pattern

Nesting Basket Pattern Launch

April 5, 2020 Leave a Comment

Launching a new pattern is one of my favorite things. While it has been tough to manage all the deadlines during this global upheaval, making progress, if even on the little things, feels like a big thing.

The Nesting Basket pattern has been in the works since 2016. I’ve made them for friends, for fabric launches, and for my own use. And each time I’ve been asked for the pattern, but told the person it just wasn’t ready yet. Well, today is the day! The pattern is ready. It is incredibly simple, fun to make, and you probably have everything you need on hand to make your own nesting baskets.

If you want to make all three with contrasting colors, you need 6 fat quarters. You can see on the pattern cover that I used the middle basket uses the same fabric as the lining of the large basket and the outer of the smallest basket. You can get away with just 5 fat quarters to do this – you need just one fat quarter of the middle inner/small outer fabric. And you’ll want to plan your cutting before you make any cuts.

The fabrics I used for the cover baskets are all Art Gallery Fabrics (of course!). I used florals from Amy Sinibaldi’s Mayfair line, and the lining for the smallest basket is fabric from AGF Foresta Fusion.

You’ll also need 1 1/4 yards of medium-weight interfacing. I used HeatnBond Heavy Weight Fusible iron on interfacing. One 20″ x 1 yard package was enough. You can also use fusible fleece, or a foam-based stabilizer made for bags and purses. Use what you have, the pattern is versatile! And there are alternate handle instructions if you’re using a heavier stabilizer.

You can whip up a full set of nesting baskets in an afternoon. And nothing about the pattern makes you make all three sizes if you don’t need all three. You can make stacks of large baskets if that is what you need, or an army of small baskets if it keeps you organized. I like a large and a medium for small pieces I’m working on at the sewing machine.

The nesting baskets are great for scraps, selvedges, tools, or whatever you like. The largest basket finishes at 6 1/2″ square, and the smallest is 4″ square.

The nesting basket pattern is available for sale in my pattern shop. Head over to purchase your pattern. When you make yours, share it on Instagram and tag me @craftmoore and use the #nestingbasketspattern hashtag.

I can’t wait to see all of your fabulous nesting baskets!

Filed Under: Organization, Sewing Tagged With: basket, Decor, pattern

Color Block Twist

March 10, 2020 Leave a Comment

This fat quarter friendly pattern is the perfect weekend baby quilt to whip up! To make the Color Block Twist quilt, you need 4 solid fat quarters and 5 patterned fat quarters, plus 3/4 yard of outer border, and the Straight Out of Line ruler by Creative Grids. And wouldn’t you know it – that is our Ruler of the Month!

For my version of the Color Block Twist quilt, I used Art Gallery Pure Solids in Banana Cream, Grapefruit, Mirage Blue, Warm Wave, and Festival Fuchsia, and combined them with Playroom fabrics by Mister Domestic for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Each month I pick a Ruler of the Month, and I make a video that shows you how to use the ruler. And then I create a pattern using that ruler. This month’s pattern is the Color Block Twist!

I love how quickly this pattern came together. And it has such a contemporary feel, with the wonky four patches and the negative and positive blocks … and yet it is super simple to make!

If you want to learn how to use the Straight Out of Line Ruler, I made this video that shows you how easy it is. And if you watch through to the end, I share a little bonus on how you use the Stripology Squared Mini ruler to square up blocks. You’ll love this simple technique!

I encourage you to purchase your ruler and supplies at your local quilt shop. However, if you need to purchase online, here are affiliate links which give me a small commission when you make purchases by clicking these links:

On Amazon: Straight out of Line ruler and Stripology Squared Mini

At Fat Quarter Shop: Stripology Squared Mini

And get your free pattern by joining our mailing list:

Filed Under: Quilt, Quilt Pattern, Ruler of the Month Tagged With: art gallery fabrics, pattern

Log Cabin Heart Quilt

February 4, 2020 2 Comments

Who doesn’t love a simple heart quilt? And if you ask me, a scrappy heart quilt is even better! This Log Cabin Heart Quilt is quick to stitch up with the help of the Curvy Log Cabin Trim Tool to get those fabulous curved-looking top blocks! All you need is the ruler, 3/4 yard of assorted heart-colored fabrics, and a yard of background fabrics … oh, and the Log Cabin Heart Quilt pattern!

