Way back in the fall of 2021, I hosted a Quiltalong for the Penny Quilt Pattern. During the QAL, I made 2 different versions of the quilt and finished one of them up right away.
But the other quilt top has been hanging out in my sewing room ever since. I know, that is pretty unusual for me! The quilt just kept getting moved down the priorities list + it was the holidays so it took me a few months to get the quilt finished up.
I'm feeling very proud of myself because not only did I finish a Christmas quilt, but I also photographed AND am posting about it before Christmas. Miracles do happen!
I do not make many holiday quilts because I would rather have quilts that can be used year round, but I made an exception for this quilt. The fabrics are Holiday Classics from Rifle Paper Co. and the prints feel so timeless I just had to make something with them.
Yes, I know - we all dislike dealing with sashing but I promise it isn't too bad for the Penny Quilt Pattern. I have a couple videos and a few tips for you.
If you didn't cut your sashing strips when you cut your other fabric, go ahead and start there. I always like to cut all of my fabric at once because I dislike cutting fabric just as much as I dislike adding it to my quilt. It is an important part of this pattern though, you can't really skip it!
I hope every is having fun with their Penny Quilts! Things have been a little quiet on my end as I have had a lot of not-so-fun, administrative type stuff to deal with.
Next week we will be working on our sashing and you can go ahead and start piecing your quilt top if you are at that step. I recorded myself working on my layout for my quilt top and wanted to share the video with you in case you find it helpful.
The layout for this quilt is very forgiving so don't overthink it. You might find it helpful to work on layout a little bit at a time - sometimes if I let the quilt sit for a few days, I have new thoughts about fabric placement.
Happy sewing!
Since a few people have asked for help in creating a queen size Penny Quilt, I put together a mockup of what the layout would look like.
This is not a pattern that I will likely be adding sizing to for logistical reasons, but it is easy enough to add more blocks to make the quilt larger. You will need to make your long sashing strips quite a bit longer as well.
This mockup is done in Sincerely Yours by Sherri and Chelsi. The finished size of the quilt would be 92" x 110" which is a perfect size for a queen bed. I hope this is helpful if you are going big with your Penny Quilt!
I thought I would make a post talking about the differences in piecing between the pattern as-written and the fat quarter friendly version. Note: if you have purchased the pattern, you can get a copy of the fat quarter friendly instructions by signing up here - an email with links to all of the QAL emails will be sent to you. The instructions are in the "Week 2" email.
Welcome to Week 3 of the Penny QAL! This week will begin piecing our blocks.
This will look a little bit different if you are making the FQ version or the version as-written in the Penny Quilt pattern, but you have lots of time to complete this step or catch up on cutting your fabric if you have gotten a little behind. Next week will be a catch up week and then in week 5 we are just cutting our blocks (which you don't even need to do if you are making the FQ friendly version).
I have so enjoyed seeing the #pennyqal posts show up on Instagram! Make sure to use the hashtag in your posts and follow the hashtag to see each other posts. It is so nice to see you commenting and helping each other with your Penny Quilts!
This week I will be doing a live Q&A session on Instagram. This will take place on Tuesday 10/5 at 11:30am PST. I will add a question box to my Instagram stories on Monday night and then I will answer the questions in the live video. If you have any questions, this is a great time to ask them!
The majority of information will be distributed through the email list this week. There are videos discussing how to cut your fabrics for the fat quarter version and for the pattern as written. Because the videos discuss specifics about the pattern, the videos are only available for email subscribers who have purchased the pattern.
If you haven't signed up for the email list, don't worry! If you sign up now, you will receive an email (it takes about an hour to show up in your inbox) that has links to all of the emails that have been sent out so far. You can sign up using the form below. Note: if you purchased the pattern from a shop, just put the name of the shop in the "order number" field
When it comes to picking a Fabric D for the Penny Quilt - I admit to being a little basic. My go to colors are white, off white, or light gray, but you can be as creative as you dare when it comes to picking sashing fabric!
The two qualifications that I would look for when picking a fabric: it should stand out from your other fabrics and it should coordinate (look good) with each of your fabrics.
This is the post I have been looking forward to writing - I always have way more versions of a quilt planned than I actually have time to make. The Penny Quilt is particularly fun to mockup because it works well with a lot of fabric collections and combinations.
I hope that you find these helpful and inspiring - there is a mix of traditional/modern, print/solid, just about everything here!
Today we are going to talk about the details of fabric selection for the Penny Quilt Pattern - prints, solids, scale, value, etc. and getting a good balance for your quilt. I'm going to work through some potential questions that you might have and give you some examples of what I think will work best for the pattern.
Just a reminder - there is no quilting police and I do not believe in quilting rules. I am giving you some guidelines here, but you have got to make the quilt that you want to make.
Thank you for joining in with the Penny Quiltalong! Today I will be discussing fabrics - specifically how many different fabrics you need.
In the pattern, you have four different types of fabrics: A, B, C, and D. Fabric A will be the smaller squares, Fabric B will be in the middle, and Fabric C will be on the outer edge. Fabric D is the slim sashing fabric.
Tomorrow is the first day of the Penny QAL and I wanted to give you a little rundown on what you can expect. Depending on how things go, we may make some adjustments but this is the current plan.
Each week there will be at least one blog post (some weeks will have several posts) with information. In the first couple of weeks, there is more information to share so expect more posts at the beginning and then fewer posts later as we put the quilt together.
Now that the kids are back in school and I have some quiet time to work (yay!) it's time for a Quiltalong - this time we will be making the Penny Quilt. The pattern is 20% off from now until the QAL starts using the code PennyQAL. This discount applies to both the PDF and paper versions of the pattern.
The Quiltalong will last 8 weeks and will begin on September 27th. Each week we will be tackling one step in the process. Bear with me, there is will be a lot of words in this post.
Hi, my name is Erica and I love to make quilts! Click the photo to read a little more about me and how I started my quilting journey.
