100 Quilts For Kids - Tutorial for a Quick & Easy Quilt!

Hi, all!

Have you heard about the 100 Quilts For Kids charity quilt drive yet?  Kate over at Swim Bike Quilt has been spearheading this event for the past three years, and it's so much fun!  

The quilts our group made two years ago for 100QFK

The event runs from July 1st to September 30th this year.  And it's simple - here are the guidelines, straight from Kate's blog:

1. Make a quilt.  Great time to use bee blocks, try a new pattern, or experiment with a design of your own.

2. Donate it to a child in need, locally if you can.  Consider donating your quilt(s) to a local foster care program, domestic violence center, homeless shelter, children’s hospital, or to a local military family support organization.

There are so many great charities and sewing circles out there!! If you don’t know where to donate your quilt, try one of these organizations or quilt drives: Margaret’s Hope Chest, Bumble Beans Basics, do.Good Stitches, Project Linus,Quilts for Moore, Oklahoma,  Just One Slab for Flood Recovery in Southern Alberta, the work done by Sarah and her Quilt Ministry, and Siblings Together.

 [one of the quilts Kate made last year out of scraps from another quilt]

3. Link up a picture of your donated quilt(s):  Let us know you donated your quilt (and where you donated it) during the Linky Party September 28-30, 2013 (at www.swimbikequilt.com). Link up a picture from a blog post, Threadbias account, Facebook post, or picture on Flickr.

4. For you:  Kate is working with a few different shops, companies, and pattern designers to put together some prizes that you will be eligible for when you donate a quilt–a fun way of saying “thank you” for sharing your time, talents, and resources with kids in need. Prizes will be randomly drawn–if you donate a quilt and link up at the end of September, you are eligible to win.

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That's all you have to do!  Make a quilt for a child in need, donate it locally or find a good charity to send it to, then link up a picture of your quilt in September!  

And just to make it a little bit easier, I've written up a tutorial for a great quilt design by Deb at A Simple Life Quilts.  She calls it Noodle Recipe because her version uses 2.5" strips, which were known as noodles at the time she came up with the design, many years ago.  She graciously allowed me to post a tutorial for her quilt design on my blog - thanks, Deb!

I've made some size adjustments, so you can use this design to make a baby or toddler quilt (40" square), a child's quilt (50" square), or an adult quilt (60" square).  A nice general all-purpose design!  All three sizes are constructed the same way, with the same number of blocks.  The only differences are the size of the blocks, and the borders on the adult size quilt.

And the best part?  I made this flimsy in less than three hours, including choosing fabric and cutting it out!  So without further ado, here's the tutorial....

Noodle Quilt

Designed by Deb@asimplelifequilts

Fabric Requirements:

NOTE: The fabric requirements listed below are “best case scenario” requirements in some cases.  If your fabric is not cut or folded straight, you may need more fabric than is listed.  I have put the actual number of inches of selvage to selvage fabric required for each cut in parentheses following the listing in case you are working from stash fabrics.

Baby quilt:

1/2 yard of a print fabric (print #1) (for pieced blocks) (15”)

1/2 yard of a solid fabric (15”)

3/4 yard of a print fabric (print #2) (for large blocks) (25.5”)

Child’s quilt:

3/4 yard of a print fabric (print #1) for pieced blocks) (24”)

3/4 yard of a solid fabric (24”)

1 yard of a print fabric (print #2) (for large blocks)* (31.5”)

   *if the fabric doesn’t have 42” of usable fabric (WOF minus 

   selvages) you will need 1 1/4 yards. (42”)

Adult’s quilt:

Same fabric requirements as the child’s quilt, plus border fabric as listed below:

For a single border:

1 yard of a print fabric (print #3) (33”)

OR

For a double border:

1/4 yard of a solid fabric (solid #2) (9”)

3/4 yard of a print fabric (print #1, #2, or #3) (23”)

NOTE:  After you cut your WOF strips, remove the selvage edges.

