This seahorse quilt is extra special because she’s made with BOTH beautiful sides of fabric!
Why is Sally the seahorse quilt special?
Fabrics for this seahorse quilt are easy to choose!
Firstly, Sally is made with both beautiful sides of fabric! This makes noticeable contrast in value which adds interest to your quilt! Notice here that the seahorse and binding are made with the RIGHT side of one focus fabric. The “seashell coral” and floating bubbles are made with the REVERSE.
Discover the nuances of value as you learn to audition BOTH sides of fabric! The pattern teaches you how. Learn more about How To Audition Both Sides here.
The Templates and Broderie Perse
Secondly, your make the seahorse for this quilt from all one piece of fabric. She’s cut from a large, full-size paper template. The seashell coral are cut from the fabric motif. There are several template drawings in case your focus fabric doesn’t have sea shells. Finally, Sally needs lots of bubbles. They are easy to cut by hand. Even better, use a cutting machine, like a Cricut or Accuquilt to make your circles!
Of course, your focus fabric is the focal point of this quilt. However, the background behind this seahorse quilt, which includes a wide variety of fabrics, is also important. Find ombre, beach words, batiks, white on white, blue sea shells, batik bubbles and more! Ultimately, it’s the variety of fabrics behind Sally that really make this quilt sparkle with interest!
Kaffe Fassett Collective Fabrics
Finally, there’s something magical about using both beautiful sides of Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics. They are especially fun for the coastal quilt patterns, like Sally, and floral bouquet quilts.
Sally the seahorse quilt is shown here made with Philip Jacob’s Seashell Bouquet fabric on a scrappy background.
The Legend of the Poinsettia is about a little girl named Pepita.
In addition to The Legend of the Poinsettia, Pepita is the name of this Christmas quilted wall hanging. You’ll learn more about the Pepita Quilt Pattern below.
Summarily, the story that became The Legend of the Poinsettia goes like this. Pepita and her cousin Pedro were walking to church on Christmas Eve. Pepita was sad because she had no gift to give the Christ Child. However, Pedro tried to console her by saying, “Pepita, I am certain even the most humble gift, given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes.”
So she picked a bouquet of weeds from the side of the road.
Therefore, Pepita gathered up a bouquet of weeds from the roadside to give as her gift. Her spirits lifted as she entered the chapel and approached the alter. She laid the weeds at the feet of the Christ Child. Suddenly, Pepita’s common weeds burst in to brilliant red blooms! This was considered a miraculous event. Consequently, it was named the Flores de Noche Buena (Flowers of the Holy Night).
As she laid the weeds at the feet of the Christ Child, they burst into brilliant red blooms!
Today we call these flowers poinsettias, after Dr. Joel Poinsett. Dr. Poinsett was the first ambassador to Mexico. He first brought the bright red star-shaped flower to the United States.
While The Legend of the Poinsettia is not as widely known, the plant has become a very popular traditional Christmas decoration.
The Pepita quilt is made using both sides of one poinsettia focus fabric on a scrappy, fun background.
This quilt pattern is fast and easy to make using simple fusible web and an easy broderie perse technique.
First, you’ll discover the nuances of value as you learn to audition both sides of your fabrics. Then using easy fusible web and broderie perse techniques, you’ll build your bouquet. The blooms are made with the RIGHT sides of your focus fabric; the pot is made from the REVERSE.
Add fun, scrappy background fabrics.
Moreover, you’ll learn how to add a sparkling interest to your quilt by combining a variety of background fabrics. You might choose snow-y motifs, cardinals, red trucks, Christmas trees, batiks, Grunge, etc. The more variety of background fabrics you choose will make your quilt more interesting!
The Pepita Quilt Pattern or quilt is great for gifting because the fast technique and stunning look!
And now you know The Legend of the Poinsettia.
Unfortunately, I used to avoid poinsettias plants, because I thought they were poisonous for pets. However, in my recent research about them, I’ve learned they are only mildly toxic, causing a stomach upset if ingested. But if you are concerned, make up this beauty and you can have poinsettias in your Christmas décor every year!
Pepita Quilted Wall Hanging
Click HERE to see other Colorful Petals series quilts!
See Christmas Quilts in July for a smaller quilted wall hanging pattern made with broderie perse and one focus fabric!
There are many, MANY Christmas fabrics which would make a great JOY quilted wall hanging.
You can choose modern circles, snowflakes, poinsettias, cookie cutters, etc. Each gives a different feel to this Christmas tree wall hanging. The trick is to find a focus fabric you love whose reverse side sparkles -but with a lesser value.
Make this JOY with Hoffman’s Supernova Seasons panel!
