4″

So if you want a 4″ QST when it’s sewn into a quilt, you’ll need to start with four 5-1/4″ squares.

If you’re like me and want a bit of breathing room so you can trim your QSTs back to size, then use this formula instead:

Starting square size = finished QST size + 1-1/2″

So if you want that 4″ QST then with the oversizing method you’ll need to start with four 5-1/2″ squares.

Here’s a handy Quarter Square Triangle Chart that lists the starting square sizes for various QST sizes (for the oversized method).

If you’d like a printable version of this chart you can fill in the boxes below and I’ll email it to you. You’ll also get some handy extra emails that will show you where to find some of my other tutorials and downloadable quilting projects.

Quarter Square Triangle Trimming

Firstly, I recommend using a square ruler when trimming your Quarter Square Triangles. I have this one* (below) and it’s fantastic for blocks 6″ and less because of that high density area of lines which makes it easier to pinpoint the centre of your block.

There are two important things to look for when you trim your blocks:

1. Correctly measuring your centre point, and

2. Making sure the diagonals are 45 degrees at the corners of the block.

The centre point of the block will be at the half of the measurement of the unfinished block. So back to our 4″ QSTs:

A 4″ finished QST is 4-1/2″ unfinished. Half of that is 2-1/4″. So you’ll want to put the centre point of your block under the intersection of the lines 2-1/4″ from the edge of the ruler.

The red arrow, below, show the block centre point at 2-1/4″. The black arrows show where the diagonals hit the block corners (remembering the block will be trimmed to 4-1/2″).

It’s important the diagonals are bisecting the corners and you may have to wriggle/rotate your ruler a bit to make this happen. It’s not always possible to get all four corners spot on, but do your best to make them all as accurate as you can.

Having trouble with your triangle diagonals not meeting at the corners? You might need to pay more attention to when you draw your diagonal line on the back of your HSTs. Remember how I mentioned it needs to be perpendicular to the HST seam? Even if it means your line isn’t exactly from corner to corner when you draw it, you want to make sure the line is 90 degrees to the HST seam to create four even quadrants in your block.

I’ve also included the trimming size (unfinished size) on the downloadable chart, as well as the centre point location. It’s good to have all the info in the one place.

What to make with Quarter Square Triangles

I’m biased, but I think you should make my Fleur Queen or Fleur Mini pattern! They both use SQST blocks.

Fleur Mini:

Fleur Queen:

Peta of She Quilts A lot adapted the queen to a crib quilt (below) by only using 4 of the Fleur blocks – isn’t it fantastic!

I hope you get the chance to experiment with Quarter Square Triangles soon. Be sure to drop me an email and show me what you’ve made!

Cheers,

Kirsty

*affiliate link

How to sew a quilted tote bag

August 1, 2018 By Kirsty 11 Comments

You really, really need a quilted tote bag. You might not know it yet, but you do!

Tote bags are super handy for carrying things, and carrying them gently. We’ve had a few fabric library bags get holes in them from book corners. Quilted tote bags are much better at withstanding this type of wear.

Quilted tote bags are also very handy for long trips in the car (when the bag’s full of clothes, on the way to an overnight stay with grandparents) as they double as a pillow.

This quilted tote bag came to be when I was sent some lovely fabric panels from a soon-to-be released fabric line called Alphabet Safari.

The artwork is by a talented local Australian designer (Jennifer Bell of Creative Monsoon) and the fabric will be available in October. My youngest son saw the animal panels and fell head over heels in love with the lion, so I asked if he’d like a bag. A very big YES was the answer.

If you’d like a PDF of the instructions for this quilted tote bag pattern, you’ll find a spot to put in your email address at the bottom of the post.

What you need to make a quilted tote bag

two of the fabric panels, one for each side of the quilted tote

two fat quarters, one for each side of the quilted tote

one half yard of fabric for the lining

one fat quarter of fabric for the handles

2 pieces of batting approx. 19″ x 22-1/2″ each

Sewing your quilted tote bag

First of all, trim two of the individual panels from the yardage. It’s normal for printed designs not to be perfectly square, so don’t sweat it if you find you need to trim a bit extra on some parts.

From each of the fat quarters for the tote sides you need to cut 3 strips 3″ x 21″ and one strip 5″ x 21″.

All seams are a quarter inch.

Sew a 3″ strip to the long edges of the fabric panel, press to the dark side and trim the edges flush with the panel.

