What do you know - - - it's Friday again! And we all know what that means - it's time for us to all get our whoop whoop on. Are you ready? Let's go!
*&*&*&*&*&*&*
It's been a busy week around my studio this week, and my quilt math brain has been stretched to its limit - but I have a finished t-shirt quilt top to show off!
It's been a while since I made one of these, and because I made some adjustments to block sizes as I went to fill in empty spots, I ended up needing to do some quilt math at the end to make sure everything fit. Hopefully the second one this season will go a little easier now that I remember all the little tricks! Quilting will come sometime next week, as I've got a busy weekend coming up.
Once I finished the top, I decided to take a little break and clean off my cutting table. It feels so nice to have at least one little corner that is calm and peaceful and neat!
Then I decided to play around with an idea I had at church last week - a jelly roll quilt made with ombre fabric. I had this piece of ombre, about a yard and a half, sitting in my stash, so I ironed it well and cut it into 1.75" width of fabric strips - the widest I could cut the strips and get 42. I sewed them together, matching the yellow ends and the blue ends, then proceeded with a typical jelly roll quilt, and here's what I ended up with! Isn't it pretty?
My friend Piper at church is working on the same thing, with a more traditional light-to-dark-to-light ombre, and I'm interested to see what hers ends up looking like!
And here's my final whoop whoop for the week - my daughter (the one on the left) celebrated her tenth birthday this week! It's always so much fun when it's a leap year and we get to celebrate her "real" birthday. Her party will be on Saturday, because Lilli is away at DECA State Competition this week, but we went out to dinner with them Thursday and had a great time. Where do the years go?
Hi, all! Today I have another junior jelly roll quilt to share with you, which used up my last junior jelly roll, I'm happy to say! But now that I have a few easy quilt ideas that use one, I may find myself looking for them in the future. Let's get started!
I'm calling this quilt "Small Town" because it reminds me of farm areas in the midwest where the houses are surrounded by fields of crops. From the air, it kind of looks like this quilt - plus I just love John Mellencamp's song of the same name! (PS Who gives up a cool middle name like Cougar?)
Quilt Size: 61" square
Fabric Requirements:
From a junior jelly roll, select 16 2.5" strips OR 16 2.5" x width of fabric (WOF) strips from your stash
40" of block background fabric
40" of center, sashing and border fabric
1/2 yard of binding fabric
First Cutting Instructions:
Cut your block background fabric into 16 2.5" x WOF strips.
Block Assembly:
Pairing a print strip with a block background strip, sew them together along the long edge. Be careful not to stretch the strips as you sew them! Repeat for all sixteen pairs of strips. Press the seams toward the print strips.
Now you will cross-cut your strip set into 10.5" sections. TIP: If you have a 10.5" ruler, use it to do this. All you will need to do is place one edge of the ruler against the end of the strip (trim the strip first, please) and cut against the opposite edge. No measuring required, which is really handy if you are also talking at the same time (don't ask me how I know this...) After cutting all 16 strips, you should have 64 2-strip sets.
Next step is to lay out the sets of 10.5" strips next to your sewing machine. I stacked mine up with all the same prints in a stack.
Time to chain piece! Choose two different strip sets and sew them together along the long edge, matching a background strip to a print strip. Repeat for all the sets. Press seams toward the print strip. You should have 32 4-strip sets now.
At this point, you may want to take a few minutes to intentionally pair these 4-strip sets together. The 8-strip sets will be the building blocks for the large blocks of this quilt. Once you have them paired, sew two 4-strips sets together, matching a print strip to a background strip. Press seams toward the print strip. You should have sixteen 8-strip sets.
Second Cutting Instructions:
From your center, sashing and border fabric, cut a 6.5" x WOF strip. From that strip, cut 4 6.5" squares for the center of your blocks.
Block Construction:
The first step is to lay out four of your 8-strip sets around a center 6.5" square. Don't be fooled by my one-color strip sets - that's just EQ7 and I was being lazy! You may want to lay out all four blocks so you can be sure you are happy with how they will all look. Otherwise you might end up with one at the end that has too many repeats in it!