This version features a lighter, snowy background. You’ll see cardinals on a lighted wire and little red trucks. Both accent strips are reversed to let the focus fabric shine.
Shuffle through your Christmas stash and make up some JOY to make the Christmas season bright!
Give a little JOY this Christmas season!
What kind of fabric would you use for a JOY tree? When do you start your Christmas decorating or festivities?
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Creativity abounds in these Halloween quilts made by workshops and by pattern customers!
View the variety of background and focus fabrics used in these Halloween quilts.
Creative Cauldrons
First, each quilter chose a focus fabric for their individual cauldrons, auditioning BOTH sides of the fabric.
There are lots of fun Halloween fabrics on the market every year. When choosing one for your cauldron, be sure to audition BOTH sides! You learn how in the Something’s Brewing quilt pattern.
These quilters use BOTH spooky sides to stir up trouble!
While the focus fabric is key, background fabrics play a key role in providing interest and sparkle to the quilts. Secondly, these cauldron creators auditioned their possible background fabrics. Variety of fabric genre adds interest to the background. The accent strips are used to pull your eye through the quilt.
If the value is right, use it in your Halloween quilts!
I encourage students to check their values when auditioning fabrics, but be bold with their choices!
If you like a fabric and the value is right, use it! Don’t worry if it’s a little wild or out of your norm.
Karla
As well as checking the values of the backgrounds fabrics, students watch how those fabrics work with their focus fabric. Notice that the lower half is a lighter value and the cauldron really stand out.
Quilt-makers of these Halloween quilts evaluate the value of their background fabrics as they relate to the front AND back of their focus fabrics using black and white pictures.
Something’s Brewing from Memory Makers class in their quilt show.
Bubble-making is easy when you use Accuquilt or Scan N Cut to make them! Here is the sheet from bubbles made in record time – less than 7 minutes–on the Scan N Cut!
Are these the three best quilting tools EVER, in the whole world? Okay, maybe not. However, if you are making quilts using fusible applique or even broderie perse, THESE ARE THE THREE BEST
Anyone who quilts knows you gotta have tools…and the right tools can really make quilting fun!
I’ve been sharing tips of the trade when it comes to working with value and auditioning fabrics for my latest patterns, which use both sides of one focus fabric. Now I’m going to share the three top tools I’ve found and grew to love while making these patterns.
(drum roll)
Karen Kay Buckley Scissors
They cut like a dream. The edges are serrated which makes them seem to grab and hold on to the fabric as you cut, rather than pushing it away from you. I have made many of these #usebothsides quilts and cut many, many paper-fused appliques with them – and quickly, too. They cut today as well as the first day I bought them. I highly recommend them. They make cutting enjoyable, even under deadlines. I use the blue handled size.
Soft Fuse Premium
A few years ago, I wandered upon Misty Fuse. I liked that it looked almost like a spider-web and, once fused, it felt like it wasn’t even there. It works great for projects where you use rulers or die cutters and you don’t need to trace patterns–because there’s no paper on which to draw.
Enter…Soft Fuse Premium , a paper-backed, but thin, web-like fusible which quilts like a dream. Soft Fuse doesn’t make your applique stiff or hard to manage and it quilts like a dream (kinda like Karen’s scissors cut). I highly recommend it.
Roxanne Glue-Baste-It
Temporary Basting Glue
Last, but not least, Glue-Baste-It with this micro-applicator tip is the bomb–and life-saver when it comes to whipping out quilts! This has saved me many times! It gets into tiny places, dries clear (really, it does, except maybe on Lame – but how often do you applique with that?), and it lasts forever! I still have a teeny, tiny bottle from 15 years ago (from the Sewing Basket) by my machine and it still works great (but doesn’t have this fancy applicator tip). So, why do I need this product? When I’m cutting flowers for Colorful Petals or Colorful Wings, I don’t cover my entire piece of fabric with fusible but I might see a flower I really want in my quilt. Rather than set it aside, I keep it in my pile and put a dot or two of Glue-Baste-It on it when I place it on my quilt. It holds the flower in place just as though it was fused, until I quilting it down. Likewise, if I’m quilting a long the edges of my applique and find a spot not adhered fully, I don’t plug in the iron and wait for it to heat up to reheat the fused fabric -I just dab a dot of this glue and keep on stitching! It really is a great product to have on hand.
Do you NEED these products to make #USEBOTHSIDES quilts?
Colorful Petals Quilt Patterns
Patterns available at etsy.com/shop/CreativeBeeStudios
Nah, but having cool tools is part of the game of quilting, right? If nothing else, put them on your wish list for Christmas!
Speaking of Christmas…the countdown is on and a new pattern is coming SOON! Stay Tuned.
