Our First Free Quilt Pattern- the KIS Quilt and Sew-Along! (Come Join Us!)

Ahh, the beginning of Summer.

Do you all have different quilts or blankets to go on your bed in different seasons? I'm very much not Type A, but, I really enjoy the ritual of the changing of the seasons when I change my bed quilt. Yes, I have designated seasons for EVERY quilt I have made.

No, I only make my bed for Instagram photo shoots when I'm showing off said quilt. I'm complex like that.

Anyhow, this quilt was my FIRST EVER quilt. I went to a store looking for Tula Pink fabric, hoarded all they had (about 11 fat quarters and a Saltwater Jelly roll, plus some yardage of the octogarden print) and knew I was on my way to QUILTING GREATNESS.

I'm absolutely kidding. I'll show you close-ups of some of my mess ups later on in this process, and teach you how NOT to do them!

Yes I copy/pasted these photos from thetrendylittlegeek instagram. It's been a day, folks. Plus, as I said, I only make my bed for instagram. 

I knew 2 things when I started this:

1. I knew nothing about quilting

2. I didn't have it in me to cut up those beautiful fabrics!

3. I had a sewing machine and some thread. (It was a pretty simple bernette. No need for fancy machines to start quilting with, y'all!)

Okay, so I knew three things.

So what did I do? I cut the fat quarters down to even 17x20 rectangles, sewed those together, and did a partial "jelly roll race" quilt with my Saltwater jelly roll. 

I call it the KIS quilt. Keep. It. Simple. 

Here's a beautiful diagram that took me hours to make of how I pieced the top (minus sashing and borders):

-the tiny little white type at the edge is just noting that there's overhang of the jelly roll race segments.
I then added a 2in/1.5in finished sashing and a 6.5in/6in finished border. Lots of Tula's prints have 6.5in repeats, so her stuff works really well for the outer border if you want to feature a print. The colors of the diagram are also worked out so you don't have to sudoku this if you don't want them in the same row/column, but that would really be up to the maker.

And that was my first quilt, that I've used pretty much without fail every summer since. 

But you know how sometimes, when you grow, you want to go back and do those simple exercises, like drawing a sphere in art class, just to see how far you've come? Plus, Tula has done SO MANY MORE lines since this with SO MANY MORE prints that I just CAN NOT cut into. 

I'm making this quilt again, folks. Who wants to join me in a Super Simple Sew Along? I'm going to be doing it in blues and greens, because although they're my favorite colors, I somehow don't have a blue/green quilt? We'll be doing it here and on instagram so you can follow along. There'll be dates and prizes and stuff. I'm specifically going to gear this to beginners, addressing important topics along the way. It's a VERY forgiving quilt. And if the lingo here sounds foreign, or you've never sewn a quilt, don't worry. This is just a drive-by snapshot of things you need and stuff. If you don't know what a "jelly roll race" is or a fat quarter, that's absolutely fine. All you need is a sewing machine and some thread. And maybe a piece of painter's or washi tape, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 
Here's another piece from blueprint that's a pretty solid starting line place if you're brand new. We recommend not splurging on the highest end stuffs to begin with- look for sales at JoAnn (even though as a small business we honest-to-god almost never say that) and start with the basic cutting mat and rotary cutter, then as you grow, invest in nicer, prettier, more expensive toys. https://www.mybluprint.com/article/quilting-notions-roundup  I do reccomend quilt stores or online shops for rulers though. Creative Grids has a great grippy technology thing that's absolutely fantastic and super useful. Don't worry about the feet for your machine right now, either. As long as you have a basic straight stitch foot, you can piece a quilt. A quarter inch foot is GREAT, but, more of an "I'm-really-into-this" investment thing for most machines. 

I'm thinking of starting this sometime mid-June; and will get you a more finished ACTUAL pattern with REAL instructions as we go along, but if you're hoppin' to get going or order supplies, here's the supply list for the entire quilt:

1. (1) 40 or 42 piece Jelly Roll/Design Roll/Bali Pops or 40 hand cut 2.5inxWOF (width of fabric, generally 40-44in) strips quilting cotton

2. 9 Assorted fat quarters (18x21in quarter yard cuts)- these will be your featured fabrics. Large prints work really well for this, as they don't get cut up!

3. 1/2 yard solid for sashing, 3/4 yard to give yourself ample screw-up fabric or if you want to do pillow shams, I might even go up to a yard. 

4. 1.5 to 2 yards for 6.5in large border- lean towards more if you're doing a repeat-dependent fabric, like I did with the OctoGarden print here. Get more if it's a pretty print. You'll want to use it for everything. You could also get some additional yardage for matching pillow shams!

5. 1 yard for binding, which includes a good amount of grace for screw-ups (I cut my binding straight, if you'd like to cut on the bias, here's a chart and some instructions for that. I'm not a bias binder, and none of my quilts are the worse for it. That's my take. Sorry not sorry. https://phoebemoon.com/tutorials/binding-calculator.htm)

6. 2.5 yards 108in wide Wideback fabric, or 7.5 yards for pieced Backing

7. Queen Size Batting of your choice, machine washable

We'll have some fabulous Tula Pink solids Jelly Rolls arriving in the shop pretty shortly, we'll link to them here when we get them. As they coordinate with all of Tula's lines, they'd be a great option if you're planning to do this quilt with her fabric. And they're just really bright, happy, fun colors anyways. 

Oh yeah, let's make a hashtag! Hmm... we'll make it... #ttlgsimplesewquilt (TTLG is how I abbreviate the business. Ain't nobody got time to be writing "The Trendy Little Geek" 75 times a day.) I'll be back in about another week, hopefully with some sneak previews of *my* progress, and more details about the quilt along as far as dates and prizes and stuff. I'm *sew* excited, and I hope you are too!