Welcome back to the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month designed by Janome Maker Carolina Oneto! You are almost through the whole quilt! 

This month we will make our eleventh block. Carolina sews all the blocks on her Janome 1600P-QC. She recommends you to use a stitch length between 2.0 and 2.2, but this sewing machine is capable of stitch length variable up to a maximum of 6mm!

Remember that all the blocks will have a finished size of 12” so that means the unfinished size will be 12 1/2”

Fabrics:
White background

• Sixteen 2 1/2” squares
• One 5 1/2” square

Red

• ·Two  5 1/2” squares

Orange

• Five  4 1/2” squares

Yellow

• One 5 1/2” square

INSTRUCTION FOR SQUARE-IN-A-SQUARE UNITS
Mark the wrong side of the white 2 1/2″ squares in half once diagonally. Lay a marked square right sides together with a light green 4 1/2″ square and sew on the marked line. Repeat on the diagonally opposite corner. Repeat on the other corners.Make 5. Unit measures 4 1/2″ unfinished.

Instructions for making HST two at a time

Do this process with the 2 red squares of 5 1/2” and the two squares of the same size in yellow and white. You will assemble 4 half-square triangles.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE QUARTER SQUARE TRIANGLES

• To make a QST take two HST’s from the previous step (one red-white and one red-yellow) and place them right sides together with opposite colors touching.
• Use a pencil or water soluble marker and draw a line from corner to corner, bisecting the HST seam.
• On both sides of the diagonal line, stitch a 1/4” seam.
• Using an acrylic quilter’s ruler and rotary cutter, cut along the pencil line.
• Trim the blocks to a 4 1/2” square

FINAL ASSEMBLY 

• Arrange your blocks in correct layout
• Using a quarter inch seam allowance, sew together in rows. Join all rows, using a quarter inch seam allowance.
• Press your completed block and trim down to 12.5″ square (if necessary).

You can still start today and catch up with the Janome Rainbow Block of the Month by visiting the links below:

Block One     HERE

Block Two     HERE

Block Three  HERE

Block Four    HERE

Block Five    HERE

Block Six      HERE 

Block Seven  HERE   

Block Eight   HERE

Block Nine  HERE

Block Ten HERE

After you make your block, we’d love to see them!

Janome Sewing Classroom

Janome America Instagram – Be sure to tag @janomeamerica and use the hashtag #janomemakes and also tag @carolinaoneto!

Welcome back to the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month designed by Janome Maker Carolina Oneto!

This month Carolina will walk you through how to make our tenth block. The Rolling Stone block is in a new color combo!

I sew all the blocks on my Janome 1600P-QC, and I really love it, one of the great things about this machine is that with nearly 9" x 6" to the right of the needle the 1600P-QC gives an extra-wide work area, especially for big projects and quilts!

Remember that all the blocks will have a finished size of 12” so that means the unfinished size will be 12 1/2”

Fabrics:

White fabric

· one  2.5′′ x 18′′ rectangle

Dark purple

· Four 4 1/2” square

Light purple

· twelve  2.5′′ x 2.5′′ square

Pink

· one 4 1/2′′ square

Blue

· four  2.5′′ x 2.5′′ squares

 · one 2.5′′ x 18′′ rectangle

INSTRUCTION FOR SQUARE IN A SQUARE UNITS

Mark the wrong side of the 2 1/2″ squares in half once diagonally (light purple and blue). Lay marked square right sides together with a white 4 1/2″ square and sew on the marked line. Repeat on the diagonally opposite corner. Repeat on the other corners. Make 4. Unit measures 4 1/2″ unfinished.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE RECTANGLE UNITS

• Sew the two long strips of fabric, right sides together.
• Next, cut your sewn strip of fabrics into four equal parts of 4.5”. Press to the dark side.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

• Arrange your blocks in the correct layout
• Using a quarter-inch seam allowance, sew together in rows. Join all rows, using a quarter-inch seam allowance.
• Press your completed block and trim down to 12.5″ square (if necessary).

And that’s all!

I hope you enjoy this new block! And don’t forget to share it!

You can still start today and catch up with the Janome Rainbow Block of the Month by visiting the links below:

Block One     HERE

Block Two     HERE

Block Three  HERE

Block Four    HERE

Block Five    HERE

Block Six      HERE 

Block Seven  HERE   

Block Eight   HERE

Block Nine  HERE

After you make your block, we’d love to see them!

Janome Sewing Classroom

Janome America Instagram – Be sure to tag @janomeamerica and use the hashtag #janomemakes and also tag @carolinaoneto!