To create these blocks, you will need to use a technique called a "partial seam". It looks complicated, but really isn't. Place an 8-strip set in front of you with a background strip at the top. Lay a center square on top of it, matching the top and left edges. Flip it over and stitch a quarter-inch seam about halfway down the length of the center square. Press the seam towards the strip set just up at the top for now.
Now lay another strip set next to the seamed side of the strip set/center unit. Match the ends, pin if needed, and stitch the entire seam. Press the seam towards the strip set. Repeat for the third side, attaching the strip set to the one you just added and the center block. For the final side, attach it to the center block and the third strip set. Be sure not to catch the un-sewn portion of the first strip set in your stitching. Now finish the first seam, attaching the first strip set to the top of the final strip set. Not as hard as it sounds - just give it a try! Remember you are going around the center square counter-clockwise. Repeat to make four of the large blocks.
Third Cutting Instructions:
Using your sashing and border material, cut 9 3.5" x WOF strips. Sew the strips end to end, then from that strip, cut the following:
1 3.5" square for the center
4 3.5" x 26.5" for sashing (or your finished block's measurement)
2 3.5" x 55" for side borders (or whatever your quilt measures)
2 3.5" x 61.5" for top and bottom border (or whatever your quilt measures)
Quilt Top Construction: Lay out your four blocks in a way that pleases your eye. Don't sweat it too much - you're much more critical that anyone else will be.
Now we'll be adding the sashing strips. Take the top two blocks and sew them on either side of a sashing strip, matching the top and bottom of each block to the same on the sashing strip and easing to fit. Pins are your friend here! Repeat for the bottom two blocks.
At this point, you may be wondering why I cut a small center square and two more sashing strips, rather than one long strip. I find that placing that small center square (also known as a cornerstone) in the middle, my blocks ALWAYS line up - and that makes it totally worth the extra time! You can make it a different color if you want - I wanted the look of a solid strip, but also wanted my blocks to line up, so I put it in.
Take your two remaining sashing strips and the center square and join them together. Pin the top row of blocks to the long sashing strip, matching the ends and the sashing seams at the center, easing the fabrics. Stitch. Pin the bottom row of blocks to that strip and repeat.
Now it's time to add your borders. Start with the side borders, matching the ends of the border and the quilt top and pinning to ease the fabrics together. Stitch. Press seams toward the borders. Repeat with the top and bottom borders.
And voila! You have a finished quilt top! But don't stop there - quilt that puppy! Someone out there needs that quilt!
I chose to do a random meander on mine, but you could do something more interesting in the centers and borders to make it really stand out. But remember - finished is better than perfect, and someone in need of a quilt won't be thinking about whether your stitch length is spot-on, they'll be gratified that someone cared enough to make them a quilt!
And let's have a little rock-and-roll homage now - here's Small Town by John Mellencamp...
And I'm going to do something I don't often do, and that's give a shout-out to a store. See that beautiful backing there? I found that at Hobby Lobby, in their clearance bin, for $3/yard - and there were ten yards left on the bolt! Needless to say, I bought all of it - so I have a lovely big piece to play with. But it wasn't the only one in the clearance bin - I found several with 8-10 yards on them. It's certainly worth checking out if you have a Hobby Lobby nearby and can use some large pieces of fabric to stash away for backs. Their fabric is good quality, and much of it is around $6-7 a yard, and 30% off that!
Speaking of giving away your finished product, this quilt is a good size for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo, or Mercyful Quilts. And if you wanted to make a baby quilt for Jack's Basket (or four!) you could use one block with a 5" border to reach their preferred 36" square size.
Come back next week to see the very last quilt in the series - I think you'll like it! And it's a serious scrap-buster. We all need that, don't we? You can get a head start on it by pressing your strings and cutting them into 8.5" lengths.
Hugs!
Sarah
**If you'd like to save or print the tutorial for this quilt, here's the easiest way to do it. Scroll to the bottom of this post and look for this little green box:
Don't see the green "Print PDF" box? That's easy to fix. Go to the top of the post, and click on the post title (in this case, "Rockin' Rectangles Begins! Place Your Bet..."). That will open up this post with the comments, and you will see this between the body of the post and the beginning of the comments.
