With Project Jelly Roll approaching, I decided to take a look at my Jelly Roll-friendly patterns to figure out what I am going to work on and perhaps share some ideas. One of my Jelly Roll patterns is Definite Plus.

My original Definite Plus quilt is made in Thatched basics. I loved playing with the color families and having a "ghost block" image in the center of just sashings and background. And I made this in both the large size on cream and the small size (using a Honey Bun or 1 1/2" strips) on Heather.

I wanted to see what this would look like made up in a Jelly Roll of print fabrics from a collection. I decided to make one that had no outer borders and no ghost block for the center. Full quarter log cabin blocks without an accent. If you make the large size without the outer border, it goes from being an 82" square quilt to 69 x 69", which makes a lovely large lap or can fit on a twin bed as a nice extra quilt.

How does this impact yardage and cutting? I have only made it this way in the Large size, so I don't have the specifications for the Small at this point. For Large quilt with no outer border and no ghosted center block or accent rectangles:
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Sashing:  1 2/3 Yards for sashing instead of 2 1/8 Yards. When you are cutting, you will cut a total of (56) WOF strips. 
(4) of those will be cut to 34 3/4" and joined end to end to make the long sashings horizontally between the rows. 
Instead of (44) 6 1/2 x 1" pieces, you will need (36).

Background: You need 1 1/4 Yards for background instead of 3 Yards. You will only be cutting the centers of the Quarter Log Cabin blocks and need (36) of them. 

For my print version, I decided to use Abby Rose for my strips. I made all my centers with Zen Chic Modern Paper for a pretty, romantic feel. My sashings are Moda Bella Off White 200. I still kept my groupings of 4 that make a plus sign in color families. 

I like seeing the contrast of prints vs a more solid look for this quilt. I am very excited to try it again with upcoming lines and try other versions of background and sashing colors.

And just one more idea, since I'm playing around with it...what if the placement of colors were more improvisational and the background squares also had some pops of color? I decided to take a look in the suggestion of my Hygge Happy color theme direction (with Washed Linen, Toast, Cocoa, Sugar Rose, etc). What do you think? Playful or too random?

Looking for more Jelly Roll-friendly quilt patterns? Hop on over to my shop and check out Showering Stars, Ring Around the Posies, Equalizer, and Blockstep. And please join in the fun on September 18th 2021 as we sew those Jelly Rolls!

Jelly Roll-friendly and quick to piece, this Showering Stars quilt is full of drama!

I knew with the Sweet Pea & Lily collection for Moda Fabrics (ships in Feb/March 2019) I wanted a quilt that used deep purple to enhance the theatrical nature of the purples in the prints. One thing I enjoy with this group is the purples are in both cool and warm purples. I needed to find the right deep purple to show off their splendor.

I have now fallen in love with Moda Bella Solid PRUNE 238. Its rich and vibrant and LUSCIOUS! Its the glorious deep purple/plum color as the background. Did I mention I bought a bolt of it? Not sure what I'm doing with the rest but I can't wait to use it as an accent to other prints.

But what would Showering Stars look like reversed, with a light background? I haven't made it this way (yet) but thought I'd give some computer inspiration for other colorways.  I used a soft gray in the star points and dashes to let the colors in the star trails feel more colorful and sparkly.

And going all-out color with this turquoise background and light green star points. Completely different look but all of these are using the same Sweet Pea & Lily prints in the star trails.

This quilt was my main booth image at the Houston Quilt Market this past fall. It was fun to have such a different color play with this collection! One part I like is the greens and grays still transition through from previous collections. 

Check your local quilt shop for the Showering Stars pattern, along with Sweet Pea & Lily fabrics! Patterns are also available at my online shop if your local shop is not carrying it. 

Find a falling star and make a wish! And check back for more Sweet Pea & Lily quilts!

Its coming folks! September 15th, 2018. So get your Jelly Rolls ready! I have been mulling over what I am going to make this year and I think a little computer planning and designing is in order. Last year I used my Sliding Shoji Screen pattern which uses solid Bella Jelly Rolls to divide the blocks but I flipped it so the Jelly Roll of Blushing Peonies became the strips and I used solid pink, eggshell, and the Ikat print from Amy Ellis' Serenity collection as the large panels. I loved the result! 

