patchwork quilts – Page 2

Is there anyone who doesn’t love rainbows? They are so beautiful; a symbol of hope and a promise of better things to come.

Rainbow over rooftops

The beautiful colours of Fancy by Lily Ashbury simply lent themselves to a rainbow quilt. Even the press information about this collection described it as being like “rays of sunshine on a cloudy day” and “gorgeous, lush, and drenched with colour”.

The collection was missing a purple so I hunted though my fabrics to find something suitable. This was harder than it might seem as purple, particularly a dark reddish purple, is not a common colour in quilting fabrics (they seem to tend toward lavender and bluish purples). Thankfully I found two.

Purple fabrics

The sharks tooth is a fabulous match as the pattern mimics others in the Fancy collection. The second had little birds on it. At first, I wasn’t sure if this would really work with the other fabrics. But then I remembered that in the song, “happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow” so it was obviously meant to be.

The spectrum of colours made a coin quilt design an obvious choice for me. I had so much fun making my last off-set coin quilt, I decided to use this as the basis for my rainbow quilt. For this quilt, I used a jelly roll and simply removed any duplicate fabric strips. The fabrics were used in the same order they were presented in the jelly roll and the same design was used across a row in each of the five columns. A Flurry spot (Dashwood studios) in light teal was the perfect choice for the background.

I had no dilemmas about what to use for the backing fabric. It just had to be unicorns. I mean, what else would you expect to find behind a rainbow? Visitors to my Bucks Open Studios event were asked to help me choose which unicorn fabric to use.

Unicorn fabric from Far Far Away collection

Unicorn fabric by Heather Ross

It was an even split between the green and the purple colour ways of this lovely whimsical design by Heather Ross from her Far Far Away collection.

In the end, the decision was taken out of my hands as I could only source enough of the green colour way to complete the backing. Either one would have worked however the green is a beautiful, soothing colour that is the perfect counterfoil for the riot of colours on the front.

The lovely, swirly Curlz (it’s my favourite) was used as the quilting design and a glorious sunshine yellow from the Linen Cupboard collection was chosen for the binding.

Off-set coin rainbow quilt

This cuddly, warm quilt in cheerful, sunny colours cannot fail to banish dark days and rainy skies.

This quilt I made was one of the most popular at my recent exhibition for Bucks Open Studios. I have to confess, it is one of my favourites too.

Bluebird Park quilt

A number of people have contacted me since asking for the pattern. The world definitely needs more quilts so here is a tutorial to enable you can make your own version.

What you’ll need:

1 layer cake* (I used Bluebird Park by Kate and Birdie for Moda)

0.5 metre fabric for binding

3.5 metres backing fabric (more if you need to match patterns)

Wadding or batting approx. 60 inch by 66 inch (I used 100% cotton Quilters Dream Select)

Co-ordinating cotton thread

Cutting instructions:

To make the quilt top, cut each of the fabric squares from the layer cake into a 6 1/2 inch square, a 3 1/2 inch square, and two rectangles, each 3 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch. The picture below will make it clearer as to how to cut your fabric.

Cutting diagram for Bluebird Park quilt

You don’t need to always cut the largest square from the top left if the design placement would work better if, for example, the large square was cut at the lower right. You just need to ensure that you get all four shapes. Before cutting, I also checked that my layer cake squares were exactly 10 inch square. It is probably not essential to do this so if you’re more of a “let’s get stuck in” kinda gal, then just get cutting.

Whilst you have your rotary cutter to hand, from the binding fabric cut 6 strips, each 2 1/2 inch wide, across the width of the fabric.

Sewing instructions:

Once you have cut up all your layer cake squares, you can start to have some fun. You now sew your layer cake squares back together using a different fabric design for each of the four positions in the cutting diagram.

Using a 1/4 inch seam, sew a rectangle to a large square and press the seam toward the square. Then sew another rectangle to a small square, pressing the seam toward the small square. Finally sew the small square strip to the large square strip, nesting the seams where the points of the two squares meet. This large square forms the block for the quilt.

The quilt is comprised of 42 blocks which means you will use all of the layer cake. If you wanted your quilt to go on a single bed, then I would make it as 7 rows with 6 blocks in each row. If you wanted your quilt as a sofa throw like my version, then lay it out as 6 rows with 7 blocks across each row.

Here is some printed card that I cut up to show the layout for the blocks.

Bluebird Park quilt block layout

I couldn’t show the full quilt layout however there is enough that you should be able to see the repeat of the pattern. The first four blocks in rows one and two form the repeat. So row four would have the same block placement as row two. This means your first block on row four would have a small square in the bottom left, the next block would have a small square in the top right, the third block would have a small square in the bottom right and so on.

*Update: the block orientation of the first two blocks on the second row is not correct. The large square and small squares should be diagonally opposite each other. The small squares in the first two blocks on the second row are in the correct position however the large squares in these blocks need to be moved from bottom to top and top to bottom respectively. Many apologies for the error.

If you are using a directional fabric, such as Bluebird Park, you might want to lay out your quilt design before making up your blocks so that you don’t end up with bikes riding sideways or rabbits standing on their heads (unless you don’t want your quilt to have an obvious up or down).

Once you are happy with your block placement, sew blocks together for each row and then sew the rows together. You will now have finished your quilt top, yay!

Sew your backing fabric so that it makes a piece at least 4 inches bigger on all sides than your quilt top. Baste the backing, wadding and quilt top together then quilt as desired. Finally sew your binding strips together to make one long strip and attach it to your quilt.

Congratulations! You now have a lovely soft and cuddly quilt.

I hope you enjoy making your own version of my Bluebird Park quilt. If you have any questions regarding the instructions, please do contact me. Have fun!

* layer cakes are produced by Moda and comprise 42 10 inch squares from a single fabric collection.

cakecardcloth

Tag: patchwork quilts

When it rains, look for rainbows

Bluebird Park quilt – a tutorial