Oh Happy Day! Quilt Pattern - Throw Size in Wonderland!

I'm so happy to share Oh Happy Day! with you today!  This quilt design came about when thinking about a quick and easy pattern to use fat quarters in my stash.

The Oh Happy Day! quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.

Quick and Easy Fat Quarter Stash Buster!

Oh Happy Day!  is fat quarter quilt pattern that lets beautiful fabrics shine without being cut into really small pieces.  The pattern also includes instructions for using 1/4-yard cuts from which, interestingly enough, more pieces can be cut than a FQ.

I have always struggled using fat quarter bundles that include light prints in them because my patterns tend to use a group of fabrics that contrast with a background fabric, and thus the light fabrics in the bundle would be washed out against the background, so they were left out of the project.  This design lets all of the fabrics in a FQ bundle be used - a win/win for sure!

Oh Happy Day! is a quick and easy quilt pattern with large pieces and not a ton of seams to match.  There are a few, but not at every single block.  This would be a great pattern to use for donation quilts and quilts for the grandkids that require lots of wear and tear.  :)

All the Sizes!

Oh Happy Day! includes 5 sizes - Baby, Throw, Twin, Queen, and King - for true value for you.  I enjoy figuring out all of the math for the sizes, and this might even be my favorite part of writing a quilt pattern.  

Oh Those Fabrics!

This fabric is made with a bundle of Wonderland by Boundless. It's a lively collection of aqua, pink, orange, purple, and green in a variety of prints.  The backing is Kona Chartreuse, and the binding is Kona Wisteria.

Longarm Quilting

The quilt design used in this quilt is Valentine by Karlee Porter, stitched out on my Handi Quilter Fusion with ProStitcher in light pink thread.  I was going to use bright green thread, but I'm glad I didn't even after I had all of the bobbins wound.  The pink blends much better.

The Oh Happy Day! quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.

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Simply Happy Lap Quilt {Finished!}

This quilt is one of my Quarter 1 Goals for the 2015 Finish Along.  HERE is my original post.

This Simply Happy quilt is finished!  

The quilting is in organic wavy lines, which Mrs.Singer neatly completed after I figured out she can only stitch forward, which is right to left for her.  This quilt was begun in September, quilted in November, quilting ripped and completed in January!  I ripped while listening to A Patriot's History of the United States with my son for US History class.

The backing is a green from the Simply Style line and a large polka dot on dark gray.

I love how the organic wavy quilting shows in this picture.  This is the first time I've used the word "organic" regarding my quilting!  This picture shows a lot of eggplant which overall is not an accurate picture.

This picture shows more of a balance of what's in the quilt but not the mustard - a little of aqua, navy, gray, green, eggplant, rose, and white.

I also made a coordinating pillow sham out of the leftover blocks!  It's a standard-size pillow sham, perfect for a sofa or bed.

Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  Double Slice Layer Cake by Missouri Star Quilt Co.
• Size:  51" x 64"
• Fabric:  Simply Style by V and Co for Moda with Kona Slate
• Batting:  Cotton
• Backing:  A green coordinate from Simply Style with a large white polka dot on gray.
• Quilting:  Organic wavy lines in gray thread.
• Binding:  An aqua coordinate from Simply Style with Kona Slate.

Pillow Sham Stats:

• Size:  20" x 26" standard pillow size
• Backing:  A green coordinate from Simply Style, envelope opening.

This quilt and sham are for sale in my Etsy shop!

This is my January finish for the 2015 Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Sew Bittersweet Designs, so I'm linking up there!  I linked up this post at the beginning of January.

Linking to:

Needle and Thread Thursday // Crazy Mom Quilts 

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Custom Happy Scrappy Quilt in Ooh La La - Twin Size - Finished!

I've finished the custom twin-sized Happy Scrappy quilt in Ooh La La! She is so very bright and fun! Ooh La La is nearly gone from my stash, and there is only enough left for a baby quilt or pillows.  But don't worry, there is no shortage of delightful fabrics in my stash for more quilts!
My customer gave me freedom with the pillow sham.  Her exact words were, "Surprise me! :) ".  My reply to her was, "Oh, you do know how to make a quilter happy by letting her make it how she envisions it!!"   I had fun making it work with the larger pieces of Ooh La La that I had on hand.  I used one of my favorite go-to quilt books, Shams With Style, as a guide for making the pillow sham.  I like having all of the figuring done for me so I can just cut and sew without a whole lot of thinking!  There are tons of options in the book, including bound pillows, flanged pillows, envelope backed pillows, tied edge pillows in all sizes from toss to king. 

The front is quilted on the diagonal on top of a layer of fusible fleece.  I have never used fusible fleece before, and I now ♥ it!  It is so nice to use instead of quilting with a layer of batting and muslin for backing.  I can see why purse patterns call for fusible fleece.   The edge of the sham is bound like a quilt with extra-wide binding as a nice accent.  The binding started out 3-1/2" wide!  I used the same striped fabric for the sham binding as is on the quilt.
Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  Big block Happy Scrappy!
• Size:  67" x 91", generous twin
• Fabric:  Ooh La La by Pillow & Maxfield for Michael Miller Fabrics
• Batting:  100% cotton, thin
• Backing:  White Kona premium 200-count muslin
• Quilting:  Allover meandering in white polyester thread on Mrs.Singer, my antique 31-15 mounted on a long-arm quilting frame
• Binding:  Double fold in coordinating stripe from the Ooh La La collection, attached by machine with mitered corners
• Sham:  Standard sized using Shams With Style as a guide in fabrics from the Ooh La La collection and one fabric from a coordinating collection.  Quilted on the diagonal with a layer of fusible fleece.  Bound with extra-wide binding.

