Reds and pinks are some of my favorite colors and I have been wanting to sew a quilt with them together for a while. I have been saving fabrics, like most quilters do, that they love and don't want to cut up. I was finally brave enough to go through my stash, pull out some of my favorite fabrics and cut them up for this Rosie's Quilt.
Rosie's Quilt is my modern quilt pattern which is fat quarter friendly. It uses lots of half square triangles and is block based. When the blocks connect a secondary design appears like quilting magic.
Get your copy of Rosie's Quilt Pattern here.
This red and pink Rosie's quilt was the first I made of this pattern. I was so excited to dig into my stash, pull out the fabrics and get sewing. My fabric cabinet is quite packed right now and really needs some relief. I was happy to lighten it and use some of those treasured fabrics I have been hoarding.
Below you can see the fabrics I pulled for the quilt. I mean... sigh.
Rosie's Quilt is a block based quilt pattern. Each block is comprised mostly of half square triangles. It's written for the beginner quilter. However, when sewing half square triangles (HSTs) it's important to have consistent seams. If you don't, your blocks will be off and so will the points. In fact, while making this pattern I realized that if I slowed my machine down just a bit, my HSTs came out much more consistent.
To trim the HSTs for this quilt I used my Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmers. I hadn't used this ruler in a while but decided to mix up how I trim the blocks. I am happy I did. I forgot how easy this ruler is to use. After the first couple it's easy to get into a groove which makes trimming fast.
When using the Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmers the trimming takes place before the pressing, which is backwards. Usually I like to press first and then use a 45 degree line on a square ruler to trim. You can see an example of this kind of trimming here.
I know when there is a big pile of HSTs waiting to be trimmed and pressed it seems never ending... but when it's finished isn't it beautiful?!?!
You can see above I used a cream fabric with a rose gold dot on it. This is from the Hole Punch line by Ruby Star Society. It's an older fabric. In fact, after I made this quilt I wanted to buy more of the background fabric but it's hard to find at a decent price.
This was the first time I made Rosie's Quilt and I hadn't written the pattern yet. So I used more fabric than the pattern calls for.
I like adding extra fabrics into this quilt. I think it adds to it. Ideally in each block you don't want to repeat fabrics very much, so the more fabrics the better.
This quilt is a throw size. In the pattern the throw size fabric requirements are (9) 1/4 yards or 11 fat quarters. However, I used 13 fabrics in this quilt.
Rosie's Quilt Pattern is written with 5 sizes! I wanted to make sure I included any sizes you might want to make. You can see all the sizes and fabric requirements in the chart below.
I like to chain piece the blocks for this quilt. I lay out all the pieces on my table then pick them up (keeping the correct order), and sew them all together right away so the pieces don't get mixed up. This makes it quite easy and quick to put together the blocks, especially since there are quite a few elements to each block.
After I have several blocks chain pieced together, then I press and repin the rows to finish sewing them together. I pin every seam to make sure the seams line up as much as possible.
You can see below I have all the blocks laid out ready to sew together. I couldn't wait to see what the quilt would look like all sewn together!
I pieced this quilt together in India and then took it back to the US with me to finish it. You can bet that I took it in my backpack with me. I did not want to risk any quilt tops or blocks getting lost with luggage.
Here is my quilt top all sewn up and pressed, ready to go to the quilters.
Part of the reason I brought it back with me is that I didn't have a backing fabric I loved in India and the second rendition of Stary by Ruby Star Society had just come out. So I ordered the backing I wanted and had it waiting for me when I got back to the US.
My colorblind son and I (I'm also colorblind) chose the backing to try to match the front. I think we did a pretty good job. LOL! I super love the colors in this fabric and what's nice about this fabric is there isn't any lines or direction to it so it's easy to baste and quilt with.
I love this pattern and how all the fabrics work together. I also love how when the blocks are sewn together they create a secondary design.
This quilt has a directional fabric in the center diamond. So I needed to make sure and keep these all going the same direction.
I used a light loft batting for this quilt, which means it's very thin. The quilt has a wonderful drape and softness to it. I quilted wavy lines 1 inch apart so it wouldn't be too stiff. This will be a great summer/spring quilt.
Rosie's Quilt is a great beginner quilt pattern and just an all around fun quilt to make. I plan on making some more. You can find a copy in my shop.
Quick Details
Pattern: Rosie's Quilt
Size: Throw
Fabric: From my stash so this and that.
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