Click on the green button, and a printer-friendly page will open so you can print and save the tutorial! Voila! And the best part? It won't print out page after page of comments and sidebar stuff. Hooray!
Don't want to print it out? This tutorial will remain here as long as the internet is alive, so you could just bookmark the post and create a group in your bookmarks for Tutorials! That way you can find it any time.
Do you have junior jelly rolls left over, even after last week's tutorial? Or are you still looking for that "just right" bit of inspiration to use them? Today's tutorial may be just the ticket for you - bright, sunshine-y and happy, it may spark your interest to make one for yourself!
*&*&*&*&*&*&*
About three months ago, when I was just starting to look for inspiration for this tutorial series, I saw this absolutely gorgeous scrappy quilt on Pinterest...
...which sparked a search for the original creator of the pattern. Lynn Dykstra, who blogs over at Klein Meisje Quilts, graciously agreed to let me create my own version and tutorial of this wonderful quilt! However, if you'd like to see her version and tutorial, you will find them here.
So now, I'd like to introduce you to my version - and in keeping with the theme of "Rockin' Rectangles", it's named for a great old rock-and-roll song - "Check Me Out"!
Quilt Size: 56" x 64"
Fabric Requirements:
1 junior jelly roll containing two strips each fabric. From the jelly roll, choose your favorite nine pairs. NOTE: All of the junior jelly rolls I had on hand were set up this way - ten different fabrics, two of each. Yours may not be the same.
OR 18 2.5" x width-of-fabric (WOF) strips, in matching sets of two (9 different fabrics).
45" (approx. 1.25 yards) x WOF of background yardage (white in the picture above)
Approx. 1.5 yards of sashing/border material (black in picture above)
1/2 yard for binding
First Cutting Instructions:
Using your background yardage, cut 18 2.5" x WOF strips.
Block Construction:
Pairing a background WOF strip and a print WOF strip, sew them together along the long edges. Repeat for all the strips, chain piecing to save time. Cut apart and press the seams toward the print fabric.
Now take your strips and cross-cut them into three sections, each a minimum of 12.5" long. (That is the length required for your final piece, but if you have extra, just cut them a little longer and you can trim off the excess after the next step.)
Sew the three strips together, alternating print and background colors as shown above. Press seams towards the print fabric. Trim one end straight.
Now cross-cut the piece into five 2.5" wide strips as shown above.
You should be able to create two matching sets of these five strips (remember needing strips in matching sets of two?) so create the other set now using the instructions above.
Now take two of your matching strips and lay them side by side. Reverse the one on the right so the blocks form a checkerboard pattern. NOTE: BE SURE that you always put the same type of square in the upper left corner - always a print or always a background. (Don't ask me how I know this.....) Sew the two together along the long edge, matching the seams carefully. Press the long seam open (it will make your top lie flatter in the end.)
Repeat until you have made all of your checkerboard blocks. You will have 45 blocks. Measure your checkerboard block along the long seam (not the edges) for the next step. For the purposes of this tutorial, my measurement was 12.5".
Second Cutting Instructions:
Take your sashing material, and cut 45 2.5" x 12.5" strips. (You should cut yours to the length of your own blocks, whatever that happens to be. Everyone's seam allowances are a bit different!)
More Block Construction:
Sew a black sashing strip to the left side of your checkerboard blocks. This is a good time to check and see that the upper left square on your blocks is always a print square, or always a background square. (Don't ask me how I know....) There's really no good solution to how to press your seams at this point, as all the black seams will be above each other. You could press them open, or alternate pressing towards the sashing or towards the block. If you choose to alternate, you may want to wait until you decide on the layout of your quilt to press those seams.
Put them up on your design wall as you go so you can see how beautiful they are! No need to decide on a layout at this point.
Layout:
Now comes the fun part! You get to decide what layout you want to use. This quilt is laid out in nine columns of five blocks. Here are a few of the ones I fiddled around with...
Plain and simple - the same color in each column.
A little wavy - shifting alternate blocks one column to the right in each row.
