I thought I’d share a tutorial for this little Christmas quilt block. We could all do with a little extra light, yes?

This little Christmas Candles quilt block finishes at 8½” x 9½” . The tutorial for the block is here on the blog, but if you’d prefer a PDF of the pattern you can purchase it in my shop for $3. The pattern also includes instructions for a larger version (16½” x 18½”) of the same block.

First Choose Your Fabrics

Definitely the best part of the whole process! Pull out your larger scraps and check out what your stash has to offer. There will hopefully be some festive red, green, silver and gold fabrics for you to choose from.

I found some solid red fabric in my stash, along with some small yellow scraps for the candle flames.

I originally pulled out some low volume fabrics for my candles. But then I remembered I’d some Essex Metallic Linens that I’d ordered earlier in the year (quarantine purchase).

The fabric is very difficult to photograph, but there are silver/gold metallic threads in the fabric weave which give a lovely, understated metallic sheen.

Perfect Christmas fabric, really! You can find these fabrics on Etsy* and Amazon*. (Shades such as crystal, opal, vintage white, ivory and oyster work well with dark backgrounds.)

I found laying my fabrics out in a rough approximation of the pattern helped when choosing colours.

Cutting Instructions

Once you’ve chosen your fabrics you’ll need to cut all your pieces. Here’s what you’ll need for the Christmas Candle quilt block:

• Main flame fabric: (3) rectangles 2″ x 3″, (3) rectangles 2″ x 4″
• Flame accent fabric: (1) rectangle 2″ x 4″
• Candle 1: 2½” x 4″
• Candle 2: 2½” x 6″
• Candle 3: 2½” x 5″
• Background fabric:

Sew the Candle Flames

First up we need to sew some flying geese and half rectangle triangle units to create the little kite shapes for the flames. The flying geese will form the bottom of the flame, while two HRT units will form the flame top.

Sew Flying Geese units

Take 2 background 2″ squares and 1 flame rectangle 2″ x 3″. Draw a diagonal line on the back of each square with a pencil. Match one square right sides together with the rectangle as shown in the diagram below. Sew on the diagonal line then trim the seam to a quarter inch. Press the corner open.

Take the other square and match it right sides together on the other corner of the rectangle, as shown in the diagram below. Sew on the diagonal line then trim the seam to a quarter inch. Press the corner open and trim block to 1½” x 2½”.

With the 4 remaining background 2″ squares and 2 remaining flame 2″ x 3″ rectangles, make another 2 flying geese units to give 3 units total. Trim the flying geese units to 1½” x 2½”.

Sew HRTs (half rectangle triangles)

Take the 4 background 2″ x 4″ rectangles, the 3 flame 2″ x 4″ rectangles and the 1 flame accent 2″ x 4″ rectangle. Cut each rectangle in half diagonally – refer to diagram below for the orientation of the diagonals.

Match your rectangles to give the layouts needed for the 3 flame tops, as seen below. Two of the flame tops have the flame accent triangles and one does not. You will have 2 red and 2 main flame rectangles in excess (pop them in your scrap pile).

To sew the bottom left to top right oriented HRTs, pair a background and a main flame fabric triangle RST, along their longest edges. Offset the background triangle 1/4” below the flame triangle, as shown below. Sew the two triangles together and press toward the flame fabric triangle. Repeat to make 3 units in total.

Trim the HRT unit to 1½” x 2½”. If you have the Bloc Loc HRT rulers*, these work perfectly here. If you have standard rulers, you can see the technique for trimming an HRT unit in this blog post here.

To sew the bottom right to top left oriented HRTs, pair a background and a flame accent fabric triangle RST, along their longest edges. Offset the background triangle 1/4” below the flame triangle, as shown below. Sew the two triangles together and press toward the background fabric triangle. Trim to 1½” x 2½”. Repeat with the main flame fabric triangles to make 2 units (also press toward the background triangle).

Sew the Flames Together

Next, we can sew the 3 sets of flame tops together (the diagonal seams should nest) and press the seams open.

Then sew each flame top to a flame bottom (flying geese unit) to create a kite shape. Press seams open.

Sew the Candles

Now we have our flames we can sew each one on top of a candle. It’s up to you how you’d like to match your flames to your candles, but here’s what I did.

• Sew flame accent flames to the 2½” x 4″ and the 2½” x 5″ candles.
• Sew the non-flame accent flame to the 2½” x 6″ candle.

