Wednesday 13 November 2013

Bold Stripes Easy Quilt Pattern

This is a super quick and easy pattern that can have a fantastic graphic effect if you choose the fabrics carefully. This would suit large print fabrics, batiks and hand dyes, or fabrics that have a more tonal look about them. It has been designed to use the width of the fabric for the backing (no piecing the backing!). Remember when you are picking fabrics that we are aiming for a lot of gender neutral quilts. Here are a few examples.

This green and gold quilt uses a graduation of colour from deep green through yellow-green into yellows. each stripe of colour is framed in white, and the binding is a dark blue-green, although you could use the deepest green stripe fabric.




This is the same quilt using only variations of red from deep to bright. The binding is the same fabric as the centre stripe.



This is the same again using shades of grey from deep on the outside to light in the centre. The binding is the same as the top and bottom stripe. Grey and white are not common themes in quilt making, but this would suit the current style of interior decor with lots of grey and cool brown tones at the moment.



And this is the same quilt as the grey one above, except the white fabric has been replaced with a warm grey-brown in a solid colour. Also good for a modern house. The binding is the grey-brown colour.



Fabric Requirements:

Stripes:

For each of the 7 stripes, cut a 6.5" strip (the width of most rotary cutting rulers) across the width of your fabric. Each strip is 6.5" = 16.5cm of fabric required. I would allow 20cm for each strip you are cutting if you are using different fabrics for each stripe, or 38cm if you are cutting two stripes from the one fabric.

  • Trim the strips to 36.5", making sure you cut the selvedge off both ends.


Sashing and Border:


For the sashing and border, cut eleven 2.5" strips across the width of your fabric. Total length of strips (11 x 2.5") is 27.5" = 70cm of fabric required. I would allow 80cm for straightening and adjusting.

From the 11 strips:
  • Cut down 6 strips to 36.5". These will go in between the wider strips.
  • Cut 1 in half. Sew each half to one end of two other strips, making sure to remove the selvedge. These will be used for the long borders on the left and right side of the quilt. It is OK to have a pieced border (I know some people might worry about that).
  • Keep the others aside for borders. Don't cut them to size just yet.


Binding:



Allow 40cm of fabric to make 2.5" binding strips.


Backing:


You will need 1.6m of backing fabric.


Instructions:

Lay out the pieces in the way you like. Starting with the top stripe, sew on a sashing strip, and then another stripe, and another sashing, and so on, making sure you are keep the whole thing straight and square, until you have something that looks like this:





Then measure the length from top to bottom, making sure you measure through the centre and not along the sides. Trim the two longest sashing strips (the ones you added the extra half a strip to earlier) to that measurement. If you have cut and sewn accurately it should be 54.5", but it is fine if its not quite right. Now it should look like this:





Then measure the width from left to right, making sure you measure through the centre. Trim the two remaining strips to that measurement and sew to the top and bottom. It should look like this:



Now you are ready to make a sandwich with the wadding and backing fabric and get quilting!

If you have any questions, please put them in the comments section below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracey.

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