Quilting

Thinking about starting a new quilt so I went through my scrapbook of quilts I might like to make and decided Intersections by Cheryl Malkowski (Hoffman Timeless Treasures – free pattern) would work well with the green scrap bag I purchased from Keepsake Quilting some time ago. Here’s the picture of her finished quilt:

There’s a lot of “math” required to plan a quilt – and the complicating factor is that you work most of the time with xx 1/2″ blocks – the extra 1/2″ to enable 1/4″ seams!

This quilt is constructed as an 8 x 10 block quilt — 10 rows of 8 blocks in a row for a total of 80 blocks – the finished quilt size is 68″ X 85″ – however, too big for me to work with. I’d like a finished size of no more than 48″ x 64″. The basic block is this:

The sum of the two narrow strips = 1/2 the width of the larger strip. The blocks get assembled in groups of 4 to form a pinwheel at the center

Lots of spatial planning involved here!

I have 12 different fabrics to work with (each 9″ x 44″) – I want a quilt constructed from 6 x 8 blocks  (a total of 48 blocks) – to give me completed pinwheels (an odd number of blocks, say 5 x 7 = 35, would give me half pinwheels along one side and one end) – so how large does each block have to be to give me the dimensions I want to end up with?

Turns out 7″ finished blocks will work (42 ÷ 6 = 7!) – so I need to cut from each fabric:

• 4 blocks – 4″ x 7 1/2″ (remember 1/2″ extra to allow for 1/4″ seams in each direction)
• 8 blocks – 2 1/4″ x 7 1/2″ (the math here is interesting: half of 7 = 3 1/2; half of 3 1/2 = 1 3/4 – but remember I have to add 1/2″ for the 1/4″ seams ; so my narrower strips have to be 2 1/4″ wide!)

I did a sample to see how the block would work (these are scrap fabrics not fabrics from the set of greens):

This showed me my dimensions will work – BUT – I will have to more meticulous in my piecing because the finished block should be a 14 1/2″ square – and this one isn’t quite (some of the “not squareness” you see in the photo is the result of the camera angle – the actual dimensions of my block are 14 3/8 x 14 1/4)!

The assembled blocks will be 42″ x 56″ – which will allow me to add a 3″ border around the outside to make the final dimensions: 48″ x 62″. A good lap quilt size.

Here is the pieced quilt top:

I don’t have a longarm quilting machine so I quilt in the hoop of my embroidery machine. I also played around with some ideas for quilting the finished quilt – I think I may go with this one for each block:

This will give me an overall design for each of the finished 14″ x 14″ blocks which I will be able to quilt in my grand dream hoop (which is 350 mm x 360 mm).

As you can see, there’s a lot of math involved in designing and making a quilt – most of the time you’re working with fractions of inches, but for me, the final step requires a conversion to metric since my embroidery machine calibrates in metric. All part of the process.