Of course I went through my stash of Art Gallery Fabrics for this heart mini quilt. You’ll find assorted Art Gallery Fabrics Prints including Matchmade, Meriwether, Maara, and Elements collections. For the background fabric I chose this fabulous Art Gallery Fabrics Denim in Soft Sand. YES! I went with Denim for the background, and it gives this quilt fabulous texture!

The Log Cabin Heart Quilt is also special because it is the first Ruler of the Month pattern! What is the Ruler of the Month? I’m so glad you asked!!

Each month, I’ll be sharing a new fun ruler with you, as well as a quilt or other project that you can make with the ruler! For the first month the pattern will be free. Once the next month’s pattern and video are released, the previous pattern will get moved to my pattern shop for you to purchase.

This month, I’m sharing the Creative Grids 4″ Curvy Log Cabin Trim Tool. This ruler guides you through the process of trimming up a mini log cabin block that looks like a curve!

This is a super fun ruler, and I’ve made a video to show you how to use it to make your Curvy Log Cabin Blocks.

And, of course I show you how the Spot on Dot works with this ruler. Lines on quilting rulers are even more fabulous when you can see them clearly!

I encourage you to purchase the ruler at your local quilt shop. However, if you need to purchase it online, here are affiliate links to purchase the Curvy Log Cabin Trim Tool at The Fat Quarter Shop: http://shrsl.com/23l6y or on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2vLMnOs

This pattern was free to newsletter subscribers in February of 2020. If you missed the free download period, you can purchase the pattern in my shop:

Buy the Log Cabin Heart Quilt Pattern here.

I can’t wait to see your fabulous and scrappy Log Cabin Hear quilts!

Filed Under: Quilt, Quilt Pattern, Ruler of the Month, Video Tagged With: heart, pattern, Quilt, quilt pattern

Gallery Wall Quilt Pattern

October 23, 2019 Leave a Comment

I’m so excited to share the launch of my newest pattern – the Gallery Wall Quilt!! I had the idea for this pattern nearly a year ago when I saw a faux gallery wall display. I thought, “Wow! That would make a great quilt!” When I saw Maureen Cracknell’s new line for Art Gallery Fabrics, Enchanted Voyage, I knew it was perfect for showing off in this quilt. I’m sure that you can think of lots of fabrics that would look great all framed up in a quilt (maybe those favorite fabrics you’ve been hoarding and have been too shy to cut into?).

This quilt allows you to feature up to 21 different prints, and is set up for two frame colors, and one background color.

The Gallery Wall Quilt Pattern is a full-color pattern available as a PDF download. The directions are broken down with both words and images to make putting the quilt together a seamless process, perfect for a confident beginner all the way up to an advanced quilter. You’re going to love picking out your favorite fabrics, fussy-cutting them, and finally getting to enjoy them in this quilt!

There are also so many fun ways to quilt the Gallery Wall Quilt! It would look great with an all-over design, straight-line quilting, or custom quilting. I chose to do some free motion quilting on the frames and the prints, and then did some walking foot quilting in the background to balance it and keep it simple. But the options are totally limitless!

Head over to my Carolina Moore Patterns shop to purchase your copy.

Filed Under: Quilt, Quilt Pattern Tagged With: art gallery fabrics, beginner, pattern, quilt pattern

That one time I became an Award Winning Quilter

October 27, 2015 Leave a Comment

One of the most interesting and frustrating things I learned when working at a quilt shop is that quilters collect fears from other quilters. One quilter will look at a pattern and exclaim that it is “too hard” because of the inset seams or curves, and the other quilters within earshot will nod… and those originally contemplating the pattern will shy away.

I was determined that I wouldn’t take on the fears of other quilters – but then I did. Shortly after starting at the quilt shop, I attended the local quilt show there in Las Vegas. I asked a friend if she had any quilts hanging. She told me “Oh no! If you have more than one stitch in the corner of your binding, they mark you down!”

Wow. That sounded scary. So I didn’t enter my quilts. I took on a fear of quilt shows.

