Cascade - A Finished Quilt

Another finished Quilts of Valor with Connecting Threads! It’s a good thing that I like red, white, and blue. Because I’m starting to collect a good amount of leftover bits and pieces! Don’t worry, I have a plan for those. By the end of the year, there will be an epic CT-QOVF scrap quilt.

CASCADE QUILT KIT

Cascade is the third QOVF kit that I sewed with Connecting Threads, and the second made from their basics lines. (It actually uses the same white, which is not helpful to my little scrap pile variety.)

In full disclosure, I swapped out some fabric - I used Witley Court as the center of the nine patches instead of navy, giving it a lighter feel. And then I used a lighter light blue (leftover from the Interlace kit) in the middle section, which actually isn’t as light blue as it looks in the pictures.

I’m also not sure I got the blues correct near the end…the pattern is written for a rainbow version, so I spent a lot of time cross-referencing what red or blue actually corresponded to the orange or purple, until I…didn’t check anymore. It all worked out!

That being said, I do like the pattern! The rainbow version, at least. I am saving it for next year’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I already earmarked a black background fabric for it. I’m trying not to get overexcited by the possibility and wait until I finish my current RSC. I will! I promise!

I also skipped the extra borders. It was already big enough for a QOVF with the first round of white, and I was eager to get to the quilting.

THE QUILTING

Because oh - THE QUILTING.

All that negative space was just begging for some custom block work, and Patricia was all too happy to oblige. I used Star Spangled Banner Friendship Star Block by Wildflower Quilting in the nine patch block (which is harder to see, but it’s a swooshy star design.) The setting block (that is super visible!) is TKQ QOV6 Block by TK Designs. The borders are Three Tours Chevron Star by Methodist Hill Quilt Studio.

A little closer/brighter look at the nine patch block quilting.

So yeah - three totally different designers but it all works so well together!

THE FABRIC

The fabric is the Connecting Threads basics - a good mix of the various kinds they offer. It adds a lot of dimension to the top! I especially liked the shiny of the Quartz Metallic, and I’m definitely going to be hoarding that scrap.

The binding was supposed to be a mix of all the colors, but since I skipped the navy border, I used the excess navy for the binding. It worked out, since I actually don’t love a scrappy binding. (I know, it’s weird. Scraps everywhere else!)

The backing is a random flag print that I got from an (almost-)local quilt shop during one of their big sales. I think they gave it to me for like $4 a yard since I bought the whole bolt and named-dropped QOVF. I finally pulled it out and started using it, so expect to see it more often, unless one of my favorite QOVF wide backings is available.

64x76”

(Psst! Get 15% off at Connecting Threads with the code “ACTKATIEMAE”!)

Quilty Fun Row Along - Tulips

Planting my little garden of spring tulips! Aren’t they pretty? This is my favorite kind of spring planting. My second favorite is when someone else does my front bed for me… We have a jungle of lilies left by the previous owners, but no tulips (or daffodils) which are my favorites. Can someone come fix that?

I’m not sure why Past Kate cut two from the same fabric, but I wasn’t going to second guess her. Made the stems and leaves scrappy in some places - mostly not on purpose. We’re just rolling with it now!

MY DEETS

• Echo Park Layer Cakes - Farmhouse Summer, A Day In The Life, and Flower Garden (Flower Garden and Farmhouse Summer are now sold out, but I would substitute Homemade and My Valentine)

• Texture in Cream by Sandy Gervais for the background

• Dapple Dots Asparagus for the green border

• Sparkler Marsala for the red border/binding

• Quilty Fun Book by Lori Holt

• Quilty Fun Row Along Schedule

BOMs Away - Eternal Bloom

Slowly (oh so slowly) but surely, the rosebuds are becoming full flowers! Well, not really - they’re still flower buds. But they’re nearly full quilt blocks!

You wouldn’t think a few simple triangle blocks with stitch and flip corners would be that hard, but this one tested my seam ripping skills. Several of them, I got the corresponding color on the wrong side, and one was just flat out sewn wrong sides together, not right sides. That was the point that I stopped for the day!

From here, they get a little stem on the bottom, then sewn to a bigger chunk of black. I should be able to manage that next month! Then I have to tackle the bigger florals in the border…

THE DETAILS

Pam Bono’s Out of the Darkness / Eternal Bloom / A New Beginning - out of print and extremely hard to find (believe me, I tried)

Fabric: Block of the Month kits from a quilt shop that closed in 2015 (yeah…not all the details are good news!)

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!

Four Patch Heart - A Finished Quilt Pattern

Who’s ready for Valentine’s Day? Oh, not you, not yet? Because you need a heart quilt before Valentine’s to feel truly, madly, deeply ready? (Hi, I’m a 90s child.) Well I have a heart pattern just for you - and you can totally make it in time for Valentine’s Day because it’s pre-cut friendly!

INTRODUCING THE FOUR PATCH HEART!

Get the pattern here for 20% off with the code LOVEWINS.

The name…I dunno, I ran out of name ideas. It started out of the Foxy Four Patch quilt - I tried to make that one bigger, but as I wiggled the four patches around to decide which way they would go “next” in a bigger version, I accidentally made a heart.

Then my oldest suggested that the heart would be better with more four patches creating a distinctive frame. Then as I wrote the pattern and figured out the details, some of the four patches became three patches and two patches, but the name stuck. So here you go! A mostly, kinda, sorta four patch based heart.

THE FABRIC

The background is made from one layer cake/10" stack. For the throw size, that is. It also comes in a mini size, which uses a charm pack/5" stack for the background, and a baby size which uses no pre-cuts. (Sorry.)

I went bold with mine and used a Connecting Threads Color Wheel Solids layer cake in soft rainbow. To be fair, I thought it would be a lot more pastel…and I had a lot of doubt about my decision until the binding went on and tied it all together. Persevere through your doubts, my friends!

(But also I’m making a mini version with the traditional red and pink heart with cream background. Just in case the rainbow is scaring you!)

The heart fabric and the binding are from the In Full Bloom collection by Connecting Threads. And I love the binding (truly madly deeply) because the florals somehow contain all that soft rainbow that I was doubting.

And I never doubted my decision to do the red frame and the creamy floral vine inside. It pops perfectly! There’s some strip piecing to make the heart - it all comes together rather quickly between the strip piecing and the pre-cuts handling most of the cutting.

THE QUILTING

The quilting is Sweet Marmalade by Urban Elementz, which is one of my favorite semi-dense all over designs. Since there is a lot of open negative space, the quilting really gets to show off without being the solo star of the show. (If that makes sense!)

The backing is actually just a flannel sheet from Target. I used a pastel variegated thread on the front and went with Purple Hyacinth on the back, even though the backing is technically blue. It adds just the right amount of shading!

Okay, the quilt swirl doesn’t really work on this pattern!

58” square

Four Patch Heart Pattern (20% off with LOVEWINS)

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