Modern Plus Sampler Quilt ++ My Tribal Rows

I was excited to get right to the piecing for the Modern Plus Sampler this month by piecing the Tribal Rows.

There have been some wonderful Tribal Rows posted on the Facebook Group and on Instagram (#ModernPlusSamplerQuilt).  If you have a chance, please check them out :)

Here are some pictures of my Tribal Rows:

Want to join in?  You can find the Tribal Row instructions for August here and find out all about the quilt along here.

Flew Away ++ Mini Quilt

I have a fun mini quilt to share with you today...Flew Away...

I made Flew Away for my local modern quilt guild's, the Greenville Modern Guild Guild, mini quilt challenge.

The challenge was to take a traditional quilt block that started with the same letter as your name (first, middle, or last) and modernize it.  The quilt had to be a mini size, no larger than 36" on any side.

I was looking through my favorite quilt block book Jinny Beyer: The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns to find a good block when I stumbled on the beggars block.  It worked as my last name is Brickey.  The beggars block is a 9-patch block with butterfly-like units in the outer 8 squares.  Here is one full block:

 
To modernize the design, I started with a full design of 9 blocks, 3 blocks x 3 blocks (so 81 butterfly units) and used my Subtracting for Minimalism technique (which I will be teaching at QuiltCon) to selectively remove some of the elements for a more scattered, minimal, and random looking design.

I thought the design looked like some of the butterflies flew away and that is how the quilt got its name.

Each of the butterfly units finished at 3" square so I used paper piecing to get all of the little points to match.  I added a 3" border to help the design float on the negative space.  The quilt top measured 33 ½" and the quilt (after quilting and blocking) measured about 32".

For the quilting, I wanted to make a plaid using thread.  In each "stripe" I used Aurifil thread in 12 wt., 28 wt., and 80 wt.  I marked the center lines through the blocks (the thickest 12 wt. thread) and then used my walking foot to space the other lines.  It was a lot of straight line quilting but luckily the quilt was pretty small. 

All total, there were 15 mini quilts submitted for the GMQG mini quilt challenge and I got 2 ribbons :)  I won a judge's choice ribbon and the viewers' choice ribbon.  You can see all of the entries for the challenge here.

Pop Rocks ++ Pattern Release

Pop Rocks is the third and final pattern release of the week (you can see the posts about Flutter and Chalk).

I made this quilt for the Michael Miller QuiltCon challenge last year (the challenge was to create a quilt using at least two of the prints from the Our Yard collection by Sarah Campbell for Michael Miller Fabrics along with any Cotton Couture solids).  I was so excited that Pop Rocks made it into QuiltCon 2018.

You can find the Pop Rocks pattern in my pattern shop:

Pop Rocks - digital version

Pop Rocks - printed version

You can see a bunch of in-progress pictures and an explanation of the quilting design in the original blog post here.

I had not designed Pop Rocks to become a pattern, but after it hung at QuiltCon, Modern Quilts Unlimited asked me if I would write a pattern for it. The pattern was all written and submitted when unfortunately MQU stopped production. So here is Pop Rocks as a stand alone pattern instead.

Pop Rocks is also special because Amy Garro of Quilt Photography Co. worked her photography magic on the quilt!

I find that quilts with lots of white and black are particularly difficult to quilt, if I get the whites to that I can see the detail, the blacks are just all black. If I try to get details in the black areas, the whites are washed out.

Amy did such as wonderful job getting all of the details in the quilt to photograph well.  All of the photos in this post (including the quilt cover photo) are by Amy.

If you would like more information on the packages and prices of the Quilt Photography Co, you can find them right here.

About the Pattern

Pop Rocks is an intermediate/advanced design which uses templates and curved piecing. The quilt finishes at 44" x 51 ½", a nice wall hanging, baby, or toddler sized quilt, but can easily be scaled up or down by adding more blocks.

Pop Rocks - digital version

Pop Rocks - printed version

Save more  ... Buy 2 or more patterns for a discount! Buy 2 patterns and use the coupon code TWOPATTERNS for $2 off. Buy 3 patterns and use the coupon code THREEPATTERNS for $4 off.

