Grid Pop Baby Quilt in Ombre Rainbow!

This week's finish is a Grid Pop Baby quilt in a rainbow of ombre fabrics!  The quilt is so bright and happy, perfect for a baby shower gift or a wall hanging.

The Grid Pop quilt pattern includes 7 sizes in all, is jelly roll friendly, and strip pieced for a fast finish.  The Baby size requires half of a jelly roll, so you can get two baby quilts from a single jelly roll!  The Throw size uses an entire jelly strip roll perfectly.  :)

The Grid Pop quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.

The Grid Pop quilt design came about when I was playing with a 5-dozen carton of eggs, arranging and rearranging them until a cool block appeared.  Then I took that block design to my quilt design software to see what it would look like combined with other blocks, and Grid Pop appeared!

The Grid Pop Quilt Pattern Features

The Grid Pop quilt pattern fulfills my three main goals when writing a quilt pattern.

• As many sizes as possible - 7!

• Uses precuts - jelly roll strips or fat quarters!

• Strip piecing

The Grid Pop pattern includes so many sizes - 7 in all - Baby, Lap, Throw, Large Throw, Twin, Full, Queen, and King.  This quilt is the Baby size which measures approximately 46" square.  It's a really nice size for baby's tummy time on the floor, with so many bright colors and designs to keep the babes cross-eyed for sure!

If you're looking for a quick and easy fat quarter or jelly roll friendly quilt pattern, Grid Pop is it!  Using precut strips saves a lot of time, and they're also easy to cut from yardage.  Precut jelly roll strips could also be used for the background; refer to the inside of the quilt pattern for how many you'll need as the Quilt Stats only includes a yardage figure for the Background fabric.

Almost all sewing in this quilt pattern is strip piecing where a variety of strip sets are sewn and then sub-cut into segments which are then sewn into blocks.  It's so much faster than sewing individual squares together!

Bright and Bold Fabrics!

This quilt is made with Essential Gradation by Benartex.  I had to look back at other blog posts to figure out what this fabric is because I sewed this quilt top two years ago, back before we moved to Ohio from Washington State.  I should label quilt tops that end up in the Waiting to be Quilted Bin with the fabric collection, because they may just be there for several years.  There are several quilts that have been in that bin for at least five years.  Maybe you'll see them this year!

This fabric collection may be Boundless Ombre, but there is more variation in those fabrics than is shown in this quilt.

The backing fabric is Divine Nature Multi Color Mosaic by Clothworks, available right here in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.  This print is just as bright and bold as the quilt front!

The binding fabric is black with white dots, available right here in the BHQ shop.  The black and white dot gives a bold finish to the bold quilt.  I love using dots and stripes for binding!

The Grid Pop quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.

Longarm Machine Quilting

The quilting design is Maze using bright white thread on my Handi Quilter Amara with Pro Stitcher.  This design stitches out quickly with all of the straight lines because the machine doesn't have to slow down to sew curves; it stitches full speed right up until it changes direction at which time it slows down.  Maze also results in a really soft, flowing quilt even though there is a lot of stitching in the design.

The Grid Pop quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.

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Quilty Cabins Wall Hanging / Baby Quilt in Sincerely Yours!

It's one month until Valentine's Day!  Today I'm sharing the perfect Valentine's Day quilt that I finished yesterday.  This is Quilty Cabins.

Quilty Cabins is a long cabin quilt design with a heart pieced right into the blocks. There is no applique in this quilt; it is made with traditional piecing.  This pattern is Fat Quarter friendly and includes 6 sizes so you can make just the size you want.  

The Quilty Cabins quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.

I am using this quilt as a wall hanging and it is made following the Baby size instructions.  It measures approximate 35" square.

In January of 2024, I began hosting a Quilty Cabins Quilt Along with my newsletter subscribers, and this is the quilt I began making along with them.  Just after beginning the QAL, I had to head west to help my parents and was gone for almost three months, so the QAL was canceled, and my quilt blocks were stored away.  

Yesterday I assembled the blocks and quilted and bound the quilt top and am sharing it with you today, one month before Valentine's Day!

Oh, Those Fabrics!

This quilt is made with the Sincerely Yours fabric collection by Sherri and Chelsi of A Quilting Life for Moda Fabrics.  It's from a few years ago, and I was saving it for the perfect pattern, and that is Quilty Cabins!  

