Tag: quilt tutorial

Christa’s Quilt Along 4.1 – Sea of Squares Supply List

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Sea of Squares

Sea of Squares is the 4th in my series of do-it-yourself quilts where I will take you through all of the steps of making a quilt from fabric selection to cutting, piecing, basting, machine quilting and binding. If you follow along with me you will have a completed quilt in no time!

Sea of Squares

About This Quilt – Finished Size Approximately 51.5″ x 60″

I designed this quilt in EQ7 and downloaded fabric images from Moda to color it.

I named it “Sea of Squares” because I wanted to make a simple quilt pattern from nothing but charm squares. I used Deb Strain’s Seascapes in calming shades of blue from teal to navy to aqua, with Bella Solids in white for the background. This monochromatic color-scheme calls to mind the tranquility of the sea with the occasional whitecap of a breaking wave.

SeascapesBella Solids White

Supply List

Important! If you’d like to pick your own charms, make sure that each pack contains at least 42 – 5 inch squares. Not all manufacturers are consistent with their charms.

Each block consists of 4 charms (2 light/2 dark) so cut or purchase additional charms as needed for a bigger size. You may also use layer cakes if you want to super-size it!

Fabric

  • 2 of the same charm packs in darks or prints – 84 charms total (seascape blues)
  • 2 of the same charm packs in lights or solids – 84 charms total (solid white)
  • 1/2 yard for the binding (one of the blues in the picture above)
  • 3.5 yards for backing split into 2 equal pieces if using all the same fabric. If you prefer a scrappy backing like I do, collect assorted chunks and scraps to total this amount.
  • Batting piece measuring at least 60″ x 70″

Supplies

  • Basic sewing equipment in good working order
  • Rotary cutter with a fresh blade, ruler and mat
  • Brand new sewing machine needles
  • Neutral cotton thread for piecing
  • Decorative thread to match fabrics for quilting
  • Walking foot for straight line quilting
  • Optional – pinmoors and pins for easy basting
  • Optional – machingers gloves for smooth quilting

Quilt-Along Schedule – Links are Active at the Completion of Each Step:

I plan on posting each week on Wednesday or Thursday depending on how my “homework” goes that week. Even though I will be sticking to the above schedule, feel free to work at your own pace.

By the way, this quilt uses the exact same fabric requirements as my previous Charming Chevrons quilt – so you can do either one, or both, depending on your mood!

Sharing is Caring

Please share your work in progress in my facebook group: Quilt With Christa . 🙂

Christa’s Quilt Along 1.5 – Machine Quilting

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This week’s post is the one I’ve been waiting for. I think machine quilting is the best part of making a quilt, so I couldn’t wait to get my Vintage Modern jelly roll quilt top finished and basted so I could start the fun! I quilted it using a serpentine stitch with my walking foot.

Machine Quilting 2" ApartBefore I started quilting, I tried out a few of my machine’s decorative stitches to see how they would look.  All of these can be done using a walking foot with the feed dogs engaged.

Stitch SamplesI used a 40 weight high-sheen polyester thread with a size 90 needle and used the same thread for both the top and bobbin.

This gives better results than using different colored threads.

Step 1 – Decorative Ditch Quilting

Quilting 4" ApartBe sure your needle plate has a wide enough opening to accommodate your decorative stitch and test it out first so you avoid broken needles.

Quilt along the seam lines in one direction in between your blocks, about 4 inches apart. The first pass took me 30 minutes.

This will secure the quilt and you can remove the pins as you go.

Next, make second pass in between each line of quilting. Now your quilting is about 2 inches apart and the quilt is starting to get some texture! I quilted parallel lines across the quilt. I did not mark any of these lines – I just used the seams as a guide and eyeballed it across the fabric where there was no seam to guide me. This is both liberating and fun!

Quilting Parallel Wavy LinesThis second pass took another 30 minutes so I’m just at 1 hour total quilting time. Not bad! At this point, this is enough quilting to hold your quilt together. However, I want more…

Step 2 – Adding More Quilting

Quilting 1 Inch ApartMy motto is that you can never add too much quilting to a quilt!

So I added another line of quilting in between each of the rows above. This was my 3rd pass and now the quilting lines are about 1 inch apart.

This took only another 30 minutes and I can’t believe how fast this is going!

There is still enough room to add another row of quilting and do a fourth pass, so I decided, what the heck?

The fourth pass took 1 1/2 hours because I had now doubled the amount of quilting on the quilt, but I loved every minute of it!

Half Inch Quilting Lines

I ended up with quilting lines about 1/2 inch apart over the surface of the quilt. Total quilting time was 3 hours and I used up a full 500 yard spool of Superior Highlights thread.

Textured QuiltingSuperior Threads Tri-Lobal Polyster

I love all the texture on the back!

Pieced Backing with Quilting

So next week, we will finish our quilts, can you believe it? We will trim them up and bind to finish. I really can’t wait to see how everyone’s quilting turns out. Be sure to email me pictures of your progress, no matter where you are,  so I can share with everyone else.

Here is the complete Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt-Along Schedule:

Week 1 – Supply ListJolly Jelly Roll Quilt

Week 2 – Sewing the Blocks

Week 3 – Completing the Top

Week 4 – Backing and Basting

Week 5 – Machine Quilting

Week 6 – Machine Binding to Finish

Sew and Tell – Do it Yourself Quilts Update

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Today’s Sew and Tell is a little different. Instead of featuring a finished project made by one of my customers, I’m excited to share with you some finished jelly roll blocks from one of my quilt- along followers. Scroll down to  the end of this post if you want to join the fun!

These pictures come from Diane in Canada and she finished up this week’s homework in a jiffy!  She had an older strip bundle lying around that she put to good use.

Jelly Roll StripsDiane’s fabric is Greenfield Hill by Denise Schmidt for Westminster. Instead of randomly sewing the strips together, she matched up the pretty jewel tones into coordinating pairs.

Jelly Roll Blocks“Sew” far, “sew” good, Diane! I think your use of color will be striking if you sew each row in a different color, “strippy” style, or if you have the colors cascade across the quilt in an orderly fashion (like green, red, blue, black, etc.)

For those of you eager beavers out there like Diane that are ready to move on, I’ll give a sneak peek of what we’ll be working on for next week’s lesson. If you select 100 of your blocks and sew them together into 50 pairs like this you’ll be one step ahead.

Jelly Roll Block Pairs

Next week’s post will include complete directions on how to finish the quilt top, so make sure you grab your one yard of tone on tone or solid coordinate to go with your jelly roll.  I’m going to use Ruby Red Kona Solid to go along with my Vintage Modern jelly roll shown above.

In case you are just joining us, you can click the links below to catch up and follow along with this tutorial in it’s entirety. My main reason for starting this tutorial is to teach you that  yes, you can, make a complete quilt from start to finish, all by yourself!

DIY Quilts #1.1 – The Jolly Jellyroll Quilt Supply List

DIY Quilts #1.2 – Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt Blocks