Hidden Cottage Project Tour, Riley Blake Designs

Welcome to my stop on the Hidden Cottage Project tour! 

I've got a beautiful quilt to show you using Minki Kim's latest line with Riley Blake Designs. It's July and Summer is in full swing here, but as a quilter we never stop making things that are warm and cozy, am I right? lol. 

The Fabric

I have always loved every line Minki Kim designs. Her illustrations and color palettes are so beautiful to me. 

This particular line, Hidden Cottage, is very warm and cozy. the golden mustard shades and beautiful green hues are a combination I didn't expect to love as much as I do. I could not wait to make a quilt from these fabrics! My favorite print is most definitely the hexagons - I have a cut saved of them to make myself a bag later ;)

Fabric flat lay photos courtesy of Riley Blake Designs.

The Project 

I chose to make a quilt from the book Modern Quilts Block by Block (Emily Dennis) called Churn Dash.

It's definitely a traditional churn dash block with a twist... There are half square triangles in the corners that create a cute little secondary pattern when the top is completed. I picked a few prints from the Hidden Cottage line and mixed them with some Riley Blake Designs basics to create this quilt, and finished it off with Chenille-It binding (more details on that below).

The long arm quilting is done in a pattern called "Spring Thing" by Megan McCord (@sewcial_misfit). Not only was this my first time using this pantograph, but also my first churn dash quilt!

The Binding

This quilt also has another first in it for me - I used Chenille-It for the binding!

If you've never heard of Chenille-It, it's a faux chenille product that "blooms" when washed and dried. You can use it as accents of pillows, quilts, etc or even as binding, which I've done here. It's a super simple process - even easier than traditional binding if you ask me.

I watched this video by Sharon Holland to learn how to do it then applied it in no time and had it in the washer. If you're going to try this yourself I'd suggest getting the little Chenille Brush from Chenille-It when ordering a roll of blooming bias. I removed my quilt from the washer and gently used the brush to fray and make the bias tape "bloom" before putting it in the dryer to fluff up even more.

The finished binding is so nice! I absolutely love how it turned out. This would be a fantastic product to use on baby quilts. One ⅝" wide roll was more than enough to bind this throw size quilt, I have enough left over to bind a pillow or even use as an accent on another project.

It's a soft product but not quite as soft as actual chenille, obviously. This is a faux chenille product so I wasn't expecting it to be 100% like the real thing. However, it's still very cuddly.

So what do you think? I am very pleased with this quilt and will definitely use Chenille-It again in the future. I even have large scraps left over from Hidden Cottage to make another project!

Checkout this new line by Minki Kim online or in your local quilt shops :)