A Herringbone Quilt Tutorial : :

This project tutorial is a Quilt-As-You-Go style quilt, made with long panels rather than traditional "blocks". We'll be using cotton batting as our foundation for easy string quilt piecing, making this the perfect project to use up those fabric strip scraps. I think you'll be very surprised with just how simple and quickly this quilt comes together. This is definitely one of my new, most favorite styles of quilting!

Fabric and Materials Required : :

• a variety of fabrics cut into 2.5" x  14.5" ( I used all Anna Maria Horner fabrics from several of her collections. Using around 210 strips for all of my panels + extra for my scrappy binding)
• 8 -- panels of 100% cotton batting measuring 8" x 64"
• thread & sewing pins
• fabrics for the quilt backing and binding
• rotary cutter/large cutting mat/ruler set
• pencil or pen for marking

* Notes * 

• Synthetic batting is NOT suggested, I only use a 100% cotton natural batting. It is important to be able to press the batting with a hot iron and steam. For those of you in countries other than the U.S, please make sure you use a 100% cotton needle punched batting (a reader in India pointed this out to me).
• Use a Low-loft batting. The #1 question I receive about QAYG is folks wanting to know if the seams are bulky. My answer is NO, not to a noticeable degree. I absolutely wouldn't spend my sewing time making a quilt that was poorly constructed or that wasn't comfortable!
• Quilt panels can be made in any size! The measurements I'm sharing for this tutorial makes a 62" square finished quilt. Please feel free to adjust that to your own desired length and width. I plan to make my next one much bigger!!
• This method does not include the quilt backing fabric. I like to add my quilt backing at the end, to avoid hand-sewing, which is really hard on my hands. 

Now, let's get started!! 

    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .    .

Making the Batting Panels  : :

1. To make the batting panels for the foundation string piecing, cut 8 - batting strips measuring 8" x 64".



2. Place one batting panel on the cutting mat at a time, matching one of the long edges to the diagonal grid on the mat, with the fuzzier side up. (the batting I use, Nature's Touch, has a noticeable softer side. This is the side I consider the front side)



3. Keeping the batting at a diagonal, use the ruler and square grid on the mat to mark lines every two inches or so going across the batting panel. I did this for the first 10" - 14" to help keep the proper angel when adding my first several fabric strings. Once those first fabrics are added, you'll keep that angel naturally as you piece



4. Repeat this step making sure you mark FOUR batting panels with lines running one way, and FOUR with lines marked in the opposite direction. This will create the herringbone pattern once the fabric strings are added and the panels are sewn together



Adding the Fabric Strings : :

5.  Prepare the fabric strings by cutting fabrics into 2.5" strips. For this quilt I used approximately 210 strips measuring 2.5" x 14.5" with a few measuring a little less in length for the beginning and end of my panels where that much length isn't necessary

 
6. Using that first mark as your guide, begin by sewing that first fabric right side down onto the batting, using a 1/4" seam allowance along the raw edge. Since you're sewing the fabrics to the batting as your foundation, you'll be permanently setting the fabric strings in place.



7. Fold over the fabric strip and either press with iron or you can simply smooth it down flat with your hand. The fabrics stick nicely to the batting, so I was comfortable carefully folding over the fabric strings, smoothing them as I went. Continue adding fabric strings, placing each new fabric string on top of the other, with right sides facing, matching up the raw edges. Attach with 1/4" seam, fold over, and continue to press or smooth each new fabric added





8. When finished with a panel, press both sides well. Use a mat, ruler, and rotary cutter to trim away the overhang of fabric from each side of the panels and square up if needed. Repeat until all 8 panels are finished.





Sewing Panels Together : :

9. Take two panels with strings pieced in opposite directions and place them right sides together. Use sewing pins to secure their place and sew along one side keeping a 1/4" seam allowance. Repeat this with the remaining panels to create FOUR herringbone fabric panels



10. Press the seams on the back open and the front side of each panel well

Add Quilting Stitches : :

11. Now that your FOUR herringbone panels are finished, use a thread of your choice to add quilting stitches every few strings, pivoting at the center of each herringbone panel to form a "V" shaped stitch line. Continue this down the length of each panel





Sewing the Herringbone Panels Together : :

12. Using a 1/4" seam, sew all FOUR herringbone panels together



13. Press all seams open and the quilt top front, as well. If needed, square up the quilted quilt top. After squaring, my quilt top measured approximately a 62" square




Quilt Backing, Basting, & Binding : :

14. Piece together fabrics for the quilt back to measure at least 2" bigger than the quilt top on all sides and baste it to the quilted quilt front.  I use Therm O Web's SpraynBond basting spray for this, however pin basting works



15. Working your way down from the top of the quilt to the bottom, with a quilt stitch length set at a 2.5 or more if you prefer, simply sew about 1/4" from the seam lines (when adding this stitching it IS recommended that you do use a Walking Foot). Continue this on both sides of each seam running from the top of the quilt to the bottom.





