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Meet Gradient Dance my newest quilt pattern. I love it so much!

I just finished making a rainbow version of my original Blue Lungi pattern. This version is much better. I love the way it looks. It is quite easy, but does require many different colors of fabrics. You could do it in only one color range or mix it up with patterns.  Check it out on my Etsy shop: Gradient Dance. 

   I just finished writing up another easy pattern. I used a jelly roll of rainbow strips that I had kicking around for years. I only used 18 of the strips because the last two were black and white. It would be really easy to make this bigger if needed. Check out the pattern on etsy.

To be honest it’s been tough to get new patterns written because I don’t have much time to sew. Juggling a  full time job, trying to begin this quilting side gig and youtube channel, and being a mom/wife means I don’t have much time to sew and write blog posts. That being said, I need to keep trying. I have to give this a few years to see if will go anywhere. Maybe some day I’ll make enough money on patterns to pay for my hobby. Until then, I’ll just keep trying.

This year’s free Christmas Quilt Pattern/Idea. This year I just got out my triangle ruler, cut a bunch of triangles and organized them two different ways. What do you think?

Both quilts are made out of the same size triangles, just placed differently. 

National Park Patch Quilt

Collect patches from travelling, national parks, or other cool events? Sewed them on your backpack but then you got a new one or you ran out of space? Here’s an idea of what you can do with them: a Patch Quilt. 

I made a quilt using national parks fabric and solid squares. Then in the sold squares I sewed the patches I’d already gotten. I then left squares open for future patches. My friend and I also created one using travel fabric and country patches. The hardest part is sewing the patches on.

Each summer I sew on new patches from places we’ve been.

I wasn’t able to get as much done as I had wished, but I was still able to spend some quiet morning sewing and listening to my audiobooks. I am really going to miss these vacation mornings.  Here you can see most of the blocks I was able to finish. So far I dislike my color choices for one of them, but it might be just what I need once I finish up the others. When I get back to India I plan to finish my Tula Nova first and then come back to these blocks. My friend has now also bought the book and the pieces, so I will have someone to keep me accountable. I do really like how the finished quilt looks on the cover of the book, so I’ve contemplated doing two different versions. However, that is a decision for a different day.

I also got my new sewing bag. It’s so beautiful. I worked with Bedhog on Etsy and was able to pick my own fabric from the Tula Pink line. I chose Tiny Beasts Deer John and Neon True Colors Spirit Tent Stripe.

It took awhile but I have cut templates and fabric, organized them together in project bags, collected my threads, needles, glue basting items, travel scissors, and of course my reading glasses, in order to do hand sewing this summer while living off-grid in our bus. We converted a school bus to a skoolie in the summer of 2021 and then bought property in the summer of 2022, so we had a place to park it for longer periods of time.  We have solar on our bus, but until last year when I bought a Singer Featherweight I didn’t have any way to sew except paper piecing. I really enjoy hand sewing in the morning before the kids get up. It’s nice and quiet and just me, my sewing and an audio book.  If you want more information on our Skoolie Build here is a tour, here is our youtube channel: Inconvenience Today, and check out Instagram for our adventures.

Last summer I worked on my Tula Sunrise. This year I will be working on blocks from the New Hexagon 2 book. This book has 52 different patterns to choose from. I want to make the design you see on the cover, but the small blocks will be green, teal, and blue and the large blocks will be pink, gray, and purple. I thought bringing my “Place for Everything” sewing bag was a bit much this year with all of my daughter’s stuff too, so I purchased a new one that is smaller.

It is the Running With Scissors pattern from Annie’s Bags. Once I get it, I’ll take a picture and share. And yes… It’s going to be Tula Pink fabric. I’m addicted. 

I’ve just posted a new quilt pattern on Etsy. Wow was this one difficult to write. There are so many steps and then I’d get confused on which step to refer to. After finishing about 1/4 of it, I realized I hadn’t added the seam allowance to the cutting direction, so I went back to the drawing board and fixed my mistakes. Besides writing up the Pac Man quilt (which I have taken a break from because it is SO annoying to write up) this was my most time consuming quilt pattern so far. 

If you are interested in the pattern or just want to support me, here is the link. I used batik fabric because I think it is so beautiful, but you can use whatever fabric you like.

A few years back one of my colleague’s father died and she was looking for something to create with his old shirts. A group of ladies got together and helped her create three quilts using his shirts and some extra white fabric we had bought for the occasion. If you are looking for ideas like this, these quilts were not difficult to make. We were also able to make three matching quilts out of the shirts she gave us: one for her mother, for her sister and for her. We used a simple nine patch and sewed the pockets onto a few of the blank white squares.

Be aware that the act of cutting the shirt may be difficult for some. We made sure she was ready before we began cutting and seam ripping. 

I’ve put another quilt pattern on Etsy. This is a beginner pattern and is very easy. It’s also good if you want to make a quilt in a day. Anyone who has been quilting for awhile can simply look at the quilt and know what I have done, but for a beginner it will help guide you with creating on of your first quilt tops. It’s also priced very low since it has so few steps. Check it out: Easy Jelly Roll Quilt.