Press seams away from the flames.

Sew the Candle Units

Now let’s add some background fabric to the top of our candles. Press seams away from the flames.

Finish the Christmas Quilt Block

All that’s left to do is to sew your candle units together and then add the 1½” x 9½” strips to either side. Your final block will measure 8½” wide and 9½” tall.

You can sew your candles in whatever order you prefer. I like the tallest candle in the middle, but you could also put them in size order.

This Christmas quilt block is a great size for a pot holder, if you like to change out your home decor for the holidays.

If you’d like to make a Christmas table runner, just make a whooooole lot of candles and put them all together in row.

I’ve gone for a wavy effect with the candle lengths above, but you could also do a more random arrangement like below. Not to mention all the options with background and candle fabrics.

You could have some fun with background fabrics to make a birthday themed table runner as well. You could pull this pretty version out every time you have a birthday to celebrate!

So there you have it. A fun little block which has a bunch of uses.

I’ve made one of the larger size blocks (16½” x 18½”) to use as a mini quilt for the wall. I chose a more chartreuse yellow for my flames with a buttery yellow accent colour.

I hope you have some fun with this tutorial, and remember you can get a printable PDF of this block pattern (with both the small and large sizes) in the shop for $3.

Happy holiday nesting to you all,

Kirsty

*affiliate links. If you purchase through these, thank you so much for supporting Bonjour Quilts!

Who doesn’t love a good scrap quilt pattern? No one, that’s who!

We’re always going to need good scrap quilt patterns because of the infernal rate at which scraps breed. No matter how many scrap quilts you sew, the scrap pile doesn’t seem to get smaller. Scrap piles are scientific anomalies – fabric Bermuda Triangles that defy the laws of time and space!

When my daughter said she needed a new quilt, I told her it had to be a scrap quilt. My scrap pile is kept in plastic bags in my cupboard and several of the bags were at overflow level. Thankfully she was very on board with this idea.

My daughter is almost 15 (which is crazy to me) and very involved in all sorts of water sports. She has swim squad 4 mornings a week, loves her surf sports (ocean swimming and paddle boarding) and is a patrolling surf life saver at our local beach. (She patrols with her Dad – otherwise I couldn’t handle it – my respect for the ocean runs on the side of fear.)

All this to say that an ocean-themed quilt was the obvious choice (also, my blue and green scraps were out of control).

I knew I wanted to make another Scrappy Lattice quilt (it’s such an easy quilt to whip up – I really enjoy chain piecing). So I used the colour-in sheets to devise a beachy, scrappy kind of quilt. The quilt represents a bird’s eye view of the beach – where the water meets the sand.

I made the twin size and divided it into 5 main areas. I started with the deep water – navy scraps. Then I went to dark teal, then aqua, then light blue. The last colour was light tan/dark beige, to represent the sand.

It came together quickly and made a considerable dent in my scrap pile.

The backing was fun to put together. I try to avoid pieced backings wherever possible because I’m lazy. But this time I decided to go with a simple squares backing for 2 reasons: it ate up a lot of larger scraps and some stash FQs, and it gave my daughter some good sewing practice.

I explained to my daughter that I wanted a simple squares backing in 3 colours. She rummaged through my stash and picked out 3 colours and built 3 small piles of FQs and scraps. I cut all the squares (5″) and then we laid them all out together. She labelled them for me and put them in piles. We had a quick lesson on quarter inch seams and chain piecing and then she was into it.

For reference, this was just when school was cancelled and we went into quarantine home schooling (around April/May). My daughter would do a few hours of school work (she’s Grade 9/Freshman year) and then come into my sewing room and sew 2 rows together. Repeat. It took about 4 days for all the rows to be sewn. She pressed them all and I then sewed the rows together into the quilt back.

I’m not a fan of quilting anything larger than a throw quilt so I sent this one out to be quilted. The lovely Fiona of The Quilting Fairy quilted this one with a very appropriate wave pattern in a dove grey thread. The grey blends in well across all the different colours.

I chose a scrappy binding and used my zigzag binding method to attach. I used a light blue thread, which matched nicely.

Is your scrap pile getting a little crazy? Now’s a good time to pull it out and listen to what it has to say to you.