Below shows a close up look of what these stitches will look like from both the front and the back side of the quilt





16. Bind the quilt using your preferred method, any leftover 2.5" strips makes for some fabulous scrappy binding!



Voila! Your Herringbone Quilt is finished!!









Thank you so much for stopping by today and for all the love you've already shown this quilt here, on Instagram, on Facebook, and on Flickr! I really hope you enjoy this tutorial!

Do you think you'll give it a try? 

If you do, please be sure to share on my Facebook page or in my Maureen Cracknell Handmade Flickr group!   

♥   Maureen

A Butterfly Quilt : :

Last Thursday evening, before the busyness of a long holiday weekend and anticipated rain, we took my finished Butterfly Quilt to the church garden for a quick photo shoot. The assortment of red and pink blooms was the backdrop I had decided on before this quilt was even finished, it was so pretty!



This Butterfly Quilt is a request from my 4 yr old niece, Molly, and is one of several I'm making for all my children, nieces, & nephews before the holidays. I'm pretty certain that Molly will appreciate this rainbow of color, as well, so I'm super excited!!

 
It was just about three weeks ago that I had sketch out my pattern and gathered up my stash of butterfly fabrics -- Valorie Well's Cocoon and Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi & Field Study, along with a spectrum of Art Gallery Pure Element Solids. 



It all came together pretty quickly with some fussy cutting of the butterfly prints, a little playing around with the mix of solids, and the excitement of appliqueing those soaring butterflies. After finishing up my Applique Art Quilt, I knew Molly's Butterfly Quilt would have to have more of those!



I quilted with a dense wavy stitch, which is both fun and forgiving! This time rather then using an Aurifil variegated thread for all my quilting -- I tried something new, still keeping with that multicolored look and used an Aurifil dark gray 50wt from the Tula Pink collection for all the quilting at the bottom, an Aurifil bright, lemon yellow 50wt throughout the center, and finished with a bright white 50wt on the top portion of this quilt.



The binding, which I shared a peek of here, is made up of a variety of AGF Pure Elements from Crystal Pink to London Red. It's scrappy, pretty, & very pink! I think Molly will especially like the pink parts of her quilt!





The back is finished with one very large piece of Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi Clippings print and I kept my bobbin a dark grey Aurifil to blend in nicely. Those beautiful roses definitely decided my binding choice!!



I can't wait to see Molly with her Aunt Maureen-made Quilt!



♥   Maureen

A Fabric GIVEAWAY : :

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

It's Fabric Giveaway Friday!

My sponsor, Contemporary Cloth, 

has a wonderful offer for this week's Giveaway! 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Contemporary Cloth began for owner Sondra, as a way to provide a resource for interesting, contemporary, modern, and retro-look textiles for home or office, at reasonable prices.The fabrics she offers can be used in art quilts, wearable art, wall art, interior design projects, crafts, mixed media, book arts, etc. They have a worldwide customer base that has inspired them to continue on that path. In the shop you'll find a large variety of quilting & home dec fabrics, bold cottons, Yuwa Japanese Fabrics, notions, magazines & books and more.

We invite you to sign up for the Contemporary Cloth email newsletter on the website, so you can stay up to date with their new arrivals and sales. You can visit and follow them at on their various social media sites --

* Shop * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest *

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We hope you enjoy visiting Contemporary Cloth!!  

For this weekend's Giveaway, Contemporary Cloth is offering a gorgeous, 1/2 YARD bundle of Anna Maria Horner's three Field Study Linen Parenthetical feather prints, AND the winner will also choose three 1/2 YARD cuts of Robert Kaufman's colorful Essex Linen Fabrics!!!

You can find these lovely AMH Field Study Linens available HERE and the RK Essex Linens right HERE!

In addition,  Contemporary Cloth is offering a special discount to my readers for 25% off ALL orders! Use discount code :  ThanksMaureen on orders placed now thru Wednesday, September 4th!  Clearance Categories are also included (selected Yuwa Japanese textiles, organic fabrics, fabric stamps and stencils, destash books and more!!

