The Sew and Tell Project

Have you noticed that more and more quilts are trickling into the content here at Sew and Tell Project? I have because I’ve made a few of them! Over the past two years, I have spent a lot of time trying to learn more about the art of quiltmaking. I still have a lot to learn but with each project I gain more technique and confidence and get better results.

As I’ve mentioned a few times on the blog, a new baby girl is scheduled to arrive in our home in around 7 weeks. All three of our girls have shared a large bedroom, but now our tweens will be getting their own room downstairs, and the little girls will share a nursery.

A bit of backstory: I’ve attended Quilt Market the last two Octobers. Last October, I was honored to make a sample Molly maxi dress for the Painted Garden booth. Here it is modeled by big sister in our local greenhouse. This is still one of her favorite dresses and mine! I can’t get enough of that bright floral on turquoise.

I was lucky enough to bring home an entire fat quarter bundle of the line and added it to my stash after Quilt Market. I wanted to save it for when the yardage would release since I knew I would make a special quilt with the beautiful prints and color story. When Moda Painted Garden designer Crystal Manning shared her cute framed fabric idea on IG stories, I got the idea to use Painted Garden as the design inspiration for the girls’ new nursery. One of our base pieces of furniture is a bright green vintage dresser so it is a perfect fit for an airy and bright room with pops of color!

Without further ado, here is my completed baby/lap quilt. I used the Patterns by Jen Broken Panes pattern available here in paper and here as a digital pattern. The pattern is very beginner friendly. I had to do a simple cutting and strip piecing modification to accommodate using fat quarters instead of WOF yardage.

I keep a whole bolt of Moda PFD Bella Solid in my sewing room for projects and use that as my background. I was able to order yardage for my borders and binding from Missouri Star Quilt Co. and get the backing at my local quilt shop.

I did my first all-machine binding on my quilt since I hope it will get lots of use and wanted it to be sturdy in the wash. I also hadn’t revisited machine binding since I upgraded to a Babylock Soprano.

The completed quilt measures a generous 57″ x 57″ – which is the baby/lap size per the pattern. As I mentioned earlier, the pattern is written for WOF yardage. To keep the same look as the original pattern, I just used similarly colored fat quarters to achieve the same “Broken Pane” look throughout.  As I quilt more, I feel more confidence in making artistic decisions and it sure is rewarding to see my idea come to life! 

Because I’m nearing the end of a challenging pregnancy, and I have a few other projects I would like to finish before baby is here, I decided to have my quilt longarmed at my LQS. They always do a fabulous job, and I just wanted to make sure it was perfect to shine in baby girl’s room for several years. We chose a daisy pantograph with little pops of butterflies throughout.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my quilt today as much as I enjoyed making it!

If you love Painted Garden as much as I do, I’ve noticed that a lot of the yardage is selling very quickly and out of stock in several prints at some of my usual online quilt shopping haunts so you might have to hunt a bit!  Several etsy sellers have bundles and yardage in stock and if you’re like me and desire near-instant gratification you can always Amazon prime a fat quarter bundle! Of course, check your local quilt shop! I was thrilled that mine carried a good chunk of the collection so I have made sure to pick up enough backing and border fabric for my second planned Painted Garden quilt.