A sideways mountain - you can see each color appears in three different rows.
But this is the design I ultimately ended up on - the colors move diagonally across the quilt from upper left to lower right. It had the right amount of movement for me without being "frantic".
Once you decide on your layout, start sewing the sashed blocks together into nine columns. Then sew your columns together. Now you can press the long sashing seams all towards the sashing.
You're almost done! If you look at your top so far, you will see that the left side of your quilt has a border, but the other three sides do not. Let's take care of that!
Final Cutting Instructions:
Take your remaining sashing material, and cut five 2.5" x WOF strips. Sew them together into one long strip.
Now, measure your top down the center from top to bottom. (Don't measure the edge - this will help square up your quilt.) From your long border strip, cut a piece the length of that measurement. Pin it to the right edge, matching the ends up and easing either the quilt top or the border strip to fit. (If there's a major difference, check your measurement!) Sew. Press seam toward the border strip.
Now measure your top across the center from side to side. Cut two pieces the length of that measurement. Again pinning it to the top and easing any extra, sew and press the seams toward the border strips.
And your top is done! Hopefully the sun is shining - if it is, go outside and take a stained glass shot of your quilt, just because it's beautiful. Post it on Instagram, pat yourself on the back, then get back to work and finish that quilt!
Quilt as desired - ha! This quilt would look lovely with straight line cross-hatching on the diagonal, or even just a random meander (which is what I did for time's sake.) Bind it, and you're good to go!
Size-wise, this quilt would be a match for some of this year's Hands2Help charities - both Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo and Mercyful Quilts would accept quilts in this size. And if you are one of those who like to "tweak" patterns for size, it could be adapted for Jack's Basket, using fewer blocks.
I hope you like this latest entry into the "Rockin' Rectangles" family - a simple quilt that works up quickly and has a big impact! Be sure to stop by Lynn's blog and show her some love - she came up with a great design! And now, in keeping with the theme of the series, here's a blast from the rock-and-roll past to get your toes tapping and put your creative juices in overdrive...
Kind of makes you want to get up and dance, right? So dance to your stash and pull some fabric - get playing!
Hugs!
Sarah
**Remember that if you want to get a head start on one of the later tutorials, you can press your strings and cut them into 8.5" lengths.
**If you'd like to save or print the tutorial for this quilt, here's the easiest way to do it. Scroll to the bottom of this post and look for this little green box:
Don't see the green "Print PDF" box? That's easy to fix. Go to the top of the post, and click on the post title (in this case, "Rockin' Rectangles Begins! Place Your Bet..."). That will open up this post with the comments, and you will see this between the body of the post and the beginning of the comments.
Click on the green button, and a printer-friendly page will open so you can print and save the tutorial! Voila! And the best part? It won't print out page after page of comments and sidebar stuff. Hooray!
Don't want to print it out? This tutorial will remain here as long as the internet is alive, so you could just bookmark the post and create a group in your bookmarks for Tutorials! That way you can find it any time.
Hi, all! If you're anything like me, everyone who doesn't know exactly what to give you as a gift tends to give you fabric. Now, that's not a bad thing - it's actually a pretty safe bet in my case - but sometimes you get fabric that you're not sure what to do with, right? Today our quilt tutorial deals with one of those notorious items - the junior jelly roll! For those of you who don't know, a junior jelly roll is basically half of a full jelly roll - 20 strips cut 2.5" by width-of-fabric. They are cute, but it's hard to get a quilt out of one. I had two gifted to me a few years ago that had been gathering dust in my stash, so I decided to pull them out and see what I could do with one. This tutorial is for the first one - It's Hip To Be Square.
Finished Size: 60" square
FABRIC REQUIREMENTS:
Striped blocks: junior jelly roll OR twenty 2.5" x WOF print strips
Square blocks: 13.5" x WOF for centers, 37.5" x WOF for borders
Border: 1/2 yard
Binding: 1/2 yard
CUTTING DIRECTIONS:
Press your jelly roll strips flat, then cut five 2.5" x 8.5" rectangles from each strip. You should now have 100 rectangles.
