Hi Everyone! It's time to wrap up the topic of Sewing The Doll Size Quilt. We will bring it all to life with coordinating bedding, cute accessories, and pajamas of course! If you're not finished with your quilt yet, don't stress! I encourage you to finish it up and you can refer back to this post when you are ready to set it up for display. 

I've really enjoyed going through the process of making the quilt. I've also enjoyed seeing all the beautiful variations that everyone has made! Great job everyone!

I'd love to see ways in which you plan to use your extra quilt blocks! We used a few to make some tiny pillows and have plans to make some larger shams as well! What about you? What creative things can you do with your leftover strips and pieced blocks? Maybe a "Mug Rug" like Laura shared in the FB group? Or part of a Sew Powerful purse? The possibilities are endless, please share your ideas in the Fb group or in the comments below!

This week I don't have a video to share, just some example pictures of how we pulled it together.

Here's a look at our version one (intermediate) quilt all set up. We used the Sew Urban Mattress and Sheet Set pattern to make the Mattress, Flat Sheet and Pillowcases. Then we used the Cathy pattern to make a cute little doll. The white shams were purchased from QTPi Doll Clothing's Etsy shop (part of the couch set). For this one, we also plan to use our leftover strips to make some large euro style shams as well. 

Here's a look at our easy variation of the quilt.

For this one, we used the same pattern to make the flat sheet and pillowcases. We also make a custom duvet style comforter using a shabby chic style fabric with lots of texture, we paired it with coordinating shams made of the same fabric. Here you can see our tiny bed pillows make from leftover scrap pieces. We call this "improv quilting"

In this next shot, we have our A Girl For All Time doll, Matilda, sitting snuggled up on the bed with her favorite doll and book! She's wearing PJ pants made from the  BFC Inc size PJ Party pattern, and the same size Piccadilly Sweater top as her PJ top.

We've got so many great pajama and bedding accessory patterns that you can use to really bring your whole idea to life. Here are a few that I recommend:

Pillows & Sheets:

Pajamas:

Shop the full collection of 18-inch Pajama Patterns

Toys:

Week Five Task:

• It's time to finish up your project and get it all set up for display or play!
• Jump over the SWC Facebook Group for conversation and project sharing.

Hi Everyone! Welcome to Part 3 of the Sew Along! This week we will add the borders, work on the quilting and finish up with the binding to make the Tropical Illusion quilt!

As with the first sew-along, these next few steps are easy enough to do, simple cutting and sewing straight seams, but they require a good amount of attention to detail! My best advice is to slow down, take your time, look at the pattern and read it carefully. 

Follow along in the video as I show you how to work through Part 3, borders, quilting, and binding. For this part, you will first need to have parts 1 and 2 completed. Then grab your remaining pieces and follow along as we finish up this project!

Special Note: My daughter (Liberty) came home from college unexpectedly this past week because of all that is going on around us. This was a blessing in disguise! She is a film production major and jumped at the opportunity to take over film production for me on this last project. She worked with me to film from different angles (you'll see lots of close-ups!) and has lots of ideas for future video-based training! Many of you may remember little Liberty from back in 2009 when we first kicked off "Liberty Jane," it's so fun for me to have her circle back to this as an adult and join us in such a meaningful way! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video and have a great time finishing up your quilts!

Week Four Task:

• If you haven't done this yet... Download the pattern. Read over the instructions to familiarize yourself with the process. Take some time to play around with color combinations and fabric choices. Cut and sew your strips. Then cut the blocks, the triangles, and create your quilt top (See part 1 and part 2 sew-along posts).
• Watch the video for this week.
• Cut the 1" Strip into two lengths two at 16.5" and two at 12".
• Sew the borders to the quilt top, long sides first.
• Cut the 1.5" strips into two lengths. two at 17" and two at 14.5"
• Sew the borders to the quilt top, long sides first.
• Cut your remaining pieced strips into 2"  pieces and sew them together to make long border strips. 5 for each long side and 4 for each short side.
• Sew the strip border to the quilt top, long sides first.
• Sandwich your quilt with the batting and the quilt backing.
• Quilt through all three layers, following the seam lines of your choice.
• Trim off excess batting and quilt back.
• Sew on binding to all four raw edges. 
• Phew! That's a lot of sewing! But, congratulations!! Your quilt is finished!
• Jump over the SWC Facebook Group for conversation and project sharing.

