~ Hunkering Down Quilt Finished ~ Free Pattern ~

 Every quilt has a story tell, some more interesting than others.  Until I started publishing patterns most of my quilts were made out of emotions.  It could be something as simple as a new baby in the family or as complicated as a terminal illness.  Honestly I like the quilts constructed with emotions much better.  They not only are made with love but they become more precious to me and the receiver due to the emotion that went into the design and every stitch.  

My Hunkering Down Quilt falls under quilts made from emotion only because of what is going on across the globe.  The real story behind this quilt is far more simple and happy.  But before we get into the quilt story lets take a look at the finished quilt.  Below is a closeup of the quilting.  With so much white space I had to quilt it to death.  It just wouldn't have looked as nice with something simple or an all over design.

The backing is pieced with the same yellow and white used on the front of the quilt.   A simple label was also made from the same fabrics and stitched to the quilt back before quilting.  This is my new favorite way of adding a label.  The simple design is quick and so is hand writing the information on the label.  And in order to remove this label a person would need to damage the rest of the quilt.  I like knowing my beauties will always have a little bit of history attached to them for future generations.

But a word of warning before you sew your label onto the backing.  Check your spelling, several times.  I read this a blue million times.  I even sent my best quilting buddy a picture of it so she could look it over for errors.  We both overlooked the misspelled Pademic Pandemic.   Oh well, nothing is perfect and it adds just a little more history to the quilt.

Speaking of history lets get back to the history this quilt on Podunk Pretties.  It's simple really.  Someone on Facebook was looking for the pattern for this quilt block.  She only shared a cropped image of the block.   I searched high and low looking for a quilt pattern or block. 

 No luck.  So I decided to draft it up in EQ8 and write a tutorial so this nice lady could make the quilt.  I had no intentions of making the quilt myself.  My single block made for the tutorial was going to be made into a pillow for my bed.  Well I fell in love with the block and the fabrics and YADA YADA YADA we have a quilt called Hunkering Down.  You can find the Hunkering Down Block tutorial here.

The story continues....Yesterday I shared my Hunkering down quilt on Facebook and Instagram.  A man shared my post on Facebook.  A man I didn't know, had never heard of, I found this odd so I had to check out his FB page.  His FB looked pretty normal, nothing suspicious....Like I know what I'm looking for....HAHA!  An internet detective I am not!    

 Look at his title for my quilt post.  HMMM....who is this fella and how is he connected to MY quilt.  Yes I'm stressing because I felt like he was saying this was his quilt.  And for that Jeremiah I owe you an apology, I'm Sorry. 

He will be the recipient of the quilt made by the  Nina Woodgate,  who posted the picture wanting help finding the pattern many weeks ago.

The great thing about yesterday's interaction with Jeremiah is he shared where the original quilt can be found.  My excitement immediately turned to worry of copyright infringement.  But as before there was no need to worry.  I'm not infringing on anyone's pattern.  Thank goodness.

So here she is in all her glory the original quilt called Summer Winds.  Summer Winds is the name of a quilt block pattern but not this one.  It was the quilt block they thought looked the closest to this one.   But I have the book they used as a reference and it is not the same block.  If you would like to see the entire article and quilt history, you can find it by clicking here.  

Shew!  we can finally get to the measurements for finishing your quilt. This is basic information.  Some math will be required on your part.  WARNING  Yardage calculations are done by the EQ8 program.  I rounded up the estimates to the nearest whole number.  The calculations are for the entire quilt top, blocks, borders, yellow binding.as shown in the image below.  If you want a white binding like my quilt add 1 more yard to the white.  Backing is separate and calculated using 42" wide fabric.  It is also calculated with overage for longarm quilting.  If you scroll down you will see the entire back of my quilt to give you an idea on how to piece your backing.  Mine is 2 colors because I ran out of yellow.

There are some uncommon cuts in the borders.  You can round these up or down to suit you.  I prefer exact measurements but it's your quilt do as you like.

White Fabric  7 yds.

A    (9) 12.5" squares

B    (3) 18 3/16" squares,  make two diagonal cuts from corner to corner on each(your cutting an X on           the square.

C    (2) 9 5/16" squares, cut from corner to corner ONE TIME

D    (2) 3.5" x 68 3/8"

E    (2) 3.5" x 74 3/8"

H    (2) 6.5" x 76 3/8"

I     (2) 6.5" x 89 3/8"

Yellow Fabric   3 yds.

F   (2) 1.5" x 74 3/8"

G   (2) 1.5" x 76 3/8"

 

Backing   8 1/2 yds.

Happy Stitching! 

Pin It

~ Stitching Sunshine Blog Hop ~

Hello Quilting Friends!  Today is my day in the Stitching Sunshine Blog Hop hosted by Carla over at Creatin' in the Sticks.  

When I saw the sign ups for this blog I knew I had to join in because I was already making something yellow. My project is a quilt called Hunkering Down. This quilt block is free printable PDF here on my blog.  You can find the post with the link to the PDF by CLICKING HERE.  

