Benartex Christmas in July Project Hop! Our Project The Midas Touch

The Midas Touch, designed by Heidi Pridemore

This week we have teamed up with Benartex for their Christmas in July Project Hop. This project hop starts on Monday, July 20th and runs through July 31st. Each designer gets the chance to showcase one of their patterns that features one of beautiful collections from Benartex Fabrics. If you'd like to follow along with the rest of the hop, the schedule and links are posted down below. 

We are thrilled to share our new pattern "The Midas Touch" with you. This quilt was designed by Heidi Pridemore, based on photos that her cousin took of tiles in Morocco. "I often draw inspiration from these photos, and each time the pattern just comes out stunning", explains Heidi. With all of the gold in this quilt, the name came easily. The pattern is currently available on our website: The Midas Touch Pattern

So, Merry (early) Christmas and happy project hopping!

Let’s get started! Here we can see all of the beautiful fabrics in the Rejoice collection designed by Greta Lynn for Benartex Fabrics. These stunning prints have a delicate outline of gold to make them really sparkle.

Once we got all 792 (!) pieces prepped with fusible web and cut, we were ready to start assembling the blocks.

All 72 blocks pressed and ready for the finishing stitch along the edges. We have done a video tutorial on how to do this. Make sure to check it out here! It'll help make this project a breeze. 

Now let's get to stitching. For this project, Heidi uses an open toe foot and Aurifil 50wt thread to finished the edges of the appliqué.  Make sure to check out our three part Quilt Tutorial on this project to see some of the shortcuts she used to finish these blocks in no time. 

Once we finished the edge stitching, it was on to assembling the rows. Due to the overlapping layers in the seams, we chose to press the seams open to make the quilt top lay flat.

Here's a close up of the center block finished and ready for borders. Isn't it stunning?

Here you can see how we've prepped the border pieces and are now ready for the next step.

If 72 blocks sounds like too many, you can always opt for making the center block and then just adding a few borders to for simpler quilt. This method brings you down to only 36 blocks, and it still turns out beautifully. 

Here is a close up of the finished edges on the block. We wanted to use a thread that disappeared effortlessly into the block, and the gold thread fit the bill perfectly. 

Here's a look at the finished quilt top, now ready for some quilting magic!

I hope you've enjoyed walking through this project with us! We have also created a three part video series on our YouTube channel that takes you step by step through the entire construction of this quilt. It's a great way to learn quilting tips from Heidi herself and follow along as you create your own version. 

We also have plenty of videos on Heidi's preferred quilting tools, tips for organizing your studio, stash and sewing space, other free quilt tutorials and so much more. Our YouTube community is growing quickly, along with the amount of videos we upload so subscribe today and don't miss out! 

Click here to check out and subscribe to our YouTube Channel

See below for the schedule and links to our fellow designers hoping along with us:

Monday July 20^th – Nancy Scott, Winterberry 

https://masterpiecequilting.blogspot.com/2020/07/benartex-christmas-in-july-blog-hop.html

Tuesday July 21^st – Heidi Pridemore, Rejoice 

https://heidipridemore.blogspot.com/2020/07/benartex-christmas-in-july-project-hop.html

Wednesday July 22^nd – Laura Piland, First Frost http://www.sliceofpiquilts.com/

Thursday July 23^rd – Lisa Ruble, Camp Joy https://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com/

Friday July 24^th – Debby Kratovil, Festive Chickadees https://debbykratovilquilts.blogspot.com/

Saturday July 25^th – Wendy Sheppard, Ode to Joy https://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/

Sunday July 26^th – Debby Brown, River’s End DebbyBrownQuilts.Blogspot.Com

Monday July 27^th – Charisma Horton, Deer Festival http://charismascorner.com/

Tuesday July 28^th – Sandra Walker, Better Not Pout https://www.mmmquilts.com/

Wednesday July 29^th – Kate Colleran, Joy https://seamslikeadream.com/

Thursday July 30^th – Tammy Silvers, Snow Village & Rustic Village Christmas  https://tamarinis.typepad.com/tamarinis/2020/07/christmas-in-july-project-hop-double-dutch-in-snow-village-and-rustic-village-christmas-from-benarte.html 

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