Then sew a 3″ strip to the top of the panel and a 5″ strip to the bottom, press to the dark side and trim edges flush with the panel.

Repeat this for the other panel with the other FQ strips.

Check that both of your panels are the same size (trim if required). Mine came out at 16- 3/8″ x 20-1/4″. Feel free to trim yours down to a rounder figure (I just wanted to maximise my fabric).

Quilt your fabric panels

Baste each panel to one of the batting pieces. I used basting spray, but basting pins will do the job too. I wanted to mention that I used this Dream Green quilt batting* . It’s made from recycled plastic bottles, which is fantastic! I’m not a fan of pure polyester for bed quilts, but for things like bags, table runners and wall hangings it’s a great choice. And now it’s more environmentally friendly!

For the quilting I decided to go with a cross hatch quilt design, which I marked out with a hera marker*.

If you want a more structured bag then aim for lots of dense quilting. If a floppier, more pillow-worthy finish would suit you then ease up on the amount of quilting. Details of how I measured and marked my panels can be found in the PDF handout (see below to have it emailed to you).

Once you’ve finished quilting your panels, trim them again to remove excess batting. You might find that you need to trim your panels down a smidge to get them square again. And you want them to both be the same size as we’re about to sew them together.

Sew the quilted tote bag outer layer

Place the panels right sides together and pin around 3 sides (leave the top edge open). Sew all 3 edges together. I used my walking foot as there are quite a few layers involved here.

Next we’re going to box the bottom corners, so that the bag has a bit of body. (I forgot to press my bag seams open before this step, I would recommend you do that first.) Keep the bag inside out, and pull the two panels apart down near the corner. The aim is to line up the bottom seam with the adjacent side seam and make a triangle from the corner.

This triangle can be flattened down on your cutting mat (it should be close to a 90 degree triangle). Mark 2″ along each side and draw a diagonal line between the points with a pencil.

Sew along the pencil line and then trim the corner a quarter inch from the line.

Repeat with the other corner at the bottom of the bag. Turn the bag right side out and press.

Sew the quilted tote bag lining

From your half yard of fabric cut a piece 15-7/8″ x 40-1/4″. This measurement is based on my panels being 16-3/8″ x 20-1/4″ before I sewed them together. If you have trimmed your panels to a different size, this is how to work out what size you need to cut your lining:

Take a quarter inch away from your panel width measurement. Take your panel length and double it, then take away a quarter inch. Or for those of us who love equations:

[Panel width – 1/4″] x [ (Panel length x 2) – 1/4″]

I like to make the lining a little smaller than the bag’s outer layer so it fits nicely in there.

Take the lining fabric and fold it in half along its length, and then sew down both sides (keep the top edge open).

Leave the lining inside out and box the corners as we did for the bag outer. (Again, I forgot to iron my seams open, learn from my mistake!)

Fold the top edge of the bag lining over a half inch toward the wrong side and press in place. Do the same for the bag outer layer.

Sew the tote bag handles

Take the fat quarter for your handles and cut two strips 4-1/2″ x 21″. Fold one strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press. Open the strip up again and fold the long edges in from each side to meet in the middle, along the pressed line. Press in place.

Fold the fabric strip in half again, along the first pressed line. Both your raw edges are now nicely stowed away. Sew a seam down each side of the strip to hold it all in place. I like to sew several lines – I like the look and think it makes the handles a bit stronger. (If you’re concerned about strength you could also iron on a strip of interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric before you make the handles.) Do the same to the other strip so you have two handles.

Assemble your quilted tote bag

Here we go – we’re on the home stretch now. This is where the magic happens!

Take the bag outer (right side out) and the bag liner (wrong side out) and fit them together. The liner will be inside the bag outer and the wrong sides of each will be touching. Line up the folded top edges of both bag layers and then pin them together. Your handles need to be pinned in between the bag layers as well. Eye up where you’d like them to go and make sure there’s a good amount of handle between the layers (about 3/4″) so it’ll be well secured.

All that’s left to do is top stitch around the perimeter of the bag opening to secure the handles and join the bag liner to the outer layer. I like to do several rounds of top stitching because I know how much “love” my 7 year old gives his bags. I like those handles to be really secure!