Unfortunately, my quilt isn't finished due to my decision to quilt it to death.  The quilting has a lot of ruler work mixed in with some free motion feathers.   Since my Bailey Home Quilter has a 15" throat I can only quilt half of a block at a time.  This really slows down the quilting due to all of the starting, stopping and clipping threads.   

But....OH MY GOODNESS is it worth the extra effort.  I can't wait to see this big ole girl on a bed.  Yes she's a little on the large side, finishing at 90" x 90". 

The buttery yellow Andover fabric is perfect for my blue and yellow shabby chic spare bedroom.

Below is an Electric Quilt drawing of the quilt since I can't show you the whole real quilt.  I played around with several ideas for setting these blocks.  You can see them on a previous blog post HERE.

Well that's it for me but make sure you hop over to the other bloggers participating in this blog hop.  This is one creative group of bloggers.

Monday, June 22nd

Just Let Me Quilt

VroomansQuilts

Quilt Schmilt

QuiltFabrication
Life in the Scrapatch
Karrin's Crazy World
Just Because Quilts
Quilting Gail

Tuesday, June 23rd

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Scrapdash

MaryMack's blog  
karen's korner
Sue S - hosted at Creatin' in the Sticks
The Joyful Quilter
For the love of geese

Wednesday, June 24th

MooseStashQuilting

PamelaQuilts

Podunk Pretties you are here

Homespun Hannah's Blog
Ridge Top Quilts
Words & Stitches
Storied Quilts
Ms P Designs USA
selina quilts

Thursday, June 25th

Kathleen McMusing

Den syende himmel
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Samelia’s Mum
Hill Valley Quilter
Seams To Be Sew
That Fabric Feeling
Creatin' in the Sticks

  

Pin It

~ Sneak Peek ~ Quilting the Hunkering Down Quilt ~

Hello Quilting Buddies!  Just thought I would pop in for a sneak peek of my Hunkering Down quilt as its being quilted.  Custom quilting on my set up is tricky business.  I own a very low end midarm machine called a Bailey Home Quilter 15.  The 15 means she has a 15 inch throat, that's not much quilting space in the frame quilting world.  So quilting large blocks or spaces can be tricky but doable with a lot of rolling back and forth.  She is equipped with a stitch regulator but it's first generation or as I call it an old school regulator which makes it a little more difficult to maintain uniform length stitches.  Again, it's doable once you get the hang of how it works.  The quilting on this quilt is a mix of free motion and ruler work.  The feathers, circles and ovals are free motion.  The arcs, straight lines and crosshatching is ruler work.  Yes, she is quilted to death.  With so much open space for quilting I just couldn't help myself.  Over the last couple of years I've greatly reduced the amount of quilting on my quilts but every once in a while a gal just needs to take a quilt over the top and quilt it to death.

Deciding the quilting design can sometimes be the death of a quilt, at least for my quilts.  I've about 30 quilt tops in need of quilting because when they were finished I couldn't decide on the quilting.  With my quilt top storage full I must quilt quilt tops as they are finished or make room for more quilt top storage.  The more quilt tops in storage the less room for new fabric and I don't want that to happen!....HAHA!  So I spent many hours looking for quilting ideas and drawing out my ideas.  I'd like to give credit to the owner of the image below but there was no information provided.  Anyway...As soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect for my quilt.  Feathers combined with crosshatching, it just doesn't get much better than that!

Finding the perfect border design was much easier than deciding on the block quilting.  

Hours were spent doodling on my quilt top with the plexi-glass and dry erase marker.  Until I finally said this is good enough, just QUILT IT.

Oh but I wasn't finished designing.  There's still the matter of the blank alternating block.  The first idea was to do a very traditional feathered wreath with cross hatching to match the border.  But since the throat on the quilter is 15 inches and the 12 inch on point blocks are 17 inches long it would require some super tricky quilting maneuvers.  Nope, I need a plan that is easy to break down into 2 quilting areas.   After a few hours I finally came up with a quilting plan that will compliment the border and can easily be broken into 2 or more quilting areas.

Pulling together all the quilting can be quite tricky.  Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don't.   To late to make changes now!  See you in a few days with the finish!

Pin It

~ Where did I get this? ~

Hi-diddly-o! Quilting Friends!  Do you ever find fabric in your stash that you don't remember buying?   Sounds crazy right?  Well I found this cute little bundle of Sugar Sack 2 by Whistlers Studio hiding deep in my stash early this morning.  I don't know when or where it was purchased but I'm so glad I found it.  Now what will I make?  That's another mystery!

The plan to have these Hunkering Down blocks on the wall by bedtime last night didn't happen.  I was close to my goal.  About another 30-60 minutes sewing should do the trick. 

I'm speed piecing these blocks using the webbing technique.  If you don't know how to web piece a block you can read more about it here.  It's a great way to save time and match up the seams without pinning.  

