It’s all about home with this quilt pattern
Every month we provide a free pattern with purchase to our shoppers who visit us online and at the ABQ Sewing Studio. Make a purchase online or in-store and you get the current month’s pattern. For August, we are using the Headin’ Home 10″ finished panel squares in the pattern called It’s All About the Squares.
We always try to get a sample made well before we hand it out to our shoppers. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at that process.
The pattern
This pattern starts off with a unique central block that has a square inside of a square. You start with a square and then add triangles to surround it.
Treating it like a mini quilt, we are then are instructed to add 2 ½” borders. I sewed on 2 of the shorter yellow strips. But with the pattern instructions, I found that the other 2 sides were ½” too short. Hmm, now what… So I increased the length of those strips by ½” to compensate. Usually it’s pretty easy to correct a size typo but it’s a bit more difficult if you are working with a block that ends in triangles. I hoped that this correction would work with what happened next in the block.
The corners of the block are made using several red and white triangles. Would the long side of the triangle units fit the side of the central part of the block? They did not…
The central part of the block was ½” too large for the triangle corners. But at least that answered my question. The problem was that the yellow strips sewn on previously were too wide. The pattern asked for these strips to be cut 2 ½” wide. The measurement should have been 2 ¼”. It was an easy fix to now trim around the central section removing ¼” from each side. Then everything sewed together perfectly. It was just a typo, making me very glad we try out the patterns we use! I advised the publisher of the correction so we can hand out the pattern with complete confidence in August.
From there, it was pretty quick sewing. I created borders and stitched them in place with our square Headin’ Home panels.
I doubled up on two of the panels to give us 8 blocks. There are 6 blocks in each panel sold. Our kits (available for purchase if you want to make the pattern just like our sample) will be available in August and will include the exact amount of fabric needed without waste. The pattern inside the kit is free. If you visit the ABQ Sewing Studio or buy anything with us online you’ll also receive the free pattern for the month of August 2021.
That was a lot of sewing for a morning and I was beginning to get hungry now. But I added a small red border before I took my break.
Lunch break
My spiffy placemat shown above is a sew by number, quilt as you go kit for 6 mats.
Back to work
The pattern calls for a mitered outer border. But it’s your choice, you can do that or cut a standard border for this quilt. The fabric requirements work for either option. I decided to do the miter using a diagonal plaid. I thought that would look pretty nice and it tied the colors together beautifully.
The finished quilt top looked very welcoming indeed. The Headin’ Home panel makes this the perfect lap quilt for a cozy fall day re-reading a favourite novel. Here’s one of my favourite books – Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher.
Recipe for Apple Pie Smoothie (From The Fasterway to Fat Loss)
1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk
1 Banana
1 small apple chopped
1 tbsp Almond butter
2 tbsps oatmeal
1 scoop vegan protein powder
Mix it up and enjoy while reading!
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