Aug 10, 2024

Chloe Fabric Collection... recent makes

I’m honored to be sharing my recent makes with the adorably cute collection, Chloe by Rachel Erickson. The Chloe collection had my heart at first sight, with its sweet furry friends, butterflies, strawberries, and florals. All things that I love!

Quilt Design Idea in the Making

My creative bug immediately sparked when I received the Chloe fabric. I had the idea to create a dog themed quilt pattern. Something that has been on my to-do list for a while. With the Chloe collection being the perfect muse. I started sketching out different types of dogs and ended up going with my dachshund design.

Soon the Curious Pups Quilt design was taking shape. With an idea of pups at play in a garden. I created a scene of two dachshunds curiously playing in a garden among flowers and butterflies.

Initially I wanted to make this Curious Pups Quilt (mocked-up below).

Curious Pups Quilt Mockup with Riley Blake Designs Chloe Fabric

But unfortunately I didn’t have enough fabric to execute the background and border. So I switched my plans and made two pillows with the Curious Pups, Mikka and Sammi.

The good news is the Curious Pups Quilt Pattern is still being produced and should be available by the end of August. If you’d like to know when the Curious Pups Quilt Pattern releases please sign-up for my email list by clicking here, and follow me on instagram @byKellyRenay.

After completing the Curious Pups pillows, I had quite a bit of Chloe fabric leftover. And, it was so stinking cute that I couldn’t stash it away.

With my nieces birthday approaching, I knew she would adore a quilt with the Chloe fabric. As she calls herself the dog whisperer.

Impromptu Quilt Layout

Wanting to feature the three dogs prints in pink, green, and cream from the Chloe collection. I began looking at them more closely and started wondering if it would be possible to fussy cut the dogs. With my handy “Cute Cuts, Trim-it” rulers by Lori Holt near by. I laid out the different size rulers on top of the dogs prints. And I saw that the 6-1/2 inch square worked perfectly for fussy cutting out all five dogs within one square.

From a 1/2 yard of the dogs prints, I was able to fussy cut seven 6-1/2 inch squares. After fussy cutting those pieces I figured out that I could make some 4-patch blocks with 3-1/2 inch squares. And 2-at-a-time half square triangles at 4-1/2 inches trimmed down to 3-1/2 inches.

If you’re wondering how to make [HST] half square triangles, here’s a handy diagram.

2 at a time HST (half square triangle) diagram

With those basic measurements in mind. I began cutting 4-1/2 inch by width of fabric strips into a random amount of 4-1/2 and 3-1/2 inch squares. Then, I mix-and-matched the 3-1/2 inch squares to make some 4-patch blocks. And paired two sets of the 4-1/2 inch squares to make two pairs of 2-at-a-time half square triangles. To also piece into 4-patch blocks.

After making 58 blocks, I laid out the blocks on the bed until I liked the layout. (I ended up having a few extra blocks)

Once the quilt top was laid out it made an 8x9 block layout, which would make a 48x54 inch quilt. A great small throw size perfect for my niece.

With the quilt top complete I had to figure out how to piece the backing from the remaining Chloe fabric. Having recently come across some free alphabet blocks on the Quilting Daily website. I thought it would be nice to include my niece’s initials on the back of the quilt.