Grow Your Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes so your hand pieced pumpkins can too!    I'm making pumpkins in all different sizes and will (eventually) add sashing to the top so that they will all finish at the same height.

Referring back to the basic tutorial for hand piecing pumpkins, here is all you need to create some basic pumpkins in different sizes!











Except for the first pumpkin in the table, my pumpkins will finish at a constant width of 4''.   But, it's easy to create your own depending on the size of your scraps.

Once you've created your pumpkin patch pile of pumpkins, decide on whether you want to set them with sashing between them or just one next to the other.  So many possibilities!

Please share your pumpkins on Instagram. Let's use the #pumpkinqal

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal - September Finish Link-up

Ready to link up your September finishes?

Don't panic - this link-up is open until September 30 at 11:55 pm ET.

My goal for September was to work on my QuiltCon challenge quilt.  I'm pleased to say the quilting is all done but I'm only offering a partial sneak peak right now.   Not yet ready to reveal the whole quilt (sorry!) but you can see I did some tiny piecing and quilting.

Now its your turn to link-up.

There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate, Paper Pieces is offering a package of 1" hexagons, and Camille Rosekey from Thimble Blossums is offering a $40 gift certificate to her shop.


Congratulations to our lucky winners - Karen, Chris and Karrin!  (updated 10/2//2019)

Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (September Goal Setting Link-up.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - September Finish Link-up

Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!  Joining the link-up from Instagram -see the tutorial.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Let's Hand Piece some Pumpkins (tutorial)

Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin flavored everything so why not hand-piece some fabric pumpkins?

I've got plenty of pumpkin 'flavored' scraps to work with.

Aren't my fabric pumpkins so cute?

Let's review basic pumpkin construction!  (Scroll for tutorials on hand-piecing.)

Make your pumpkins in whatever size matches your fancy (or your scraps).  Each pumpkin requires pumpkin fabric (a), stem fabric (b), 2 pieces background fabric (c), and 4 pieces background fabric (d).

Draw a diagonal line on each of the d background pieces.   Draw your stitching lines on the c background pieces.

Place each d unit on the corner of the a pumpkin unit and stitch.  (Remember all the hand piecing best practices including stopping and starting 1/4 '' from each corner.)

Trim away excess and finger press the pumpkin unit.

Sew c background units to each side of the stem.  Finger press.  Draw your stitching line and sew the stem unit to the pumpkin unit making sure you sew through and not over your seams.  (tutorial)

I'm going to make pumpkins in all different shapes and sizes.  Want to sew along with me?  You can make a runner, a wall hanging or just a mug rug.

My first set of pumpkins will finish in my quilt at 4'' x 6''.  To make your own pumpkin that size you'll need:

• pumpkin fabric (a) - (1) rectangle, 4 ½'' x 5''
• stem fabric (b) - (1) rectangle, 1½'' x 2''
• background (c) - (2) rectangles, 2'' x 2''
• background corners (d) - 4 squares, 1½'' x 1½''

I will be back later in the week with some more pumpkin measurements so you can make your very own patch.

Please share your pumpkins on Instagram. Let's use the #pumpkinqal

Some helpful tips:

• See my favorite tools for hand-piecing
• Marking stitching lines tutorial
• Running stitch tutorial
• Sewing through seam allowance tutorial

Have a wonderful day! Patty