Cutting directions for baby quilt:

Print #1 - cut six 2.5” by WOF strips

Solid -      cut six 2.5” by WOF strips

After you have made and measured your pinwheel blocks:

Print #2 - cut twelve 8.5” squares (or whatever size your pinwheel

                blocks came out)

Cutting directions for blocks for child’s or adult’s quilt:

Print #1 - cut eight 3.0” by WOF strips

Solid -      cut eight 3.0” x WOF strips

After you have made and measured your pinwheel blocks:

Print #2 - cut twelve 10.5” squares (or whatever size your pinwheel  

                blocks came out)

Cutting directions for borders for adult’s quilt:

Single border:

Print #3 - cut six 5.5” x WOF strips

Double border:

Solid - cut six 1.5” x WOF strips

Print #1, #2, or #3 - cut six 4.5 x WOF strips

Sewing Directions:

IMPORTANT NOTE:  All seams need to be sewn with an accurate 1/4” seam.  If you use a larger seam, the blocks will not come out the needed size and your quilt will be smaller.

Take one print strip and one solid strip and sew, using a 1/4” seam, down the length of the two strips.  You will now have one piece that is print on one side and solid on the other.  Repeat with all the print and solid strips.  Press the seams towards the print piece.

                          

Now you will need to measure your sewn strips.  Ideally, for the baby quilt, they should be 4.5” wide; for the child or adult quilt, they should be 5.5” wide.  You will now cross-cut the strips to create square blocks, using the measurement of your strip.  

                            

Baby quilt blocks should ideally be 4.5” square, adult quilt blocks should be 5.5” square.  The block will be comprised of one print rectangle and one solid rectangle.  You will need 52 of these blocks to make the larger pinwheel blocks in the quilt.

                 

Divide these blocks into 4 stacks of thirteen, and lay the four stacks out in the pinwheel pattern.  You can now chain piece the blocks together by taking two blocks from the top two stacks, then two blocks from the bottom two stacks, until all the small blocks are gone.  

                   

                   

Press seams towards the long print piece in each pair.  Cut the connecting thread between each pair of block sets - this will give you thirteen sets of block sets that are still connected where the last seam will go.  Sew the final seam.  

 

When you go to press that seam, you can open the seam allowances at the center of the seam, where the four corners meet, so that you can press half the seam one direction and half in the other direction.  This will allow for the seam allowance to be undetectable under a lighter solid.  (It also gives a cool little pinwheel effect on the back of your block!)

When all thirteen of your pinwheel blocks are finished, measure several of them to see what size they turned out.  For the baby quilt, they should measure 8.5”; for the child or adult quilt, they should measure 10.5”.  Whatever they measure, you should cut your large print squares to that measurement. You will need twelve large print squares.

Lay the squares out in a checkerboard pattern, five rows by five rows, with pinwheel blocks in each corner.  Join the blocks in each row, then join the rows together.  If you are making a baby or child’s quilt, you can now quilt as desired and bind!

If you are making an adult quilt, you should now fold your top in half, right side to left side, and measure ALONG THE FOLD to find out the measurement for your side borders.  (Measuring along the fold will help keep your quilt square, and will avoid “waving” on the border.)  Sew three WOF strips together (remember to cut off the selvages first!) and from that long strip, cut two pieces to the measurement you just made.  Attach to the right and left sides of the quilt.  

Now fold your quilt in half, top to bottom, and measure ALONG THE FOLD to find out the measurement for your top and bottom borders.  Sew three WOF strips together and from that long strip, cut two pieces to that measurement.  Attach to the top and bottom of the quilt.  

If you are making two borders, repeat the above process.

Congratulations!  You have finished your quilt top!

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I hope you enjoy this tutorial!  If you would like a printable copy of it, please leave a comment letting me know and I'll send you the pdf version!  (Be sure you leave an email address, too, if you are a no-reply blogger - I'd hate to miss sending you a copy!  I respond to all comments, so if you don't hear back from me, you're probably a no-reply blogger.)

Won't you join me in making some quilts for the 100 Quilts For Kids charity quilt challenge?  It feels good to spend time using your talents to make someone else happy!!

Hugs!

Sarah