The Baby size quilt is made with 5 FQs or scraps, and using scraps is the better option as using only 5 FQs would make it very difficult to keep matching pieces from touching each other.  Using a FQ bundle of Sincerely Yours, I cut just a few strips from each print so almost the entire collection is included in this quilt.  Only the light prints were excluded.

The quilt pattern includes a chart that details how many of each piece size are needed, so it's really easy to use scraps instead of fat quarters.

Sincerely Yours is available right here.

Longarm Machine Quilting

The digital quilting design used is Heart to Heart by Karlee Porter.  The design is stitched out horizontally, so the quilt top must be placed horizontally on the rails with the top of the quilt on the same side as the top of the hearts.  You don't want the hearts upside-down!  ♥  Thread color is Natural White, quilted on my Handi Quilter Amara with ProStitcher.

The backing is Bee Basics Heart in Red by Riley Blake Designs, available right here in the shop, and the binding is a heart print from the Sincerely Yours collection.

The Quilty Cabins quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.

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Horizon Throw Quilt in Moonchild Purples and Pinks!

Today's share is a purple and pink Horizon quilt in the Throw size.  This interpretation of the Horizon pattern uses two colorways instead of three as shown in the cover quilt which you can see right here.  The peachy pinks and purples in this quilt are very soft and sweet.

The Horizon quilt pattern is easy to make and includes 6 sizes - Baby, Lap, Throw, Twin, Queen, and King.

You'll find the Horizon quilt pattern in the Busy Hands Quilts shop right here.

Sweet Moonchild Fabrics

This quilt is made with Moonchild fabrics by Fran Gulick for Riley Blake Designs.  I pulled out only the purples and pinks from the collection and left out the navy and gold prints.  The prints are a planetary mix of stars, constellations, tiny flowers, and the sun and moon.

In the image above, the fabrics are in the order I used them in the quilt, in groups of threes.

For the typical Horizon quilt, you'll need three hues for the three sections of the quilt, but with this quilt, I melded the peachy pinks and purple into one section together, so the quilt flows so beautifully from the purple on one end to the deeper peachy pinks on the other end.

The Horizon Quilt Pattern

With 6 sizes - Baby, Lap, Throw, Twin, Queen, and King - you're all set to make the size that's just right for you.

This quilt is the Throw size and measures 60" x 72" and requires nine 1/2-yard cuts plus background and binding, for a total of 6-1/4 yards for the entire quilt top.  This is a great size for snuggling on the sofa together during family time.  

To help keep the rotation of the blocks correct and to maintain the design of the quilt, the HSTs are sewn into blocks instead of taking a stack of HSTs to the machine.  This was less confusing for me, so that is the way the pattern is written.  A key point to watch for during quilt top assembly is that the darkest print in each colorway runs diagonally across the quilt top from top to bottom, unless of course you've chosen to not place the darkest hue in that position!  :)

The pattern is written so you do not need to decide the order of the three sections until each section is assembled.  You may change your mind and want to reorder them after you see them sewn together, and this is simple to do!

Triangle Square Up Ruler - my favorite!

My favorite half-square triangle trimmer (of the ones I've tried) is the Quilt in a Day Triangle Square Up Ruler.  It comes in a variety of sizes and includes half-inch markings on one corner with whole-inch markings on the other corner.  I have the 6-1/2" one, and it works for the vast majority of the quilts I make.  

With this ruler, the HSTs aren't pressed as the first step; rather, two sides of the HSTs are trimmed first, and then the dog ears are clipped off with scissors.  Then the HST is pressed as you prefer, and my preference is open seams so there is less bulk at the seams.  This is the reason this is my favorite HST ruler!

Be sure to check out the one called Triangle Square Up Ruler by Quilt in a Day; there are other rules called Square Up rulers which are not for half-square triangles.

The Quilt in a Day Triangle Square Up Ruler in various sizes is available here and here.

You'll find the Horizon quilt pattern in the Busy Hands Quilts shop right here.

Longarm Machine Quilting Design

This longarm quilting design is Stars and Loops, quilted on my Handi Quilter Amara with Pro Stitcher in white thread.  

The background fabric is a Lori Holt gingham wide back by Riley Blake Designs, and the binding is a creamy pink from the collection.  

This quilt top was made by Kare Ybarra and quilted and bound by me. 

You'll find the Horizon quilt pattern in the Busy Hands Quilts shop right here.

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