Patterns + Classes

A collection of free patterns from I See Stars Quilting and offers from other talented quilting artists.

13 FREE Modern Quilt Patterns to Sew!

Let’s admit it… Quilting is pretty great! But it can get expensive… Who doesn’t love to put a few beautiful FREE Modern Quilt patterns in their project folder for a rainy day sewing session??

So I’ve scoured the web for some and some of my favorite quilters… I have added links to the free patterns for you! Get ready to be inspired with all this Modern Quilting goodness!

First off, I can’t share all my favorite FREE patterns with you without mentioning that I have a FREE Modern Quilt Pattern to gift to you as well!

I actually have several free patterns… You can click here to see all my FREE pattern posts in one spot and load up on your goodies from me 🙂

…More FREE Modern Quilt Patterns!

Fun Flamingo Quilt FREE Pattern

If you are looking to chase those winter blues away… dream a little of summer with me on this fun Flamingo Quilt from Bev from Flamingo Toes. You can get the pattern and tutorial for this Flamingo Quilt Here on her guest post on Fabric.com

Ribbon Box Quilt Pattern

The Ribbon Box Quilt Pattern from Cloud9 Fabrics – You can get the free pattern here

It’s All Black And White

I was enchanted by the minimalist design in this pattern from the moment I saw it and its one of my favorites. It is a really quick sew too 😉 You can download the pattern here.

It’s All Black and white by Rachael Godfrey of Sew Today, Clean tomorrow. She is such a sweet blogger who sews up all kinds of lovely goodies!

Warrior Quilt Pattern

If you haven’t yet discovered Suzy from SuzyQuilts.com, you’re missing out! You can get her FREE Warrior Quilt Pattern here. You wont regret it!

Modern Hashtag Quilt

Whats more modern than hashtags, right? And its such a great tutorial and step by step on this pattern too! The pattern creator is Caroline over at sewcanshe.com. You can download the pattern here.

Strip & Flip Baby Quilt

This one is such a fast sew but has endless potential to customize it and make it your own…. (I would die to see an ombre teal version!)

CluckCluckSew has beautiful easy to follow patterns! You can snag this one here.

Side note, but she is also the designer of this beautiful quilt that I made a while back – Shimmer Quilt Pattern Review.

(not free pattern but totally worth it!)

Modern Ombre Triangle Quilt

If you haven’t seen this one floating around Pinterest, I would love to know what rock you live under and visit you from time to time.

This is another baby step pattern to get you through your fear of sewing triangles. Think of it as baby step #2… It comes rigth after baby step #1 which is deciding that a silly little triangel isn’t going to get the best of you and YOU ARE A QUILTING BOSS! You won’t regret it! 🙂

SeeKateSew does a great job in her tutorial too! You can grab this pattern here.

I also have a different version of a Triangle Quilt Pattern that is free as well… just, you know… shameless self-promotion, because I can 😉

GRAB MY FREEEEEEE EASY TRIANGLE PATTERN HERE!

Fairground Quilt

This quilt is so lovely! It has that classic old-timey charm to it, but would be so fun with some letters on the banners too! An all black and white version would be stunning!

LeAnne Ballard from Everyday Celebrations created this pattern. You can get it here.

Colour Explosion

First, wow. Second…. holy wow! You can download this free pattern with tips on fabric selection here.

Hourglass Quilt Blocks

Another from CluckCluckSew! The hourglass tutorial can get found here.

Simple Hearts Quilt

Ok, I might be obsessed – Nobody judge me, ok? – CluckCluckSew Can you blame me? Just look at this cute quilt! You can download the Simple Heart Pattern Here.

I could keep going but honestly, someone has to make dinner in this house or we will all starve. — I’m apparently the only one capable of such a miraculous feat, or so I am told… *ah, sweet motherhood*

I hope you enjoy these free patterns! Until next time… Happy Sewing!
An Easy Triangle Quilt! (+ Free Pattern)

Today, I am going to share with you this Easy Triangle quilt (and a free pattern too!) Do not let the triangles scare you! This is really an easy quilt!

This quilt is one I made for a sweet young girl in my family. The fun colors of Tula Pink’s Fabric and a love of Cats… I knew it would be a winner!

[Quick backtrack in time story] I very vividly remember when I first started quilting, I saw this beautiful triangle quilt and I immediately wanted to make one! (I was – and still am – fearless in the pursuit of learning to make what I love) A friend told me “Triangles are really hard to sew and piece, especially for a beginner.”

*Kill joy*… I know.

But I believed her and put that in the ‘when I feel like I am an expert’ file.