In honor of the new National Sew a Jelly Roll day coming up I wanted to share the most recent pictures of last year's project. When I got the quilt back from my longarm quilter, Sally Corona of Corona Quiltworks I loved it even more! The quilting design has a great retro mid century modern feel and lovely flow. When it is on the wall in the foyer it lightens up the space with a calm pretty feel without being overly girly. I recently got this new lamp and I'm liking the feel of these together. Now off to start planning for September 15th...

Blockstep is a flexible quilt pattern that is great for precut fabric-like layer cakes and jelly rolls or for using up assorted scraps that are at least 2 1/2" wide. The modern quilting design is an interplay of chunky square outlines and splitting them and playing with those sides, or brackets, in rotation. ​

​I​ first started playing with these simple shapes (or geometric shapes) when I was taking one of my first surface design classes at Otis College of Design. Repeats with rotation were part of the assignment, and I ended up creating this fun design.

Since this design was originally artwork, I printed out this pattern to create some chic wall hangings for my home. The first wall hanging was for my kitchen, which I had done in solid colors. The colors I ended up choosing for the piece were shades of olive green, khaki, and some orange. I then created a red color-way print for the Christmas season to put on the wall. (It even ended up being printed by a company in reds and greens for some Christmas gift wrap).

If you are a quilter and love modern quilt ideas or geometric quilt patterns, then you can thank my mother for this quilt. This is because it was my mother who commented that this would make an interesting quilt. I guess that suggestion hung in the back of my mind and finally came to life about 12 years later. 

So, 12 years later, I am happy to finally introduce the Blockstep!

Blockstep is an easy pattern that is great for beginner quilters who are wanting to try their hand at simple geometric quilting. The pattern takes square blocks and splits them and rotates them to create this ''complicated'' geometric design. However, this simple pattern is very easy to follow and takes less time to complete than you might think. Plus, the sewing pattern itself doesn't involve intricate quilting blocks or dramatic curves, which is why it's perfect for beginners or basic quilters.

Now, with that being said, for all the advanced quilters out there, I would still recommend this pattern to you as well! With your sewing skill level being more ''advanced'', you will definitely have a quilt top made in no time at all. However, if you want to make this a bit more of a challenge for yourself, I recommend trying some free motion quilting on top or experimenting with different fabrics and really play with the combinations of light and dark and color arrangement.

This is also a good design to take a more floral print and use it in what can be seen as a more modern arrangement, balanced with solids. I used the floral prints within the blocks and brackets and play with the balance of pattern against solid and am loving the versatility of the framework.

Also, speaking of versatility, this pattern can easily be scaled up and down to create different size quilts, To adjust the size all you would need to do is add additional row of squares, either way, to move up to a queen or king-sized quilt. In my pattern, I included information for wall/lap (which could also work as cozy crib-size), twin, and queen.

As someone who loves modern quilts, I wanted to step outside the box and try some modern techniques that you might not see in a traditional pattern. One of those modern and new techniques (at least for me) was stepping out into the borders with a square or block on each side!

We don't always have to stay in the safe zone and out of the borders! Adding something extra to the borders is a great way to show off your favorite fabrics. For this dark version of the quilt, I used my own fabrics, but you could use layer cakes, jelly rolls, or even charm squares. This quilt is friendly to many sizes of precut fabrics. The fabric requirements in my pattern include yardage and step-by-step instructions to make a 56 1/2'' square lap or wall quilt, a 72 1/2 x 88 1/2" Twin sized quilt or a 88 1/2" square Queen size quilt.

When I had this dark version quilted by the long-arm quilter, Sally Corona of Corona Quiltworks (the white background version was long-arm quilted by Tanya Heldman of Free Range Quilter) she really worked with the geometric structure of the quilt with straight clean lines done in random spacing horizontally. Then Sally took one section of blocks lined up vertically and quilted them with vertical lines in lime green which added high contrast to the other gray threads. I love it!!

Step this way, turn that way, have some fun with Blockstep.

PATTERN UPDATE! This pattern was updated with the release of Carolina Lilies fabric collection to make the cutting with accent colors a little more even. You can find the new and improved BLOCKSTEP at my shop at www.robinpickensinc.com.