(If you’re interested, you can buy the Ellipsis Quilt here.)

After moving to San Diego, I decided to enter the quilt show here. For a small extra fee, I could get feedback on the quilt entered. I wasn’t looking for a ribbon – I was looking for honesty. As a quilter, I think my work is pretty good. But I’m not the best – and I can always use some constructive feedback from an expert. So I chose two quilts to enter. Including an unfinished quilt I (coincidentally) started about the same time I collected my fear of entering quilt shows. I would get these quilts finished, and I’d learn how to get better at my craft. That was winning.

The first night of the show, I went to see all the quilts. I was thrilled to see some beginner quilts hanging – they didn’t take on a fear of quilt shows! Good for them! I wanted to see which quilts had ribbons so I could see what I should aspire to – but none did. Yet.

After chatting with a few friends, the organizers started announcing the awards. When they came to the modern category, they announced my name as the second place winner. WHAT!? I wanted to shriek! But I knew almost none of the ladies there, so I stayed silent as I did a happy dance on the inside. I WON! What had I been afraid of this whole time? How many potentially award-winning quilts have I made, and not entered? Maybe none… but I will never know. Because I accepted my friend’s quilting fear as my own.

I’m so glad that I overcame my fear, and entered the quilt. I only wish I’d done so sooner!

Later that week, I picked up my quilt, my red ribbon, and a check. I also was given an envelope with feedback from the judge. Which told me I need to work on my binding. Maybe my friend was right about quilt shows – but that didn’t mean they were something to be afraid of.

If you’d like to make this quilt (it is SUPER simple to make, and uses 2.5″ mini charms and a jelly roll), you can buy the pattern in my pattern shop.

Filed Under: Personal, Quilt, Quilt Pattern, San Diego, Sewing Tagged With: pattern, Quilt, story

Supernova Quilt

April 3, 2014 Leave a Comment

I’ve been working on this quilt for quite some time. Last fall, I made a quilt for Art Gallery Fabrics to hang in their booth at market. The Sunshine Quilt. A starburst quilt like that one uses almost entirely diamonds. The pieces around the edges don’t have to be full diamonds, but all the middle pieces do. When cutting the diamonds for the quilt, there were a lot of partial diamonds cut on the selvedge ends. Far more than could be used in the Sunshine Quilt. I wanted to use all the extra diamonds from the starburst quilt into another quilt. That’s how I came up with this Supernova Quilt.

I started with all the partial diamonds. I counted how many I had, and divided by 8. That’s how many blocks I could make.

I stitched these pieces into pairs, and then the pairs into sets of four. These were each half a quilt block. Then I trimmed up the edge of each so the finished block would lie flat.

I stitched the halves together to make full blocks. All of the blocks were odd sizes, so I measured the smallest to see how large a square I could get out of it. Then I cut this size square from each block.

I didn’t worry about where the center of the block was in relation to where all the points met up. I was just interested in making the same sized block out of each.

I stitched together odds and ends to make enough sashing for the quilt, and sashed all the blocks together.

The quilting looks very random, but it is a stitch in the ditch of each seam, extended out to the borders.

Hopefully this will be the last quilt that is quilted exclusively with my walking foot… I’ve been working on improving my free-motion quilting. Yay!

Filed Under: Quilt, Quilt Pattern, Sewing Tagged With: handmade, pattern, Quilt

Dr. Seuss “Oh The Places You’ll Go” Wallhanging

February 21, 2014 2 Comments

Last year I made a quilted wallhanging using a simplified version of one of the last images in my favorite Dr. Seuss Book – “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.” I think the Dr Seuss Quilt is one of my favorite things I’ve made, and now it has a companion in a second Dr Seuss Quilt. I love the quote from the book. I love the whimsy of the image, and I love that it is the first thing I ever free-motion quilted. I decided to make a companion piece this year, using the same techniques, but a different image from the same book. My hope is to make another one next year so that I can have the three hanging side-by-side in the playroom. Here are the two I have so far.

I used basically the same technique I did last year. I started by drawing out the image, and picking fabrics. I labeled my drawing so that I would know what color each part would be.

