Friday, July 21, 2017

A new tutorial - create your own Jingle Wishes quilt

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict
Welcome back for part 2 of my Jingle Wishes quilt which I design and made for the 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop.  Here is the super simple tutorial for making a version of your very own.
This quilt design is perfect for using up a lot of charms and half charms.  You can use either full charm packs or charms that you might have leftover from other projects.  It would also look fantastic made with scraps cut into charms so you could make it in whichever color scheme suits your fancy. The possibilities are endless....Halloween, patriotic, batiks, reproduction, 1930s.....you name it, this design works.  I know for a fact that I'll be making more versions myself to use up more scrappy charms.  I have a ton of them!

The beginning is easy enough.....sort your charms into color families.  The charms you use for each individual row should all be the same color.  The half charms in each row should also be all the same color but they need to be a different color than the full charms. 
Pair up your full charms and half charms as the mood strikes you, making sure to mix up the prints for more interest. Here I paired up the Green charms with the Red half charms.
Then creating the blocks is just a matter of chain piecing until they are all done. How many you make it totally up to you and depends on how many charms you have available as well as how big you'd like your quilt to be. 
The next step is just as simple.  You'll add skinny sashing strips to the right side of each half charm.  These skinny sashing strips are cut at 1" x 5" and will finish at 1/2" wide.  Your completed block should now be 7 1/2" wide x 5" high.
Begin assembling your rows.  The first row should start and end with a full block (full charm/half charm and sashing strip).  Every alternating row should begin with half charm/sashing strip partial block and should end with a full charm. Use as many blocks in each row as you want your quilt width to end up.
During construction my quilt helper had to come check out and inspect my progress so far.
The rows come together fast and before long you'll see a sneak peak of how your quilt will eventually look. When designing my quilt I laid out all the charms and half charms before sewing anything in order to have control of the planned randomness.  It truly bothers me if I end up with the exact same print next to each other or too much of one color together.
Continuing adding additional rows as you wish.  Towards the end you might want to audition blocks before sewing them so that you ensure you get a nice overall mix of colors and prints and any areas isn't too saturated one way.
Here are all the completed rows.  But wait. You aren't ready to sew them together into a completed quilt top just yet. 
 The next step is to add the horizontal sashing which are cut at 1 1/2" wide by however long your rows are.  My rows are 57" long.  Measure all your rows and use the average length for your sashing strips to ensure they will all line up correctly when sewn together.
Join strips as needed to get sashing strips the length you need and then sew a sashing strip to each row of blocks.
 Once all the horizontal sashing strips are completed begin to sew your rows together in pairs, matching up blocks across the rows so that you have nice straight lines going down the quilt.
 The completed quilt top should look like this.  It is your choice whether or not to add a border(s).  I chose not to for this one.
 All that is left to do is to quilt it and add your binding.  There are so many quilting designs that would work well for this pattern so have fun with it and let your creativity shine.
 I'd love to see your completed quilts.  I bet there will be a lot of different versions made from this tutorial.  I myself will be making more of this one as I have a lot of scrap charms to use up.
Maybe I'll host a linky party so we can all show off our finishes.  Let me know if you'd like to do this and when would be a good date.

25 of you added your own colorful comments:

Paige said...

So pretty and love your kitty helper too!

Mary C said...

Thanks for sharing! Want to start this soon!!

pajtr said...

*Thank you!* for the tutorial, Michele!
Wonderful quilt!
(Cute quilt "helper", too! I can't put pieces on the floor to check layouts, because my quilt helper/inspector would never move!)
:-D
Pat T.

Nancy J said...

I so like the way you have all those fabrics, but it goes together beautifully. The helper, a great addition and so necessary.I could just cut my spare fabric pieces to size and make one that way, using colours that go together as well as yours do.

Linda said...

Thanks for sharing your pattern. Love it!

Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures said...

Nice one! 😍

Jan Snell said...

Perfect timing! Thanks. I am going out for a quilting day and have cut the rest of my Christmas fabric into 6 inch squares to make a jingle wishes quilt. I have also shared your 100 wishes quilt and story with friends. Thanks , it has been a pleasure meeting you. Janice.snell@gmail,com

jann said...

cute quilt and helper! Thanx for the directions

Anita Jackson @ Domestic Felicity said...

Very Colorful! What a fun quilt this is!

tink's mom said...

GReat instructions. Picture perfect. Thanks

The Joyful Quilter said...

Oh, good!! I was hoping there would be a tutorial for your adorable quilt. Thanks SEW much!!

Loris said...

This is such a festive quilt! Thank you!

Tonya said...

I can see this quilt done in appropriate colors for a young boy or girl!!! Thanks for the tute!

JANET said...

Love this quilt. Thank you for sharing.

somethingrosemade14@blogspot.com said...

I love this pattern. It's perfect quilt pattern to use for the Christmas scraps plus any of the other prints I have. Thanks for sharing!

Lori said...

this is so pretty. wonderful for Christmas time.
quilting dash lady at Comcast dot net

Susan said...

Thank you! I loved seeing the process you used, and I also like the finished product. What a combination! dezertsuz at gmail

Anonymous said...

Terrific tutorial!
nikilsend(at)outlook(dot)com

Susan said...

Great tutorial. Just one question--So you only have sashing strips on every other row and on only the right side--no sashing strips on the end of any row on the left side correct?

Jennifer Fulton Inquiring Quilter said...

What a great way to use up scraps! Lovely quilt.

MaryBeth said...

Great quilt. Thanks for the tutorial

Unknown said...

nice idea! Nancy A: rangerer@sbcglobal.net

Pam @ Quilting Fun said...

Great tutorial. I always have charms hiding away.

Grandma said...

The quilt is pretty, thank you!
patsystitch@gvtc.com

Anonymous said...


This is a really good idea that you have going on. manufacturing
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