Noteworthy Labyrinth Quilt

Hello again! This is Karin Vail from Cascade Quilts and I am happy to bring you my third Moda Bake Shop project! This would look wonderul in just about any Moda collection!
I showed a preview picture of the pattern to a quilter friend of mine, and she said it looked like a labyrinth or maze, so the name was born. This quilt came together pretty quickly – it looks complicated, but if you keep your consistent 1/4” seam, you should have no problems 🙂 This quilt top finishes at approx. 87”x87”.

2 jelly rolls (Noteworthy by Sweetwater)
3 1/2 yards Bella solids (Snow)
5 yards backing (#5500 15 ”Daisy” from Noteworthy collection)

We will be using 1/4” seam allowance throughout.

First, we’ll be cutting loads and loads of narrow strips from your Bella solid.

CUT:
8 WOF strips @ 1.75” for the border
66 WOF strips @ 1.5” wide for the sashing (30 are for your strip sets)
Subcut 28 of the 1.5” strips into:
45 pieces @ 16.5”
50 @ 8”

Set aside 30 WOF @ 1.5” for your strip sets, and 8 WOF @ 1.5” for your sashing.

To get the most out of your solids, you can get two 16.5” pieces and one 8” piece from each WOF – so, from 22 strips, cut 44 pieces @ 16.5” and 22 pieces @ 8” – then from one strip, cut 1 piece @ 16.5” and 3 pieces @ 8” – then from 5 strips, cut 25 more pieces @ 8”. This should give you the least amount of waste.

Take the remaining eight 1.5” strips and join into 4 longer strips @ 88” (sashing strip to join the rows together.)

Join the eight WOF 1.75” strips into 4 @ 88” for your border.

Open your two jelly rolls and choose 30 strips from each jelly roll for a total of 60 strips. Some of the remaining jelly roll strips will be used for scrappy binding, so keep that in mind when choosing strips. Also keep in mind what you choose if you might want to make matching pillows. Unfortunately, I left out the white/white prints and lower value prints and didn’t think about using the remaining for pillows until the top was already all assembled. I wish I would have thought ahead further so I could have a matching pillow or two.

Anyhow, for each of the strip sets, you will choose 3 jelly roll strips and join together alternating with 2 of the 1.5” solid strips. Press all seams to one side.

You will sew together 20 of these strips sets. Each strip set should measure 8.5” wide.

Cut each strip set into five 8.5” squares. There will be VERY LITTLE waste here, so cut cautiously. After you have cut all your strip sets into 8.5” squares, you will take pairs keeping the seams orientated in the same direction, and cut them diagonally in opposing directions.

It is imperitive that you cut the angles in opposing directions for this to work.

Now, swap the upper pieces from each block and align and you will start to see the sub-block emerging!

If you pressed the seams to one side, and kept them in the same direction when you cut the blocks, your seams will all nest pefectly when you go to join the triangles back into a square! The bias edge helps a LOT to make sure your seams line up.

Sew the blocks together and press. You can press open or to one side here, your choice. I chose to press to the side because it’s faster 🙂

At this point, carefully trim your blocks so they are 8” square. You should have VERY little to trim, if anything at all. The blocks will go together much nicer if these are all nice and square though 🙂
Continue cutting/sewing your sub-blocks – you should have a total of 100 for this quilt.

To assemble the 25 blocks, you will stitch an 8” x 1.5” solid between pairs of sub-blocks, press toward the solid. Then, assemble pairs of those with the 16.5” x 1.5” strip for your finished blocks. There will be 25 total. Using your final twenty 16.5” x 1.5” strips, sew the blocks into rows of 5 – then use your 1.5” x 88” strips to join your rows. Finally, use your final four 1.75”x 88” strips to add a border for a final quilt top finish of 87”x87”.

Now you can layer, baste, quilt, and bind using 9 of your remaining jelly roll strips! (You will have 11 leftover jelly roll strips from the 2 jelly rolls and a small amount of the solid – maybe make some pillows to match?!)

One beautiful 87”x87” quilt!