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Hen and Chicks Studio central Iowa quilt shop and retreat centers in Conrad, Iowa, celebrating 13 years of inspiring quilters

Welcome to Hen & Chicks Studio 100 Days to Christmas Event

Day 3 (September 18, 2019)

Fat Quarter Inspiration

Working with fat quarters is fun! It's like little bits of candy and you get to try all of them. What is a fat quarter? It's a special fabric cut that is 18x21". A traditional skinny quarter-yard cut of fabric is 9x42", so a fat quarter is twice as wide (18") and half as long (21"). So, it's still a quarter yard, just a "fat", rather than a skinny!

Lots of quilt designers use fat quarters in their instructions. We especially love all of the Atkinson Design patterns that use fat quarters. Check out just a few of these for inspiration for what to do with your fat quarters. 

Terry stopped in at Hen & Chicks Studio just a few weeks ago so we had to snap a picture in front of her Follow Your Heart pattern.

We're huge fans of designer Terry Atkinson and all of the patterns she creates. Her instructions are well written, tested, and are great for any skill level. Depending on the fabrics you choose, you can make them look more modern, and keep them very traditional. 

Each of her patterns give multiple finished sizes, such as baby, lap, double, and king. And, some patterns over simple changes, like in Urban Cabin, where you can use one piece of fabric for the block center (Basic) or piece together several (Strippy). 

Terry uses fat quarters to help you get more fabrics into a quilt and not have to purchase excess fabric.
Texas Two-Step can be made in two sizes of blocks--either 6" or 9" finished blocks. The 9" blocks work well for those fabrics that you just don't want to cut up to small.

It's a perfect pattern for a beginner! You can learn to perfect your 1/4" seams and match your corners when piecing blocks.

As with all of Terry's patterns, you can make this in a variety of sizes.   
Shadow Song might look a bit challenging for a beginner, but don't you worry! Terry has though of everything to make sure you have success in making quilts. In this project she's designed the pieced churn dash blocks with floating points to ensure that even if you're off a bit on those triangle points, it's going to look great because they are "floating", rather than matching up to anything, so the eye won't even see a slightly cut off triangle point. So, if you've been wanting to try triangles--this is your project!

Inspiration for a Quick Gift

We loved this quick-and-easy project bag tutorial! Think what combinations of fat quarters you could use to make these. We could easily see these bags being used when traveling to hold things from shifting in your suit case....or for kids to keep their small things secure when in the car...oh the possibilities are endless. Thanks to Fat Quarter Shop for the inspiration on our Fat Quarter sale day!