Sometimes you don’t even have to listen very hard, the colour ideas just present themselves. I pulled out several bags from my scrap pile (I keep my scraps in colour-themed bags) and I loved the colour scheme presented to me:

I grabbed a selection of fabric scraps and laid them out in order.

Above: fuchsia, orange, grass green, light blue, navy.

Hmm, maybe aqua instead of light blue?

I think it’s a little bit brighter? Here’s how I could use them with the Scrappy Lattice pattern. Firstly I could use the same “wave” layout I used for my daughter’s quilt:

Or I could go with a diagonal layout like this one:

Oooh, very 80s! Or perhaps a slightly different diagonal layout:

I see this as a softer version – the diagonals are a little more fuzzy.

The Scrappy Lattice pattern has colour-in sheets for all 5 quilt sizes (in both small and large block sizes) so you can draw out your preferred layout.

Here’s a warm colour way I explored (all based on what my scrap pile presented).

Above: red, fuchsia, pink, orange, yellow.

Here’s a cool colour way:

Above: navy, light blue, grass green, yellow green, green yellows.

If the navy is too dark, you could try this one:

Above: light blue, grass green, yellow green, green yellow, mustard/gold.

Scrappy Lattice is a very adaptable pattern – you can go with single colour scraps:

Don’t forget you can change the lattice colour too:

Beautiful red and black quilt by Kalynn above.

Another gorgeous version with black lattice by Cynthia.

Or you can make a multi colour rainbow version:

This version is best when you don’t have enough scraps in one colour to make a quilt. Choose the colours you have the most scraps of to make the central diagonals. Then the corners can be made with the colours where you have fewer scraps. It’s very adaptable to your scrap pile.

If you run a tight ship and have minimal scraps or are new to quilting and haven’t accumulated a scrap pile yet (it will come…it will come) you can find some lovely bundles of scraps on Etsy here* and here*.

That’s it from me today. I’m off to think about a Christmas themed scrap quilt for my couch (purely for decoration as we are heading into summer here). Hopefully it will prove a nice distraction from the current state of the world. ☹️

If you’d like to sew your own scrap quilt then you can buy a copy of the Scrappy Lattice quilt pattern here in my shop. Happy sewing!

*affiliate link. Thank you for supporting Bonjour Quilts with your Etsy purchases 😌

Wahoo – I have a new quilt pattern out today! This pattern is called Mountainside and is a FQ friendly, stash-busting quilt. You can find it in the shop over here.

Our little balcony area (seen below) provided the inspiration for this quilt. It has a comfy outdoor IKEA lounge and a rug I ordered online. It gets chilly out there in winter, so it needed a quilt (please don’t remind me of all the already-made quilts in my cupboards!)

I wanted something with some angles (to work with the rug) but didn’t feel like making the commitment to a full log cabin. So I went with mountains instead!

Mountainside has instructions for five quilt sizes:

Baby – 45″ x 56½”

Throw – 68″ x 79″

Twin – 68″ x 90½”

Queen – 90½” x 102″

King – 113″ x 113″

The pattern is fat quarter friendly, which makes it a great pattern for stash reduction. (Fabric requirements can be seen in the shop listing.) If you’re anything like me you might keep your fabrics in colour piles. Well, each of those piles is a Mountainside quilt waiting to be made.

All you need to do is choose a contrasting colour for the “mountains” and you’re set. (The mountains can be made from yardage or there are also instructions for cutting from FQs.) Hmm, white or silver mountains for a Christmas quilt? Perhaps both?

Throw Size Mountainside

My version of Mountainside you see here is the throw size, made in an array of Ruby Star Society fabrics. I really loved the teal colour appearing in several of their fabric lines, so I cherry picked the teal/deep turquoise/navy fabrics and combined them to make this quilt. One of the lovely things about Ruby Star Society’s fabric lines is how nicely the colours all work together.

The white mountains are also Ruby Star Society fabrics – mainly from this delightful range of speckled fabric*.

Lyn’s Quilt Cottage did the quilting for me – a honeycomb pattern using a charcoal grey thread. I love the way it looks like silver against the teal, but is quite dark against the white.

I made my backing from yardage of this very cool Sarah Watts tiger print (Ruby Star Society).

The backing needed 2 widths of fabric and I took the time to match the pattern on them before sewing together (I’ve a tutorial on this here). Now I have an army of fully formed tigers lounging around on the back of my quilt (much like I will be underneath it!)

