Good morning! It’s Cindy reporting in today with the 4th block of our Christmas 2020 Series.
Sandy’s design for this little Santa Gnome is so cute! I decided to make two versions, one with a dark background and one with a light background.
Click on the link below for the pattern:
RC 2020 Sew Along Day 4 Santa Gnome
The post Paper Piecing Sew Along – Day 4 appeared first on Gray Barn Designs.
read moreWe interrupt our Christmas in July/August paper piecing project to present a palette-cleansing scrappy, double Irish chain, low-volume quilt finish.
Cindy and I were estate sale shopping last year (or the year before — is your concept of time messed up too????) and I stumbled on an old quilt in need of some love. The quilt was in pretty rough shape, but it just called to me. I bought it for the tag price of $5 because I loved the uniform bold blue squares and the clever quilting. I mention the quilting because what looks like many small white pieces ...
read moreI cut all of the rest of the black and white triangles for my current quilt and then spent a couple hours putting away piles of fabric. I cut pieces for a baby quilt too. I sewed a few triangles onto the Marcia Derse blocks. Nothing that warranted getting out the camera.
Need a cute Christmas stocking block? You can stop your search, Sandy has cornered the Christmas stocking cuteness block.
We know some people like their Christmas stockings to face right and others like them to face left. That’s why Sandy created a pattern for each!
These two patterns are super easy and a great way to practice your paper piecing skills. Click on the links below and get ready for maximum cuteness!
The post Paper Piecing Sew Along – Day 3 appeared first on Gray Barn Designs.
read moreGood news for those wanting to purchase my Aurifil Thread collections: They are back in stock at shop.ChristaQuilts.com for just $99 plus shipping. This includes my new Variegated Collection as well as my Piece and Quilt Collections in Colors and Neutrals. Here’s what’s included in each:
3660 Bubblegum
3770 Stone Washed Denim
3817 Marrakesh
3840 French Lilac
3852 Liberty
3910 Lemon Ice
4150 Crème Brule
4250 Flamingo
4650 Leaves
4652 Licorice Twist
4654 Turquoise Foam
4667 Nutty Nougat
Greetings! We’re happy to present the next block for our Rustic Christmas PAPER PIECING SEW ALONG.
Sandy created this super easy Christmas star block. 
I decided to play around with Christmas colors and am loving this polka dot background. 
NEXT I used the polka dot fabric for the star center. This is nice and bright! If you are new to paper piecing, this is an easy pattern to test your skills The weekend is fast approaching, we hope you have plenty of summer sewing time to try something new!
Click on the link below for the Rustic Christmas paper ...
read moreHello! It’s Cindy bragging about Sandy designing the cutest paper pieced Christmas block patterns. 
Since Sandy designed 4 very adorable blocks, we’re hosting a PAPER PIECING SEW ALONG. You can make a Christmas banner, a table runner or a mini wall hanging. We think either one is guaranteed to make your 2020 holidays brighter!
The first block is a rustic evergreen tree. For printing these patterns, we suggest using thin copy paper or a special paper made for paper piecing from your favorite quilting store.
Since I am a novice at paper piecing, I used colored pencils to ...
read moreI’ve mentioned before that I’m doing a series of classes — given by one of my favorite teachers, Philippa Naylor — online. Class #8 was a couple of methods of doing trapunto. I used some boring beige fabric I happened to have in the right size for this, thinking I’d jazz it up with a […]
read moreWhile Cindy has been holding down the blog fort, I’ve been staycationing and wallowing in my “world is out of control” funk. No more. I’ve got to shake these blues and maybe the best way to do this is to bring out the reds — you know which ones — the postage stamp reds!
As you may recall, in November 2019, I started creating a red postage stamp quilt. The pattern intrigued me from the beginning of my quilt journey when I was inspired by a quilt created by Red Pepper Quilts. Rita Hodge’s quilt was full of bright ...
read moreI’m always excited when I can host a quilt along featuring easy to choose fabrics. For my Bling quilt, all you need is 20 fat quarters and 4 yards of contrasting background fabric. Today I’m excited to share with you lots of different color options in order to prepare for our next quilt along which begins on Monday, July 20!
My first version of Bling made from Fandangle won a ribbon at a local quilt show!
Hello! It’s Cindy reporting in from Ohio and I am in a Bunny Baby Bind!
I am surely experiencing creative block because I’ve been ripping out seams for the new baby quilt I’m working on. I love this cute little bunny princess but she is turning into a bunny diva! 
