The Checkerboard Express Block

This is my block for Moda Bakeshop's Countdown to Christmas which started on December 1st.  Everyday in December, up to Christmas Day, a new block created by Moda Chefs for the Countdown will be presented. Today is my day and I am happy to be sharing it with you.  Here is the link to the tutorial

Back in August, Moda put out the request for 6" blocks. Having participated in a few Block of the Months QALs and also completing a version of the Gypsy Wife quilt (in which I still have not recovered), I remember looking forward to making the blocks which were quick and easy. It provided a nice respite after making some of blocks which could be challenging or just made my head spin.  I was not going to create a block with 64 pieces and full of angles for the Countdown.  I was going to "make it easy", so I came up with a block which is a combination rail fence/four patch block and sews together very quickly.  It lives up to the "Express" in the block's name which by the way was given this part of the name by Oda May.

When I first submitted my block, I used four different fabrics.  After it was approved in November and I had the opportunity to see my block next to the other blocks, I thought maybe I shouldn't have made it easy.  After thinking about it for awhile and looking at the three fabrics Moda sent, I realized the block would look better if it was made with only two fabrics.  I had the option of using the fat quarters Moda sent or using my own stash provided it was Moda so I decided to do two color ways of this block, one in a red and green print and one in red and white.  I used different lines of Basic Grey Christmas fabrics.

I'm glad I came to peace/piece with this block.  I think the Checkerboard Express is a great block to accent or use as an alternating block with focus blocks.  Also, it's great for using up some of the scraps. I really enjoyed making the following projects to show how versatile the Checkerboard Express Block can be.

Table Topper (18" square)

This topper was so easy to make.  You need:

(1) 6-1/2" square for center
(4) Checkerboard Express blocks (be sure the center of the blocks goes toward the center square)
(4) 6-1/2" HST, use your favorite method; mine were die-cut

Assemble and sew as you would for a nine-patch.  Quilt as desired.  I've never sewn a binding for an odd angle quilt before and found this tutorial by Anka Treasures (you can see it here) to be a godsend. Thank you Pinterest! I didn't do too bad for the first time.  And silly me for thinking that the binding would be the same as square quilts.

Skinny Table Runner (6" x 24")

This runner was quick and easy to assemble once four Checkerboard Express Blocks are made.  It really looks sweet with my Dept. 56 Snow Village Christmas train which had to be brought out from storage.  We don't plan on decorating the house much this year; just the Christmas/Winter quilts, some table decorations and the small tree will be brought out.

Sewing Tip:  If more than one Checkerboard Express Board is made and will be used together, it is very important to decide which color of the top left rectangle will be so that all of the blocks will look the same. (see arrows). If the blocks are not consistent, the strips will not alternate correctly to create the checkerboard effect.  Leave it to me to discover what could be made wrong.  Also be sure the four patches in the center are orientated the same direction before sewing the blocks together.  (Yep, almost did that too).  And thinking way outside the box, these blocks would also make a nice pieced border or sashing.

Mug Rugs

I haven't made any mug rugs for quite awhile and I have to say that I really enjoyed making these four mug rugs with the Checkerboard Express blocks. The block pattern is simple and not too fancy to be used.  I know some mug rugs can be too pretty to use and when I am gifted with one I end up hanging it up rather than using it. Each block only uses (2) 4-1/2 x 10" pieces of fabrics and great for using up the scraps. Plus, I really liked being able to use up some of the endless mound of batting scraps.  I backed each mug rug with a 8" square of scrap fabric left over from my Hometown Christmas Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt and it was sweet to be able to use this fabric for another project.  These mug rugs measure 6-1/2" square and is a nice size for the mug and cookie.  I decided to sew a binding for each mug rug and found it didn't take too much time although I did hand stitch the bind down which I did while watching TV.  I am now binge watching past seasons of Fixer Upper.  I'm thinking these mug rugs with a fabric tray to hold them would make a sweet holiday or hostess gift so I plan on making more of these mug rugs.

In case you didn't know this, it's not easy taking a photo if a cookie is one of the props and there is a certain dog, Sophie, the World's Worst Dog is in the room with you.

Here's the header photo I did for Moda Bakeshop.  I thought I would add some interest to the Checkerboard Express Block by hanging it on the tree in front of my house along with one of my wooden Christmas train ornaments.  I realized that these ornaments are now residing at my son's house which is four hours away so I thought I could easily find one at Target. Much to my surprise, it seems that retro campers have now replaced trains and I was lucky to find this one at Michael's. (it's kind of ironic that the train ornaments I used to have are now living with Michael, my son.) I really liked the glass Narwhal ornament I saw and wished I could have worked it in, it was just that cute.

Now that my commitment to the Countdown has been completed, I am ready to resume working on the projects I've set aside.  But first I have to clean up the studio; mounds of batting scraps laying on the cutting table made one huge mess. 

I hope you visit Moda Bake Shop everyday to see the block for the day. They really are sweet and clever.  If you have any questions about any of my projects, please let me know.  I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy the Holiday Season!  Hope you find time to Sew, Sew, Sew.

