Hello everyone! I’m Becky from Patchwork Posse. Today I am sharing the quilt pattern for a cute and beachy umbrella quilt. During the summer I find that a little bit of shade goes a long way! These umbrellas are all about giving you a place to hide away from the heat. The fun contrast in the Weeds fabric collection with red, blacks, and grays is perfect for showcasing the fun print on the umbrella. Even though there is curved piecing in this quilt, once you get the hang of it, you can quickly sew all the blocks together. The key is pinning. You will be using pins. A lot of them. If you notice one umbrella is facing the wrong way….I did this on purpose. You don’t have to do that if you don’t like. I find it fun to add something a little ‘off’ in quilts.
- 5 to 10 fat quarters in red for the umbrellas
- 5 to 10 fat quarters in gray for the block backgrounds
- ½ yard fabric for spacer blocks (I used a light gray on dark gray polka dot); cut into (12) 7″ squares
- 1½ yards of red ric rac for umbrella handles; cut into (13) 4″ pieces
- Coordinating thread for top-stitching the ric rac
- ¼ yard red fabric for 1st border; cut into (2) 2″ x 32″strips and (2) 2″ x 35″
- 4 to 5 gray fat quarters for 2nd border; cut into (60) 2″ x 9″ strips
- 1 fat quarter for cornerstones; cut into (4) 4″ squares
- {Beach Umbrella Quilt template at the end of the Printer Friendly file}
(1) Cut out the umbrella pieces using the {templates}. Make sure you pay attention to the grain line arrow on the template. This will help keep the curves on the bias which will be a lot easier to sew. I used red for the umbrella parts and the dark gray and black for the background. Notice that section D is the bottom of the block and where you will be sewing the ric rac handle. NOTE: when cutting your fabric make sure you ADD 1/4″ to each. If you don’t, your blocks will be too small.
(2) Pin the center of piece A to the center of piece B- the will be curved in different directions.
(3) Pin the ends of the pieces together.
(4) Sew across this edge, stopping every few stitches and easing the edges together. When you get to the center, leave your needle down and adjust the rest of the piece.
(5) Using this method, continue sewing pieces C and then piece D to make your block. This is what the back of the block will look like:
Front of the block:
(6) Press the block.
(7) Repeat steps (1) through (6) to make a total of 13 umbrella blocks
(8) Pin the ric rac in place and sew down the center of it using matching thread. Tuck the ends under to make it look more finished.
(9) Taking your spacing blocks and your umbrella blocks, sew 3 rows:
(10) Taking your spacing blocks and your umbrella blocks, sew 2 rows:
(11) Sew your rows together to make the quilt center.
(12) Attach the first (red) border to the top and bottom (shorter strips). Attach the longer strips to the sides.
(13) Create the gray pieced border:
- Sew (6) 2″ x 9″ strips together. Square up to 9″.
- Cut from corner to corner twice to make 4 triangles.
- Sew the triangles together. Notice that the strips will be going different directions. You can choose if you want them to miter or go the same direction. The point will go past the other piece by a little bit. That is what you want to happen. In the example, I chose to keep them all going the same direction. The strips will NOT line up. Don’t go crazy trying to make that happen.
- Sew additional triangles together until you have 4 borders with 9 triangles in each.
- The ends will have a point and aren’t quite long enough. You will need to unpick one end of the row.
- Sew the extra triangles to the ends of the rows to get them to the correct length and to make them square on the ends. The 4 border pieces should be 35″ long each.
(14 )Pin the border to the quilt center and sew to the top and bottom of the quilt.
(15) Sew the 4 squares to the ends of the other 2 pieced border rows and sew these rows to the sides of the quilt.
(16) Layer, baste, quilt, and bind.
Above is a close-up of the quilting I chose. Feel free to do whatever quilting pattern you would like.
Finished Quilt Block: 7″ x 7″
Finished Quilt: 42″ x 42″
For more quilt tutorials and easy sewing projects, stop by {patchworkposse.com} or follow me on {Facebook}. You can also find me on {Pinterest}. Hope you enjoy this quilt!
Becky Jorgensen
{www.patchworkposse.com}
modafabrics 