Thanks for checking out my latest Moda Bake Shop recipe! I’m Sarah, from Sweet Dreams by Sarah, and you can visit my blog to read a little more about my inspiration for this quilt, and to get a sneak peek of other projects that I’m working on. I mostly make baby quilts, because frankly, I like immediate gratification. Even though this is a lap-sized quilt, it comes together so quickly, it will be done before you know it!
I love the modern feel of a traditional block that’s blown up, so today we’re making a giant vintage star, using patchwork to give it a fun, scrappy feel. Let’s get started!
1 Boho Layer Cake
3 Yards Bella Porcelain
4 Yards of any coordinating yardage for backing – I used No. 31091-18 in Rain and No. 31095-14 in Whisper (you will also have some leftover Layer Cake pieces that you can use to make the backing more scrappy)
5/8 Yard Binding – I used No. 31094-14 in Rain
Cotton batting, measuring at least 70″ by 70″
Cutting:
First, we need to sort the Layer Cake. The great thing about this project is that you can really use any Layer Cake that has definite color ways, plus some lower contrast prints. You’ll want to pull the following from your Layer Cake:
Four colorway-sorted piles, with at least 4 different prints in each:
A lower contrast or multicolored pile, with at least 8 different prints:
Set aside the rest of the layer cake, as we’ll be using that for the borders!
Keeping each pile together, cut the squares in quarters, giving you little stacks of 5″ squares.
Remaining cutting:
From the Porcelain background yardage:
- 6 squares that measure 14″, and 4 squares that measure 13 1/2″
- 8 strips 3 3/4″ by width of fabric (WOF)
From binding fabric:
- 7 strips 2 1/2″ by WOF
Now that we have all the pieces, let’s get sewing! We’ll be using a 1/4″ seam for all seams.
Using the squares we cut in the first step, and working with one color pile at a time, sew the squares into nine-patches. Pick out 9 5″ squares from one of the colorways, and lay them out, trying to make it as scrappy looking as possible:
Sew the squares together into rows:
And press out the rows with the seams going in opposite directions so that you can nest the seams:
Sew the rows together and press for your nine-patch:
You’ll need 1 nine-patch in each colorway, and 2 in the low contrast fabrics.
Next, we need to mark those 14″ squares we cut from the background fabric. Mark the diagonal across the square, with your preferred marking tool. We’re going to be sewing on either side of that line, so make sure you can see it. Lay one of your nine-patches down, right side up, and then lay the background square on top, with your marking facing up.
Pin this together, and then sew on either side of the line, 1/4″ away from the line:
Do this with all 6 of the 9 patches that you’ve made up, and then go ahead and cut on those lines that you drew, going right between the lines that you sewed.
Press these open, and you’ll see that you now have patchwork half square triangles!
You should now have 16 blocks to work with – the 12 half square triangles, plus the 4 13 1/2″ background squares. Using your design wall or your floor, arrange them for your quilt center. Be sure to pair up the two half square triangles for the main colorways together, as you can see below:
Sew these squares together to create the center of the quilt. To help the seams to line up, I usually handle this piecing in quadrants. I sew together the 4 blocks in the upper left hand corner, then upper right, etc., to create bigger “chunks” that are much easier to manage when matching up corners.
Next, we’ll add the inner border. Grab the 3 3/4″ strips that you cut from the background. Take 2 of them, and sew together end to end, to make a double-long strip.
Do this with all 8 strips, so that you have 4 double-long strips – one for each side of the quilt. Press the seam to one side, and pin to the edges of your quilt center, matching up the seam between the two strips to the seam in the middle of the side of the quilt:
Sew the strips onto the quilt center, using a quarter inch seam:
Sew these strips on the right and left side first, pressing and squaring up these sides before sewing the strips on the other two sides:
Next, we’ll work on the outer border. Grab the extra 5″ charms that were left over from your 9-patches. We need a total of 58, so pull about 5 more pieces from the layer cake – just choose your favorite prints here, as we’re still going for a scrappy look – and cut them into 5″ squares.
Choose 13 of the squares, and sew them end to end in a long strip. Be sure to use a 1/4″ seam! I loosely arranged my squares by color so that I could control the color distribution a big as I sew them together.
Choose another 13, and sew them end to end as well. Be sure to press these long strips well, and pin them onto opposite sides of the quilt. Sew each strip onto opposite sides of the the quilt center.
Next, choose 15 squares, and sew them end to end in a long strip. Do this twice also, which will give you the final borders to attach to the quilt.
Press it all well, and your quilt top is done! The leftover layer cake pieces can be used in putting together your backing, or you can simply use yardage. In this case, I used a few layer cake pieces to connect two pieces of yardage, for a scrappy looking back.
Quilt as desired, and use the 2 1/2″ strips that we cut from the binding fabric to construct your binding strips. I bound this quilt using my preferred method of initially sewing the binding onto the back of the quilt, and then sewing on the front – both by machine.
One 67×67″ lap quilt!
This quilt pattern can also be simplified and made a bit smaller by stopping after you finish the quilt center! I made this version, using a Twirl (by My Sister and Me) layer cake, and it measures approx. 52″ by 52″.
Sarah Connolly
{www.sweetdreamsbysarah.com}
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