I used the left over strips from the backing (which was oversized for long-arming) for the binding. For speed I completely machine attached the binding.

I used many, many mini clips* to hold it in place and had it sewn down in record time.

Baby Size Mountainside

I also made a baby size version of the pattern to clear out some of my low-volume fabrics. When I realised the baby size of the Mountainside quilt could be used as a backing for the baby size of my Snowball Party quilt pattern I was very happy.

I basted this one on my tile floor, which made it easy to make sure the backing stayed straight and level all around. I just lined up the mountains on the same tile rows as I taped it down.

So there you have it! A quick and easy way to get those FQs out of your stash and into a beautiful Mountainside quilt.

If you’d like to make your own Mountainside quilt you can find the pattern over here in the shop.

*Etsy affiliate link – thank you for supporting the blog!

I have a “Vote” mini quilt pattern for you today. November is approaching and the world is holding its breath, waiting to see what will happen.

If you’re American and over 18, please vote! If you’d like to use your sewing skills to encourage others to do the same, then I have a tutorial for you.

The finished Vote mini quilt measures 23½” x 18½”.

ETA: There is a pattern PDF for this tutorial available in the shop here for US$1.50.

Use this Vote mini quilt pattern to make something for your front door or a street-facing window. Give one to your favourite café to use as a table topper. Put it on your front fence on Nov 3.

Ready? Let’s go!

Choose your Vote Mini Quilt Fabrics

It’s hard to go past red, white and blue. But whatever fabrics you choose, make your life easy and make sure any patterns are non-directional.

I used Carolyn Friedlander Architextures Cross Hatch in Cadet (seen here on Etsy*) for my blue fabric. My background fabric was the same fabric in Grey* (not the darker Shadow). The red is an unknown from my scrap pile but there are many lovely red basics* that would fit the bill.

Here’s how much fabric you’ll need:

Blue (main text/flag square fabric): you’ll need 20″ x 9½” – so either a fat eighth that is a little oversized (some companies cut generously) or you’ll need a FQ.

Red (text accent/flag stripes): F8 or a layer cake square (10″)

Background (white): a half yard

Binding: FQ

Fabric Cutting

Cut the required squares and rectangles from each fabric, as shown below:

Blue VOTE fabric/flag square:

Red accent/flag stripe fabric:

From a F8:

Or cut from a 10″ square instead:

Background:

Binding: Cut 5 strips 2¼” wide from your FQ (or sew 100″ of scrappy binding).

Prepare Patchwork Units

We need to sew some smaller patchwork units before we get started on our letters.

Sew HSTs

Take one 2½” background fabric square and one 2½” blue fabric square. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the lighter square with a pencil. Place the squares RST and sew a scant ¼” seam on both sides of the diagonal. Cut on the drawn line to yield 2 HST units and press open, toward the darker fabric. Trim to 2″ square.

Now do the same with a background and red 2½” square (to make 2 red/background HSTs).

Then do the same again with a red and blue 2½” square (to make 2 red/blue HSTs). Nice job!

Sew QST

We need a quarter square triangle to create our “V”.

Take the 3″ background fabric square and one 3″ blue fabric square and make 2 blue/background HSTs using the method shown above. Press to the dark side, but don’t trim them.

Take one of the HST units you just made and draw a diagonal line on the wrong side, perpendicular to the seam, with a pencil. Take the remaining 3″ blue square and place RST with the HST unit. Sew a scant ¼” seam on both sides of the diagonal and cut on the drawn line to give 2 QST units.

You’ll only need one QST for this pattern. I used the orientation you see below with the size marked on it. Press the QST toward the larger triangle and then trim to 2″ square (make sure the centre point is central – 1″ from all edges).

Prepare “O” Accents

Take 2 of the 6½” x 2″ blue rectangles and 2 red 2″ squares. Draw a diagonal in pencil on the wrong side of both squares, and then place RST with the blue rectangles as shown. Make sure your diagonals are oriented as shown below.

Sew directly on the diagonal, then trim the seam to a quarter inch. Press the red triangle away from the blue rectangle.

Prepare Flag Corners

The flag corners are sewn using the same technique as the “O” accents. Take the 12½” x 2″ red strip and use a 2″ background square to form the corner. Make sure you match the diagonal orientation shown below.

