Tutorial: Working with Tile and Panel Prints

Recently we showed you Linda Carlson and Diana Henage's new fabric collection, Imagine This! Today, Linda is guest posting on the blog, sharing a tutorial for a quilt that will help you use those cool focal prints from the collection, both the panel collage and the tile yardage. We know you'll enjoy Linda's tutorial! Be sure to read through all the way to the bottom of the post for details on how you can win a bundle of Imagine This to play with yourself!

"Leapin’ Lizards! Where’s Geraldine and Gerald Giraffe?"

Here's Linda:

Hello! I'm here to help you celebrate and use the collage and tile fabrics from Imagine This. Dense collage fabrics are a treat for all eyes to bounce from one intriguing motif to the next; or can delight a child by playing a language learning game to find the jolly giraffes, two big hearts, the big beaked bird, or the long eared bunny! ! 

Running yardage tile and panel fabrics beg to be cut apart singly, in rows for borders, or used whole for a very easy, quick quilt. Our “Imagine This!” collection features both design genres that are at once whimsical, delightful and very easy to incorporate in any quilt design! Let's get started on my quilt design, Leapin’ Lizards! Where’s Geraldine and Gerald Giraffe?

Fabrics And Cutting Directions

3/4 yard Multi-Animal Collage: 

Cut (1) 10-1/2" x 40-1/2" cross grain strip for center row; (5) 2-1/2" x 42" cross grain strips for binding

1/2 yard Red Hot Dots: 

Cut (4) 2-1/2" x 40-1/2" cross grain strips, and (2) 2-1/2" x 38-1/2" strips

1/3 yard Multi-color Animal Tiles:

Cut 2 rows including 1/4" yellow all around

1/3 yard Multi-color Winding Brick Path: 

Cut (4) 10-1/2" squares

1/3 yard Black, White & Gray Winding Brick Path:

Cut (4) 10-1/2" squares

1 fat quarter each: Red, Gray, Black & White Harlequin, Multi-color Harlequin, Blue Nebula, Cool Blue Dots on Green: 

Sub-cut into (2) 8" squares each (totaling 8 squares)

Batting and backing fabric to equal 48" x 54" (I prefer using wide backs.)

1 package Misty Fuse White 20" x 2-1/2 yds. or your favorite paper-backed fusible (I prefer Misty Fuse as it’s light enough for my machine needle to pierce, and won’t gum up the needle.)

Optional: Teflon Goddess Sheets protect your ironing surface and iron from the glue in fusibles. I use one on my board and another on top of the fabric with Misty Fuse ready to be heat set. Parchment paper works, too. 

Notes: All seams should be a scant 1/4". My machine needle sits at 6.

Make the Quilt
1. Cut two rows from animal tile print including 1/4" yellow frame all around. 

2. Lay Misty Fuse (or favorite fusible) over the wrong side. Protect ironing board surface with a teflon Goddess Sheet or parchment paper as well as on top of the fusible to protect your iron. Fuse all tiles according to manufacturer’s directions. Let cool completely before peeling off.

3. Cut out 8 tiles for this quilt with 1/4" yellow all around (You'll see four down below). The remaining 14 tiles will be ready for part of the backing, or in another project.

4. Audition which tiles look best on which 8" squares; then audition both on the 10-1/2" squares.

5. Find center of tiles on 8" squares by gently pressing horizontally and vertically. Repeat with the corresponding 10-1/2" square. Set 10-1/2" squares aside. Align centers, then fuse a tile to the 8" square. Repeat with all remaining blocks.

6. Center 8" unit onto 10-1/2" square. Machine appliqué in place. Use a stiletto to hold the edge down for blanket stitching if needed. I set my machine to a 3 width and 2 length.

7. Turn over and carefully cut out the 10-1/2" square 1/4" inside the stitching to prevent bulk and see through.

8. For the first vertical row, sew 4 blocks together vertically starting with a multi-color winding brick path block. Alternate with gray/white blocks. Repeat with remaining blocks but starting with a gray/white block. Press seams open since you aren’t matching blocks side by side. Set 2 finished rows aside.

9. Match and pin middle of 2-1/2" x 40-1/2" red hot dot strip to middle side of the 10-1/2" x 40-1/2" animal collage strip, working towards ends to insure evenness of the ends. Sew. Press seam towards red strips. Repeat on other side.

10. Match and pin center of first vertical row of blocks to red strip unit, right sides together as in step 9. Sew and press seam allowance towards red strip. Repeat with 2nd vertical row of blocks.

11. With right sides together, match middle of 2-1/2" x 40-1/2" red hot dot strip side border with first vertical row, and pin outward to ends. Sew, and press seam allowance towards red strip. Repeat process on other side. Add 2-1/2" x 38-1/2" top and bottom red borders in same manner.

12. Lay backing right side down, cover with batting, then top right side up. Pin for home machine quilting, or prepare for long arm quilting. Quilt as desired.

13. Join 2-1/2" x 42" animal collage strips end to end for binding. Fold in half, wrong sides together and pin to right side of quilt’s raw edges. Sew. Turn binding to back and hand sew down.

Here's the finished Leapin’ Lizards! Where’s Geraldine and Gerald Giraffe? quilt! Hope you enjoyed the tutorial.

