I am OBSESSED with this quilt. I loved making it and the pattern for it! It is so cheerful! Because the creation of this quilt and its pattern followed right behind the publishing of my All Together Now quilt pattern, I was ready to work on something simpler - one square block instead of 32 hexagon blocks. Now don't get me wrong, I am still sooooo in love with the way All Together Now turned out with its incredible borders, amazing blocks, and all that gorgeous custom quilting. It will forever mean so much to me but it was really nice to make a quilt that came together more quickly!
For this cover quilt, I made it with Confetti Cottons - White and Canary from Riley Blake Designs and they were so sweet to post about it on their blog! Thanks Maddie from RBD for sharing my work!
Construction - Piecing the Quilt Top
The blocks in Sunshine Puff are so precise because they're made using foundation paper piecing (FPP). If you're new to this method, this is a great quilt to learn on because the FPP for these blocks is easy! FPP is amazingly accurate and it makes using odd shapes easy, creates exactly the same sized blocks, and creates sharp points. There are full step by step instructions in the pattern and if you're interested in seeing FPP in action, watch my YouTube tutorial where I break it down step by step. It's kinda like riding a bike down a flat paved road, it takes a moment to get a feel for it but it's totally worth it.
To stabilize the center of each sunshine block, a circle of fabric is stitched down where all the sunbeams and white spacers meet in the center. This circle is later covered by the puff. You will see this flat circle in some of the photos in this post, these are pre-puff progress photos. Since the puffs are so three dimensional, it would be kinda ridiculous trying to quilt the quilt with them on so they are added after the quilting is completed. I quilted right over those flat center circles with a wonky circle design just like I used in the borders.
Inspiration
I was initially inspired to make this quilt because of my love of all things outdoors. If it's a beautiful day, you'll likely find me reveling in the beauty of nature, soaking up the sunshine and embracing its warmth on my skin. I was also inspired when I encountered this incredible octopus quilt aptly named "Tentacle" by the talented Mary Arter @merry_otter at QuiltCon 2024. I could not get it off my mind after the show because of the amazing shape and three dimensional aspect of those suckers!
I was further inspired by my love of puff quilts. While I haven't made one in about 15 years, I've been smiling seeing their popularity have a resurgence. With these three ideas bouncing around, I knew they had to be combined into sunshine blocks. I went to my computer and the design poured right out onto my screen. I drew up the block's FPP template, wrote the first draft of the pattern, printed it all out, and started stitching. I tested out several size puffs to figure out how to get them to the size I was imagining and a test block was born!
Pattern Testing
After a bit of editing, I excitedly sent the pattern off for testing. I naively thought we could get this pattern tested in a month. 🤦♀️ After a 4 month testing period for All Together Now, this one's easy, we can do this one quickly right?!? Well, life happens. I got sick with an upper respiratory infection for three weeks and found out that a slow leak in my master shower caused black mold to start brewing under my stairs. Yuck! If you heard my raspy voice and construction going on during my recent social media reels, you now know why. Thankfully we caught the leak early enough, the shower is now waterproofed, and the mold is gone!
Most importantly, it's really not fair to my testers to put this much of time of a crunch on them. They're balancing everything going on with their lives too. One of my testers is even working and in grad school and somehow still found time to work on this project! As they continue to work on their projects, I'll add more pictures and of course you can always check them out on social media with a search for #SunshinePuffQuilt. I have to say thank you to these amazing quilters who helped make this pattern shine and because they were patient with me as I tried to stick to an unreasonable timeline. You all are the best!
For the cover quilt, I went with canary and white Confetti Cottons, which are solids by Riley Blake Designs. My pattern testers took the project to the next level with lots of different colors and some fun prints! I always tell my pattern testers to make something they love and I think you'll really enjoy what they came up with. Click on any photo to see it larger.
It's easy to see why Kristen @kristensewkrafty went with these adorable prints! Meet her adorable pup Oliver! Isn't he the cutest!?! I love that she used the big print on her puff and stitched a block into a pillow! It's perfect!
Mollie @madeby_moonlight embraced those summer vibes by going with lemon fabric then found twisty straws for her backing fabric on spoonflower! Sunshine and lemonade! Does it get better than that? I can't wait to see this one put together.
Stasi @tennesseequiltretreats teased us with that beautiful first photo of her cut fabrics saying that she had a plan. When I saw her first block, I got so excited! The colors are fantastic! It's so cheerful and I love that she's got different colored circles...Will the puffs match? We will have to wait and see!
Suzi @redwinequilter swapped the placement of the white and colored fabrics within the block, using a navy colored fabric in the corners instead of white. Then when the quilt top is assembled, Xs appear! It reminds me of cross stitch. Any cross stitchers out there? I love how changing the placement of contrast completely changes the look of a quilt and she nailed it!
Here are some more fun mockups that highlight the X design instead of the sunshine design. I found a fabric line from Riley Blake called, " Here Comes the Sun" by Sandy Gervais and had to play with it in this quilt. It's all sunshine, lemons, and flowers and is coming to stores this month!
Coloring Pages
Whether this quilt is made full of sunshine or looks like it is cross stitched, it is so cute! Click the link to download the free coloring pages for you to create your own color layout.
Quilting it Up
When it came time to quilt my quilt, I was ready with a full plan in my mind which is not my norm. Usually I sketch quilting designs on the coloring page over and over until I come up with a plan that speaks to me. But with this quilt, I knew that I wanted to keep the sunbeams puffy by densely quilting in the white spaces between them. I also wanted to play off the round puffs by quilting circles in the borders and sashing. I repeatedly traced the base of a spool of thread that had a 2" diameter in the borders, overlapping them just a bit to get them to fit and used the traced line as the outer edge of each wonky circle. To separate the circles in the sashing from the dense quilting in the blocks, I stitched a 1/4" space inside each long side of the sashing. This gives the eye room to rest and gives each design a place to be. The cornerstones are so small that I didn't feel they needed any quilting at all. They puff just like the sunbeams and I like it.
To get the sunbeams to puff, I used two layers of batting - a layer of warm and white on bottom and a high loft poly on top. This was my second time using a lofted poly and I didn't love it either time. As I was quilting, it was challenging as areas that were already quilted were much flatter than areas that were not. While the poly makes the quilt look puffy it feels empty, making me really glad I added the warm and white underneath. I've heard of quilts using soft and stable for batting. This is a foam typically used in bag making and I'd like to try it in a quilt. I've heard it quilts up easily and beautifully. If you've tried quilting with soft and stable, what did you think? Let me know in the comments below.
This adorable print on the back is called Hide and Seek for Windham fabrics by Sally Kelly @sallykellyfabric. I found it as a 108" wideback at Orchid Owl Quilts and it just had to come home with me despite not knowing what I'd use it for. The colors were so perfect for my All Together Now quilt that I used it as the backing. I still had the pieces I cut off from the edges. This print is so happy and I wanted it on the back of Sunshine Puff too. I was able to match up the repeat in the print and have just enough! Matching up prints to make them appear as one piece of fabric is so easy! If you're interested in seeing how, check out this short video tutorial.
Release
The Sunshine Puff quilt pattern is releasing on May 15th, 2024, just in time for summer! Don't forget to download the coloring pages, pre-order your copy of the pattern, and do a fabric pull!
Thanks so much for reading! If you're as excited about this new pattern as my testers and I are, it would mean so much to me if you told a friend about it.
I'd love to see what you make with the new Sunshine Puff pattern! Please share it with me.
Happy Quilting!
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