Now do the same with one of the 6½” x 2″ red rectangles and one of the 2″ background squares. Again, watch the orientation!

Alright, we now have all our patchwork pieces ready, so let’s sew some letters and a flag. Just follow the placement diagrams below.

Please note any little arrows on the diagrams indicate pressing directions (to help your blocks nest nicely). If there’s no arrow, press how you like as it won’t affect nesting.

Sew Letter “V”

Next, Sew Letter “O”

Sew Letter “T”

Finally, Sew Letter “E”

Sew the Vote Patchwork Panel

Now we have all the letters, sew them all together. Remember, we’re after VOTE, not TEVO. 😂

Sew the American Flag

To complete the flag patchwork panel take the two 5″ x 8″ background rectangles and sew one either side of the flag.

Finish your Vote Mini Quilt Pattern – Sew Sashing/Borders

Take the two WOF x 1½” strips and the 1½” remainder strip and sew the short edges together to make one super-long 1½” strip.

Use this strip to sew a top border on the VOTE patchwork unit and a sashing unit on its bottom. Then sew a bottom border on the flag patchwork unit. Sew the VOTE unit to the flag unit (the flag edges will align with the internal V and E seams).

Next use the sashing strip to sew a border left and right of the patchwork panel. And you’ve finished your Vote mini quilt top!

Quilt your Vote mini quilt

If you like to free motion quilt you can have a lot of fun with this one.

Alas, I have no FMQ skills so I went with a simple cross hatch pattern. I used a water soluble marker to score lines 1½” apart, on a 45 degree angle.

Bind your quilt with your preferred binding and then you’re done (my zigzag binding tutorial is here if you’re after a speedy finish).

Don’t forget to hang up your Vote mini quilt where it will be noticed in the lead up to Nov 3.

ETA: There is a pattern PDF for this tutorial available in the shop here, for US$1.50.

If you don’t fancy my pattern, why not have a look at this one by Jen over at In Color Order, or perhaps this foundation paper pieced pattern over here at Sam Hunter’s Design Studio.

All the best, my American friends. I know we’re a long way away over here in Australia, but your decision will effect us (and the rest of the world) in many ways. As you say in the US, we’re rooting for you!

*affiliate link

I’m just going to say it up front. I don’t like purple. I’m not sure why – probably because it clashes terribly with my red hair.

When my 10 year old requested I sew him a purple quilt, I wondered could I sew a quilt with purple? Could I spend weeks frolicking amongst the purple or would it just be too much for me? (I tried to talk him into a quilt with his second fave colour, orange, but he wasn’t having a word of it.)

I’m happy to report that I was indeed able to quilt with purple. I even like the final quilt!

Diamonds in the Deep QAL

I made my purple quilt as part of the Diamonds in the Deep Quilt Along I hosted, which provided the encouragement I needed.

You can find the Diamonds in the Deep PDF pattern here in my shop.

The Quilt Along began back in July and just wrapped up, and I’d love to show what some of the participants (including me) have produced.

My Diamonds in the Deep quilt is twin size, and I made it with Kona Snow* and a purple fabric called Icon Elements in Titan Violet* by Art Gallery Fabrics.

The Icon Elements* range comes in a few different colours – they are great for the Diamonds in the Deep pattern as they have a small scale pattern that adds some subtle interest to the quilt. The AGF Decostitch range is also very pretty (and would have been my preference except they didn’t have a purple) – the low volume fabrics* are especially lovely.

The log cabin blocks for the Diamonds in the Deep pattern are very easy to sew. I recommend sewing with a scant quarter inch seam so that the blocks are a tad oversized when finished. Then you can trim them back to get very accurately sized blocks.

When you quilt with purple, what colour thread do you quilt with?

This is such a common question. I’ve made a quilt with X colour fabric – what colour thread should I use to quilt it?

The answer is almost always: dove grey.

It doesn’t matter what colour your fabrics are, dove grey (a light, flat, matt grey) is going the blend in beautifully with it. It’s especially good when you have lots of different coloured fabrics in your quilt. Or when you have a pattern like Diamonds in the Deep, which relies on contrast between the two fabrics, guaranteeing that either colour would be stand out too much on the other fabric.

The dove grey is just right – you still get all the lovely texture of the quilting (on both white and colour fabrics) but it doesn’t try and steal the show. It’s definitely become my go-to quilting thread colour (second favourite is a similar flat, matt, beigey-tan, for when I use more brown tinted neutrals).