What’s your favorite quilting tool or product? Let me know!
Meet sweet Emily. She is the second pattern in the series called Colorful Petals. Emily is made both beautiful sides of one focus fabric.
This lively sunflower fabric makes a great autumn art quilt.
Like Rose (click here), Emily’s “primitive pottery” vase is made from the reverse side of the floral focus fabric.
Choosing one focus fabric for the vase, bouquet and binding and stitching a scrappy background is a fun way to use up stash while making a fast, easy quilt for decorating or gifting.
It warms my heart to see some of my mother-in-law’s chicken wire fabric (circa 90s) in this quilt.
The four colorful accent strips used in the #usebothsides line of patterns make it a great way to use some bold, maybe even eccentric, fabrics from your stash that might otherwise might be too wild for a calm quilt like this.
Colorful Petals – Rose, Emily, and Kate (more on her next week) – will be taught at The Golden Needle (click here) on November 15th in Cape Girardeau, MO.
Emily uses both sides of one focus fabric i this sunflower bouquet.
These quilt patterns are a lesson in VALUE as you learn to audition your focus fabric (front and back) with a variety of background fabrics and accent strips — and their reverse sides.
Colorful Petals Quilt Patterns
Shout out to my Colorful Wings class – here is the cookie recipe I promised you, compliments of Nancy Kester:
Something’s Brewing, all right, with this Halloween wall hanging!
This Halloween wall hanging is spooky fun to make.
What is this Halloween wall hanging quilt?
First, Something’s Brewing features a bubbling cauldron. The cauldron stands on two honey-buzzard claw feet. There’s even a broomstick to stir the pot! Bubbles and steam boil over the top and edges onto the fun background fabrics!
Most importantly, this quilted Halloween wall hanging is made using both SPOOKY sides of one focus fabric. The cauldron is shown made from the RIGHT sides of a black fabric with white spider webs. However, the bubbles and steam are made from the REVERSE of the same focus fabric. Make the binding with the same fabric, as well.
The pattern comes complete with a full-size paper template.
Secondly, make the quilt using easy and fast fusible applique techniques.
Value is the key to unlock the magic of this Halloween wall hanging.
Discover the nuances of value as you learn how to audition BOTH spooky sides of fabric! Begin with the focus fabric. Once you’ve chosen that, start auditioning both sides of possible background fabric options.
The scrappy background fabrics.
Make your quilt sparkle by choosing a variety of background fabrics. Something’s Brewing is shown here with an eclectic mix:
My favorite fabric in this quilt: text from MacBeth!
See all the Halloween patterns and shop more than 50 designs that use BOTH beautiful sides of fabric HERE!
Finally, I have to share how fun it was to design and make this quilt, especially the honey buzzard claw feet and broomstick. Also, I love to see the creative cauldrons that customers and students make! There are LOTS of fun Halloween fabrics out there (and maybe in your stash) that would make a great cauldron.
Hope you’ll be stirring up something spooky soon!
Enjoy YOUR quilting journey!
Patterns available at etsy.com/shop/CreativeBeeStudios
There’s something really fun about watching eleven ladies take one pattern (Phoebee, Belle, or Lily) and make it their own. The trick to these patterns is auditioning the fabrics – which can actually take more time than putting the top together! They did a fantastic and creative job of fabric selection and color/value placement of all the elements (background pieces, accent strips, and both sides of the focus fabric).
In addition to making these beauties, we had tips, door prizes, a mini-trunk show and lunch.
To not reveal their quilts before completion, I’m just going to give you an “in-progress” peek at the variation in these winged-girl quilts:
Great job, friends!
Now let’s get looking to #usebothsides of your focus fabric to make some beautiful bouquets!
Rose uses the reverse of her focus fabric for the vase and the front for the bouquet and binding.
The rose bouquet quilt shown here is appropriately named Rose.
This Rose bouquet quilt was the first made in a series of bouquet quilts. Each quilt was as different and distinct as the focus fabric from which it was made!
Rose is made with both beautiful sides of one focus fabric!
First, the focus fabric for this Rose bouquet quilt is Bed of Roses by Geri Robinson by Red Rooster Fabrics. It is used for the vase (REVERSE), the bouquet, and binding. Unlike other similar quilts, one accent strip in the background is featured in this quilt to demonstrate the contrast between the right and reverse sides.
The scroll work on the focus fabric for the Rose bouquet quilt doesn’t appear on the right side, but it makes a beautiful design on the vase when you use the reverse!
The key to making a Rose bouquet quilt is learning how to audition both sides of fabric. Value is the key! First, you will discover the nuances of value as you learn to audition both sides of focus fabrics. Likewise, once you choose your focus fabric, you’ll apply the same principles (tips) to audition background fabrics. It’s easy to audition fabrics when you know what to look for.
