Amy's Amish Bars Tutorial

Amy's Amish Bars Quilt Along Project

You've been asking, so it's high time I get the tutorial up for making my "Amish Bars" variation. It's a great space for practicing all sorts of designs with and without rulers, especially those that work linearly like sashing and borders.

Still in progress....

 All you need is two fabrics with a decent amount of contrast. My selection of a tan solid and turquiose-y Grunge has been a big hit. You can order the kits for the top, backing and binding, and thread on AmyQuilts.com.  You'll need 1/2 yard for the narrow strips (the tan) and 1 yard of the main fabric. You might be able to squeak by with less, depending on how wide your fabric is and the care of cutting, but I think this is a safe amount. The final quilt measures 32 by 30 inches.

Cutting:

    From the tan:

        Cut two 2-1/2 inch by WOF (width of fabric) strips. Subcut into 4 strips 20-1/2 inches long

        Cut two strips 2-1/2 inches by 22-1/2 inches

    From the main fabric:

        Cut one 6-1/2 by 20-1/2 inch strip

        Cut one 4-1/2 by WOF strip, subcut into 2 strips 20-1/2 inches long

        Cut two 4-1/2 by 24-1/2 inch strips

        Cut two 4-1/2 by 30-1/2 inch strips

Assemble as shown in the above image. Press well and sandwich with your choice of backing. It takes a yard to back it. Our mottled brown has been a big hit too, so there's a backing kit too.

Looks like a nice suede, doesn't it?

Feel free to adapt this tutorial to fit your own needs; vary the strip width and/or length. I think a wider center strip would look great with the addition of some applique.

My hubby said the image above reminded him of a Roman or Greek temple, which tickled my funny bone and I made up the image below and sent it to him! I thought he was going to choke he was laughing so hard.

David goes quilting....eyes up here ladies, it seems to say....

If you can come up with a witty caption I can use with this, leave it in the comments.

For quilting of this top, of course you can head over to the AmyQuilts Facebook page, but I will follow this post up with an archive of all the videos so you can watch them directly here on the blog. That makes it a little easier to follow them in order. I'll also post a list of the rulers I have used in that post.

American Valor Quilt Along: The Videos

This fun and easy panel quilt is a great canvas for practicing your free motion quilting. Come along with me as I undertake another free motion quilting adventure. A limited number of the American Valor kit are still available.

There are two videos shot live each week via the AmyQuilts Facebook page on Wednesdays and Fridays, each at 1pm eastern time in the US. The replays will be posted afterward on the Facebook page and also embedded into this post below so that you can watch them without going on Facebook at all.

First we start with a little talk about prepping a quilt for basting and quilting. Click this link to watch it in Facebook where you can see the comments. There's also an introductory blog post as well: American Valor Quilt Along Introduction.




Now we move on to the quilting in this second video! You can watch this video directly on Facebook so you can see comments and questions, or right here on the blog below. We start off with the center star and quilt is lightly so it can be the "star of the show".....



The third video in which I finally have a decent haircut and I stitch some wind into the flag stripes! Watch below or at facebook to catch all the discussion that happened during the live video.




The fourth video is below or you can watch it directly at facebook so you can catch the comments and questions. In this quilting video, I begin outlining the words towards the top of the panel and do a little star and loop fill in the background. (Note to self, do not stand while making last minute adjustments to the camera when it's already on!)


I'll add more videos as they are posted. I hope you will follow along.

American Valor Quilt Along Introduction

Today I started my first video for the American Valor Quilt Along and we stuck to just covering a few pre-quilting basics. In all honesty, I hadn't gotten it all sandwiched and ready to quilt and I probably could have, but realized there were a few things I wanted to talk about that would be easier to show before I sandwiched the top with the batting and backing.

I had to take the picture of the top in two parts so I could get it fairly straight and well lit on my design wall. (OK, and the fact that there are several boxes in front of the design wall didn't help! LOL.) I neglected to pay attention to the star placement on the right vertical strip of stars. Boo. Oh well.

Trimming threads off the back of the top.

Especially if your fabric is off grain (which can happen with digitally printed fabrics and panels like this when you need to cut along a printed section. It's a lot easier to trim before you sandwich than it is to go fishing with a knit picker (tiny crochet hook) and get it out after you realize that dark thread is showing through the top. Here's a video I did where I did just that.

Backing choices!  I am totally crushing over these! They look a little like worn denim, but are a nice quilting cotton. I'll be using the #3 fabric with is nearly a perfect match for the blue around the star border. These will be sold at AmyQuilts.com shortly.

Thread choices! Of course, I'm going to use my beloved Glide thread and since you all want to see my stitching in the video, what I will use is different than what I would choose if I was doing this video for myself. In the next video, I'll have more of the quilt stabilized and we'll move into the actual free motion quilting.

The next video is Friday, May 3 at 1pm Eastern time. Won't you join us? Feel free to share this quilt along info with any of your quilting friends. The more, the merrier!

American Valor Quilt-along

Next week will start the first Facebook live videos for my next quilt-along series for American Valor. There's still time to get your kit and quilt along with me!

Due to all the preparation for our local shop hop right on the heels of two separate spring breaks for my kids, it's been difficult to get this going as planned, but we will get started May 1!

The kit comes with full instructions and includes fabric for the top and binding.

Videos will be shot live on the AmyQuilts facebook page Wednesday and Fridays at 1pm with an additional video Friday at 5pm. This is all Eastern time in the US. The footage will be recorded and posted to the facebook page after each live segment so you can watch whenever it's convenient for you. If you don't do facebook, I will be running a separate blog post here with the videos embedded so you can watch them right here on the blog without going to Facebook.

I'm excited about this panel based project as there are spaces and design areas that we can really make sing with our free motion quilting. I have additional yardage that goes with this fabric if you are interested in making it bigger than the 37 x 67-1/2" kit directs, as well as some great choices for backing. Right now the yardages aren't listed online, but I'll work on getting it up somehow soon.

Won't you join in the fun with me?