From the fabric for your block centers, cut three 4.5" x WOF strips. Crosscut those strips to yield 25 4.5" squares.
From the fabric for your block borders, cut fifteen 2.5" x WOF strips. Crosscut these to yield fifty 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles and fifty 2.5" x 8.5" rectangles.
From the fabric for your outer borders, cut seven 2.5" x WOF strips.
BLOCK CONSTRUCTION:
Let's start with the simplest block first - the striped block. Choose four of the 2.5" x 8.5" print rectangles and sew them together. Be sure your seam allowance is accurate so that your blocks measure 8.5" square when finished. I highly recommend sewing one block together first, then measure to see if you need to adjust your seam width. It's much easier to take out the stitching on one block than to trim a whole lot of blocks to a smaller size! You need to make 24 of the striped blocks. Press the seams all in one direction.
Now on to the square blocks. These aren't hard to make, just a little more complicated to explain! Take the center 4.5" square and sew a 2.5" x 4.5" contrast rectangle to each side. Press the seams towards the center square. Now sew a 2.5" x 8.5" rectangle to each of the remaining two sides of the center square. Press the seams out away from the center.
Make 25 of these blocks.
Now it's time to lay out your quilt. If you lay it out carefully, you'll have a minimal amount of places where you have to match seams! Start with a square block in the upper left corner, and place it with the long borders running up and down. Next place a striped block, with the stripes running side to side. Lay the entire quilt out in this manner, alternating the two blocks in a checkerboard style, arranged seven blocks across and seven blocks down. Once you like the way your colors spread across the design, sew it together. You'll find that the only seams you have to match are where the corners of the blocks meet!
Now to add the borders. Sew your 2.5" wide border strips together end to end. Now fold your quilt in half vertically and measure the folded edge. That is the measurement for your side border strips. From your long border strip piece, cut two to that measurement and sew them to the sides, pinning the border strip to the quilt and easing or stretching as needed to make it fit. Press the seams towards the border strips.
Now fold your quilt in half horizontally and measure the folded edge. That is the measurement for your top and bottom border strips. Cut two to that measurement and sew them to to the top and bottom, pinning the border strip to the quilt as you did before. Press the seams towards the border strips.
NOTE: Measuring and attaching your borders in this manner will help ensure that your quilt ends up square, and your borders don't "wave" like a flag! Especially useful if you are adding multiple borders, or very wide borders, to a quilt.
Don't you hate the phrase "quilt as desired"? But it's true - there are so many ways to quilt a top to turn it into a finished quilt. I chose to do a down-and-dirty random meander on this one, because it's quick on my long arm. You could also choose to do a straight line framing each block, or a diagonal across them, or even a custom quilt job with something interesting in the solid centers and border. It's all good!
Add binding, and you're good to go! I chose to bind in the same color as the border, because I didn't want my eye to "stop" when it reached the edge of the quilt.
And finally, don't you love it when you find just the right backing? I fell in love with this particular print, and the colors were a great match to the colors in the print portions of this quilt.
And just for fun - because they are "rockin' rectangles"...
*&*&*&*&*&*&*
Remember that if you want to get a head start on one of the later tutorials, you can press your strings and cut them into 8.5" lengths. I hope you're finding these tutorials useful for (a) using up things that have been gathering dust in your stash and (b) getting you inspired for the Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge, which starts in a little over a month!
Be sure to come back next Sunday for another fun, super easy tutorial!
Hugs!
Sarah
If you'd like to save or print the tutorial for this quilt, here's the easiest way to do it. Scroll to the bottom of this post and look for this little green box:
Don't see the green "Print PDF" box? That's easy to fix. Go to the top of the post, and click on the post title (in this case, "Rockin' Rectangles Begins! Place Your Bet..."). That will open up this post with the comments, and you will see this between the body of the post and the beginning of the comments.
Click on the green button, and a printer-friendly page will open so you can print and save the tutorial! Voila! And the best part? It won't print out page after page of comments and sidebar stuff. Hooray!
Don't want to print it out? This tutorial will remain here as long as the internet is alive, so you could just bookmark the post and create a group in your bookmarks for Tutorials! That way you can find it any time.
