King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

King David’s Crown Quilt, a new free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop

It’s pattern release day for the King David’s Crown quilt, so I can finally show you this beautiful project in its entirety!

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

Since this pattern is part of Fat Quarter Shop’s “Classic and Vintage” series, the requirement was to make just one of the blocks, but when I saw this pattern I really liked how unique it was compared to the quilt blocks that I normally make, so I decided to make the entire quilt.

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

TIP: Not gonna lie, I had a hard time with not cutting off my points on this quilt. I realized after a few blocks that you want to prioritize getting the skinny tips to match up and not worry about the wider ends of the tips because those will get trimmed and won’t matter. Prioritze the skinnier tips of the wedges when you’re doing your cutting and piecing on this pattern; it makes a huge difference.

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

Corey Yoder’s fabric “Cali & Co.” had just come out and I decided to use this quilt as an opportunity to indulge my desire to make something with the beautiful multicolored flower print (SKU# 29190-11) in that collection. Unfortunately, when I tried mocking up the pattern with the multicolored flower print, I just couldn’t come up with a fabric combination that worked for me, so I pivoted to using the cherries print (SKU# 29194-11) as my main background and went with the blues and flamingo “reds” in the hopes for a subtly patriotic color scheme that I could display in the summer months.

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

ANOTHER TIP: I did figure out a way to sneak in as much of that multicolored flower print as I could, though—I opted to use it as the backing of the quilt. I realized, years ago, that if you use your most favorite print of a fabric collection for a quilt’s backing, you’ll end up with a ton of it leftover for your scrap bins (to then use in future scrap quilts) because you’ll have to trim off the requisite additional four inches on each side that you need to include for quilting. No more ugly fabrics for quilt backings here! I’m looking forward to sneaking in more of this beautiful print into future quilts! It’s just so pretty.

Cali & Co. fabric used in That Crafty Cara's (Cara Brooke) King David's Crown quilt for the Fat Quarter Shop

My plan is to use one of the darker blue fabrics in the Cali & Co. collection for the binding. I just love the light and airy feel of the fabrics in this quilt!

Blue fabrics from the Cali & Co. fabric collection by Corey Yoder for Moda Fabrics.
King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

So, um, the quilting…isn’t finished. I have quilted in my foundational lines and I really thought about doing fast stipple quilting to just get this done on time, but I happened to see a really perfect quilting stencil design and fell in love with the idea of using it for quilting this up. Problem was, it took forever for the stencil to arrive in the mail and then it became apparent, very quickly, that I was going to have to practice a bit before executing my plan.

Quilting stencil atop the King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

I don’t quilt as confidently as I piece, so there’s been a noticeable gap in my skills, and I’ve avoided quilting for a while. Nevertheless, I think it’s time to address this disparity and start legitimately working on upping my quilting skills, so I’m planning to take my time with quilting this beautiful quilt so that I can be proud of it when it’s done.

I really, really like this pattern and have already started mocking it up in other color palettes in the hopes that I can make another one. I think it’d look really great in a red-and-green color palette, don’t you?

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop

The pattern is available for free on Fat Quarter Shop’s website, and they’ve also assembled a kit, featuring French General’s “Sacre Bleu” fabric collection, for maximum ease in getting started on this fun little pattern.

Thank you to all the new readers who are popping through to read this post! If you’d like to automatically receive more of my posts about quilty goodness, please subscribe to my blog on WordPress by clicking here, or sign up for my mailing list by clicking on the “Subscribe” button in the sidebar!

Thank you, Fat Quarter Shop, for inviting me to sew along with you on the King David’s Crown quilt! This quilt is going to be a lovely addition to my summer quilt collection! (Quesnel thinks it’s great, too!)

King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop
King David’s Crown quilt pattern in Cali & Co. fabric, made by That Crafty Cara (Cara Brooke) for Fat Quarter Shop
This post contains affiliate links. Fat Quarter Shop also provided me with some of the fabrics and the Creative Grids Starburst ruler in exchange for me sewing up the pattern.

Scrappy Thursday: Clementine Quilt Month #3

It only occurred to me now, as I sat down to write this blog post, that this isn’t actually a scrap project. BUT…it was in my scrappy project bins for some reason; I’m thinking I threw the blocks into whatever bin was handy as I packed up my craft room three years ago, and I didn’t think beyond “What’s in the scrappy project bins?” when deciding what projects to put into the Scrappy Thursday rotation. Oh well. It’s been a long time that this has been waiting, and this is the way I’ll be able to get it done the fastest, so I’ll just go forward with it.