This quilt set was a custom order in my Etsy shop.  You can order a quilt in many patterns and any size at BusyHandsQuilts on Etsy.

Linking to:

Crazy Mom Quilts

Gray Matters Full Size Quilt - A Graduation Gift for My Niece

I've finally completed the graduation quilt for my niece.  It started out with only the Gray Matters fabric collection, but I ended up adding other yellows and grays from my LQS for more variety.  I found the inspiration for this quilt HERE. I'm fairly certain I got the colors just right for my niece.  We were at a baby shower together recently, and she gave the mom-to-be a baby blanket in these exact colors, polka dots and all!! I couldn't get a good picture of the loopy quilting.

Polka dot backing from Gray Matters Collection with strips of solid gray at the top and bottom.

... Yummy scrappy binding ...
Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  None, just random width strips sewn together in a brick fashion ... sort of.
• Size:  Full size, 76" x 88" after washing
• Fabric:  Gray Matters by Jacqueline Savage McFee for Camelot Cottons and other fabrics from my local quilt shop.  
• Batting:  100% cotton
• Backing:  A yellow and gray polka dot on white background from the Gray Matters collection with a strip of solid gray at the top and bottom.
• Quilting:  All over loopy loops in white polyester thread on Mrs.Singer, my antique 31-15 mounted on a quilting frame.
• Binding:  Scrappy, double fold, attached by machine with 45-degree mitered corners.
• Value:  Bright and sunny for a special niece!

If you like these fabrics and would like a similar baby quilt or table cloth, I have a small quilt in these same fabrics for sale in my Etsy shop for under 100 bucks!

Linking to:

HAPPY SCRAPPY Ooh La La Twin Quilt

HAPPY SCRAPPY is the first in a line of value-priced quilts coming to my shop.  My value-priced HAPPY SCRAPPY quilts are made from beautiful quilt-shop quality fabric collections and have a lower price because the big blocks are quicker to piece than a more intricate quilt pattern.

Lovely breezy summer day for photographing a quilt on the swing set!

Ooh La La by Michael Miller is a huge collection of prints, and this quilt includes 24 of them, each used only two to three times for truly HAPPY SCRAPPY quilt!
Delicious lime-green binding!
I love Kona 200-thread count premium muslin for backing.  It is so soft and cozy and comes 108" wide, so no piecing is required!  I get it at Fabric.com.
Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  Happy Scrappy Big Block
• Size:  Twin, 57" x 82" after washing
• Fabric:  Ooh La La by Michael Miller, 24 different prints
• Batting:  100% cotton
• Backing:  Kona 200-thread count premium muslin in white, super soft and cozy
• Binding:  Ooh La La by Michael Miller
• Value:  Super cheery and value priced!

This quilt is for sale in my Etsy shop, Busy Hands Quilts!

Fit For A Princess Quilt in Progress

As a wedding gift for some young friends getting married next month, I have begun a Fit For a Princess quilt.  It is a very simple quilt pattern to sew yet looks striking when put together.  You can find the tutorial over at Sew Mama Sew.  The tutorial shows how to cut fat quarters into 8" and 4" squares and uses 20 FQs for an over-sized lap quilt.

Back in March I posted here about some new fabric I had purchased.  I used the FQs in the two right-hand columns in the picture in that post.  Very modern, slightly weird fabrics that I never buy, but I was looking for modern that day.  It was fun to open up the little FQ rolls and see the fabrics in all their beauty and weirdness uniqueness!  Many different colors and styles, a lot of chaos, and just a tiny bit of matching here and there, but not everywhere.  I dove in and cut ... and sewed.




8" squares with 4"corner squares sewn on with two seams for extra half-square triangles for another project.  My new walking foot was great for this, and the squares stayed put - no need to trim the blocks up!

Then cut apart.



Pressed open.

 

Chaos.  No other word for it than chaos.  This is the random layout the tutorial suggests.  I kinda majorly cringed when I saw it on the design wall and wondered ... what.have.I.done???  The budget says ... use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without ... and there is no alternative to buying other fabrics.  So, experimenting I go.


Ahh, much better ... but still very, ahem, weird.  The matching corner triangles are arranged to join together and create a bit more cohesion to the quilt top, if that is possible with this mix of fabrics.  There are nine bow-tie blocks {blocks that have two matching large squares set opposite each other}, and I am contemplating putting them together.  I'll decide after I get the squares sewn into blocks. 

Hopefully Mrs. Long-Arm Singer {and her operator} will decide to get their act together and work properly because this quilt is too big to quilt on my regular machine.

ETA:  This quilt, after a year-and-a-half in the closet, was restored and took on a completely different look!  You can see it HERE!

Linking to:
Nifty Thrifty Things
Between Naps on the Porch
Organize With Sandy
Made By You Monday
Don't Waste Your Homemaking
Home Stories A to Z
Handmade Tuesdays
Quiltstory
WIP Wednesdays

Sports Quilt

A look down memory lane and how far I have come in my quilting!  I made four of these quilts for my boys and two nephews about seven years ago.  They are quilted very simply with X's in the squares and measure about 40" square.  The back is a very cozy coordinating flannel.  I'm thinking these will make very nice playmats for my grandbabies some day - lots of variety to keep them cross-eyed!