Tools needed:

• Rotary Cutter
• Acrylic Ruler
• Cutting Mat
• Iron & Ironing Board

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the Part 2 Sew Along! This week we will begin to transform our long strips into intricate blocks and combine them all to make the Tropical Illusion quilt top. These next few steps are easy enough to do, simple cutting and sewing straight seams, but they require a good amount of attention to detail! My best advice is to slow down, take your time, look at the pattern and read it carefully. 

Follow along in the video as I show you how to work through Part 2, cutting and sewing the blocks. For this part, you will first need to have all your 4.5" strips sewn (from part 1). Then grab your rotary cutter, acrylic ruler, cutting mat and you'll be ready to go!

Special Note: I mentioned this was my first quilt, right? Well after editing the Part 2 video, I noticed that I accidentally pieced my final 6 blocks incorrectly (compared to the pattern image for the intermediate quilt). Take a look at the image below to see where I went wrong. When you get to this part in the video (timestamp 11:00 minutes )be sure to sew the top and bottom blocks together opposite the center section to achieve the look of the "cover quilt".  I'm including a picture below of the side by side comparison. Honestly, I think it looks fine and that's the nice part of this design, there are many ways this could go together. I just wanted you to see the error here before you followed my lead in the video! My mustard color is the same as the brown in the "cover quilt". There are six 4.5 inch blocks at this point in the process, the top two and bottom two should have been flipped so the mustard color was in the center (like the brown).

Week Three task:

• If you haven't done this yet... Download the pattern. Read over the instructions to familiarize yourself with the process. Take some time to play around with color combinations and fabric choices. Cut and sew your strips.
• Watch the video.
• Cut your Strips into 4.5" squares. For the quilt top you only need 12 total, so you don't need to cut all your stips at this point. The remaining part will be used for the border.
• Cute each 4.5" square into 4 triangles.
• Divide the 12 blocks into 2 sets of 6.
• Fromt he first set of 6, combine triangle 1 and 4 into a small square and 2 and 3 into a small square. 
• From the second set of 6, combine triangle 2 and 3 and 1 and 4 into small squares.
• Combine the 4 squares into two sets of rectangles.  Then piece the rectangles together to make the blocks. You should have 6 total blocks.
• Piece the blocks together to create the quilt top.
• Phew! That's a lot of sewing! Now it's time to take a little break...
• Jump over the SWC Facebook Group for conversation and project sharing.

Tools needed:

• Rotary Cutter
• Acrylic Ruler
• Cutting Mat
• Iron & Ironing Board

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the Part 1 Sew Along! This week we will take a more detailed look at the pattern and begin to sew our quilts - yay! If you haven't downloaded the Tropical Illusion doll size quilt pattern and gathered up all your supplies, I recommend you look back at last week's post to get all the details. 

Follow along in the video as I show you how to work through Part 1, cutting and sewing the strips. For this part, you will first need to choose the version you are making. The tutorial will walk you through sewing the intermediate version, so it might be best if you choose to do that one first :) The "intermediate" reference is regarding the piecing of the triangles, not the sewing. Being that we have the video to guide you, the intermediate version shouldn't seem too difficult even if you are a beginner, like me!

Week Two task:

• If you haven't done this yet... Download the pattern. Read over the instructions to familiarize yourself with the process. Take some time to play around with color combinations and fabric choices.
• Watch the video.
• If you plan to have your doll quilt be washable, prewash and dry your fabrics first.
• Print out the layout diagram and use it to decide what fabrics will be assigned to numbers 1-4.
• Create a chart with fabric swatches to make the strip sewing much easier!
• Cut all your strips. Six one inch strips of each of the four fabrics, then two 1.5" strips for #3 and two additional 1" strips plus two 2" strips of fabric 4. The strips are cut on the full width of the yardage (42 - 44 inches wide), this will work fine for metric as well, there is room in the measurement for some extra length.
• Optional Note: If you want to use fat quarters, you'd just need to double the amounts (cut 12 strips instead of 6), you don't need to piece them together because we will cut them into 4.5" blocks. I haven't tried this, but I believe it should work fine for the blocks, but the borders might need piecing.
• Choose your backing fabric and cut that out as well. For our quilt, we've used fabric #4 as our backing fabric.
• Set your strips in order and begin sewing them together. Press the seams to set them and then press the seam allowances to one side as you sew the 8 strips together. 
• Repeat two more times to create three strips that measure 4.5" wide.
• Phew! That's a lot of sewing! Now it's time to take a little break...
• Jump over the SWC Facebook Group for conversation and project sharing.