[Yeah, that was a bunch of bologna] Now I know I will never feel like I am an expert because the world of quilting is so vast and people are coming with new and beautiful things every single day! So like… I will never truly know it all, right? And that is awesome because then it means that I can absolutely quilt and do what I love forever.

And I am shouting today because I want to drown out allllll the other voices that might tell you otherwise…

You CAN totally make a triangle quilt! And you don’t have to sew “Y” seams!

Also… you don’t have to be an expert at quilting!

Whew… there, I said it. And I mean it. If you have any reservations about sewing a triangle quilt, pull up your big girl panties and get ready!

Seriously, with just a tiny bit of practice and maybe a test block or two, this quilt is as easy as simple square piecing!

If you don’t believe me…. Get ready because I would never lie to you 🙂

First, download this FREE pattern that I whipped up. It explains step by step how to piece your blocks and it gives you the pattern pieces to print and cut out as well.

GRAB THIS FREE PATTERN DOWNLOAD!

All the tips and how to’s are in the pattern download, but I thought I would give you a few extra tips here so I’m not just turning you over completely on your own.

With this pattern, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the fabric placement unless you want it to be a certain way. I made all the pieces with the kitties in them face the same direction – personal preference.

It did take a little more work in the beginning to make sure that I planned ahead.

You’ll see in the picture above and in the one below that I matched some of my side …. parallelograms (Alright! High school geometry coming back into play!)

You don’t HAVE to do this… there are a thousand different ways you could make this quilt depending on your fabric choices.

The fact that some of my end pieces matched up were very randomly placed with no rhyme or reason. And I really like it like that because as if the idea of triangles wasn’t daunting enough… making sure all your fabric is perfectly placed can be added stress.

I encourage you to give this one a shot…. JUST DO IT. Mix and match and have fun with it! Show those triangles who is the boss. (hint… it’s YOU!)

Are you going to give this one a shot? Let me know if the comments, won’t you? I would love to hear from you!

Happy Quilting!

CLICK HERE TO GRAB YOUR FREE EASY TRIANGLE PATTERN
Sewing for Good: Sew Powerful

Do you like to make a difference? Do you like knowing that you’re contributing to the greater good of this world? – I knew that I liked you. 🙂 I really love making things for all my loved ones but I also like what I like to call “sewing for good”.

Sewing for good is: Sewing to spread the warmth of a handmade gift to someone in need.

There are so many different organizations that will gladly accept your handmade quits and sewing projects.

One of my more popular posts is about where to donate quilts. It warms my heart to know that there are so many other quilters out there searching for organizations to donate their beautiful handmade quilts to.

I also shared pictures of this quilt that I donated in 2018 in another post. (I’ll be releasing the pattern for it in my shop this month!)

As a family, we sponsor two children in Aftrica through World Vision. Soloman is a little boy in Mali and Cendrine is a little girl in Burundi. My children love our “far away family members” and we write to them and send them little trinkets often. *fun fact – Each of our sponsored family members have the same exact birthday as my children.*

I first met the company that I am going to share with you today at the International Quilt Festival last year and they have a great need for seamstresses!

I was drawn to this happy colorful booth full of these beautiful handmade purses! And I immediately thought of Cendrine and how perfect one of these purses would be for her! I hoped to purchase a pattern or something.

What I found in talking to the woman who was working the booth was a company that had a heart for girls and a mission for serious compassion.

They want to help Lusaka Zamia, one of the world’s worst striken areas of poverty, in a big way… by giving the children a chance. You can read their entire mission statement here.

Sew Poweful has a mission to combat extreme poverty.

Sew Powerful trains and equips adults in Lusaka Zambia with good paying jobs. They learn to create school uniforms, reusable feminine hygiene products and soap. Each of these products is designed to keep kids in school and enable academic achievement. Success and greater potential to break out of the poverty cycle is actually attainable with the right system in place.

How amazing is that?

…And all the purses? They are the perfect size package for the reusable feminine hygiene supplies that are distributed to the girls in health classes!

I was immediately in love with SewPowerful. I knew I had to make these bags, for Cendrine and for other girls too.

The pattern for these bags is FREE on their website!

You can Download the Pattern for FREE here

If you’re one of my beloved quilters that is a little skeptical about sewing a purse, you can worry not. They have a video tutorial that goes right along with the pattern to show you exactly how to do everything!

I mean how happy do these purses look? Who doesn’t know a little girl who wouldn’t be over the moon to receive one of these?

