BLOG: Quilt Tutorials

Fabric Shopping at Shiny Happy World

June 10, 2024

Back when I sold fabric bundles, I created several color palettes that I used over and over again. When particular fabrics went out of print (which they did with annoying frequency) I found new fabrics in those same palettes, so that even when the specific fabrics changed, you (and I) could still get a pretty consistent palette of colors.

Now all the fabrics I use come from Spoonflower (and they’re my designs, so they don’t go out of print!) but I still use the same approach to creating color palettes. I create a palette that really works well, and then use it in lots of different projects.

The only problem is that Spoonflower’s search engine is abysmal at shopping for blenders. If you’re looking for fabric with raccoons (or rockets, or popsicles, or any other easily identifiable motifs), Spoonflower’s search engine has you covered. But if you’re searching for wiggly stripes in a very specific color, their search engine just isn’t designed for that. 🙁

So I’ve created the links that you need here in my Shiny Happy World!

If you go to the fabric section of my shop (the pink menu in the banner) you’ll find the following options:

In this post I’m going to break down each of those categories and tell you how best to use them. But first a quick note! When you find something you like in my shop, the button takes you to the fabric or that collection in Spoonflower. You will actually make your purchase through Spoonflower – not through me – so you’ll need to use Spoonflower coupons or sales. They’re almost always having a sale of some kind!

Also – you can always use my palettes as a guide to shop at your own local fabric store! Just go to the Fabric by Color Palette section and pick the palette you like, then print out the main image (the one that shows all the colors lined up) and use it as a guide to pick your own tone on tone blenders.

Fabric by Color

Fabric by Color is the most straightforward. It’s where you’ll find all my blenders, sorted by color. Here’s one of my favorites.

The link takes you to a collection on Spoonflower of every blender I have using all the shades from light to dark of that particular hue of eggplant purple, so if you shop within that collection you know you’re getting colors that work perfectly together.

The colors on the Fabric by Color page are not alphabetical. Instead they’re grouped by color collection, so all the Farmers Market blenders are together, all the Animal Kingdom blenders are together, etc. Which brings me to. . .

Fabric by Color Palette

Fabric by Color Palette where you can find links to take you to collections for each color palette. Here’s the Farmers Market collection where you’ll find those eggplant blenders.

All of the colors in that collection are named for things that make sense for the collection. These are the color collections I have so far:

Farmers Market (colors inspired by and named for fruits and vegetables)
Animal Kingdom (colors inspired by and named for animals)
Classic Rainbow (bright, saturated primary and secondary colors, named for those colors)
Gemstones (bright, saturated tertiary colors named for gemstones)
Sea Breeze (soft, weathered colors inspired by and named for the beach)

I’ll be doing additional posts with more information about each color collection – including lots and lots of photos showing how I’ve used it in various quilts, because nothing is more helpful than seeing it in actual use. For now just know that these are very large collections because they have every single blender in every single color of that palette. It adds up to a lot, and can easily be overwhelming, which is why I also have Fabric by Color and Fabric by Design options.

Fabric by Design

Fabric by Design is where you go if you know exactly what kind of pattern you’re looking for. For example, you know you want those swirly small polka dots I use in so many of my samples. I call that print Soda Pop.

If you click on that link, you’ll go to a collection on Spoonflower of every version of the Soda Pop print I have, from every color collection. How do you know which ones coordinate? That’s when you look at the color names. So if you know you’re using the Famers Market color palette for all your appliques, and you want those tiny dots, go to that collection and pick the ones named Strawberry, Cantaloupe, Corn, Avocado, Blueberry and Eggplant. They will all coordinate beautifully together.

So that’s the blenders – what I use most often. But I also have a few other ways to shop for fabric.

Fabric by Theme

Fabric by Theme is where you’ll find collections that go beyond blenders, like the Good Dog collection.

These collections usually include blenders, but they also include other fabrics.

Cheater Quilts

Cheater Quilts is where you’ll find large-scale designs that work great for cheater quilts, pillows, duvet covers, and more. My favorite thing to do with these prints is buy a few yards and then hand-quilt with big stitches around each motif, like I did here.

That’s the Meadow print in blue and yellow.

Cut & Sew

I don’t have much in the Cut & Sew section yet, but there will be more. Right now it’s just a few holiday projects.

More Shopping Details

I LOVE Spoonflower, but I’l be the first to admit that the all the fabric choices can be a little overwhelming. I’m going to give you a little bit of info here, but know that in every single fabric listing on my site, there are tabs with tons of additional info about how to order, and how much fabric you’ll need.