AND

Enter to win! 

Here's how,

1. Simply add a comment to this post! If you'd like, you can share with us what you'd stitch up with these beautfil linen fabrics? (one entry) 
2. Follow the Contemporary Cloth Blog, Facebook page, OR sign up to receive the Newsletter on their website. Just let me know that you follow them, by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (one optional entry)

3. Followers of Maureen Cracknell Handmade get an additional entry, too! Just let me know that you do by making a separate comment here to record that entry. (one optional entry) 

4. Help spread the word!! I know that many of you already do, so I thought it would be nice to add that as another way to enter! Whether by instagram, tweet, facebook, pin, blog, etc... (one optional entry)

Please enter now thru Monday, September 2nd. Mr. Random will pick the winner and I will announce their name at the bottom of this post, here on the blog!

* Note * This giveaway is open to EVERYONE! If you're a "no reply" or an anonymous commenter, remember to include your email address in your comment so that I can contact you, should you win! Please check to make sure you can be contacted!

Wishing a wonderful weekend to all!!

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

 

Thank you to all who entered the Giveaway!!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *    
 

From 1,430 entries, Mr. Random says the lucky winner is...

    Comment #1,047 --   *  Heather A *   

Congratulations!!! I will be in touch shortly!  

An Applique Art Quilt : :

It feels so good to share this finished quilt today! I decided to call it my Applique Art Quilt, but was also thinking of calling it my "A" Quilt. "A" for lots & lots of Anna Maria Horner fabrics, for Art Gallery Fabric's Pure Elements, for Aurifil thread, for applique, and an "A" for the sketch stitch art piece I designed this finished quilt around. Lots of A's!! And, as it turns out my very favorite photo from my picture taking was on this pretty apple tree, perfect!



I tried my best to take photos of the whole finished quilt. A few in some of the beautiful spots we discovered on our walk the other night, along with a few others with a painted church door and an old brick chimney as my backdrop.







Right away, I could tell that this is just one of those quilts that truly shines up close and in person. It really is the details that makes this quilt for me, which I wrote about here back when I shared the finished quilt top.



A quilt that started a couple of Summers ago with a panel of handwork -- yo yo flowers made in Little Folks Voile and many little stitches!



That quilt grew around my sketch stitch girl, with lots of improv patchwork, and one large block made of neutral pure element solids appliqued with fussy cut moths & butterflies from Anna's beautiful Sinister Swarm Field Study & Clippings Loulouthi prints!  



That was finally quilted with several colors of variegated Aurifil, combined with some of the fun quilting stitches my Janome offers, as well as some simple hand quilted stitches that I really enjoyed adding!



It's backed in one large piece of Coreopsis in Lime from the Loulouthi collection. I wish I would have taken photos with a bit more of the sky here, the bright green corn field and the blue sky matched this print perfectly! It was so gorgeous to see!





I finished the quilt by binding in this Hugs & Kisses in wine print, again from the Loulouthi collection. I'm so glad I stashed some extra yardage of this particular print in each color a while back with my owl pillows in mind. It makes an awesome binding!!



I wish you could feel this picture! The Little Folks Voile and the Art Gallery fabrics make this quilt so, incredibly soft!!



This quilt is the first quilt of many quilts I hope to make in this style. I have several sketch stitch pieces & some newly stashed Hand Draw Garden just waiting to become quilts, and I'm excited to jump right into the next one! Throughout making this one I did, at times, put pressure on myself to see it finished quickly. But every single time I would get it out to work on I would end up changing directions. In the end, I learned that that's okay, it came together in perfect timing, and now I'm ready to send it off to my friend!

Last year, right around this time, I had stepped away from this blog those last several weeks of Summer to spend with my kiddos before they went off to school. I was really struggling with my health, but mostly with the changes that were in store for me with my last baby heading off to school. It was tough, that day we took them all to school was so hard for me, but was made so much easier when that afternoon an amazing quilt was delivered to me all the way from Australia, made by my sweet & thoughtful blog friend Jodi. I shared here just how wonderful that was and I promised Jodi a friendship quilt in return. A quilt to be made with nothing but Anna Maria Horner fabrics, lots & lots of love, and hope to be able to show her how much what she did meant to me.



Having this blog and all of you to share with means so much to me, thank you all for encouraging me the way you do. This is such a dream come true!!    ♥   Maureen