Next Tuesday - Part 3: Time to cut the blocks, and triangles and piece together our quilt top!

Overview of the two variations and supplies needed:

Gather up all the supplies and fabric needed for the Tropical Illusion Quilt project.

Main Version Fabrics Needed: 

• 4 Colors of coordinating quilting fabric as follows
• 1⁄4 yd. Green (#1)*
• 1⁄4 yd. Brown (#2)*
• 3⁄8 yd. Blue (#3)*
• 1⁄2 yd. Purple (#4)*
•  5⁄8 yd. Backing Fabric

Version 2 Fabrics Needed:

• 4 Colors of coordinating quilting fabrics as follows
• 1⁄4 yd. Tan (#1)*
• 1⁄2 yd. Pink (#2)*
• 1 yd. Dk. Gray (#3)*
• 1⁄2 yd. Lt. Gray (#4)*

Supplies Needed for both versions:

• Safety Pins
• Straight Pins
• Thread
• Batting 18” x 24” (cotton batting may be used or 2 layers of flannel will give a more flexible feel to the finished quilt.)

Tools needed:

• Rotary Cutter
• Acrylic Ruler
• Cutting Mat
• Iron & Ironing Board

Hi Everyone! It's March and it's National Quilting Month - Yay! Fun fact - I have never personally sewn a quilt - eek! Have you? I just returned from the Quilt Con in Austin, and I'm feeling a little inspired to try something new!

Well, luckily, my sister and fellow pattern designer Terah of Lilie Stone, is an avid quilter! Over the course of this month, we will use the beautifully designed Tropical Illusion doll size quilt pattern and create a stunning quilt at the small doll scale! 

This pattern might look complex, but the method used to piece together the block is pretty simple - or at least it looks that way! So don't fret if you aren't a quilter :) We will be learning together as we create this keepsake piece! And if you don't want to use it for your dolls, you can keep it as a wall hanging in your sewing room or studio!

Housekeeping Details: March is a 5 Tuesday month, so for this first post we will go over the topic, the outline for the month, talk through the supplies needed, and give you time to gather up everything needed to begin the sew-along next week (Tuesday, March 10th).

Sewing The Doll Size Quilt Topic Will Include:

• Part 1 - Topic Overview, Review the Pattern, Gather up supplies
• Part 2 - The Sew Along Part 1
• Part 3 - Sew Along Part 2, explaining and demonstration the two variations
• Part 4 - Finishing the quilt
• Part 5 - Accessorizing the bed with sheets, Pjs, and cute little plush felt toys to complete the look!

Are you ready? Let's go...

There aren't any videos yet, we will add them starting next week. Stay tuned! 

Week One task:

• Download the pattern. Read over the instructions to familiarize yourself with the process. Take some time to play around with color combinations and fabric choices.
• This is a fun opportunity to use up a variety of quilting cottons. With Spring and Easter on the horizon, it's a fun time to think about creating a bright and cheery look for the new season or as a gift!
• Jump over the SWC Facebook Group for conversation and project sharing.

Next Tuesday - Part 2: We'll kick off our quilt sew along!

Prepare for next week:

Gather up all the supplies and fabric needed for the Tropical Illusion Quilt project.

Main Version Fabrics Needed: 

• 4 Colors of coordinating quilting fabric as follows
• 1⁄4 yd. Green (#1)*
• 1⁄4 yd. Brown (#2)*
• 3⁄8 yd. Blue (#3)*
• 1⁄2 yd. Purple (#4)*
•  5⁄8 yd. Backing Fabric

Version 2 Fabrics Needed:

• 4 Colors of coordinating quilting fabrics as follows
• 1⁄4 yd. Tan (#1)*
• 1⁄2 yd. Pink (#2)*
• 1 yd. Dk. Gray (#3)*
• 1⁄2 yd. Lt. Gray (#4)*

Supplies Needed for both versions:

• Safety Pins
• Straight Pins
• Thread
• Batting 18” x 24” (cotton batting may be used or 2 layers of flannel will give a more flexible feel to the finished quilt.)

Tools needed:

• Rotary Cutter
• Acrylic Ruler
• Cutting Mat
• Iron & Ironing Board