Pink Ombre Patchwork Quilt

Hi Everyone! I’m so pleased to be back here with a fun and easy project that is absolutely perfect for the beginner quilter (or for those who need to whip up a quick-yet-pretty gift). The layout of this quilt is very simple and works with many pre-cuts – fat quarters, layer cakes, or charm packs. The trick is blending the fabrics from two different lines. I made this one with my daughter and it makes a great kids’ sewing project.

5 to 6 charm packs (choose lines that have lots of pink in different shades) – I used Posy by Aneela Hoey & 2wenty Thr3e by Eric and Julie Comstock.
3/8 yard Bella Solids for binding
3 2/3 yards Bella Solids for backing

From your charm packs, select fabrics with pink or white hues. Try mixing warms and cools too, as I did. I even used a bit of orange. The results are actually very pretty. Because you will be creating a quilt from dark to light, ensure that you have a nice even mix of both, along with a good amount of mid-range pink (or whichever colour you have chosen. Say a mixture of five or six darker pinks/reds/oranges, five or six whites (with a touch of pink), and the rest in mid-range pinks.

Lay the charm squares on the floor and work out your desired design, ensuring that you gently blend the colours from dark to light. Take a photo of this design to help ensure you get it right later on.

Starting in the bottom right hand corner, work backwards along the quilt, right to left, collecting your squares into a pile. This will make it much easier when you come to sewing the quilt top. Plus it looks pretty too…

Begin assembling your quilt in rows of eight, with a 1/4″ seam allowance for each seam.

Attach the strips together, either as you go or all at the end, your preference.

I gave my quilt top a good iron before sandwiching and quilting the top (very basic quilting – I am still very much a beginner quilter!). Bind and quilt as desired. I used a white binding, but soft pink would look lovely too… Didn’t I tell you it was easy?!

One small 40′ by 60′ single quilt for a pink-mad girl. This would be a fun (and even easier) project using charm squares if you have enough pinks and whites – no cutting required! Use fat quarters or layer cakes to make a larger version, and you can easily recreate this project using any colour you wish!

Stella Rutherford
{verydarkhorse.blogspot.co.nz}

Granny Square Quilt

Feb25

Hi there! I’m Jolene from Blue Elephant Stitches. I’ve always loved the look of crocheted granny square throws. Since I don’t know how to crochet, I came up with a quilt block that would give a similar look. I wrote that tutorial on my blog about a year ago, using scrappy squares.

Here is a revised version using a jelly roll which makes it go so fast! I tried to write this tutorial in a way that made the best use of strips, yet still gave a scrappy look, since you don’t want all your blocks to look the same. When you use this method, you will have two blocks of each color set.

Quilt dimensions: 52″ x 62″

1 jelly roll ( I used Posy by Aneela Hoey) you will only use half the strips
Main Background fabric – 2.5 yards
Border (optional) – 1.5 yards
Binding – 0.5 yard
Backing – a piece of fabric measuring at least 56″ x 66″
Batting – a piece measuring at least 56″ x 66″

1. From your Main Background color cut:

16 strips – 3″ x width of fabric (these strips will be for your blocks)
13 strips – 2.5″ x width of fabric(these strips will be sashing)
2. Choose twenty strips from your jelly roll that you want to use in this quilt. (the remaining strips can be
used for binding, or saved for another project) Separate into two piles of ten. One stack will be for your
inner granny rings, and the other set will be for your outer granny rings.
3. Now we will subcut our strips as follows:

Inner Granny Rings – cut all 10 like the diagram below:

Outer Granny Rings – cut all 10 like the diagram below:

Background – cut 10 of your 3″wide strips like the diagram below:

Background – cut 3 of your 3″ wide strips like the diagram below:

Background – cut your remaining 3 strips into 3″ squares. (you will need 40 of these squares)

YAY!! the cutting for your blocks is done! Your stacks should look a bit like mine above. Now let’s get ready to assemble them.

4. We are going to assemble these blocks in sets. Each set will make two blocks, so we will make 10 sets of blocks, for a total of 20 blocks. It works best to first sort the sets into piles so that we don’t get mixed up and sew the wrong strips together.

We’ll start with our Inner Granny Rings.

Take two 5 1/2″ strips from the same fabric, and their two matching 10 1/2″ strips. Put them together in a pile. Do this for each of the 10 sets. You should now have ten 5 1/2″ strips left. These will be for those little center squares. Put one on each pile, making sure they are a different fabric..

Now we’ll add the outer ring fabrics to these piles:

For each set, there will be two 5 1/2″ strips and two 10 1/2″ strips of the same fabric. Place one set together with each pile, keeping in mind the values and colors, since you want these fabrics to have contrast to each other.

Now we just need to add our background fabric:

To each set add two 5 1/2″ strips, four 10 1/2″ strips, and four 3″ squares.

Now we’re ready to sew them together!

5. Take your sets to your sewing machine and sew the strips together as shown below. (do one pile or block set at a time)

Press these seams open.

Now cut your sets into strips that are 2 1/2″ wide. I gave you an extra half an inch when we cut out our strips, so you may have a little bit to trim off.

Arrange your strips as shown above and sew together. You will have enough for two blocks from each set.

Press these seams to the outside, as I’ve shown above.

Now you can trim your block. I trimmed mine to 9″ square, but yours might be slightly different. The most important thing is that your blocks are all square, and all the same size.