Linking up with:Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Moda Bake Shop: Countdown to Christmas

Today is the first day of The Countdown To Christmas hosted by Moda Bake Shop.   Everyday in December, Moda Bake Shop Chefs and I will be sharing a new block until Christmas.  These blocks will all measure 6" finished and are all holiday inspired.  According to Oda May, "you can make a few for a table runner or make them all for a quilt!  You can use your favorite 6" block quilt layout to put them all together or stick with us through the month to see some layouts we have designed for all of the blocks. Each block is made with a mix of Red, Green and White fabrics.  This is a great opportunity to use your stash or pick up your favorite Christmas fat quarter bundle."

My block will be featured next week on Friday, December 8th.  This week I've been busy working on the posts and projects so I don't have anything I can share with you. I can say that, if you know me, my block will be simple and quick and you may want to make more than one because it can easily be made in under 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, my sewing studio has never looked so messy.  

Be sure to visit Moda Bake Shop everyday in December (here's the link) to see all of the wonderful Countdown to Christmas blocks.  Kristina Brinkerhoff of Center Street Quilts has kicked off the Countdown with the most adorably sweet Peppermint Twist Block.

Today I plan on bringing out the Christmas and Holiday decorations and quilts.  I just can't do it during the month of November.  The only Christmas shopping I've done so far is purchase my presents, thanks to Black Friday sales,  my hubby will be giving me, ho, ho, ho.  I better get busy because in the midst of the holidays, there are quilts I still want to finish by the end of the year. 

Wishing everyone a great and happy week during the most wonderful time of the year!

Hometown Girl Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt

This week I am excited to show you my Hometown Girl Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt. For the past two weeks I've been working on two Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts (I posted the Autumn Woods quilt last week, you can read the post here ).

The Hometown Girl fabric line was designed by  Pat Sloan for Moda and was available in two lines; regular prints and batik which I chose for this quilt.

Back in May, Moda announced that September 16th will be National Sew A Jelly Roll Day, (you can read about it here) when quilters will be encouraged to finally break out the Jelly Rolls they've been saving (I think the word "hoarding" is a more appropriate word) and making something for them, for their family or friends or for charity (there are several quilt drives for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma which you can check out on the Internet).  Moda has done a pretty good job of promoting this event with their designers posting patterns or giveaways on their blogs.  Even though I have a die-cutter and can cut my own 2.5" strips, there are times I can't resist buying a jelly roll especially when they are on sale. The Jelly Roll Charm Chase pattern is the one I designed using a Jelly Roll and a Charm Pack of the same fabric line and it was chosen to be a Moda Bake Shop pattern back in June (you can find the pattern here) and (read about my experience here).

It's just purely coincidental that I've now made two Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts with fabric lines that had "Hometown" in the name but this is the first time I've made one in batiks and I think this might be my favorite version so far.  The nice thing about working with batiks is that there's no wrong side, and I've learned, there is selvedge even though it doesn't look like it.  I had to do some research online to verify this because I was tempted not to trim the strips.

And yes, I am in love with the wavy organic lines machine quilting I did for this quilt.  I've been seeing other quilters use three different thread colors lately but being that I have trouble picking just one color, I decided to use a variegated teal thread and am very happy how it accentuated the fluid lines of the quilting.  I think this is one of the reasons why I love this quilt so much. Before quilting, this quilt measured 58"x72" but because of the intense quilting the length shrunk 2"--wow, wasn't expecting that.

As mentioned before, I've already made four of the Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts and thought I post a photo of them so you can see how this pattern works with other types of fabric design.  This pattern can be easily adapted to using your own 2.5" and 4.5" squares cut from your fabric stash and I'm thinking I would like to make one with the many Asian prints I have in my stash.  There are so many possibilities with my stash and it could be just something I can do when I want to make an easy quilt which is pretty often. Of course when I do make this pattern from my stash, I will have to change the name to Strippy Square Race since no Jelly Roll or Charm Squares would be involved.

I went into writing this post thinking I only had a few Jelly Rolls but now realized that I had seven of Moda's and three from other fabric lines--ten in all and now I'm thinking Moda probably had me in mind for this day.  Just a little disclaimer here, I had taken a photo in my basement studio of all of the Jelly Rolls in my stash and I thought the photo would be better if it appeared to have been taken outside, so PicMonkey photo editing once again came to the rescue. (Hmmm, I could put them on the bison from my Yellowstone photo again). I know of one quilter/friend (her name rhymes with Bee) who has more than me and between the two of us we should be participating in a Jelly Roll Month.  The one problem I have with Jelly Rolls is untying the pretty ribbon and using them.  I know from my own sons and from watching the Big Bang Theory, that action figures increase in value only if the packaging stays intact but I don't think it's for investment purposes, (although that's what I going to tell my Hubby now), that I'm saving my Jelly Rolls.  I know when I see the right pattern, I'll use one and there's been several patterns I've seen lately that is calling for one of these Jelly Rolls to come out and play.

