Hi friends,
Today I am sharing a quilt that I made using my Beads quilt pattern, this modern quilt pattern was inspired by once of my favorite crafts, making beaded friendship bracelets! My friend Giuseppe aka Giucy Giuce asked me if I would like to make a quilt for Quilt Market using his upcoming line titled 40, that will release in June of next year. The collection was a perfect fit for a friendship bracelet quilt - scroll down to learn more about the line and see some finished quilt photos!
The Beads quilt was inspired by a favorite activity between my son Grey and I, making beaded friendship bracelets. This is a fun, modern quilt pattern for advanced beginner to intermediate quilters, or those who enjoy sewing curves.
The pattern is fat quarter and fat eighth friendly (I used fat eighths) or scrappy for a really fun look!
The Beads pattern includes coloring sheets, cutting diagrams, full color instructions and some great "how to sew" videos on sewing + trimming up the diamond and circle blocks.
Fabric Information:
June is his birth month and this year he is turning 40 - to celebrate he has created a new collection of his favorite designs from collections past, plus a few remixes. 40 features 20 classic Giucy Giuce prints + 20 new designs inspired by his very first fabric collection Quantum. The collection is all about joy and celebration and is a delightful mix of color and print!
Fabrics used - all from Giucy Giuce collections for Andover fabrics
Beads layout - I worked with 33 of the 40 fabrics to make my Beads quilt top in the throw size. Working with 1/8" yard sections of fabric it was easy to cut out the shapes needed for the layout.
Background - Spectrastatic in Mimeograph
Backing - Spectrastatic in Seashell
Binding - Super String Theory in Pink Panther
Planning out and making the quilt top:
Once of my favorite tricks when using the coloring sheets included in the pattern is to use a glue stick and actually glue little fabric swatches down. This is helpful when you have several of the same color fabric. I cut out some little pieces from the edges of the fabric and then played around with my arrangement until I liked the layout. Then using the glue stick, I was able to glue them down in place. These are also nice to keep in your quilt project binder if you have one, to remember what fabrics were used on a particular quilt. I will write the fabric names on the back to keep track.
Chain piecing anytime I can is my favorite! These bead blocks were a piece of cake lined up.
There are links to helpful sewing videos in the pattern! I am now a huge fan of the half circle, it's great for larger prints or prints that you do not want to chop up too much.
Following along with my coloring sheet to get every block in the correct order!
Quilting Details:
I decided because of the time allowed to go ahead and quilt this myself. I chose a creamy white thread so it blended in with the background fabrics nicely and did a straight line stitch 1/2" spaced.
I love how the simple straight line quilting looks on this one.
For my binding, Giuseppe sent me one of the pink prints to use, I decided to go with a big hand stitch finish using a white hand quilting thread.
Finished quilt images:
Thanks for checking out the Beads quilt - 40 Version on the blog today! If you happen to go to quilt market in Houston this next weekend, you can see this quilt over at Giuseppes corner of the Andover Fabrics booth along with all of his other fun makes!
Happy sewing,
Nicole
