Dashes in the Woods

I’m Michelle Marr and I blog at Michelle’s Romantic Tangle. Little Red Riding Hood has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, so as soon as I saw A Walk in the Woods, I wanted to play with it. It’s such a fun collection, and it makes a wonderful big girl quilt — which was supposed to be mine, but was stolen by my teenage daughter as soon as I got the binding on!

1 “A Walk in the Woods” Jelly Roll

1 “A Walk in the Woods” Charm Pack

3 1/2 yards Zen Grey Moda Solid for background

4 yards fabric for backing

3/4 yard fabric for binding

Cutting:

Before you start cutting, unroll your Jelly Roll and remove any strips that do not contrast well with your background fabric. To make the churn dash blocks stand out from the background, I removed all of the grey prints. Because I didn’t want to leave out the adorable little foxes, I did use the grey fox print in the center checkerboard. You can make the quilt with just a Jelly Roll, but without the grey fabric, there’s not a lot to spare so I added the charm pack as insurance against cutting errors.

From the Jelly Roll, cut:

128 print half square triangles for Churn Dash blocks (see instructions below)

160 2 1/2″ squares for Churn Dash blocks

200 2 1/2″ squares for center checkerboard

From background fabric, cut:

16 4 1/2″ squares for Churn Dash blocks

64 4 1/2 x 2 1/2″ strips for Churn Dash blocks

64 half square triangles for Churn Dash blocks (see instructions below)

200 2 1/2″ squares for center checkerboard

16 2 1/2 x 12 12 1/2″ strips for sashing between Churn Dash Blocks

2 2 1/2″ x 40 1/2″ strips for border of center checkerboard

2 2 1/2″ x 44 1/2″ strips for border of center checkerboard

Using the Easy Angle or other similar ruler, cut 128 half square triangles from 2 1/2″ Jelly Roll strips (4 each from 32 different strips) and 64 half square triangles from 4 1/2″ strips of background fabric.

Sew two of the small print triangles to a square to form a larger triangle. Then add a white triangle to form a square. Press. Make four units for each churn dash block, sixty-four total.

For the bars of the churn dash blocks, sew two 2 1/2″ squares together. Press open and sew to a 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ strip to form a square. Press. Make four units for each churn dash block, sixty-four total.

Using four scrappy half square triangles, four bar units, and a 4 1/2″ background squares for the center section for each block, assemble sixteen churn dash blocks.

For the center checkerboard section, sew 200 print squares and 200 background squares into 100 four-patch units. Arrange in ten rows of ten. (40 1/2″ unfinished size)

Border with 2 1/2 strips. The bordered checkerboard section should measure 44 1/2″

Using the churn dash blocks and 2 1/2 x 12 1/2″ strips, assemble the outer border. You will make four strips as pictured — two with three churn dash blocks and two with five blocks.