Before finishing the blocks this morning I decided to take a little walk outside while it's still cool.  And look what's blooming...Peonies!  Such a beautiful flower.  It's too bad that these can't be cut and brought inside.  I made that mistake in my youth.  Little did I know they are full of ants!  This flower can not bloom without them.  The little ants help pull open the petals and keep the flower clean.  You can't see them in the picture below but trust me they are there.

In the same flower bed is this Iris.  I call it "Toilet Water Iris" because it is the ugliest color of flower I've ever seen.  The picture makes it look better than it is in real life.  It has a muddy water color to the petals and the yellow isn't quite that yellow.  Maybe I should add something to the soil to make them change colors like with Hydrangeas.  Do any of you know if an Iris's color can be altered?

Pin It

~ Spice Up The Hunker Down ~

Howdy!  Quilting Friends!  Today in Podunk will be spent piecing my Hunkering Down quilt blocks.  The Hunkering Down quilt block is a FREE tutorial available here on my blog.  It's a FREE to download and print.  You can find it by clicking here.

This is where I stopped last night around midnight. The plan is to find a good Netflix series and then let the stitching begin.  I hoping to have them finished and on the design wall by bedtime.  There's a few other things like laundry and feeding Mr. Podunk that I'll be working into piece-athon.

As I make these blocks I need to decide the layout for the finished quilt.  Putting them on point has already been decided.  In my opinion on point quilts have a little more eye appeal.  The quilt below is very tradition.  Some would even say modern.  But since I'm older and have seen this style for YEARS I'll call it traditional.  It's beautiful and would look lovely added to the stacked quilt decor in the spare bedroom.

As a quilt pattern designer my mind is always in design mode.  I rarely know how a quilt will finish until it's done.  So the decision needs to be made.  Do I go super simple and traditional?  Or do I kick it up a notch with applique?  The applique below is still very traditional but adds a little WOW factor to the overall design.  I also thought the yellow inner border added a little more to the traditional look.

The next question would be, IF I decide to do the applique should I add gingham to the center of the flower or stay with the theme of  a two fabric quilt?  Y'all know me and you know I love me some gingham, but maybe it would be better without?  It really all boils down to how much time I want to spend on the this quilt.    

A pop of color is also another idea being tossed around in my brain.  The spare bedroom in the spring is yellow and blue.  How cute would this be on the bed with my lacy white pillow shams and yellow gingham shams?  Then remind myself this is only meant to be a folded and stacked decor quilt.  But it will be big enough for the bed.  Sigh...it's a real battle inside my brain!  HAHA!

Only time will tell what will be.  And it will never be if I don't get my rear in gear and back in the Studio.  Feel free to leave me a comment below letting me know what you think about my design options.

Pin It

~ Hunkering Down Quilt Block PDF Tutorial ~

Over the last few weeks we've all been doing our best to social distance.  Many quilter have taken this time to make masks or catch up on UFO's.  I've watched the social media change in ways I never even imagined.  Some changes have been good and others not so good.  Of course the not so good is always opinion oriented.  I tend to ignore and block those who cause too much fluff.

The post I like the best are of course pretty pictures of quilts.  Second on the like list is quilters looking for patterns.  For one I like the challenge of searching for the pattern on the internet.  Every once in awhile the internet search disappoints.  Such was the case this weekend.  While scrolling through Facebook I saw this picture of a vintage quilt with a request for the block pattern.

After a hour of searching high and low I came to the conclusion that this block does not exist.  So it was off to my encyclopedia's of quilt blocks.  And again it was total failure.  Well what's a quilt designer to do but draft the quilt block.  It seemed like the right thing to do.  I've been wanting a yellow and white quilt for my bedroom anyway.  This block would be perfect.  And since I couldn't find the name of the block I had to name it myself.  Hunkering Down seemed perfect not only because we're all doing it but because the center block is  called the Economy block.  Our economy is taking a big hit right now.  I also thought the center white square was a little trapped....quarantined.   Now I want everyone to know I don't feel trapped.  My life has changed very little other than wearing a mask when I do go to town.  It's business as usual in Podunk, we hunker down all the time because it cost to much to drive to town everyday unless your going to work.

Okay back the quilt.  It's classic and not too complicated so it will look great in just about any color or fabric as long as the print is not to big.  

In no time at all I had whipped up the design in EQ8 and was stitching up the test block.

If you would like to make this block you can download the printable PDF here.  This is basic instructions and you must have basic quilting knowledge.  No pressing directions or yardage requirements are given.  THIS PDF TUTORIAL IS FOR ONE BLOCK ONLY. 

 If your friends see your block and wants the pattern, please send them to my blog where they can download their own copy.  DO NOT SHARE THE PDF.  The internet is a world where popularity matters.  Clicks, comments, Likes, and shares help me to work my way up the popularity list for my little business.  Thank you for understanding.

Don't forget to share your quilt blocks and quilts with the hashtag

#hunkeringdownquiltblock

Pin It