Welcome Back to the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month designed by Janome Maker Carolina Oneto!  This month we will make our ninth block. The Star Cross is a quilt block that allows you to practice making HST 4 at a time and square in a square units! I sew all the blocks on my Janome 1600P-QC , which has a great Needle Threader, so you can quickly get your needle threaded so you can start sewing.

All blocks in the Rainbow Quilt Block of the Month will have a finished size of 12” so that means the unfinished size will be 12 1/2”. All seams are 1/4".

Fabrics:

White background

• One 7 1/4” square
• Twenty 2 1/2” squares

Dark Green

·One 7 1/4” square

Light Green

• Five  5 1/2” squares

Instructions for making HST four at a time:

• Make four half-square triangles.
• Place a white and colored fabric square (7 1/4”) right sides together.
• Sew a 1/4″ seam allowance all around the perimeter of the square.
• Make two diagonal cuts and press each piece open to one side.

• Trim away the dog ears using a square quilting ruler, you will obtain four 4 1/2” HST

Instructions for Square in a Square Units:

Mark the wrong side of the white 2 1/2″ squares in half once diagonally. Lay marked square right sides together with a light green 4 1/2″ square and sew on the marked line. Repeat on the diagonally opposite corner. Repeat on the other corners. Make 5. Unit measures 4 1/2″ unfinished.

Final Assembly:

• Arrange your blocks in the correct layout
• Using a quarter-inch seam allowance, sew together in rows. Join all rows, using a quarter-inch seam allowance.
• Press your completed block and trim down to 12.5″ square (if necessary).

And that’s all!

I hope you enjoy this new block! And don’t forget to share it!

You can still start today and catch up with the Janome Rainbow Block of the Month by visiting the links below:

Block One     HERE

Block Two     HERE

Block Three  HERE

Block Four    HERE

Block Five    HERE

Block Six      HERE 

Block Seven  HERE   

Block Eight   HERE

After you make your block, we’d love to see them!

Janome Sewing Classroom

Janome America Instagram – Be sure to tag @janomeamerica and use the hashtag #janomemakes and also tag @carolinaoneto!

Add some seasonal charm to your season by adding some lovely pillows to your home decor with a fantastic pattern by Janome Maker Fran Gulick from Cotton+Joy!  Today's project is the first of 4 lovely patterns she has designed just for you! 

Hola! I am Fran Gulick, a Chilean quilter living in Spokane, WA, and a Janome Maker. Quick projects like table toppers and pillows are my favorite way to take care of the holiday sewing itch without spending a ton of money and without the time commitment of larger projects like a full quilt. They are always fun and fast to make, and can make great gifts too!

That’s why I am so excited to share with you four pillow projects you can swap when a new season/holiday arrives throughout the year. Whether you are a quilter with experience or a beginner, you will love these quick and fun projects! 

First up is the Scrappy Fall pillow! This is the pillow that inspired all of the projects. A couple of years ago I made a fall quilt using my Solstice Lights pattern and it’s one of my favorite quilts to use. I’ve been staring at the leftover scraps in my scrap bins ever since and I finally decided to use some of them to make a pillow cover. Download your free PDF Scrappy Fall Pillow Pattern HERE! 

So I gathered up my scraps and grabbed a matching fat quarter from my stash for the background and got to sewing. I wish I had taken more pictures of the process but this is one of those projects that comes together so quickly, I didn’t even have time to, haha. I did the math, cut, pieced, quilted, and bound this beaut in one afternoon!

For quilting, I decided to go with a classic grid quilting with black thread. I used my Hera marker to mark my lines about 3” apart and then got to quilting on my Janome 9450. 

This is my first time adding binding to a pillow cover, and I have to say I am a big fan! I love how it adds a little something to this otherwise pretty minimalist pillow cover.

I hope you enjoyed this project and don’t forget to come back for future seasonal/holiday pillow projects!

There is nothing that says fall like pumpkins! Janome Artisan Mitzi Redd has created a delightful quilt pattern that includes a collection of colorful pumpkins made with precuts for a fast finish! 

So how about a little bit of pumpkin spice for all who are nice? A few weeks ago I thought it would be really fun to work up a fall-themed quilt since I actually don’t have one around the house. Now that I’m also working a full-time job in the banking industry again my quilting time has unfortunately become very cramped, so I knew it would have to be something that would not only be quick, and easy but also fast to finish. Thankfully I was able to wrap up those ideas into one very fun-themed pumpkin quilt. The great thing about this design is that you can take the same pumpkin block shown in the quilt and use it as a stand-alone piece for a pillow, use multiple ones for a table runner, or use your imagination and turn it into anything and everything you might like.

