Sunny Trails Quilt

Hello!  I am so very excited to be sharing my first Moda Bake Shop tutorial!  I have been sewing and making quilts since I was 20 or so but have more recently stumbled upon the online quilting community.

I started my blog Little Miss Shabby and I have been having a blast.  I've been so inspired by all the wonderful bloggers/designers/great quilty people-- I wanted to share a bit of my "fun" with you! Who loves some yummy Moda fabric... me, me, me!! =)  Sweetwater's fantastic line of fabric, Sunkissed, is such a perfect and fun collection to play with that I just couldn't resist.  So without further ado..."Sunny Trails."

**All seams are to be sewn with a 1/4" seam allowance

1 Sunkissed Layer Cake

3/4 Yard Sunkissed Yellow Solid (5448-12)

3/4 Yard Sunkissed Gray Solid (5448-15)

1 1/2 Yard Bella Solid PFD White (9900-97)

1/2 yd. binding Sunkissed Yellow Gingham (5447-12)

3 1/4 yd. backing Sunkissed Multi Polka (5442-16)

Presencia Finca Perle Cotton Size 12 (5 gram ball of each) #1651, 7720, 1137, 4799.  If you want to try a little bit of hand quilting long stitch style (I have totally been digging this lately), this is a perfect project to give it a whirl.  Very beginner friendly-- My mom and I (aka mostly my mom) finished the quilting in less than a day.


I began by sorting the fabrics in my layer cake--I chose not to use the solids or the duplicate fabrics--this left me with 37 layer cake squares.

Cut each layer cake into (5) 2"x10" strips--you will be using 4 strips from each layer cake square.

From both the gray and yellow solid, cut 7 strips 3.5" wide by the width of fabric. Subcut each strip into (12) 3.5" squares.

From the white solid, cut 14 strips 3.5" wide by the width of fabric. Subcut each strips into (6) 3.5" x6.5" rectangles.

Choose two contrasting layer cake strips--with right sides together sew them together on the long side.  Continue until you have sewn all your strips together (remember we are using 4 strips from each layer cake square).  Press your strips sets open.  Now, I am a press to the side kinda gal so I pressed my seams to the dark fabrics--however, in hindsight (because I was picky about the directional word fabrics going in the right direction), it would have been easier to press my seams open.  If you want your words to all run the same direction and you opt to press to one side, be prepared for a bit of finagling.  Your strip sets will now measure 3.5" x 10".

Next, you will cut each of the strip sets into (5) 2" x 3.5" two patches.  You will end up with quite a few--you will be using (320) 2 patches to complete this quilt.

Sew together (2) two patches right sides together--continue in this manner for all of the two patches.  Pay attention to the word fabrics as you choose your pairs if you want the text all going in one direction.  If not, just slap 'em together. =)

This is gonna take awhile--you might need to grab a coke:

But, in the end you will end up with a whole bunch of wonderful four patches of which you will be using 160 for the quilt top.  If you end up with more than you need (like I did), they work wonderfully for piecing into the backing of your quilt or for making some cute little throw pillows.  Give these little guys a press--open or to the side (whichever you prefer).  

Choose 80 of these 4 patches to turn into (20) 16  patches.

Sew together, lining up your seams as you go; press open.

Next, on the back of each of the yellow squares and the gray squares, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner.

Place a yellow square right sides together onto a white rectangle and sew from corner to corner on the line that you have drawn.  You will need to make 40 units with the diagonal starting in the upper left corner of the yellow square and 40 units with the diagonal starting in the upper right corner of the yellow square as pictured.

Sew together--remember we are sewing directly on the drawn line.

Trim away the excess fabric to the left of the seam, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.  Press your seams open or toward the yellow fabric depending on your preference.

Next you will repeat these steps to add the gray squares.  The seams will be running parallel.

Sew from corner to corner, trim off excess fabric again leaving a 1/4" seam allowance & press open.  You will have 40 of each block below--40 blocks with the white diagonal going left to right and 40 blocks with the white diagonal going right to left.  These blocks will measure 3.5"x 6.5".

The blocks are now ready for assembly.  You will need (4) 4 patches, one 16 patch and 2 of each rectangle block to complete one 12.5" block.  Pay special attention to the placement of the rectangle blocks.

Make 20 of these blocks.

You can now assemble the quilt top.  Here is the layout of the blocks.

Once you have your blocks sewn together ( 20 blocks total--4 blocks x 5 blocks) you are ready to sandwich your quilt, baste, quilt, and bind.  You'll remember I mentioned earlier about hand quilting using perle cotton.

It adds such a fun touch and is easy to do... even for a novice like me.  Mind you, I am a quilter by no means, but this method is enjoyable for me.  And look how cute!

Enjoy!

One fabulous bright and sunny quilt sure to scare away the winter blahs. =)  Your finished quilt will measure approximately 48"x60".

I hope that you have enjoyed my first tutorial. =)  I have enjoyed sharing with you!

Corey Yoder
{Little Miss Shabby}