Then I created Printable versions of each part, fused them onto the right color fabric, and fused those onto the background. I used the dark orange as a background color, cut it to 18″ square before fusing on all the pieces.

Then I started stitching. Using the image from the book as a reference, I spent about 4 hours quilting, which adds all the beautiful detail. I love that it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, the less perfect, the better! Here it is quilted, but not bound.

I did make one change from last year. I painted in the lettering. Last year I took the time to cut out each individual letter, then press it, and stitch it in place. Since I was doing four lines of text this year, and they were going to be smaller, I decided that painting them in was the best choice. It was tedious, but so much better than cutting and stitching!

After quilting, I trimmed everything down, and bound the quilt, adding pockets in the corner so I could easily add a rod for hanging.

If you’re interested in making your own, here is what you’ll need:
OH THE PLACES YOU’LL GO QUILT
(finished size 21″x26″)

Fat Quarter Dark Orange fabric, cut to 18″ square.
1/2 yard green fabric (for borders – cut two pieces each 2″x18″ and two pieces 4.5″x21″)
1 1/2 yards black fabric (binding, backing)
Black thread
Small pieces (I used Fat Quarters) of the following colors: Orange, Light Orange, Light Yellow, Medium Yellow, Green, Light Gray (for the child’s hands and face)
Applique pattern pieces printed onto Jenny Haskins Web Magic (printable fusable for applique) – found at quilt shops that cater to machine embroidery
Basting Spray
Batting
Mechanical Pencil

Here are the pattern pieces:
Green 1 Fusible
Green 2 Fusible
Medium Yellow Fusible
Orange 1 Fusible
Orange 2 Fusible
Seuss Light Yellow Fusible

Even in my messy playroom, I love the way these look on my wall!

Please note: These instructions are for personal use only. The pattern and quilt are not for sale. The pattern is intended for personal use only. If you’re interested in purchasing Dr Seuss fabric, Robert Kaufman has awesome Seuss Fabrics.

Filed Under: DIY Wall Art, Home Decor, Kids Crafts, Made for Kids, Quilt Pattern, Sewing Tagged With: Decor, kids, pattern, Quilt

Pieced Heart Pillow

January 30, 2014 4 Comments

I love decorating for Valentine’s Day. After taking down the Christmas decor, the house feels a little stark. It feels good for a little while – everything has been cleaned up and put away. But after a couple weeks I start to get antsy for some cheery colors and fun decor. Which makes these Valentine’s Day pillows perfect.

I actually made three different kinds of pillows. I’ll be sharing the others with you later in February.

To make the pieced heart pillow fronts, you need (enough for both pillows):
6 fat quarters of patterned fabric (my fabrics are all from “Scrumptious” by Bonnie and Camille for Moda)
1 fat quarter of background fabric (I used Kona Snow)

If you want to finish the pillows you need 1.5 yards backing fabric (that’s enough for both pillows), and about 4″ of velcro. You’ll also need a 20×20″ pillow form for each pillow.

I started by cutting my fabric. For each pillow you need:
From the patterned fabric:
70 – 2″ squares (assorted)
4 – 3″ squares of the same fabric (for cornerstones)

From the background fabric:
4 – 2 x 2″ squares
4 – 3.5 x 2″ strips
3 – 5 x 2″ strips
2 – 6.5 x 2″ strips
2 – 8 x 2″ strips

Lay out all the pieces. I like to lay them out on a piece of batting. The batting helps keep them in place a little bit, so a toddler running by is less likely to destroy my work. I put the pieces in a random order to get a very scrappy look.

R1: 3.5″ background, 2 squares, 5″ background, 2 squares, 3.5″ background
R2: background square, 4 squares, background square, 4 squares, background square
R3: 11 squares
R4: 11 squares
R5: 11 squares
R6: background square, 9 squares, background square
R7: 3.5″ background, 7 squares, 3.5″ background
R8: 5″ background, 5 squares, 5″ background
R9: 6.5″ background, 3 squares, 6.5″ background
R10: 8″ background, 1 squares, 8″ background

I like to strip piece, so to mark my rows as I’m piecing, I use different colored pins.