In a nutshell, my favorite fabric for quilts is the Organic Cotton Sateen. No contest. The colors are very bright and crisp – and stay bright and crisp through multiple washings. It’s a lightweight, very tight weave so there’s almost no fraying on raw-edge applique. And it gets softer with every wash! My bedsheets are this fabric from Spoonflower and I adore them.

For backing and binding I get full yards, but for applique I almost always get two yards of the Fill-a-Yard layout that can get you 48 different designs. I purchase two blocks of each color so I only get 24, but I’m getting very close to a fat eighth of each, and I love getting a wide variety prints in one go. I also love being able to pre-wash it as one piece of fabric (so no fraying) and then easily cut the pieces apart after washing.

Hope that helps with your fabric selection! More info (and loads of sample photos!) soon for each color collection.

Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.

And here are links to posts about using specialty fabrics.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

How to Squish Two Animals into One Block

August 1, 2023

All of my applique quilt patterns (except the Paper Dolls) are built on a 10-inch grid, and I almost always design one animal for each block. But sometimes you may want to squish two animals into one block!

Maybe it’s a social animal like those meerkats in the first photo.

Maybe you want to add a baby animal, like these cats.

There’s a post here with more info about resizing any applique pattern to make a baby version.

Or maybe you want to use the Peekaboo Mouse pattern to have a little mouse photobomb one of your other blocks.

Or maybe you want to add something that will deliberately bust out of its 10 inch frame, like this frog flicking his tongue into a neighboring block.

It’s easy to play with your blocks like this – but you want to make sure it still fits in a 10-inch square, and since I advise you to start with an 11-inch block and then trim it down to 10 1/2 inches and sew it together so it finishes as 10 inch – you need to know where those 10-inch edges are.

I used to just use one of my square rulers to measure. I’d lay out the block, then check to make sure it all fits properly, then make adjustments (if needed) and measure again. It worked, but I wanted a way that let me see the edges AND move things around to adjust them at the same time.

So here’s what I do. I made a little tool that’s quick, easy, and free.

So there you go. How to squish two animals into one block – and know that they’re going to fit beautifully!

Have fun with this!

Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.

How to Applique with Fusible Adhesive – a very basic intro
How Durable is Applique with Fusible Adhesive?
Fusible Applique the Easy Way – the way I currently work – use with any of my patterns that include SVG files
How to Use a Light Box to Layer Your Applique – perfect placement every time
How to Applique with Fusible Adhesive – photo tutorial – use with any of my patterns that do not include SVG files
How to Applique with Fusible Adhesive – video tutorial – use with any of my patterns that do not include SVG files

Here are links to special posts about eyes.

Here are links to some extra fun things you can do with your applique.

Other Applique Methods

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about outline stitching.

How to Make a Quilt with an Alternate Grid

April 16, 2023

How to Assemble a Quilt that Uses an Alternate Grid - a video tutorial from Shiny Happy World

One of the easiest ways to make your quilt more dynamic is to use an alternate grid instead of a simple checkerboard.

And one of the easiest ways to make an alternate grid is to add half blocks!

It can be tricky to plan and assemble these quilts, but there are really only a few things to keep in mind – fabric requirements, block size, and how to sew those blocks together without any dang Y-seams.

The fabric yardage for my quilt patterns really doesn’t change – so that’s easy.

The size for half-blocks is also easy – once you remember to account for seam allowance. For my quilts (which are all based on a 10-inch grid) the half blocks will finish at 5 x 10 inches. That means you need to trim them (before sewing them together) to 5 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches. That means you need to cut your initial blocks 6 x 11 inches.

That leaves layout and assembly.

To make things extra easy for you, I’ve created basic templates you can use for six different quilt sizes. The samples all use the Woodland Critters quilt pattern, but you can use these layouts to add half-blocks to any of my patterns. Use the free alphabet pattern to add barks and yips and whines to the Lovable Mutts pattern, add snores to the Silly Sloths pattern, add a name and birth date to a baby quilt. You get the idea!

For each size below I tell you how many full blocks and how many half blocks to cut, give a template you can follow to assemble your blocks in a no-Y-seam layout, and explain in detail how to assemble the blocks. (It looks more complicated than it is – basically I’m just starting with the smallest units and adding to them with each step.)

Get more info about the different quilt sizes here, and get some tips for quilting an alternate block quilt here.