I started my purse this weekend and though I fumbled just a little bit (silly mistakes because my brain is not as used to purses as it is to quilts). I found the pattern to be really easy an super easy to follow!

There is an address on your pattern download for you to mail your completed purse(s) to and they will distribute them to the girls in need.

Pictures of my Purse for Cendrine

I thought I would share a few pictures of my purse process so you can see a little bit of the in-between steps. 🙂

It was my daughter’s idea to embroider the front pocket flap. She wanted to make sure Cendrine knew that this was her special purse 🙂

A girl has to have pockets, right? We’re going to fill up Cendrine’s purse with more colored pencils and notebooks because she is quite the little artist.

This is a fantastic use of scrap fabric! If you’ve been looking for a new project to take to your guild or a fun project to teach young sewists… please give this one a shot.

Click here to download the FREE pattern!

I love how this bag turned out and I can’t wait for Cendrine to receive hers!

My daughter and I want to get a little more creative with the fabric choices on the next bags that we sew together… I can’t wait to sew more!

They also carry these mini purses that are doll size. *Squee!* Yes! I know! Is that not the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen?
14 Winning Last Minute Sewing Gifts

Hey there! Christmas is just around the corner and if you’re like me, the calendar timeline is beginning to feel a lot shorter than I would like it to be! If you’re looking for some great last minute sewing gift ideas, I’m here to rescue you!

Each one of these ideas is a super winner gift that will leave your recipient feeling loved and leave you with a few more ticks to your clock!

1. ONE HOUR Zipper Box Pouch

You can see the original tutorial here and the slightly alternate ending tutorial here. I made a bunch of these up for my kid’s teachers and stuffed them with goodies I found in the cosmetics section at Target. They were a really big hit and easy to customize to individual likes and personalities!

2. Cute Fat Quarter Bags!

Aren’t these precious? Amy over at Diary of a Quilter shows step by step how to sew up these cute little bags using fat quarter fabric. These would be darling to sew for tween girls! You can check out the tutorial here.

5 Minute Pin Cushion

This pin cushion is one of my favorites to give. 1) We all could use an extra pin cushion, right? 2) This one is super easy to customize to each individual person. I have re-purposed chipped china cups found in a thrift store, cheap dollar store mugs, fancy mini teacups, even the travel souvenir shot glass… you name it! Add a little scrap fabric and voila!

For the Homemaker

In my head right now I can see so many possibilities for this kitchen towel and hot pad set from Crazy Mom Quilts. Happy spring colors, soothing neutral colors, a bright pop of yellow in the summertime…. I could go on!

She also has a recipe for hot fudge sauce that I have made multiple times and totally puts the icing on the cake for this gift!

Quick Table Runner

This Quick Table runner tutorialfrom SewMuchAdo has 4 steps…. yes you read that right. 4 easy steps. Wrap it up with some scented pine cones or a plate of cookies… yummy and pretty!

You can also check out this tutorial that I created this year for a quilted table runner – Again the color options are endless to go with any occasion or holiday. (Edit: a reader of mine even mentioned how she made the table runner reversible!)

Little Cutie Pouches

I absolutely adore these little cutie pouches from Noodlehead. They are the perfect way to dress up a gift card. The tutorial is really detailed and lays out everything step by step. Make a few extra while you’re at it as quick grab and go gifts in a pinch!

The Perfect Catch-All Fabric Bin

I’ve made so many of these fabric catch-all bins around my own house I can’t even count them all. My kids develop these little “collections” of the most random things they can find. (Who collects acorns and is not a squirrel? My son, that is who. But that is beside the point.)

What I mean to say is these little fabric bins are absolutely endless in versatility. They sew up fast too. Win-win.

Mod Messenger Bag

This is another one from Diary of a Quilter – This mod messenger bag takes a little bit of extra time the first time you sew it, but after that you’ll be a pro and can whip these up and customize them to your own liking super quickly.

OMG Aprons!

I never get tired of the usefulness of a good apron. To your favorite creative baker or chef, you’ll be a godsend of a hero. I do a lot of baking and my aprons are always dirty or in the wash. And often I just like to wear it because I’m feeling a little spunky or maybe I like how I feel like a retro housewife when I wear one? 🙂

Anyways, here are a few really fun tutorials.

Crazy Little Projects has a super simple apron tutorial that walks you through step by step and gives you a few ways you can make it your own (See cute bow)

And even Pint Sized Aprons for the tiny Chef’s in your life. Aesthetic Nest has a pattern and tutorial to cover all your culinary geniuses.