Disclosure: I applied to be an ambassador of her company because I such a fan of her photographic work. Amy provided me with the photographs of Pop Rocks for free. All opinions are completely mine.

Chalk ++ Pattern Release

The second of my three new pattern releases this week is Chalk which was originally published in the Modern Quilts Unlimited Magazine Issue 23.

Chalk was another of the modern plus sign quilt designs I made for magazines to help spread the word about the Modern Plus Sign Quilts book. The design reminded me a little like the chalk outlines of bodies, so the pattern earned the name "Chalk" :)

For my version of Chalk, I used Cotton Couture solids in magenta and white, Warm & White batting by the Warm Company and Aurifil thread.

I knew that I wanted a large overall curvy quilting design to compliment all of the straight lines in the piecing. I wanted a very exact repeating design, one that I could not achieve on my domestic machine so I turned to Carol Alperin for her wonderful quilting. Carol used a repeating curvy design using a light pink thread. 

Special Introductory Pricing

I will be posting about one pattern per day (Wednesday - Friday) and they will be available for a special introductory price of $7.50 each for one week (ending 8 pm on the 17th).

You can find all of my new patterns in my Craftsy and Etsy shops.  The direct links to the Chalk pattern are Craftsy, Etsy.

Save more on Etsy ... Buy 2 or more patterns for a discount! Buy 2 patterns and use the coupon code TWOPATTERNS for $2 off. Buy 3 patterns and use the coupon code THREEPATTERNS for $4 off.

While designing this pattern, I played around with two additional cover variations, dark blue and a gray.  I am glad I went with the bright magenta as I think it gives the quilt a pop!

Many, many thanks to Paige @Quilted Blooms and Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl for their help with tech editing this pattern!

Remember, you can find Chalk (and Flutter, and Pop Rocks) on Craftsy and Etsy for only $7.50 through Friday the 17th. Thanks!

Flutter ++ Pattern Release

Hi Everyone, I hope that you are all enjoying your last few weeks of summer (for those in the northern hemisphere).  We are finishing up some back to school shopping, getting my kids' school supplies and clothes ready for the start of the new school year. My oldest is going into middle school which is pretty crazy.

I am happy to celebrate the end of summer with the release of three patterns: Flutter, Chalk, and Pop Rocks. 

Special Introductory Pricing

I will be posting about one pattern per day (Wednesday - Friday) and they will be available for a special introductory price of $7.50 each for one week (ending 8 pm on the 17th).

You can find all of my new patterns in my Craftsy and Etsy shops.  Today I will be highlighting Flutter (direct links to the pattern are Craftsy, Etsy).

Save more on Etsy ... Buy 2 or more patterns for a discount! Buy 2 patterns and use the coupon code TWOPATTERNS for $2 off. Buy 3 patterns and use the coupon code THREEPATTERNS for $4 off.


Flutter is a modern pattern that combines curved pieced blocks with plus signs for an abstract butterfly design.

Flutter was published as a lap sized, intermediate level quilt pattern in the Modern Quilts Unlimited Magazine Issue 22. I have now expanded the pattern to include baby, lap, and twin sizes in this stand alone pattern release.

Flutter is one of the modern plus sign quilt designs I made for magazines to help spread the word about the Modern Plus Sign Quilts book.

The curved blocks are a nice, large size so the piecing goes pretty easily. I quilted each Drunkards Path block using butterfly looking ruler design which I posted a tutorial on the blog about right here.

I made my version of the design using Kona Cotton solids in flamingo, lipstick, navy, and white by Robert Kaufman. The batting was Warm & White by the Warm Company and Aurifil thread was used in the piecing and quilting. I matched the quilting threads to the Kona colors.

I hope that you enjoy it the pattern and I would love to see your versions of Flutter (make sure you share them on social media with #FlutterQuilt).

Here are some alternative colorways I had considered when I was picking out colors:

Many, many thanks to Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl and Paige @Quilted Blooms for their help with tech editing this pattern!

Remember, you can find Flutter (and Chalk, and Pop Rocks) on Craftsy and Etsy for only $7.50 through Friday the 17th. Thanks!