The pile of scraps below is the result of my fussy cutting endeavor. 
I’ve got several piles of coordinating 4 patch strips that will somehow fit into this quilt design. 
I think I’ll step away for a few days and switch to a new project ...
Hello there! It’s Cindy reporting in from Ohio.
I am very jealous because Sandy is seeing red, as in strawberry picking red! Take a look at these luscious strawberries she picked! Now I am craving strawberry shortcake AND fresh strawberry pie. Whipped cream anyone? Of course! 
Since I’m not picking strawberries, I’ve been working on a baby quilt project for a family friend. I found this cute bunny fabric and couldn’t resist buying the rest of the bolt! I am playing around with colors and patchwork designs. You’ll be seeing more of this project in ...
read morePreface: There is no sibling rivalry in our family, but….
Body: After seeing Cindy’s recently completed Stepping Stones quilt, I’m a little jealous! Her quilt is beautiful and she made it quickly and without a lot of drama. Who knew that she was working on such a lovely pattern with those stunning fabric?
I, on the other hand, needed a virtual village to help me bring my red postage stamp quilt across the finish line. But never mind my pity party, because….
Conclusion: I am one step closer to completion. I visited the fabulous Ms. G. late last ...
read moreGood morning! We are anxious to share this new quilt pattern with you, it’s hot off the press! 
Sandy and I decided to call this quilt “Stepping Stones” because it reminds us of when we were back on the farm, heading out to get the cows for milking. We had to cross the creek pictured below. When you’re a little girl, crossing something like this seems daunting! We would always step on the stones to try and keep our feet dry. 
This is a fast and easy quilt created with a colorful 40 piece jelly roll and 11 ...
The USPS is an amazing perk of living in the US. They provide service every day to nearly every residence (and business) in the country. For those of us who live in the rural America, the mail truck is often the highlight of the day. So last week Cindy and the USPS teamed up to make my day.
A white/red/blue box showed up from Ohio. It was covered with Cindy’s handwriting and it was stuffed with goodies. The bordered top of the postage stamp quilt was there, along with some thread, a stack of great magazines filled ...
read moreWe know that quilting probably won’t save the world, but we hope that some distraction during this difficult time brings you a few minutes of respite.
Cindy is a life-long over achieving, perfection-seeking, bar-raising human being. I gave her a little border fabric and a sweaty, slightly tortured quilt top and she has turned it into a 2-bordered, mitred-cornered (not to mention straight) masterpiece. She says it’s in the mail and on it’s way to NY. Yippee!
Meanwhile, while I wait and as I type this, our mother is in the next room ironing the backing in ...
read moreSandy asked me to give her a hand with the border of her Postage Stamp Quilt. Of course I jumped at the chance because she did all the hard work and I get to do the easy part!
First things first. I squared off the quilt because all those postage stamps made this top a little, shall we say, UNEVEN. Proof of my effort was this lovely pile of tangled redness. 
Next, I went on a fabric hunt. The ladies at the quilt shop suggested adding a thin, white inner border before adding the red outer border.
I cut the ...
Hello! It’s Cindy reporting in from Ohio. I’ve been doing some sewing for two of my son’s friends. They are expecting babies soon and it’s always fun to piece together baby quilts.
One of my “Go To” books for baby quilts is shown below. With a charm pack and just a bit of yardage, baby quilts come together very quickly. 
Since I didn’t have any baby charm packs on hand, I raided my stash and pulled out some bright scraps for a baby boy. A large piece of left over black and white polka dot ...
Last summer (a life-time ago??) we threw a high school graduation party for my son. During the party, my Florida based brother-in-law spied a barn quilt that I made long ago. It was based on a Lori Holt Farm Girl quilt tutorial. He didn’t tell me at the time, but my sister let me know that he wanted one of his own.
I loved Lori’s patterns (there were two different styles of barns). Long before this blog was a thing, her on-line tutorials helped me polish my sewing skills. But now I can’t find the patterns any ...
read moreI’m done, I’m done (well almost)…..<drum roll, please> Let me introduce you to the pieced top of my red postage stamp quilt!
So yesterday, the finishing touches of this quilt came to my mind. I’ve ordered border fabric and backing. I’m working on the scrappy binding tonight. I’m so excited to finish this project!
Thank you to all of my quilting friends who contributed to this crazy project. I’ll have a complete list of contributors for the final reveal.
The post Red Alert appeared first on Gray Barn Designs.
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