Of course, just because I put some of the fabrics into the project bin didn’t mean I put all of the fabrics into the bin, so I spent a large portion of my sewing time trying to locate the background fabric for this quilt. It was tucked away with a completely different quilt I was working on when we had to pack up, and those two quilts were jammed into the back of a Christmas drawer, despite not being Christmas-related quilts whatsoever. (I never want to move again.)

Alright, Month #3 is the Peaches & Plenty block, and geez…these blocks took forever to make! I don’t know if I’ve gotten extremely slow or what, but I think I put at least six hours into these. Not my favorite pattern, but it doesn’t matter anymore because they’re DONE and now I’ll move on with my life. Woo hoo!

It was nice to revisit this project and look through it again and start getting excited. It’s an interesting-looking finished quilt that is different from anything else I’ve ever made, and I’m looking forward to the completed project…which should hopefully happen in May. Slow and steady…

Month 3 blocks are the ones on the right. Building up a collection!

I was supposed to get these done last month, but it didn’t work out that way. I’m hoping to get onto the Month 4 blocks this month as well, but we’ll see how well that pans out.

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Finishing Instructions

We made it to the end of the sew along! We’ve made it to the end of 2020! When I volunteered to take on this task at the beginning of the year, I didn’t imagine in my wildest dreams how this would end up going this year. But I’m glad we at least had this little block of the month to keep us connected. Thanks for going on this journey with me, and thanks for the little texts and Facebook messages with pictures of your blocks! I love seeing them!

So here it is, the finishing instructions for this quilt:

I hope your quilts come together with ease and I look forward to seeing them in actual real life AT SOME POINT when all this craziness has passed us. Pat yourself on the back for finishing this up! Good job!

As always, if you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing! (And thank you!)

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 9: Martha Washington Star

THE LAST BLOCK! WE MADE IT!

When I volunteered to do this Block of the Month, I don’t even think I’d heard of COVID-19, and we got a late start on it because of quarantine and not knowing what the heck was going on. But here we are, nearing the end of a very long year, and I’m so glad to have been able to offer this little spark of light to you throughout it. Hopefully your quilts are looking good, and I hope that the time when we can finally gather in-person to see each others’ blocks arrives sooner than later.

I left this block until to the end because I didn’t know how I was going to be able to “draw” it in the PDF. I gave up and just threw in some actual photos on the second page of the pattern. If the directions are a little unclear, this block has a lot of pattern explanations all over the internet…I did my best.

You can download the instructions for the Martha Washington Star block here:

Good job, everyone! Keep sewing and look for the bright side in these murky times!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 8: Rail Fence Star

OK, let’s see if my blog is finally going to let me publish an actual post…it’s being weird this week, and coupled with how lousy I was feeling yesterday, I decided to just wait out the bug. A few hours late shouldn’t hurt anyone’s plans, I hope…

We are getting so close to the end, you all! How exciting!

You can download the pattern instructions here:

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 7: Shoofly Star Block

We’re starting to get close to the end of our sew along! School has started, and hopefully that means a little extra time in your sewing rooms! Alright, this month’s block is the Shoofly Star Block:

You can download the pattern instructions here:

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 6: Friendship Star (in a Star)

CQ BOM Main

Welcome back for the sixth block of our sew along! [insert confetti here]

This month’s block is pretty easy, which I find I need during the summer months because there’s not a lot of time for indoor sewing when the kiddos are quarantined at home with no distance learning to keep them entertained. (Oh my word, this year…)

Friendship Star within a Star:

Friendship Star block

PLEASE NOTE: If you’re following the original pattern’s color choices, the star points have been red up until now, but as of this block they are now the lime green color.

Download the instructions here: Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 6 Friendship Star

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 5: Checkerboard Star Block

CQ BOM Main

Happy July, everyone!  Yay, we made it to the point where we’ll only have a new block every month now!

This month’s block is another easy one, the Checkerboard Star:

Checkerboard Star Block EQ8

Download the instructions here: Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 5 Checkerboard Star

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 4: Broken Dishes Star Block

CQ BOM Main

Block 4, using a Broken Dishes block for the center of the star is now available!

Crystal Quilters BOM Block 4

Download the instructions here: Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 4 Broken Dishes Star

Block 5 will be available on July 3rd, and then we’ll go to one block a month.  (Whew!)\

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block #3: Variable Star

CQ BOM Main

It’s time for our third block, the Variable Star block.

PLEASE NOTE: Because these blocks will be set on-point in the finished quilt, any fussy-cut center fabric will rotate.  I’ve pointed it out in the cutting directions in the pattern, but thought it’d be a good idea to wave a red flag in front of your faces from the beginning: You have to cut the original fussy-cut square on-point.

Crystal Quilters BOM Christmas Variable Star

Download the block pattern here:  Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 3 Variable Star

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

 

Happy Sewing!