Cluck Cluck Sew

Last year I made my son a bat quilt, and I’ve been planning a colorful version ever since. 

I used the Bats pattern I wrote last year, and a variety of bright basic fabrics. 

The background bones fabric (isn’t that cute?!) is from the line Scaredy Cat by Riley Blake.  It’s getting tricky to find now, but I bet brick and mortar shops might have it.    

This lime bat was my favorite of the bunch…and you can see I placed it smack dab in the middle of the quilt.

These blocks go together SO fast with Diagonal Seam Tape, and you can checkout a super quick video of me making one of these Bat blocks with it here.  

I quilted this one myself in a swirly pattern.  I dragged my feet to quilt it for a few weeks and then once I finally made myself get started, it only took me a couple of hours or so. 

I love the quilting part….but I will procrastinate making a backing and basting the quilt foreeeeeever. 

I backed it with the blue plaid from my Backyard Blooms fabric, and bound it with a pink stripe.

Now it’s draped over Sophie’s bed and she’s happy as a clam with her Halloween quilt in non-Halloween colors.  

Here’s the one I made last year for Ryan:  

His is definitely more Halloween-ish….but hers is so fun with all the color!   Bat quilt pattern can be found here.  

Have a great day!  -Allison

Same quilt as last post…totally different look!  

I made this version late last fall with Carrie Bloomston’s new line Wish for Windham Fabrics.  It’s out of my color comfort zone, which is probably why I loved working with these deep saturated colors so much. 

The Fat Quarter Shuffle pattern uses 16 fat quarters for the Throw size.  When using busy big prints like these, I always throw in at least as many near solids and solids to give your eyes some resting space in the pattern.  

I don’t recommend using directional fabrics for this quilt since the blocks are rotated…but I used the elephant print for this quilt and had to make sure each block was flipped the correct way so they wouldn’t be upside down.  I don’t recommend it, but it can be done! 

I especially love how the brushed off white fabric looks in the finished quilt.    

The brushed near solids balance out the busy large prints so well!  These blocks and quilt top are so quick to put together.  

Kaitlin quilted this one for me, I don’t remember the name of the design, but it’s clean and modern.  The backing fabric is from Joann fabrics (old) and looks like it was made for this line.  

I love how this one turned out, it’s definitely my favorite version I made of this pattern.  

The pattern is Fat Quarter Shuffle, which can be found in my shop as pdf, or paper.  

The fabric is Wish by Carrie Bloomston, which came out in May and is in local quilt shops, or online here, here, here, here, here.  

I get asked ALL.THE.TIME. which pattern is best for a beginner making their very first quilt.  Even though all of my patterns are pretty simple and straightforward, there’s only a couple I’d recommend for a very beginner… including this one, Fat Quarter Shuffle.  

I wrote this pattern last September, taught it as a class in November, then it’s sat and sat and sat unfinished.  It feels like there are already 1000 variations of this same quilt in the world so I dragged my feet to finish it, but I’ve also really enjoyed making this quick finish a few times.  So now there will just be 1001 variations of this pattern and that’s ok I guess! 

Luckily I waited SO long to finish it that Backyard Blooms became available, so it only made sense to make this quilt with it! 

This pattern uses 16 fat quarters for the Throw size, and uses an easy strip piecing method.  

Since I moved my sewing machine to the dining table, Jane will sneak up onto my sewing table and stare at the pictures on my pin board. 

I found her here after her nap today…”nap” hair and all.  

There are very few seams that match in this quilt…which is always my ultimate goal as a self-proclaimed lazy non-pinning quilter.  

You can find Fat Quarter Shuffle as a PDF pattern here, or a Paper pattern here.  

The other thing I love about this pattern is that it includes the instructions for the layouts with blocks rotated.  So you can have horizontal strips, or vertical strips, and make this look completely different.  

I have LOVED seeing photos of your Backyard Blooms fabric arriving.  It’s one of those lines that looks SO much better in person…so I’m anxious for you to see it in real life!

Backyard Blooms is available now, in your favorite quilt shop (hopefully!) and tons of places online.  

I’ll share my other Fat Quarter Shuffle quilts next week…they look so different in other fabrics.  

Happy weekend!