Artful Home Quilt - Cutting

First order of business....cutting.  Though the instructions on what sizes to cut each fat quarter were pretty straight forward, the diagram provided was not quite to scale.  I found it much easier to do the following:

1) Square left and lower edges of the fat quarter.
2) Cut both 'A' pieces as the diagram indicates.
3) Then, cut a 9" strip straight across the remaining width of the fat quarter. 
4) Cut the 'B' and 'C' pieces from the 9" strip.
5) Now cut a piece 2 1/4" wide the 9" length.  Then cut this strip into the four 'F' pieces, since 2 1/4 * 4  = 9"!
 6) Proceed to cutting the remaining pieces from the fat quarters as shown in the instructions.  

Once I had all the fat quarters cut, the rest of the cuts were a piece of cake!

While getting ready for my first round of piecing, I laid the cut pieces out in the order they would be sewn into the quilt top and found that I liked the look of the square-on-squares.  Hum, maybe I need to pick up some more of this fabric from Valli and Kim to make another top! :)

Artful Home Quilt from Valli and Kim

I recently discovered a new addition to the quilt store scene in the Austin Area: Valli and Kim down in Dripping Springs.  If you haven't been yet, it's a must visit.  The store is stocked with the latest trends in modern quilting fabrics, from Kate Spain, Joel Dewberry, Basic Gray and much, much more.  I just picked up this gorgeous Henry Glass fabric from there and am eager to get quilting with it.  The Henry Glass website even has a free design download specifically for these fabrics.  I'll be going over the instructions on how to piece the top over the next few weeks, so feel free to join in.  Valli and Kim stocks the entire line, called the Artful Home from Henry Glass.  Download the instructions for the pattern here.  

Equal Rights

While my mom was in town last Christmas, we decided to do a quilt shop hop - my first shop hop ever! Myself, my mom, my sister, a friend of my mom's as well as her daughter all piled in a car and drove all over Central Texas.  While many of the shops were closed for the holidays, we were able to find plenty of fabrics at the stores that were open to empty our pocket books!  First stop was the Quilt Haus in New Braunfels, where I picked up a bundle of fat quarters from the Henry Glass's Summertime collection.   I had no idea what to do with it, but knew I was in love.  Miles down the road and hours later, while at the Honey Bee Quilt Store in North Austin, I picked up a pattern for Swirly Girl's Equal Rights quilt, and a match made in heaven was born!  After searching far and wide for the template for this pattern, which I finally had to order on-line, I got started on the top and didn't stop until it was done.  I had originally decided to save this top to piece at the AMQG inaugural retreat in February.  I thought I would cut out the pieces ahead of time and then work on the layout and sewing during the retreat.  But before I knew it, I had pieced the entire top...weeks before the retreat!  I still have yet to quilt it.  Any suggestions?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?