The Neapolitan Quilt + Half Square Triangles

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while. It was such a simple quilt to make for such a special little girl. My cousins and I are all incredibly close, so when my older cousin's wife found out she was pregnant with a little girl, I knew I'd be making her a quilt (and buying lots of cute clothes). She requested solid pinks and browns, which resulted in this:

Quilted by Kathy Koch of Thread Bear Quilting

Everyone who saw it said it reminded them of Neapolitan ice cream. They're lots of yummy Kona solids--but this was the last time I'm working with Kona. I went to buy extra of the darker brown color, and the dye lots were completely off. I had the same problem with Kona Coal last year, so I've switched to RJR Solids. I have a huge post about this in July though.

I used the half square triangle method my grandma taught me, which I just drew a pretty juvenile demonstration of.

Basically, you just need a whole bunch of these (for a baby quilt, I used 80 total squares--so you start with 40 of your lighter, white-ish color then 40 of the rest of the colors mixed up). The squares were 6" to begin with, so finished, they were around 5.5". This quilt was finished before I realized how amazing trimming HSTs is, so it was a little bit wonky. Oops.

Then lay them out and make sure there aren't two of the same color too close to each other, and make sure you pick a "center" for the white square to be in. You can rearrange them however you want though, that's the beauty of HSTs. They're my favorite. I could make 800 different quilts with HSTs.

(I am desperately in need of a design wall, but for now, it's the design floor to the rescue)

I basted it before deciding that I was going to send it off to a quilter, and the quilting design made it look fabulous.

Then it took me about two weeks to motivate myself to bind it. Do you see how cute that backing fabric is?! Super cheap at Joann's. I usually hate buying fabric from Joann's but it matched the solids so well.

Now, it's being enjoyed by miss Charlotte, my cousin's precious little girl.

Jelly Stripe Sandwich Quilt

I've had quite a few people ask for a tutorial for my most recent finish of 2014, my rainbow stripe quilt. It was actually pretty quick and simple to put together—I’m fairly confident that as long as you can cut and sew straight lines, you can make this quilt.

Mine measures about 58x64 finished; however, I left out a couple of the colors in my jelly roll and trimmed the size in quite a bit.

I used the Westminster Fabrics Rowan Shot Cotton Jelly Roll, which just happened to be in my stash. I can’t seem to find a link to anyone selling more of them, but you could do this with any jelly roll and it would still look beautiful.

You will need:

-1 jelly roll, or 40 2.5” x 42" strips

-1.5 yards of a solid color for the middle pieces (I used Architextures Crosshatch in White)

-the usual quilting necessities—seam ripper, pins, sharp scissors, a ruler, and rotary cutting matt + rotary cutter. (post on that coming next week)

We are sewing with a standard ¼” seam allowance.

First, cut your solid color into 2.5” x WOF strips. Then cut them in half.

Next is the most complex part—and it really isn’t complex at all. For my quilt, I wanted each “step” to be 2”, but you can change it really simply if you have math skills. I don’t, so I’m going to give you the measurements I used, and you can finish the pattern depending on how many strips you have.

Cut your top strip so one piece is 5” long. This leaves you with another piece 37” long (assuming you have 42” strips, which are standard). Pin your solid color (in my case, white) to each side.

Cut your second strip so one piece is 7” long. This leaves you with another piece 35” long. Pin your solid color to each side.

Cut the third strip so one piece is 9” long. This leaves you with another piece 33” long. Pin your solid color to each side.

I think you can see where I’m going with this—if not, I’ve made a chart you can print out. Just check each strip off as you go to make it even simpler! On the chart, the starred rows are to let you know that the direction will shift. There are two direction shifts in the pattern, even though my quilt only has one. It depends on how many strips you’re using and how wide your fabric is.

Jelly Stripe Sandwich Quilt Checklist by hayleysews

^I should really make a design wall at some point...


I thought of lots of cute ways to quilt this pattern—horizontal lines, stitching in the ditch, FMQing…. Except I am terrible at FMQing. I’m going to work on it this summer, because I feel weird to be a quilter in 2014 who can’t do free-motion quilting. In the end, I decided to send it to my local longarm expert, Kathy (threadbearquilting.com). I picked a cloud pattern, because what goes better with rainbows than clouds?? 

The backing Lizzy HouseDaisy Pearl Bracelets—the new tonal Pearl Bracelets are my favorite. 

I machine-bound this quilt with some green I had in my stash. Rainbows, clouds, sunshine, and grass all in one quilt… Now if only this Michigan weather would start to be as cheerful as my quilt!

If you recreate this, I’d love to see it. Follow me on Instagram (@hayleysews) or email me pictures—hayleysews at gmail.