Basically, the Rose bouquet quilt is made using fusible applique and broderie perse techniques. Simply put, you’ll trace and cut the vase from a full-size paper template. Next, you’ll cut flowers and leaves from the motifs on the fabric. It’s as simple as fusing them onto the background fabrics. Finally, the applique can be secured during the quilting process, making this a truly fast project to make.
Phoebee, Belle & Lily
In conclusion, just like the quilts shown above, Rose is a fast, fun wall hanging which makes it a great gift or decoration for your home.
Choosing fabrics for quilts isn’t hard, but it can be tricky.
Choosing fabrics for quilts involves auditioning the color, size of motif, and value of the fabrics. I have long thought I understood the value of fabric values. Value is what makes, say, a simple, two-color quilt have bold areas of light and dark. Value also makes those cool secondary patterns in your multi-color quilt design appear like magic.
Easy, right? I thought so. However, a few years ago (actually about 20 now), Blended Quilts became popular. I became mesmerized by blended quilts. I bought the books and studied them, reading about fabric choices and how to combine fabric values to work together, while not being too obvious. Turns out, I never did really “get” it. It was too hard for me to look past the floral motifs and colors. Thankfully, our guild had a program presenter who sold blended kits! Problem solved (for the moment).
Turns out, choosing fabrics for quilts based on value can be tricky!
For the record, I love all kinds of quilts.
Karla
My Grandma Emma Wichern’s lavender and white embroidered quilt is precious to me. Simple, clearly defined values. But I also love those wild “crazy-quilts” which practically shout in all dark values. Modern is fun, bright, and happy…or sometimes calming and simple. I have a passion to some degree for all types of quilts. But what really gets me excited about a quilt is when it is successfully splashed with all kinds of rich, colorful and different fabrics…and it works! Value is what makes the magic happen in those quilts.
To truly know the value of fabrics, you have to remove the color.
You can do this numerous ways, but the simplest trick for me is to take a picture of fabric choices or my blocks on my design wall with my phone and change the picture to black and white (mono or noir). Colors and motifs can fool you. For us quilters, fabrics aren’t just fabrics. They evoke emotion (usually happiness). I used to fall in love with a fabric, or line of fabrics, and be determined to use it because of my emotional connection. Consequently, I’ve made some quilts that turned out okay, but had the potential to be brilliant.
When choosing fabrics for quilts, remember that values change depending one their surroundings.
That’s the tricky part! A quilter once said, “My Light looks too dark when I use that light of Medium.” Okay, that was me who said that, but it’s true! And, it can be tricky.
Light. Medium. Dark.
The fact that my neat little piles of lights, mediums, and darks can change their values, depending on what is around, them was a “V8” moment for me!
Let’s look at this dragonfly quilt for an example.
Lilly’s background is made of scrappy, light neutrals with a couple of colorful accent strips. The background is light when compared to the dragonfly focus fabric. The flowers at the top of the quilt are made from the reverse side of focus fabric. The flowers “read” as a medium value. Clearly the dark value of the dragonfly is what you notice first. The flowers are secondary. The various background fabrics catch your eye last and allow your eyes to linger on them.
When you are just working on your background, those strips of color can look quite bold and may seem too dark to be part of the background. But when looking at those same fabrics in black/white WITH the focus fabric laying across them, they all fall into the light category and they work!
Even the colorful accent strips disappear in this black and white photo.
Phoebee is made with both sides of one focus fabric on a scrappy background. Choosing fabrics for this quilt is how I first learned the nuances of value. Using both beautiful sides of fabric taught me that lesson.
Notice that the boldness of Phoebee’s focus fabric allowed for a variety of values in the eclectic background. Phoebee is clearly the “buzz” of this quilt!
Next, lets look at Belle, the butterfly quilt.
Again, the RIGHT side of the butterfly focus fabric has a dark enough value that it can “handle” a lot from any background fabrics, including the accent strips. However, the REVERSE of the flowers made from the same background fabric are medium to light in value. Some of those flowers might have been lost if the value of the background fabrics were too similar.
In conclusion, choosing fabrics for these quilts might be a little out-of-the-box for some quilters, because they call for mixing so many colors of background fabrics. But if you follow this guideline it’s easy: If the value is right and you like the fabric, use it. It’s freeing to combine lots of “styles” of fabrics, like miniature prints, batiks, grunge and more! I encourage you to combine a variety of fabrics in your quilts. Remember, it can be fun choosing fabrics for quilts, when you take the guess work out of it.
It’s the combination of background fabrics that make these quilts sing!
Great job, friends!