September 16th was National Sew a Jelly Roll Day and I was too busy sewing to post on the blog that weekend. At least I was too busy with fun sewing! The folks at Moda started the love of precuts and they have #ProjectJellyroll to show the great projects you can do.  Jelly Rolls are great for making projects quicker when you need 2 1/2 inch strips and the variety of prints you can get in a precut bundle. Sometimes you just want the ease of things that coordinate and go together fast!

I decided to use my Sliding Shoji Screens pattern for this weekend project. I designed that quilt pattern to showcase my large scale floral prints with large panels of rectangles that are separated by solid Jelly Roll strips. This makes the cutting much faster. But for this version I wanted to flip the design so the patterns were in the Jelly Roll dividing strips (from my Blushing Peonies collection) and the large panels were solids. Although I liked the plan on my computer (where I often mock things up before cutting) I felt it could use a little extra "something." I decided to try Amy Ellis' Ikat from her Serenity collection and I loved the combination with my peonies!

The combination of precut Jelly Roll strips with large panels of fabric really make this quilt come together quickly. It's satisfying to have a quilt top at the end of the weekend and I really enjoyed sewing along as I saw others doing their projects for National Sew a Jelly Roll Day. 

If you'd like to check out the Sliding Shoji Screens pattern, it is available through quilt shops or on my shop.

​Sew on!

Blockstep is a flexible quilt pattern that is great for precuts like layer cakes and jellyrolls or for using up assorted scraps that are at least 2 1/2" wide. The design is an interplay of chunky square outlines and splitting them and playing with those sides, or brackets, in rotation. 

​I first started playing with these geometric puzzle pieces when I was taking one of my first surface design classes at Otis College of Design. Repeats with rotation was part of the assignment. I printed out this pattern for some art on my kitchen wall, done in shades of olive green, khaki and some orange. I also have a red color-way print for the Christmas season to put on the wall.  I also sell prints of this design at Art.com (under Robin Pickens and Geometric Abstract City Squares). It was my mother who commented that this would make an interesting quilt. I guess that suggestion hung in the back of my mind to finally come to life about 12 years later. 

​This is the first time I have played with floral prints within the blocks and brackets and I'm really loving the versatility of this framework. It's easily scaled up and down in size and you can simple add more rows either way to move up to a queen or king sized quilt.

One of my favorite experiments with this pattern was to step out into the borders with a square or block on each side. We don't always have to stay in the safe zone and out of the borders!

When I had this dark version quilted by the long-arm quilter, Sally Corona of Corona Quiltworks (the white background version was long-arm quilted by Tanya Heldman of Free Range Quilter) she really worked with the geometric structure of the quilt with straight lines done in random spacing horizontally. Then Sally took one section of blocks lined up vertically and quilted them with vertical lines in lime green which add a wonderful contrast to the other gray threads. I love it!!

Step this way, turn that way, have some fun with Blockstep. The pattern will be shipping to stores in November 2017 with my Blushing Peonies fabric from Moda. I've also added these to my shop!

Last weekend my husband and I went to Paso Robles to visit some friends. Darci and I have known each other through licensing artwork and exhibiting for numerous years. She very kindly offered to photograph my quilts with her creative eye and expertise. 

These quilts use my Poppy Mae fabrics for Moda which ships to stores in November. I wanted to make some quilts that used larger panels to showcase some of the larger poppy prints. I love how the flowers peek out in horizontal slices of panels. This is actually the first pattern I have created for the line and the first quilt tackled in the samples. The fun thing is that it can be cut and pieced in a weekend. I love quick gratification! The quilt uses jellyroll strips to separate the patterned panels so it makes cutting go much faster to use a precut in the mix.

The Sliding Shoji Screens pattern has plans for two companion quilts. When you have cut the fabric according the the diagram you have enough panels left over to do a nice complimentary quilt so I decided two was better than one! And this was a fun experiment in how to have them quilted too- the horizontal line quilt was quilted by Doug Sobel of Quilt Hero and the oval, chicken wire reminiscent sewing was done by Gina Siembieda of The Quilters Cure. She also did my white version in vertical lines and the basket quilt with curves. 

The Sliding Shoji Screen pattern lays out the patterns according to the Poppy Mae fabrics and gives you a diagram for either a dark version with black (using red poppies on charcoal and other charcoal coordinates) and also a light version with white (using pink poppies and more red and green coordinates). Of course you can use the fabric map and insert your own fabrics and patterns!