The pumpkin blocks are unfinished at a 16 1/2″ x 16 1/2″ square that you will then trim down to a 16″ square before putting it into the quilt, which makes them a great size to use for all your decorating wants and needs. Just let your imagination run free with thoughts of pumpkin spice filling the space.

For the quilt shown, I went into my fabric stash and pulled out a 1 1/2″ honey bun roll from Moda Fabrics. The fabric used is Cider by Basic Grey for Moda Fabrics.  I absolutely love using precut fabrics. It can really save you time on your cutting and piecing when they are all ready to go for you. While the quilt only calls for 5 pumpkin blocks, one 40 strip honey bun roll will actually give you 9 pumpkins. Be aware though, the measurements for the quilt are only provided for making 5 pumpkins.

While the design may look tough, it’s a very easy quilt to make. The key is making sure your 45-degree angles are cut correctly, so do you take your time. The directions do show a visual to help you make the cuts but don’t fret in case you make a mistake and have to recut, you have no idea how many times I did before it made sense and I could figure out how to explain it to someone else. As always, in case there is confusion, just let me know and I’ll gladly help walk you through it.

Now, let's talk about the dramatic parts of the quilt that you see in the picture, the plain tan blocks with the intricate quilt designs. I would love to take ownership of all that beautiful work but it wouldn’t be honest of me to do so. The designs used are purchased designs from the website Embroidery Library called Autumn Kaleidoscope Quilting. 

Since I quilt using the Janome Horizon Quilt Maker Memory Craft 15000, it was very easy to set up the design, slightly resize it to fit my blocks, and stitch away. The hoop I used for my MC15000 was the ASQ22 embroidery hoop. This hoop comes with a hard plastic grid for placing the quilt in the hoop, and heavy-duty magnets to hold it all in place. Now, I could have saved even more time using the Janome AcuSetter and my Ipad, but I chose to do it by manually placing the quilt in the hoop and working it through the placement on the screen. I chose to do it this route because my Ipad battery was dead and by the time it was charged I was cranking right through all the designs and just decided to stick with how I had started. As you can see from the photos, June also enjoyed me taking my time on the quilt as she “held it down” every time I tried to step away.

After completing the main blocks, I then moved on to finishing the areas around the pumpkins and the borders. For the area around the pumpkins, I chose just a meandering free-motion stitch. The pumpkins and borders were then stitched with straight lines to just fill in the areas. I used an echo-style ruler stitching for the inside of the pumpkins and then moved to cross-hatch lines for the borders. I did choose to use the Janome Ruler Work foot for both the free motion meandering stitching as well as the ruler work areas instead of switching out feet for different techniques. These types of stitching also helped to keep the pace moving quickly as I worked to get the quilt completed before the first of October.

Once all the quilting was completed, it was easy and quick to trim the quilt and bind. I chose to bind the quilt in the same blue shade as the borders to keep the consistency but you can certainly pick if you want your binding to blend or pop off the quilt. For binding, I used 6 strips of fabric measuring 2 1/2″ by the width of fabric and chose to machine stitch it all the way versus any hand binding (again to save time).

Overall the techniques of combing quilting and embroidery work into the quilt helped to not only speed up the process but also add a new element of beauty to the design. For those who don’t have access to a longarm machine, it can sometimes be discouraging to see some of the gorgeous quilts completed with the automation system. I encourage you to look at your own embroidery machine and put it to work doing the quilting work for you. No embroidery machine? No problem there either, there are plenty of beautiful stencils out there you can trace, or maybe you are one of the amazing people who can draw (I can’t draw a stick figure) and can take the chalk and draw out your own design to stitch out. Don’t be afraid to put your machine to work and let it work for you. You may just be surprised to discover just how little of your machine you’re actually using. Embroidery, decorative stitches, quilting techniques, are all there at your fingertips.

Notes:

The fabric used for the quilt shown is by Basic Grey for Moda Fabrics in the Grunge and Cider fabric lines.

Piecing, quilting, and embroidery are all completed on my Janome Horizon Quilt Maker Memory Craft 15000. See your local Janome dealer for details about the MC15000 and all the other machines in the Janome family of sewing, quilting, embroidery, and sergers.

Enjoy the pattern, Pumpkin Spice, and Everything Nice!