Strawberry Mini Quilt Tutorial

In my post here, I showed you my strawberry decorations.   I have red quilts as you can see on the back of my couch in the photo below, but I didn't have even a small quilt with strawberries until now.  

I like to have these little quilts just to add a pop of color here and there.  I also like to use them for holiday entertaining to put under a warm dish or plate.  

Here's my tutorial:  

My mini quilt finishes at approximately 14 1/2".  For the size shown above, cut 12 squares measuring 5 inches.  You can use either charm squares or cut your own.  I wanted to use my strawberry fabric so I cut a mix of light and dark fabrics mostly from my stash.

Using a pencil or Friction pen, draw lines on half of the squares as shown:  horizontal and vertical and diagonally in both directions.  I draw my lines on the lighter fabrics when I can because it's easier to see the lines.

Now sew 1/4" ONLY on both sides of the diagonal lines.  

After sewing, cut on ALL lines.  Each pair of squares yields 8 half square triangles.   If you've done the math, to make the size little quilt in this tutorial you will need to make 1 more half square triangle out of scraps.    

Press toward the darker fabric.  These half square triangles will measure 2" and finish at 1 1/2".  

I sort mine into piles so I can put the rows together so that I don't end up with 2 of the same block at the end.  

Sew the half square triangles into rows.  Then sew the rows together.  

My border is cut at 2".  And here's the finished quilt.  I sewed the binding down by hand because I like to sit out on the porch when the weather is nice and do some handwork.  

                                     

I have at least one of these little quilts for each holiday.  Here's Christmas.  

                                        


St. Patrick's and Valentines.  

                                        

I use this one for winter and into spring. 

                                                 

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.  If you decide to make one of these mini quilts, I'd love to see a photo.  

As always,

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.

It's Strawberry Time

I pulled my strawberry decorations out a few days ago.  I haven't cross stitched in maybe over a year, but I still enjoy getting out my stitching to decorate for the seasons.  

Most of my cross stitching with strawberries is from Stitching with the Housewives.  

The wooden backers came from Chantelle's 141 Design Company.  I attended a retreat in Michigan put on by Chantelle a few years ago and bought some of these backers then.  Some I've ordered from her website.  

The Year in the Hoop cross stitches are from Small Town Needleworks.  You can find their patterns on Etsy.  The summer jam pillow is a free pattern from Priimrose Cottage (I think),

The Bunnies Berries is from Stitched with Whitney on Etsy.  

 This is another barn backer from Chantelle.  Painting these backers was a lot of fun.  

I don't have even a small quilty item to show with strawberries.  I might have to remedy that soon.  

Sometime I'll have to show you the things I have cross stitched but not yet finished into something I can use.  There aren't enough hours in the day, and right now I am doing a lot of quilting.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

Vacation Fun

 We've been on vacation down in the Smoky Mountains.  We really love that area of the country.  We rent a cabin and relax and take some side trips into neighboring towns.  If you look closely, you can see the rainbow we saw from our cabin after a rain.

I managed to do a little stash enhancement.  I don't usually see many small floral fabrics, so I bought these.  I think the print in these is small enough to use in hexagons.  As I pulled the bolts off the shelf and put them on the cutting counter, I had an idea.  

I've had this container of bright 1" hexagons for a long time.  I've taken them on retreats, on vacation, to sewing get togethers, and I never work on them.  So what if I put some of these with some of the florals in the photo above?  I think part of the reason these have been around for so long is that they're 1".  I'd really rather work with 3/4" hexagons, but I don't know if I want to take apart what I already have basted, trim them down, and make them 3/4". 

I know a lot of those in the container are already basted, but there are just some squares of fabric in there, too.  Decisions, decisions.  

And what if I'd put in some black and white fabrics?   Sometimes I think it would look good.  Other times I think it would look like a hot mess.  

This is one of our favorite places to visit when we're in the mountains.  The Morning Mist Cafe serves lunch.   

                                         

Then we walk around and visit the shops until we have room for some of the hand dipped ice cream from Glades Soda Fountain.

The shops close around mid afternoon.

At the far end of the shopping area I saw a sign that said crochet.   You know I couldn't pass up anything  crafty.   

The owner has crocheted all kinds of cute things from little stuffed animals to key chains.  

The 3 chickens in the bowl were spinning around,  It was a cute shop, and the owner was really nice  

The owner showed me this ergonomic crochet hook that she uses, so I bought one of those.  I've got a bit of a start on a granny square afghan.  

I also bought this little flower to sit on a shelf as a reminder of our trip.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.