Here are all the rows pieced:

I press the seams in alternate directions on the back. One row to the left, the next to the right, the next to the left… this reduces the bulk and also makes the points match up easier.

To finish the top, I measured the top and bottom, took the average of the two, and cut 3″ wide border pieces this length. I then measured the sides, took the average, cut 3″ wide border pieces this length. I added the 3″ squares to the side pieces, added the top and bottom borders, pressed, and then added the side borders. Top complete.

Quilting the pillow gives it more depth, and helps keep all that stitching in place. I layered a piece of muslin, batting, and my pillow top, and spray basted (we can have the discussion of pin basting vs. thread basting vs spray basting, but spray basting is just so much faster, so I often go with just spray basting things).

You can quilt your pillow however you like. I did stitch-in-the-ditch around the border, and around the heart. Then I did a cross-hatch in the heart.

To finish the back of the pillow, I measured my finished pillow, and cut 2 backing pieces. Each piece was the height of the pillow by 1/2 the width + 4″.

I folded the long end over 1″, then folded it over again and pressed. I selected a fun decorative stitch (no particular reason… just why not?), and stitched it down. I did the same with the other side. I added velcro to the center of each. Then I connected them using the velcro, put the whole thing right-sides-together with my pillow top, stitched all the way around, clipped, and turned right side out. There are lots of ways you can finish a pillow. This is called the “envelope” method, and I find it is one of the easiest.

I do like adding about 2″ of velcro to the center. Otherwise the middle tends to balloon out. Much prettier with everything all tucked in.

Filed Under: Quilt, Quilt Pattern, Sewing, Sewing Tutorials Tagged With: Decor, Fabric, finished, pattern

My Birdie Sling Bag {Friday Finishes}

January 10, 2014 1 Comment

Over the weekend, I was at my local quilt shop, and was inspired. Which is one of the great things about quilt shops, isn’t it? I have been doing some bag making lately, but wanted a bag that was a little larger. The Birdie Sling Tote Bagby Amy Butler looked great. Fairly simple to make, 3 fabrics, and nothing super tricky about it. Plus, it was nice and big… perfect for this weekend’s trip to CHA.

I made my bag using Riley Blake fabric for the outside and handle, and a fun Kate Spain print on the inside.

I followed the pattern and instructions exactly, with one exception. I used Soft and Stable for my lining instead of fusible fleece. I had the Soft and Stable on hand already, and wanted to save a few pennies… well, as many pennies as you can save when you’re already buying a pattern, over 3 yards of fabric, and 3 yards of interfacing. Bag making isn’t cheap. I guess that’s why I don’t make very many.

I’m looking forward to carrying around my bag this weekend… and moving forward. Such a fun bag!

Filed Under: Sewing Tagged With: Fabric, finished, pattern

Roots and Wings Quilt using Art Gallery Fabrics

September 17, 2013 11 Comments

When the wonderful folks at Art Gallery Fabrics asked me if I’d like to play with some fat quarters of one of their new lines, I got giddy. Seriously, playing with fabric always makes me a little giddy, but playing with brand new fabric that magically arrives in my mailbox is cause for extra excitement.

AGF has several new lines coming out, but I love the new “Legacy” line by Angela Walters. First, because I love Angela Walters’s work. She is an amazing long arm quilter, and I’m always in awe of her incredible work with the negative space that modern quilters love to leave in quilts. But also I loved the colors and designs in this fabric. Many modern fabrics have very bright colors. I love bright colors. I really do. But sometimes fabric that feels a little more neutral fits the bill. This fabric reminds me of blue jeans and work shirts. There isn’t a single plaid or rivet, but it has that homey, comfortable look to it. Like Saturdays. If you don’t understand what I mean, check out the fabric in person, I think it’ll start to make sense.

I took my AGF fat quarters to my local quilt shop to find a good solid to go with them. I ended up with this great burlap-brown color. Brown isn’t a very modern color, but burlap is very “in” with crafters, and since I’m kind-of a crossover crafter/quilter, this seemed like a fun choice.