And there you have it – a quilted tote bag. Soft and sturdy and ready for all manner of toting. 🙂

Please feel free to save this tutorial to your Pinterest account. If you’d like a PDF copy of these instructions you can have it emailed to you by putting your email address in the box below. Please note that you’ll also receive my newsletter, which will keep you up to date with new tutorials, patterns and of course, outtakes. Everyone loves outtakes 🙂

Keep an eye out for Safari Alphabet fabrics in October – and if you’re a quilt shop and you’d like to stock this line, be sure to get in contact with Two Green Zebras!

Cheers and happy sewing,

Kirsty

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How to Machine Appliqué Your Quilt

July 2, 2018 By Kirsty 15 Comments

If you’re looking for information on how to machine appliqué EPP (or anything for that matter) to your quilt, you’re in the right place! Today I have a tutorial on how to machine appliqué some pretty little EPP hexagon flowers to a quilt block background.

Hello and welcome to those participating in the Kingfisher Stitch-Along! “What is the Kingfisher Stitch-Along?” I hear my regular readers ask. It’s a joint project hosted by Rachel from Stitched in Color and Jodi from Tales of Cloth, to sew the beautiful Kingfisher quilt.

This quilt combines hand pieced English Paper Pieced (EPP) blooms, appliquéd (by hand or machine) to a background fabric, with machine pieced diamonds. I think you’ll agree the result is one scrapalicious and gorgeous quilt!

You can head over to Jodi’s online store to get all the templates and EPP papers you might need. She has a great kit which has papers and acrylic templates for the two shapes in the quilt.

By this stage of making your Kingfisher Quilt you should have a bunch of EPP blooms and some background diamonds to sew them to. You can find Rachel’s tutorial on how to cut your diamonds here.

Before you start make sure you’ve taken the EPP papers out of all the hexigons in your EPP blooms and trim any threads that might extend outside the edges of your EPP (if you glue basted your hexi shapes this is unlikely to be an issue).

Next, fold your background diamond in half from point to point, on both axes and finger press. This is just to give you an easy way to centre your EPP bloom on the diamond prior to machine appliqué.

To fix your bloom to the background, ready for machine sewing, you can either use pins or double-sided fusible web*. I had no problems at all using pins, but if you’re really nervous about the machine appliqué process then you might prefer to use the fusible web. It’s very secure and you won’t have to worry about pricking your fingers. Just follow the instructions on the product to adhere the fusible to your bloom and then to fuse the bloom, centred, to the background diamond.

If pinning, make sure your pins aren’t too close to the EPP edges – you don’t want them to interfere with your sewing machine foot as you sew around the edges.

If you have an open toe sewing foot you will want to use it here. Much like how a night out is more fun wearing an open toe sandal, machine appliqué is a much more enjoyable experience with an open toe foot as you can better see what you’re doing.

The great thing about EPP is that the edges are already turned under so there are no raw edges to contend with. You can pretty much use any stitch you like to secure it to your background as long as you sew it close enough to the edge to secure the two fabric layers (the shape and the folded under edge).

For this example I’m just using a regular straight stitch for my machine appliqué. I like to start sewing midway along an edge. Start with a few backstitches to secure your thread, or if you’re lucky enough to have a machine with a securing stitch, use that. Then start sewing, slowly, towards your first corner.

I have seen some folks comment that they’re a little concerned about stretching the bias edges of their background diamonds. While you’re guiding your EPP/diamonds under your sewing needle, don’t grab the diamonds by their edges. Rest your hands on the outer edges of your EPP and use that if you need to give direction. But really, because we’re sewing in straight lines rather than curves there’s not a lot of need to push your pieces around under the needle. At most you’ll just need a bit of course correction. My other tip is to sew slowly – this will negate the need for sudden, panicked movements. Slow and steady wins the race!

Alright, so we’re sewing our first edge, heading toward a corner. If you’re sewing toward a corner where two EPP pieces meet, you should aim to land your needle down exactly where they meet.

Then lift your sewing foot and pivot the piece until your foot is in line with the next edge.

If you’re sewing toward an outer corner on a hexie, just eyeball it and stop a seam-distance away from the upcoming edge. If you’re a perfectionist then by all means feel free to mark where you want to stop with a water soluble* or air soluble* pen before you get to that corner. Pivot and continue on your way.

Continue around the whole of the bloom until you get back to when you started. I recommend going past your start point 5 or so stitches, backstitch to secure and then cut your threads. You now have a machine appliquéd EPP flower.

