Free Patterns for Pixelated Patchwork Quilts + Piecing Tips and Shortcuts

Greetings friends!

Thank you so much for checking in. I'm really grateful!

First off, apologies for the wrong link in last week's newsletter. Totally my mistake.

Of course I realized it later after I'd sent the newsletter. (Doh! I hate when I do stupid things!) Thanks for your patience with me.

If you still want to read about the Very Old Quilt in the Very Very Old House go here.

We're finishing up summer vacation here, so sewing continues to be somewhat minimal, but I have been snatching some time here and there. Here's some of what I've been working on this week:

In my latest post I'm sharing a handful of tips, tricks, and short-cuts for working with Half-Square Triangle blocks as well as Sew-And-Flip blocks.

I'm working with a kit and pattern designed by Lori Holt for Baby Lock Sewing Machine dealers. You can also find Lori's latest Bee Ginghams and other Bee Basics at the Fat Quarter Shop.

Half Square Triangle Tips + Shortcuts

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Fun Finds on the Web: Pixelated Quilt Patterns

Pixelated Quilts are a fun and simple take on a sewing basic patchwork quilts. Meaning it's really easy - all you're doing is sewing patchwork squares together into rows. There are lots of fun pixelated quilt patterns available (many of them free!) so I thought I'd put together a list of some favorites:

This is one of the variety of pixelated heart quilts I've made over the years. These quilts great for a gift and easy to sew. You can find instructions for this Pixelated Heart Quilt here.

Pixelated States! This pixelated California quilt was created by reader, Beth. Holly Lesue of Maker Valley has a pixelated Utah quilt and Corine Sovey has a cool Texas Forever quilt pattern with pixelated HST blocks.

Carmen of Ten Sisters Handicraft has a bunch of pixelated patterns on their site. And they're perfect for using their unique and clever fusible easy-piecing grid panels to make pixelated projects even easier. (Especially useful if you want smaller than 3" squares.) You can see Carmen's tutorials for how to use them here.

Embroidery designs are great inspiration for pixelated quilts. This free Embroidery Flowers quilt from Tilda is a recent popular example and this year they released a new Flower Vase Embroidery Quilt as well. Another example is this pixelated Rose Quilt from Riley Blake Designs.

And, as each of these patterns show, any cross-stitch pattern would translate easily into a pixelated quilt design. Just replace the stitches with patchwork squares!

Check out this pinboard for more Pixelated Quilts + Blocks inspiration and projects.

Patchwork Piecing Short Cut!

If you're making a Pixelated Quilt - or any quilt made from basic patchwork squares - be sure to checkout Holly Lesue's Patchwork-Piecing Short-cut Technique. It's a game changer.

Patchwork Piecing Shortcut with Holly

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I got to go to a fun event this week. A local quilt shop hosted Jen Kingwell for a two-day class and evening trunk show. (This is her first trip to the US since the pandemic!) I was only able to attend the trunk show, but it was WONDERFUL!

Jen is a quilting genius - she especially has a gift with scrappy quilts - especially busy sampler-style projects with beautiful blocks and all different kinds of piecing styles. A lot of her work is hand-pieced and hand quilted.

Because they're busy quilts, it's impossible to capture their real beauty with photographs. Seeing those quilts in person is a totally different story. They're just stunning. And inspiring. I'm feeling totally motivated to pull out some of my Jen Kingwell WIPS (Works In Progress) and get them done. You can see my Winki Stars here and Steam Punk WIPS here.

Also feeling inspired to work on more slow-stitching, heirloom-type quilts.

We are in the official countdown of the last days of summer vacation before school starts this week. And that comes with all of the mixed emotions.

Summer and I typically have a complex relationship - especially when my kids were little and still needed supervision and structure. I constantly felt like a cruise director. Now that my kids are big - and I only have one living at home, who can also drive himself - I definitely feel a lot less harried.

This summer has been a good one. We've had some especially great times with family and special trips to see friends. We got outside a lot. I'm so thankful.

And at the same time, I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine again and getting caught up on many, MANY things. Especially quilting-related.

All good things. I'm thankful.

Hoping all is well where you are. Thanks again for stopping by.

Have a great week.

xo,

Amy

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