Little Koala Quilt

Today I'd like to share about this little cutie I made about a week ago.  This is the pattern Koalas by Elizabeth Hartman.  I'm a sucker for her patterns.  They are adorable.  I've made several, but all small versions.  To me one koala is very fun, but a whole quilt of them might make me a little crazy.  Following instructions closely is essential with her animal patterns with lots of different sized squares and rectangles.

This style of piecing mostly uses what I call the "snowballing" technique - drawing a line corner to corner on the square, lining it up in place, sewing on the line, cutting off the excess, and pressing.  The Folded Corner Clipper from Creative Grids USA is the most helpful tool for this job!  Instead of drawing the line on the fabric, just line up the square where it needs to be, line up the Folded Corner Clipper, rotary cut, sew, press.  I previously made Elizabeth's patterns the usual way drawing the line, but instead I used this tool for the koala.  I am so happy to say that I achieved much, MUCH better precision piecing.  Some of the squares were 1", and it worked great!

Without a doubt, I have better results sewing using the 1/4" foot on my machine as a guide along the cut edge than I do stitching on a line.  Some lines are wider than others, some lines can be crooked or wiggly which can leave you guessing!

My mom gave me an unusual piece of fabric a few weeks ago that she thought was colorful and just my style.  She was right!  And I loved the idea of using it on the back of the koala.  This project was made using all fabrics from my stash!  I quilted it with straight lines, random directions, random widths apart, not planned at all, simple, different.  It's cool.

I encourage you to try the Folded Corner Clipper Tool.  I use it to make all of the bias cuts for joining together binding strips for my quilts also.  

My daughter Niobe is off to college now, and her walls are bare.  I gave this little quilt to her to brighten up her dorm room.  Of course, she loved it!

Thanks for visiting!