As for the quilting pattern – I went with swirly spirals. I’m very fond of the way curves look against the angles of the log cabin blocks, which is why I chose this pattern (many thanks to Lyn of Lyn’s Quilt Cottage for the lovely long-arming).

If you struggle with choosing a binding fabric, you’ll love the Diamonds in the Deep pattern as it’s an easy one to bind. Just choose the same fabric that you use for the outer edges of your log cabin blocks and it will blend in beautifully.

I used my zigzag binding tutorial to machine bind this quilt. As is often the case, I couldn’t find a thread that matched the purple fabric exactly. One thread was a shade darker while another was a shade lighter. In these cases I tend to choose the lighter thread. To me it doesn’t stand out as much and blends in better (just my opinion).

For my backing fabric I searched for something with a touch of the purple in it. That way I knew it would match the purple binding (and thread). This wideback fabric was just the ticket. It’s called Lava Lamp and the purple matched nicely (it’s a very useful wideback – it would match many different quilt tops).

Alright, enough purple already. Time to see some more gorgeous Diamonds in the Deep quilts in other colours.

Your beautiful quilts!

Leigh also made a twin sized quilt using a mix of 8 Tula Pink fabrics that were heavy on the orange with a touch of pink. I think you’ll agree they blend beautifully to create a very orderly, scrappy effect.

Pat sewed up a lovely teal and low volume version of the pattern. I love the wee pattern in the low volume – very delicate.

Julia made a classic navy and white, with the additon of a navy border.

Leanne went for a beautifully vibrant red and white version:

Kathy also went striking red and white with a grunge style fabric:

Cheryl also made a purple quilt, teaming it with a lovely grey and multi-coloured centre squares. It’s so eye catching.

Gloria paired two tone-on-tone fabrics to give a lovely textured feel to her quilt:

I do so enjoy seeing all the different colour combinations people come up with for this quilt pattern. You’re all so clever and I thank you so much for sharing your work with me (well, with us all). Don’t stop sewing, and keep sending in those photos (or tag me on Instagram and Facebook).

If you’d like to make a Diamonds in the Deep quilt of your own, you can find the pattern here in the shop.

Happy sewing!

*affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Bonjour Quilts!

You can read all about the Snowball Party quilt pattern in this previous blog post.

You can purchase the pattern here in my shop.

Today I have some other versions of the quilt pattern to show you.

This baby size quilt was sewn as part of a new fabric release. Kristy from Quiet Play has a new fabric line, called Create, with Riley Blake Fabrics.

It’s such a bright, happy rainbow line and it was a joy to sew with.

Riley Blake sent me a F8 bundle of Create. There are 30 fabrics in the line, but the baby size quilt only has 24 snowball pairs. So I trimmed my bundle down to my favourite, brightest prints and used them in the quilt.

For the background fabric I used another Riley Blake staple, Bee Backgrounds by Lori Holt, Cross Stitch in Brown (you can also find it in a lovely light grey on Etsy).

The Snowball Party quilt pattern gives you the option of using scrappy accents in your snowball blocks, or a single fabric. I went with the scrappy option and also cut my accents from the F8s I had selected.

When it came time to decide which accent colour went with each snowball colour, I tried to keep them within one step on the colour wheel. So yellow with green, green with blue, orange with red, that sort of thing. I did swap some out when I thought I needed more contrast, but I also kinda like when they blend in a bit.

When I’d completed my blocks I laid them out in a rough colour order, progressing down the quilt.

I have the perfect red hippo fabric to use for the backing. I’m sure the resulting quilt will make a great addition to a nursery.

And now I have two beautiful tester’s versions to show you.

First up is Cynthia’s dreamy baby quilt, made from a collection of 30s/40s repro scraps she had on hand. She focussed on the purple fabrics and teamed them with an olive green solid for the accents. I think the single accent fabric does a great job of tying all the different prints together. Some of the purples are red based, others are blue based, but the single accent fabric allows them to work really well together without feeling chaotic.

This quilt is very sweet and the purple/green combo reminds me of Spring flowers in meadows. (Cynthia left the borders off this one as it’s destined for a charity with a smaller size requirement than the pattern. It still looks great without the border.)