And just for fun, a few more leapin' lizards of another variety. :)

Thanks, Linda, for a fantastic tutorial, as well as inspiration for fun ways to use tile and panel prints!

Now, for a chance to win a FQ bundle of Imagine This, head over to Linda's blog post about this tutorial and leave a comment letting her/us know your favorite fabric in the collection. 

Imagine This!

We are thrilled to introduce the first Paintbrush Studio collection from Linda Carlson and Diana Henage, the Designing Duo. We hope you'll enjoy this introduction to both the story and the eye-catching prints of these twin sisters. 

First, the collection, appropriately titled Imagine This:

Q. Can you give us a brief history of the Designing Duo?

Linda: We have designed fabric for very young children through adults who love color and high-contrast graphics since 2005. All juvenile prints within each collection are designed to grab a child's attention, which promotes neuron and dendrite growth in the very young. The non-juvenile prints in each line speak to modern, contemporary, and traditional fabric lovers with the same bright hues in high contrast graphics and whimsical shapes that sewists and quilt makers want for their home decor, fashions, and accessories.

Q. How do you design fabric together?

Linda: Since we both live in Mexico, MO, it's easy for us to call, text or email, ''I've got a great subject for another line!" We each look for what inspires us in nature, on trips, from photography in magazines, toy trends, and themes in children's literature. Diana magically reads my mind coming up with her own artwork for the subject after we discuss the overall theme. Our husbands aren't surprised because they've always said we share one brain. When Diana comes up with a subject, she calls and says, ''Come over and see what I've done." The themes are always something we both enjoy doing, seeing, or could imagine. 

Q. What do you like best about working together?

Linda: We feel privileged to work with each other because we are best friends who can cajole, be sassy or silly, and know it's just all in fun while seriously thinking about how we want to portray the collection. We get to laugh with each other just like when we were kids. It's a very loving, working partnership as I listen to her about what works in creating the designs, and she listens as I explain what quiltmakers' and sewists' technical needs are in the fabrics they choose.

Q. Tell us about your passion for designing this brain-based fabrics.

Linda: Before 2005 I visited fabric stores across the country when teaching classes. I could see only the usual pastel prints for young children, when I knew those weren't the hues that they could best ''see'' first after birth. So I found brain-based research on the preferred colors and graphics from infant brain growth studies. Combined with Diana's Specialist degree in Gifted Education and a Bachelor's degree in Art Education, we designed our first line.

Q. Is there a print in the Imagine This! collection that started it all?

Linda: Diana drew tiled squares of whimsical animals, flora and abstract designs on separate 4'' squares to portray the theme. She was asked to combine some into a kind of collage that we feel is the essence of the creative collection. Just imagine this…a world with a creature or flower with such funny markings!

Q. What are each of your favorite prints in the collection?
Linda: I am thrilled with all of them because the graphic prints as well as the whimsical prints are so Diana! I see her hand in every one of them.

Diana: I was pleased with the opportunity to include animals like the giraffe, one of my granddaughter's favorite animals to draw. Most of the graphics started as simple doodles with a natural flair.

Q. Can you talk about the two colorways?

Linda: The red, white, black and gray prints are not only trendy, but are the same hues most distinguishable by infants. The high contrasting red, white and black hues grab a baby's attention and foster their ability to concentrate and focus. The multicolor prints are just plain fun for youngsters to 'tweens, pre-teens,, teens and adult lovers of bright, engaging graphics.

Q. How did the name come to be?

Linda: Because of Diana's experiences with gifted kids from elementary through high school, she often posed open-ended questions like ''what if…'', ''Can you imagine…?"My recollection is that we were looking at her early artwork and brainstorming names. I pointed to one figure and just commented, ''Well, imagine that!" To which she replied, ''That's it! Imagine That!" While working with FabriQuilt, the art director sent scanned copies of some drawings with suggestions and referred to the collection as ''Imagine This." We decided we liked it better. Voila—Imagine This was born!

Q. Can you talk about some of the prints in the collection?

Diana: The tiled squares (blocks) are graphic shapes, lines and circles that appear in the overall print along with the imagined animals. Some combine with others to get a modern, patterned look of overall texture and movement. The harlequin pattern was actually part of something else we're working on, but it perfectly complimented the Imagine This! prints. 

I wanted to make some of the purely abstract shapes appear three-dimensional, so I changed the size of spaces between the shapes and used various pen widths to get a swirling stippling effect. It reminds me of smoke or nebula in outer space.

Q. Tell us about the free Imagine This pattern on our website.
Linda: It's a skill building combination of machine pieced half-square triangles behind machine appliquéd circles. As a teacher, I like to create quilts that appeal to all students regardless of their favorite technique. The classes I feature have either hand applique or the machine piecing and applique combination.

Here's a little more inspiration for the Imagine This fabrics--patterns and kits for these quilts will be available on Linda's website in June.

Mod Rules! uses a set of octagonal templates in the blocks and adual wave edge ruler for the sashing.

It's Hip to Be Square features different sizes of a wavy square.

Pools of Diamonds showcases two sizes of diamond rulers.

4^th of July features the Fons & Porter wedge template and 60 degree pyramid ruler.

Find out more about the Designing Duo here.

See the entire collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop!