Quilts

Jaybird Pattern Review – Snack Time

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This post is part of the Jaybird Quilts Sew Along. For schedule of guest post pattern reviews, prizes, and contest rules, click here! Today’s guest post is from Becky of My Fabric Obsession. Becky is a quilter with tons of beautiful projects under her belt; stop by her blog to take a look at her finished quilts posted by year!

 

Hi, I’m Becky and I blog at My Fabric Obsession. Thanks Sara for inviting me to be part of this hop! Let me start my day on the blog hop with a disclaimer. I am proud to call Julie a friend of mine. She’s the founder of my MQG, the Philly chapter, and she’s probably the person who introduced me to modern quilting.

But, when Sara asked me to join the blog hop, I knew I could still give an unbiased opinion because Jaybird Quilt patterns are always top quality! And she is quite a genius when it comes to quilt math and pattern writing.

And the reason I thought my input would be great on this blog hop is that I’ve never been a huge ruler person. I always figured rulers weren’t necessary (with the exception of curves). I can make all these shapes with my square and rectangular rulers. Why shell out the money for another ruler?!

Let me tell you, the Hex N More ruler makes life so much easier! It’s seriously a smart thing! The pattern I made is the Snack Time pattern.(check out the size of that ruler!)

Before I talk about the ruler, let me say a few things about the pattern. Julie makes most of her patterns pre-cut friendly. This one can be done with a jelly roll or other 2.5″ roll.

I tried a different fabric combination at first, but contrast is very important with this block and my trial really accentuated that. Here’s the first attempt:

You can see it’s still a cool block, but it’s more of a straightforward hexagon. That overlapping/winding effect is lost without the contrast! So I decided to use some of my yardage that I thought would work well.

The other thing Julie does with her patterns that I love is using lots of visuals in her patterns. She puts them in there for both cutting and piecing. So you can feel confident about using a new ruler and a new technique! And you’ll notice she gives you lots of sizing options. I made the baby quilt.

You make three shapes for this quilt all cut with the Hex N More. The triangle:

The hexagon:

And the half hex:

 

One of the things that makes this ruler so great are little things. Like you see that tiny little triangle that I cut off the bottom right of the half hex above? First I debated whether to do that or not. But look what happens when you put it on your hex to sew it together:

Cutting that tiny little piece makes the edges match! No figuring out if you have enough of the tip sticking out! Yay for easy piecing!

And here’s another tip I learned as I was putting this together. If you find your half hex is too big on one side (where I’m pointing above), it means your 1/4 seam isn’t correct. This pattern depends on an accurate 1/4 seam, so pay attention to it!

Here you can see a close up of the blocks. I used mostly The Littles by Michael Miller. Cute right?  And this block is so simple to put together. Julie uses a partial seam method to put these together so there are NO “Y” seams! I would say a confident beginner could tackle this pattern easily.

Thank you to Sara for inviting me to be a part of this hop. And thanks to Julie for such great patterns! I hope you’ll go out and try this one!! And for me, I’m a convert, I LOVE rulers!

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6 thoughts on “Jaybird Pattern Review – Snack Time

  1. DeeAnn Forrest says:

    Love how this turned out, Becky! Thanks for showing both colorways – it really helps to see the difference. Adding this one to my to-do list.

  2. Marci Girl says:

    I think you quilt is beautiful and I totally agree with you about Julie’s ruler and patterns, genius!

  3. Pam Sherman says:

    I really like the colors you chose.

  4. Vera says:

    Great pattern and good to know there are no Y seams. Your quilt is looking good!

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