New FREE Pattern!

Hey Quilters! I’ve been showing teaser shots for a new FREE pattern for about a month now. The day that I can show you the quilt and give you the FREE pattern is finally here! I decided a few months ago that I need to do some things to show my appreciation for my subscribers, and this is one of them. I’ve also updated my site to include a “FREE Stuff” page where you can see what FREE events are happening or coming up, and any FREE patterns and documents will be added there too.

Ok, now for this FREE pattern! You can get this sent right to your email! Please note that if you sign up for the same thing more than once, the email server will not resend it. So, if you don’t get it, just let me know and I’ll get it to you!

GET THE FREE TOWERS AND TUMBLES PATTERN!

So let’s talk a little bit about this one!

A look at my quilt

This picture is a little off center, but I decided to include it in this post because of the lovely Cleo making an appearance/photobombing my quilt. She loves to photobomb my quilts! All the beautiful fabrics I used for this one are Benartex. Here’s the list of fabrics I used with the SKUs in case you wanted to get some of these fabrics yourself.

-Top, Foreground – 2 fat quarter bundles of Color & Light by Anna Nyman. SKU: FQCLRPK
-Top, Background – Superior Solids in #23/Petal. SKU: 3000B-23
-Backing – Chalk Texture by Cherry Guidry in Hot Pink. SKU: 3000B-23
-Binding – Chalk Texture by Cherry Guidry in Royal. SKU: 9488-54

I typically use white or off-white for the background, but I wanted to use something a little more colorful for this quilt to make the lovely white print in the foreground pop a little more. I really love the colors and prints in this fabric line. So, I didn’t want to leave any of them out. I struggled with deciding on blue or pink for the background. Either way, I knew I wanted to use a shade that wasn’t exactly the same as the shades in the prints. I decided to go with something lighter and not such a vivid color so that the Color & Light fabrics still stand out.

I’m not sure if its the simplicity, the big blocks, those prints, or the combination of all those things, but this one ended up looking more modern to me than most of my patterns. I typically think of a lot more negative space when I think of modern quilt patterns, but something about this one makes me think modern. Either way, I’m super happy with how this one turned out!

Deciding on how to quilt it is always hit or miss for me. Sometimes I can picture what I want to do in my head almost as soon as I start working on the quilt, and sometimes there is an internal struggle over how to quilt it. This one was an internal struggle. I couldn’t decide between loops or stipples. So, I ended up not choosing at all. I used both and added some of the boxey spirals in the square pieces.

Chalk Texture goes great with these fabrics. So, I decided to use a few pieces from that line for backing and binding. Since I used a pink background, I wanted to use blue for the binding. I do love contrast! Since I used three different types of quilting, I decided to go with a dark backing with white thread to help show that a little better.

As always, I used a decorative top stitch to nail that binding down. I prefer to bind back to front because it’s what I like. BUT, front to back looks nice too. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, and it’s all personal preference. So, bind the way you like! I took a highly scientific instagram poll about using white thread or pink thread for the decorative top stitch. Pink got the most votes, and it’s the one I was leaning towards anyway. But, they both would look nice. So when you go to bind your quilt, bind it the way YOU want to! Your Quilt = Your Rules!

A little about the pattern

I got some inspiration from my Sound Waves Baby Quilt Pattern for this one. This pattern is my spin on a classic easy pattern that involves the same block rotated in alternating directions to add a little bit of movement. I wanted to incorporate the foreground design in my Sound Waves Baby Quilt pattern into this classic pattern, but it needed a little tweaking. I changed the number of squares and of course the dimensions so I could swap the Sound Waves inpired design into the part that would be solid rectangles in the classic easy pattern.

Another thing I wanted to do for this one was make the blocks BIG. I love big blocks because the top will go together so quickly. I feel like by the time you get to sewing the blocks together you’re ready to get it done. So, BIG blocks that go together quickly are perfect for this.

The last thing I did for this one to make it a little easier is tried to simplify the cutting. All of the pieces in the quilt top are the same width to help reduce the amount of thinking you have to do for this one. I used fat quarter cutting diagrams, and made it so that all 16 fat quarters you’ll use for the foreground will follow the same cutting diagram. This also helps with balancing the colors and prints throughout the quilt because each print will be used the same number of times for all of the pieces. I used two matching 8 piece fat quarters for my cover quilt, but you can use 16 different fat quarters for a scrappier look.

That’s all I’ve got for today

So, that’s all I have to say about this one. I hope you’ll get this FREE pattern, and make the quilt. I LOVE seeing your quilts. Seeing what other people make with my patterns is THE BEST! So, if you make it, post it to instagram, tag me, and use the hashtags that are listed in the footer of the pattern. One more time, here’s the link to get it:

GET THE FREE TOWERS AND TUMBLES PATTERN!

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!

I hope you enjoyed it.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me. I’d love to hear from you!

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Happy quilting!