My post is ahead of National Sew A Jelly Roll Day and was done in the anticipation of the arrival of my Granddaughter Micah Rose who is staying with me this week and won't be leaving until Saturday.  I knew there would be no participating in this event on the scheduled day because there's a priority who comes with a big smile and thinks Jelly Rolls are toys.

I hope everyone will have time to sew a Jelly Roll, either this Saturday or any other day.  I know there are many of us who have heavy hearts and minds during these past weeks with all of the hurricanes, the worries for our families/friends and the damages it's causing or caused.  I am working on sending a fabric package to the West Houston Quilt Guild who are in need of supplies (you can read The Constant Quilter's (Wendy Caton Reed) post here) and I know there will be other organizations/groups I will be sending one to also. Because of this, I won't be posting an update of my Minus 100 Yards Challenge this time because I pretty sure I'm going to be meeting my goal now.

Linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?

Hometown Christmas Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt

I'm excited to be finally able to share my Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt which is a pattern I did for Moda Bake Shop.  I've been quietly working on it since the beginning of April.  The recipe is now available (you can read about it here) and can also be found on my homepage under "Tutorial".

The Jelly Roll Charm Chase pattern is a variation of a Jelly Roll Race which I am sure many quilters have made one.  My version includes using a Charm Pack of the same fabric line as the Jelly Roll which gives the quilt a more modern, improv look.  I came up with this idea when I happened to have in my stash a jelly roll, charm pack and yardage of Amy Ellis' Modern Neutral and had already made a Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  I loved how it turned out--the strips and squares sewn together had a woven modern Southwestern blanket effect.  

I posted this quilt last year on Pat Sloan's Facebook Group and received favorable comments and the suggestion since I purchased the fabrics from Missouri Star Quilt Co. they might like to feature the pattern.  I sent a photo of the quilt to them and the response received was a thanks for sending and they liked the fabrics I used.  I thought nothing more about this pattern until I happened to read Angie from Gnome Angel's post in mid-March that Moda has put a call for Chefs to submit recipes for Moda Bake Shop.  I went on Moda's website and completed the submission form, included a brief description and photo of the quilt, said a quick prayer and emailed it to them.  Shortly after, I received a computer-generated response that my submission was received and they would be in touch if my project was approved.  By the end of March when I had just returned from out of town welcoming the birth of my first granddaughter, I received an e-mail from Moda that my submission had been approved.  This was a heart-attack moment which was quickly followed with the thought that I've already had enough on my plate having just started my participation in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop and being involved with learning new computer skills, so the stress and angst was on.

While waiting for my fabric to arrive, I decided to make another Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt since I had a jelly roll and charm pack of another fabric line from Amy Ellis, Chic Neutral and to prepare for drafting the pattern. This quilt, as well as the first quilt, was machine quilted by me with horizontal straight line quilting.

It was really nice working with Moda (United Notions). I was able to choose from three future fabric lines and I received all of the fabrics, including backing and binding, to make this quilt. Here's a photo of my box of free fabric with a double side order of pressure. I wasn't sure if I would receive the Hometown Christmas Edition fabrics and was happy when I did since I wanted to make it with fabrics that had a more traditional look and I think the pattern looks wonderful with these fabrics. And to think I would have a finished quilt for Christmas by the end of May which is a personal best for me.

The making of this quilt was smooth sailing until I was ready to machine quilt it, that was when my Juki decided it would be a perfect time to visit the repairman for a week to ten days. This delay would have cut too close to my goal of finishing the quilt by the end of May since I still needed to take photos of the finished quilt for the June deadline.

Fortunately, my super-wonderful Long Arm Quilter, Jan Bryant, was available to perform her magic by quilting it with a lovely heart pattern within 24 hours. And once the binding was sewn, my next concern was finding a place to take glamour shots of the quilt which I didn't want to take around my house since I wanted a more wintery feel to reflect the Hometown Christmas Edition fabric line. Thankfully, my long-time friend and quilt peep, Mary, had the perfect ambience on her front porch.

I've become a little bit more computer savvy since I started blogging, reading other blogs and participating in the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop so I wasn't too overwhelmed having to prepare the pattern on Moda's website. I'm just happy I finally have a pattern to share, the stress is over and peaceful quilting is back. Also, it's nice to have a connection with Moda now because way back when my boys were young, my friends whom some of them were quilters, thought it was funny that the boys called my mother 'Yoda" and asked what I wanted my grandchildren to call me and I quickly responded 'Moda'.

I hope you check out my Jelly Roll Charm Chase pattern and find how easy and fun it is to make and perfect if you need to make a quilt for family or friend.  I'm already planning the next one with Janet Clare's Aubade, A Song to the Dawn, fabric line with a different twist with the strips and charm squares. Moda has announced that September 16th will be National Sew A Jelly Roll Day, (you can read about it here) when quilters will be encouraged to finally break out the jelly rolls they've been saving and making something for them, for their family or friends or for charity. Perhaps, you may want to try this pattern then. Please let me know if you have any questions and I would love to see photos of the Jelly Roll Charm Chase quilt(s) you make.

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