Sew your nine remaining block sets together, and you should end up with 20 blocks! Now we can just add the sashing and the optional border!

To make a border like mine, cut your strips 6″ wide.

To make rounded corners like I did, quilt your quilt as usual, then choose your desired round shape, trace it onto each corner and cut it off. Use a bias binding to finish your quilt. Binding made on the bias will make it possible to sew around the curved corners.

52″ x 62″ finished quilt! I hope you find this tutorial useful! I’d love to see your finished quilts.

Jolene Klassen
{blueelephantstitches.blogspot.com}

Cozy Posy Triangle Quilt

Jan11

Hello! My name is Erica and I blog over at Kitchen Table Quilting. I wanted to share this tutorial with you because (a) I love the fabric and I cannot get enough of those sweet little bunnies and (b) because this is a great way to make a quilt that is much easier than it looks!

2 jelly rolls of Posy by Aneela Hoey
1/2 yard Bella Lilac
1/2 yard Bella Tea Rose
1/2 yard Bella Petal Pink
1/2 yard Bella Green
1/2 yard any print or solid for binding (you could also use leftover jelly roll strips)
Batting that is 62″x72″ or larger
2 Yards Snuggles in White

Unroll your jelly rolls and separate them into groups:

16 strips for the A Triangles. Cut each strip into an 11″ piece, a 13″ piece, and a 15″ piece.
36 strips for the B Triangles. Cut a 30″ piece from each strip and set the remainder aside for the D Triangles.
6 strips for the C Triangles. Cut each strip into 2 15-ish” pieces (you can cut these a little bigger if you want a little more room for error). Set aside the remainder for the D Triangles.

From each of your solid fabrics:

Cut a strip that is 6.5″ by width of fabric (which I will refer to as WOF) and keep these folded in half.
Cut a strip that is 10.5″ by WOF (keep these folded in half too).

To make the A Triangles, take your strips from step 1 and the 6.5″xWOF strip from each solid color. Subcut your solid strips into equilateral triangles.

To make the triangles with your ruler, place your folded fabric on your cutting mat with the raw edge to the right (trim your selvage if you haven’t already). Align the 60 degree line on your ruler with the bottom of the fabric and the right side of the ruler with the bottom corner of the raw edge. Cut along the ruler.

I like to move to the other side of the table or spin my cutting mat around so that the raw edge is now on the left side (you don’t have to flip it, I am just a little crazy about how I cut things). Once again, line up the 60 degree angle line with the bottom of the fabric. Line up the top edge of the ruler 1/4″ from the end of the fabric. I don’t know why this works, but it does.

Here is a closer photo. Cut along the edge of the ruler. Continue cutting triangles along your strips by next lining up the ruler 1/4″ from the edge of the bottom. You need 4 triangles of each fabric, but I cut a couple of extra so that I had options when pairing them up with my jelly roll strips.

Sew the 11″ strip onto one side of the block (it doesn’t matter which one) and press.

Trim the extra fabric off of the sides.

Add the 13″ strip, press, and trim.

And then add the 15″ piece, press, and trim. Continue until you have made 16 of these blocks.

To make the B Triangles, take your 30″ jelly roll strips and separate them into groups of 6.

Sew the strips together along the long side until you have one long piece that is 12.5″x30″.

Just like in step three, cut the fabric into equilateral triangles. You should be able to get 3 blocks out of each of these 12.5″x30″ pieces. Continue until you have at least 16 triangles.

To make the C Triangle, take your solid strips that are 10.5″xWOF. Cut into equilateral triangles just like in the previous two steps. You only need a total of 12 of these blocks, so cut three triangles from each color or whatever suits your needs.

I managed to forget to take a photo of this step, but it is just like making the first part of the A Triangle. Take your 15″ inch jelly roll pieces and attach to one of the triangle sides. Press and trim the triangle and you’re done.

For the D Triangles, take your remaining streps for the B and C triangles. Separate into groups of 3 and sew together along the long sides.

Cut into equilateral triangles just like before.

You should be able to get 2 triangles out of each of these. Take 4 triangles and arrange them into a larger triangle (it doesn’t matter which way they are turned, I tried to vary between blocks).

Sew together the bottom three triangles.

And then sew on the top triangle. Each the A, B, C, and D triangles should finish the same size. Make at least 8 of these triangles.

Arrange your triangles on your floor (if you are me) or on your design wall (if you are lucky). I alternated mine roughly A, B, C, A, B, D, A, B, C, etc. Sew together into diagonal columns. Please excuse my poor Photoshop skills, but I hope this illustrates my point.

Piece sets of triangles together, side by side.

And then piece the sets together to create a diagonal.

Arrange your diagonal columns.

And then start to shift them so that they are offset a little bit. There is no right or wrong way to do this. The more they are offset, the more waste you are going to have at the edge of the quilt, but you want to move them enough that it is obvious you did it on purpose 🙂 I moved my columns up or down by 2-3″.

Sew your columns together (this will feel weird because nothing will line up, but let go and enjoy that that the points aren’t supposed to match!).

And then square up the quilt so that all of the sides are even.

Baste, quilt, and bind as desired. I backed my quilt in Moda Snuggles. It makes an incredibly soft, luxurious quilt and it is much easier to work with than you might think. I would definitely recommend giving it a try!

This yields a wonderfully cozy lap-size quilt. Mine finished 55″x65″, but yours may vary a little depending on how much you offset your columns.