You will see that above that my seams are by no means perfectly even. Once all my diamonds are sewn together this will be very hard to detect, so I urge you not to get to per-finicky as you’re sewing. When you are focussing on a very small area it can feel like a millimetre difference is as big as a quarter inch. It really isn’t, and it really won’t be noticeable if you’ve stopped a bit early or late on a corner.

As well as using standard straight stitches, machine appliqué is an opportunity to experiment with some of the fancier stitches on your machine. For my next bloom I chose an irregular edge satin stitch (I have a Janome 8900QCP and it’s stitch #54).

I would definitely recommend a test drive when using a decorative stitch. It’s important to figure out how the needle swings when forming the stitch so you know where you want your needle to be when you stop for corner pivots.

I just use some plain hexi shapes when doing a practice, I don’t bother with using complete EPP units.

Once I have an understanding of the stitch pattern and where I need to put my needle down I can then go on to sew my real pieces.

Sew up to the corner, stopping in line with the corner and when the needle is over to the right. Lift the presser foot:

Then pivot the piece, lower the foot and sew the next line.

For an inner corner, you stop where the pieces join and when your needle is over to the right.

What I will say with the wider decorative stitches is to make sure you go slow where your EPP is closest to the edge of the diamond. The wider stitches have a tendency to “grab” at the fabric and pull it into a little pucker within the stitch itself. Just take your time on the EPP edges closes to the edge of the diamond and you’ll be fine.

Once you have your EPP appliquéd to your diamonds it’s best to sew them together into a quilt top as soon as possible. This will protect the bias edges from stretching with excess handling. If you can’t sew them up straight away, make sure they’re stored in a box or container of some sort so you can just move the box around rather than picking them all up and stressing their edges.

If you have any questions (or tips to pass on) be sure to pop a comment below.

Happy sewing!

Kirsty

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Adori Quilt Block Tutorial

June 24, 2018 By Kirsty 23 Comments

Today I have a quilt block tutorial showing you how to sew up one of these Adori quilt blocks. Sound good? Let’s get to it!

Adori is a log cabin-based quilt block and is made from 3 main fabrics and a background fabric. So first of all, you need to choose your fabrics! Will you go for a monochrome palette, or something neutral and very grown-up looking?

Adori Quilt Block Pattern Tutorial by Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts

Or perhaps like me you’ll go super-colourful* (I’ve chosen some Tula Pink prints here).

I recommend using fabrics that are either solid or have a non-directional print so you won’t have to worry about fabrics appearing “upside down”.

Once you have your 3 main fabrics and a background fabric, the next big decision is what order you’ll put them in. I will say that this is the part that takes me the longest to decide on.

They all look great, right? So which to choose? Sigh.

Not only that, but then there’s the colours and layout of the whole quilt:

If you use a 5 x 7 block layout, this will give you a quilt that finishes 60″ x 84″ (Twin size).

Don’t forget to consider different background colours too. That will make it even harder/longer to choose. You’re welcome. 🙂

If you’re like me and spend a lot of time umming and ahhing over colour placement, it may be helpful to get your colour pencils out and experiment a little. I have a colour-in sheet printable if you’d like to do just that.

If you put your email address in the boxes below you’ll get a PDF download that you can print out and colour to your heart’s content. You’ll also be put on my newsletter list which lets you know whenever I publish tutorials like this one. In fact, if you were already on my newsletter list you would have received this printable download in your inbox. Handy! (And of course, if you don’t think it’s handy and you don’t want me in your inbox, it’s very easy to unsubscribe with a single click.)

This quilt block would also make a great scrappy quilt, too. You could have fun mixing and matching your favourite left-overs into pretty colour combinations for each block.

Right, let’s get on with sewing this quilt block! Firstly, you’ll need to cut the following pieces for each quilt block (C1 = colour 1, etc, and the white is your background fabric):

We’re going to go through each colour group and sew the required components.

Please note that I will be pressing all seams outwards for this block. If you are going to be making a quilt without sashing (i.e. you’ll be joining these blocks directly together) then you’ll want to press the seams for alternate blocks in different directions [outwards AND inwards]. That way your seams will nest when you sew your blocks together. The best way to keep track of this is to mark it on your colour-in sheet PDF download.