Getting to play with fabrics also meant pulling out techniques that I have been wanting to play with. I have had my EZ Dresden ruler for some time, and haven’t had an excuse to play with it. I used it to make a modern, slightly wonky twist on Dresden blocks to use in this quilt, which I call “Roots and Wings.”

I love the name of this line, “Legacy”, which Angela so named because of her Grandfather. As I was working on this quilt, I thought a lot about my boys. My oldest just started Kindergarten, and on a recent Facebook post about my son growing up, a friend reminded me that as a mom, it is my job to give my son roots and wings. I hope you can see the roots and wings in this quilt.

This quilt is fully double-sided, I pieced Legacy into the back as well. I was careful with the placement of the piecing, and let my long-armer know my intent… so the quilting on the curves of the front shows up in these giant stacked-coin pieces on the back.

I did the piecing on this quilt, but I handed it over to my friend and long-arm quilter Nichol of A Desert Quilter to do the quilting for me. We decided on the pebbles for the negative space, and I think she did an amazing job. Here is a closer look at some of her quilting.

It should have taken her practically forever to do all this quilting – the finished size of the quilt is nearly 60″ x 70″. But, she got it all done for me in less than a week!

I have been wanting to re-cover the throw pillows in my front room almost since the first day we got them. They came with the couch and although they were fine, they weren’t my style. I would have loved to re-cover them with wild quilting patterns, but my husband is more a fan of builder’s beige. Since I had so much brown in the quilt, I knew I’d be able to get away with making pillow covers that went along with this quilt. Nichol did the quilting on these pillow covers as well!

I’m loving the style it brings to my front room! This is the first room that guests see when they walk into my home, and it has always bugged me that I don’t have much handmade in there. That problem has been more than solved with this new quilt and pillows! There is now plenty of handmade… but not at all in a kitschy way. I love me some kitsch… but probably not for my formal living room.

If you want to know how to make this quilt (which, by the way does NOT require any curved piecing), here is how you can make your own Roots and Wings quilt:

Selection of Fat Quarters from Legacy by Angela Walters for Art Gallery Fabrics
3 yards background fabric (also used for binding)
Additional fabric for backing

Start by making quarter dresdens. I used the Easy Dresden Ruler to cut wedges out of 8″ wide strips of fabric, then shuffled up the wedges and stitched them into 16 sets of 5.

I then squared up the edges of each, making one side even, and when evening up the second side I cut away at the hole traditionally left for the center circle of the Dresden plate. On half, I cut the right side off, and on the other half I cut the left side.

Using the basting stitch on my machine (making the stitch length as long as possible), I stitched about 1/8″ from the curved edge, leaving long thread tails.

I then pulled one thread a little, making the edge start to gather so that it curved up. I spread the slight gather evenly across the whole curve.

I then gently folded in the curved edge about 1/4″. Try to be accurate, but if it isn’t perfect don’t sweat it.

I pressed this edge down, and had the perfect edge to top stitch down onto my block.

I cut 16 squares from my background fabric, each 9″ square. I pinned a chopped quarter dresden onto each. One side is longer than the other. That gives the final quilt blocks a little more of a wonky look.

I top stitched the edge of the dresden down, right on the edge of the curve. At this point you can cut away the excess background fabric behind the dresden, but I left mine on.

Put the squares together into sets of 4.

Then sew these blocks into a row to make the roots and wings design.

I then added yardage to each side to finish the top. I cut the backing fabric into the length I needed, then cut off the selvedge. I cut 9″ of the fabric off, down the length of the fabric, to divide it into two unequal pieces. The 9″ piece went on one side, the larger piece on the other.

I then pieced together my backing and gave everything to Nichol to quilt. After she got it back to me I bound it with the same fabric I used for the background. I think this gives it a nice, clean edge.

The pillows were made from the leftover fabric. I made several different scrappy pillows, keeping them fun. I even made one with the scraps from cutting the dresdens down! I took all of those pieces and pieced them into a long row…

I trimmed up the sides and pieced these little pieces into a pillow!

Here’s one more shot with my little helper. With his big brother in school, he’s not quite sure what to do with himself, so he “helps” me with my projects. You might have noticed him in one of the other photos… and if you scroll up, you’ll see his hand on the left side of the couch in the 5th photo from the top. So cute!