Secondly, Julie has made a bright baby quilt from 8 FQs. She has also gone with a single accent fabric, but has very cleverly fussy cut them to match the stripes. She decided to split up her snowball pairs and went with a diagonal layout instead. It makes for a very fun, playful quilt!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some other versions of the Snowball Party quilt pattern. There’s a lot of fun to be had playing with fabrics, accents and block layout.

If you’d like to make one for yourself, you can find the Snowball Party quilt pattern here in my shop.

Happy sewing!

*affiliate link. Thank you for supporting Bonjour Quilts!

To purchase the Snowball Party quilt pattern, click here.

I’ve something new for you today – a snowball quilt pattern!

This snowball quilt pattern is called Snowball Party and can be found in my shop right here.

To me it looks like a room full of snowballs all chatting to each other and having a great time. Hence the name Snowball Party!

And let’s be honest, this is the only type of party most of us can have right now given social distancing requirements. A snowball party is better than no party at all, yes?

This pattern is perfect for a beginner with a few starter quilts under their belt.

The pattern has instructions for 4 quilt sizes: baby, throw, twin and queen/king.

There are two block size options in the pattern. The baby size uses FQs to create smaller blocks while the larger 3 quilt sizes use half yards.

I also have tips on how to use F8s and scraps for the small blocks and scraps and FQs for the larger blocks. So you can use this pattern to stash bust from scraps, through to F8s, FQs and half yards. You could even combine different fabric cuts in the one quilt if you want.

And there’s even a bonus mini quilt pattern included as well, to help clear out those pesky small scraps. Yay for mini quilts!

You’ll notice my quilt has scrappy accent blocks, while this mini has accent blocks all in the one fabric. The pattern gives you instructions to use either method for all of the quilt sizes.

I made my version here with a sunset selection of solids from my stash. They are a mix of Kona solids, Essex linen (candy pink) and Art Gallery Fabrics (burnt orangey-coral).

I wasn’t sure I’d have a good selection of such colours in my stash (as I’m more a blue/green lover). But shock horror, it would seem I have more fabric than I thought in that cupboard! (Can you hear my husband rolling his eyes from there?)

My background fabric is called Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Oyster (here on Etsy*). It’s a dreamy not-quite beige, not-quite grey colour that changes depending which colour fabrics are next to it. A lovely, super useful neutral.

When it came time to quilt such a loud, happy snowball quilt pattern I felt I wanted to keep it simple. I went with cross hatch quilting, using the corners of the snowball blocks as my guide.

I did use my hera marker to mark some lines in the borders as I felt I might list off course a bit without them. I’m really happy with how it turned out. (Do you see that little tuck in the quilting of the orange block down the bottom? There was a time that would’ve driven me wild. These days I’m like “aw, go out there and live your best life, tiny tuck”. 2020 has mellowed me out, man.)

For binding I considered scrappy binding with the leftover solids, but decided on a Carolyn Friedlander tangerine cross hatch fabric.

The binding fabric is also appears in my quilt backing which I pieced primarily from orange low volume fabrics from stash. As an aside, you know your stash is getting out of hand when you can separate your low volumes into colour groups!

I didn’t have time to hand bind this one so I used my zigzag binding tutorial to finish it off.

I pulled out some orange thread first but actually found it a bit too bright. The baby pink was much more subtle and the look I was going for.

This method of machine binding is very forgiving and also very sturdy. A win-win in my eyes.

Oh, there’s also a colour-in sheet in the pattern for those who like to audition fabric colours before sewing. You could also use the colour-in sheet to play with the number of blocks in your quilt, in case you want to add a row/column or two.

Here’s two alternate layouts I considered with my blocks before settling on my random layout.

This one is just each colour on its own line. I quite liked this one, actually. It would look really great in a rainbow colour scheme, too.

This second layout was more of an ombré effect. I started with the blocks in colour order (like my fabric layout order you saw earlier). I filled in the layout from the top right corner down to the bottom left. It’s not a perfect ombré, but it does look pretty groovy.

But in the end I went with random (where random = blocks auditioned endlessly in position to make sure they appeared random).

Feel like making you own snowball quilt? Put your scraps or stash to good use and grab yourself a copy of the Snowball Party quilt pattern, right here. The shop listing also shows you the quilt sizes and fabric requirements.

I’ll have another post shortly showing a rainbow version I’ve also sewn, as well as some gorgeous pattern testers’ versions.

Until then, happy sewing!

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