Start with first 3 pieces of fabric in the C1 column. Sew the small background pieces to each of the short edges of the C1 rectangle, like this (the arrows show my outward pressing directions. Reverse direction if you’re making an inward pressed block):

Now take the last two pieces of fabric in the C1 column and sew them together, then cut in half to give two components, each 2″ wide:

OK, moving along to the next colour. Just like we did with the last two pieces, take the C2 and background fabrics and sew them together. Then cut them apart into four 2″ components each:

And finally, we do the same again with C3:

We’ll now sew the four log cabin corners for the block. Each log cabin will use a “short” and “long” component in C2 and C3, as well as a 2.75″ background square:

Sew the first round of the log cabin with the centre square, the short C2 component and then the long C2 component. Complete the log cabin with the second round using the short and long C3 components. (Remember to press your seams according to whether it’s an inward or outward block – mine are outward here):

We’re on the home stretch now. Take the two short C1 components and sew them in between 2 of the log cabins as seen below:

And now sew these two parts either side of the long C1 component to give the final block (measures 12.5′ x 12.5″ unfinished):

Wahoo! You’ve finished your Adori block.

Don’t forget, if you want the colour-in PDF be sure to put your details in below to get it by email.

I hope you find this tutorial useful, and if you do make something with this quilt block I’d love to see it. Drop me a line!

Cheers,

Kirsty

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Fleur Baby Quilt

May 6, 2018 By Kirsty 13 Comments

I do love a good mini quilt, but there does come a time when the walls don’t have room for any more. What to do with the pattern then? You could join several together to make a table runner, or you could include the block in a baby quilt.

This is exactly what I decided to do with my Fleur Mini Quilt pattern. Putting four blocks together with some disappearing nine patch blocks makes for a fun 36.5″ x 42.5″ baby quilt.

I had some purple fat quarters (this fabric* and this one*) from Alison Glass’ Chroma fabric line left over from another quilt. Given that Ultraviolet is this year’s Pantone Colour of the Year, I thought it a good idea to make some purple blooms.

I made 3 blocks with the darker fabric being dominant, and one block with the inverse.

The four blocks were sewn in a column and set amongst some scrappy disappearing 9-patch blocks.

Because of the dimensions of the quilt it was quick to baste with a length of yardage. I quilted it on my machine with simple wavy lines across the horizontal axis and made binding from the leftovers of the light and dark purple fabrics.

I machine sewed the binding for this quilt with a zigzag stitch. You can find a tutorial for how I like to do this here. It certainly makes for a quick finish.

I have an project information sheet for this quilt – it builds on the instructions already in the Fleur Mini Quilt pattern to show how to turn the block into a baby quilt. It’s a free download for anyone on my newsletter list (you can join by putting your details in below):

And of course, this project sheet download would work with any pattern (a mini quilt or a standard block) you already have that finishes at 10.5″ (11″ unfinished). It’s a great way to quickly turn a few feature blocks into a lovely baby gift.

That’s it for today – happy sewing to all of you.

Don’t forget the 2018 Pantone Quilt Challenge is now open for entries. If you’ve got a purple-themed quilt, why don’t you enter too?

Fleur Baby Quilt

Dimensions: 36.5″ x 42.5″

Country: Australia

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Colour Explosion Quilt (Twin and Queen)

March 25, 2018 By Kirsty 1 Comment

Hello, hello, just popping in to say that I’ve released two larger pattern versions of my popular Colour Explosion Baby Quilt.

This quilt pattern is full of half square triangles and is a great vehicle for playing with colour. You can make your version as bright or as restrained as you like. In warm colours, in cool colours, or a mix of both. Try patterns. Or stick with solids. I personally think a version in whisper-soft pastels would also be gorgeous.

Over the past 18 months I’ve had numerous requests to resize this half square triangle quilt pattern into twin and queen size.

Of course, folks could just keep adding more HST blocks to the top and side of the quilt until they reach the size they need, but that can dramatically change the overall look of a pattern. Most of the requests I received asked me to keep the proportions of the original crib quilt – particularly the “explosion effect”.

Because of the dimensions of the original quilt, I couldn’t just increase the block size as it wouldn’t make a proper twin size. (And it definitely wouldn’t be a suitable method for making a queen, which is square.) I put on my thinking cap and came up with the idea of increasing the block size as much as I could. Then I added some space around the edges, in line with the design, to take it to the required measurements.

I think it keeps the spirit of the original quilt. Here’s the twin size layout (63″ x 81″):

And here’s the queen size (90″ x 90″):

The pattern also includes a revamped version of the crib sized quilt, because I’m a stickler for having all things together in their place! 🙂

The twin version of the pattern is perfect for anyone who made the crib quilt for a baby who is now graduating to a big boy or big girl bed. How comforting would it be for them to see a familiar quilt on their new bed?

