Zig Zag Quilt

A while back, I was looking on pinterest and saw that my friend Lorie had pinned this quilt.

I was instantly smitten and wanted to make one for myself.  I loved the colors and the simple, yet bold pattern.  I had been wanting to make a throw for my living room for a long time.  I followed the pin to a blog called Empty Bobbin Sewing and read up on how this quilt was made.  I then sat down and did some math so I could make it the size I wanted.  Here's the pattern that I came up with.  I think my quilt will be about 57" x 70" when finished

Fabric:

• 1/2 yard of five fabrics for zig zags
• 3 yards of a solid for zig zags and background
• 4 yards for the back
• 1/2 yard for binding

Cut:

• six 8" blocks of each of the five fabrics
• twelve 8" inch blocks of the solid fabric

I followed this video for making my half square triangles.  Each row of my quilt has twelve half square triangles. The half square triangles measure 5.25" and when the twelve are sewn together, they make 58".  

And here is my layout after making all my half square triangles.  Only the half squares were sewn together.  I used the back side of a vinyl tablecloth to layout my pieces like a flannel graph board.

The fabrics I used were:

• Kona Cotton in slate for my main solid
• Kona Cotton in navy (?) for my dark zig zag
• Denise Schmidt Diamond Dandy (green print)
• Modern Muddle by Karen Comos (orange print)
• Robert Kaufman Metro living in gray (gray circles)
• Robert Kaufman Carolina Chambray in Jungle (?) (green at bottom)

I bought all my fabrics at Cool Cottons when we were in Portland.  If you are in Portland, I would highly recommend that you stop by.  The lady that owns it was super nice and she had a really great selection of fabrics.  

After I sew together the zig zag panel, I will use my remaining solid to make a large panel and a narrow panel at either end of the zig zag panel to look like my inspiration photo.  I'm having so much fun sewing again!  If only Christmas vacation were longer so I could work on more projects.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.  

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  We've had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Here are the highlights from the last night.  

Last night, we quickly snapped a photo on our way out the door to church for the Christmas Eve service.    This little stop caused me to leave my phone and video camera on the kitchen table, and only remember my purse and camera.  I guess the good news is at least I got pictures, but the bad news is, I didn't get Jack's antics on video.  

 This was the first year Ryan finally participated and seemed happy to be on stage.  He also made a bee line to the nearest microphone, which is probably why he is really smiling.  He is Phil's son after all.

Jack on the other hand, did not want to leave me and since I was making him go on stage, he took his blanket.  He was a little upset that he wasn't near a mic.

These three cuties were a delight to watch in the show.  They are singing about the "Good News" in this shot.

Ryan was actually singing here!  I was so happy.  He never sings along.

Jack at this point, decided to split from the group and travel down the stage to a lone mic.   I think he was channeling Steven Tyler and was using his blanket like a scarf.

Here's when he really let loose when he was supposed to "baaaa" like a sheep in the song.  He's my little rock star.

After the service, we went to my grandma's for our annual Christmas Eve celebration.  The little boys got foam swords in their stockings.  A sword fight quickly ensued.  They loved it!  We enjoyed watching them.

Here's Ryan opening his first present of the evening.  They boys were wild and a handful, but they also brought a lot of laughs and entertainment.  We had a great time list night.