Wine Bottle Bags

I wrote up a post recently that had links to my favorite tutorials for wine bottle bags. If this is something you’re interested in making (and why not? because they’re super fast a cute way to dress up a bottle of wine for a dinner party) you can check out that post here.

Easy Peasy Fleece Blanket

I don’t know how your house is but sometimes I have more “help” than I know what to do with on my projects. 🙂

This project is one that lots of little hands can help with for the majority of the steps.

Easy Peasy Fleece Balnket from The Polka Dot Chair

Quilt Block Oops to Zipper Pouch

Honestly, why have I never thought of this before? – I said to myself when I came across this tutorial. I had cast away several blocks that we’ren’t just right for whatever reason and said I might make a few mug rugs eventually.

These Zipper Pouches are much more useful! I also love the tassel addition that she added. Check out this tutorial on The little Mushroom Cap.

If you simply do not have time to whip up a few of these gifts or you are shopping for another quilter, don’t forget to check out my post with the 20 Amazing gifts for quilters.

What are your favorite last minute sewing gifts? I’ll be adding to this post as I find myself in a pinch (as I often do!)

Good luck to us all in the last few weeks of the year. Slow down when you can and soak up the simple moments of creativity when you can get them 🙂

Also, check out my free e-book download below for my best tips on Quilting for the busy girl!
A Sweet Baby Quilt Pattern (FREE PATTERN!)

I had the pleasure of making another sweet baby quilt recently! And I’m sharing the sweet baby quilt pattern with you! It is super simple. You’re going to love it!

I just fell in love with everything from the fabric to the quilting while making this one. It was simple and perfect, just like the little baby that this quilt will be going to live with soon.

Just look at this darling flamingo pattern! – A random find while I was shopping for something else… Subtle and so sweet. It was just the very beginnings of this pretty little quilt!

I paired it with several other aqua and speckled prints. A little grey, a little black and white polka dot, and some graphic black and white.

You can see my choice in quilting style in the picture below. I kept it straight and simple to accentuate the geometric shapes. (I also haven’t trimmed off my thread yet because I got excited and it was sunny outside… yeah, ignore those little eyesores, won’t you?)

If you haven’t guessed… Hi, my name is Christen, and I’m obsessed with stars. I don’t know what to say, they just show up everywhere in my designs. I don’t seek them when I’m designing, it is just what comes out of my soul 🙂 So they star pattern was a fun discovery to mix in around the flamingo pattern.

I think my one of my most favorite parts of this quilt is the fabric choice on the binding. Is there anything more lovely than a perfectly stripey binding?

And one more picture because I’m kind of obsessed with the stripes right now…

I decided to share the easy pattern with you because I fully believe we all deserve one of these in our arsenal of patterns!

You can download my FREE Pattern HERE:

…And one last photo! Because you should never just settle for a boring back to your quilt… Make it fun! Make it unexpected!

Hey! I just recently wrote a post about how to wash your quilts and stop the fabric colors from bleeding. If you’re making quilts to give away, its a total must read! Help! How to stop the Bleeding in your quilt fabric.
Quilter’s Christmas Decor!

I got bit by the holiday decorating bug this past weekend and got to work creating several little touches around my house that marry my love of Christmas with my love of quilting! I created some Quilter’s Christmas decor that I’m absolutely in love with!

And the best part is… it was so easy!

I took lots of pictures along the way just for you… and because I absolutely fell in love with the way the whole project turned out!

I found a box of clear glass ornaments in our Christmas stash, cut up some scrap fabric… anyone can do this!

You might have noticed that I have a thing with stars… a bit of an obsession really 🙂 So, of course, I had some strips of scrap fabric with stars to incorporate with my Christmas decorations.

What you’ll need:
1. Scrap Fabric – I also used shiny ribbon to add a little more glitz and texture to the ornament.
2. Clear glass Christmas ornaments
3. Chopstick or pencil
The chopstick or pencil is helpful to get the pieces inside the Christmas ornament because let me give you a warning… the edges of the glass ornaments may be sharp unfinished edges. Also, if you have enlisted the assistance of younger little helpers, make sure they are aware of the danger as well!

It is easy to get the fabric and ribbon in the ornament, but almost impossible to get back out so let me give you a few tips that I learned while experimenting!

The widest strip that I used was about 3/4″ and the thinnest strip was about 1/4″

I used them to decorate my fireplace because our tree if full of handmade ornaments and little trinkets from the children already.

You could make these as guild swap gifts as well!

The important thing is to have fun with it! 🙂 If you make some ornaments, tag me in them so I can see your beautiful work. @iseestarsquilting #iseestarsquilting