And as for grown-ups who’d like a queen size – well, there’s an inappropriate joke about explosions in there somewhere, but I’m not going to touch it. Ahem.

Thank you – and if you have sewn a version of the crib size in pastels, please, please let me know. I would love to see it!

Cheers,

Kirsty x

Lattice Quilt (in Gleaned)

March 17, 2018 By Kirsty 45 Comments

This is the second post about this log cabin quilt design – you can find Part 1 over here.

After much ruminating about these Gleaned log cabin blocks, I finally have a finished quilt top to show you!

But first, let me take you through the process. I want to show you that sometimes this quilt-sewing malarky isn’t easy. And sometimes, it can’t be rushed.

In my last post I finished with the photo below, and also mentioned that I wasn’t happy with that layout.

I was trying to get the colours to run diagonally across the quilt, roughly in the order they appear in the jelly roll. I really liked the way each fabric played nicely with its neighbour and wanted to preserve that aesthetic.

When that didn’t work, I looked at more traditional shapes when grouping the colours:

Neither of those filled me with joy, either. Then I thought about making a big spiral, from the outside to the middle, around the rectangle:

I was liking this more, but it still wasn’t the right log cabin layout for me. Perhaps pulling each colour group into its own corner?

I left this design (above) up on the wall for a few days. It was better than the previous versions but something about it was still bugging me.

I started to get my usual mid-project feelings of despair – what are you doing? This is a terrible idea. How did you manage to take such a pretty jelly roll and make it so bleugh? This nasty little internal voice visits from time to time.

Then I had a small realisation. For some reason I had made the decision that I had to use the whole jelly roll and every single block I had sewed. Why I had put this limitation on myself, I don’t know, because I knew that some of the blocks were giving me trouble (see the tan, white and orange blocks boxed below).

I decided to take them out and replace them with other blocks made with Carolyn Friedlander’s fabric (her lines work very well together, thankfully). After making the 10 replacement blocks and a little bit more rearranging, I was much happier with my new layout:

But was it done? Was this the final layout? I decided no. The overall design felt a bit too busy for me. I needed to create some restful space between all that colour so each fabric had a chance to be noticed.

At first I thought I could separate the quarters with white fabric and that would be enough:

Not bad. (I also tried this layout by rotating all of the quarters 180 degrees, seen below:)

More white space was needed, I was sure of this. But how?

Then I remembered a book that I’d bought 6 years ago about Chinese Lattice Design*.

This isn’t a quilting book. It’s simply sketches of beautiful old Chinese lattice windows (along with notes on history and location, etc), printed in the 1930s. No dimensions, no colours, just pure geometry:

I spent an hour flicking through the pages and decided to try a lattice-style layout for this quilt. The exact layout I chose isn’t in the book, but you can certainly see that’s where the inspiration for this log cabin quilt design came from.

So here’s what I decided on:

I also thought about the rotated version:

And then I considered taking out the centre white cross in both versions :

Gleaned fabric, log cabin quilt by Bonjour Quilts

I decided I preferred it with the extra white in the middle.

To make all that sashing I used 3/4 yd of white fabric, cutting 16 strips 1-1/2″ wide.

I sewed each quarter together separately:

Then I sewed the halves together (with sashing in between) and finally the whole quilt together.

And here it is! I hope you like it. I think I’ll have another rest before deciding on the quilting. This log cabin quilt design has been quite a process . We’re going to take a break from each other for a while. 🙂

I think this would be a great quilt to make with plain 6-1/2″ squares instead of the log cabins, too. With a single fabric within each lattice compartment.

My 3 lessons learned from this quilt:

You don’t “have” to do anything (such as use the entire jelly roll in the quilt). It’s your quilt, you do what you please! *Mmm-hmm, snaps fingers*
If the design doesn’t make you feel happy inside, let it rest a few days and see what solutions pop up. Your mind is very clever and creative, but sometimes it needs a bit of time to work through all the pieces.
When trying to make a lot of patterned fabric work together, adding a solid (creating space between prints) can be helpful.

I hope some of this has been helpful for you, too – if only to show you that we all have struggles when quilting. Whatever you might be having trouble with on your sewing journey, don’t let it get you down. Don’t let it stop you creating. You’ll find the answer eventually.

Have a great weekend!

Kirsty x

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