- I'd like to thank Skillshare for sponsoring this video.
Do you have a pile of quilt blocks?
They might be from a project you fell out of love with
or some that you made from a pile of scraps.
Today's quilting tutorial
is all about just simple quilt pattern layouts,
getting those blocks out of your sewing space
and into quilts
and stay to the end for a free handout.
So stick with me and I'll show you how to do it.
(gentle music)
Hi, I'm Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts.
I give you tips, tricks, and strategies
to help you make the quilt that you want to make
and if you like what you see,
please click that subscribe button.
The last couple of months have been crazy busy
with family members visiting
and my sewing space doing double duty as a third bedroom
and I've had a couple of health issues
that I've had to deal with,
so I have needed projects that are quick
and easy to pick up and don't require a lot of space
or brain capacity.
If you're like me, over the years,
you've accumulated a tonne of quilt blocks
and it's about time we put them into quilts.
Here are some simple block layouts
that can be used when you have a pile of blocks
and I've done all the math, so you don't need to.
Before you even start, take a moment
to think about where your finished quilt will go.
Is it for a particular person, an organisation,
or a place in your home?
Because starting with the end in mind
will tell you what size
and flavour you need your quilt to be
which translates into how much money, effort,
and time you're prepared to invest.
If you're thinking about a particular bed size
and you don't know how big your quilt needs to be,
I've already done a video
about mattresses and their corresponding quilt sizes
and I'll leave a link to that video in the notes below.
I need baby quilts that I donate with some friends
to my local hospital and I make them about 32 inches square.
I also need couch size quilts for quilts for survivors
and for these quilts, I aim for 45 inches by 60 inches
and I want to make some campfire quilts for my family
and we're all big people,
so for those, I'm making them 60 by 80.
The next step is to grab your blocks
and ask yourself the following questions.
How many blocks do you have,
what size are they,
are they in sets or are they all different,
is there a common fabric,
what colour are they,
and by handling them,
you'll be able to see what they have in common.
I have a ridiculous amount
of scrappy 6" and 4" blocks
and though there's no common fabric theme
or colour holding them all together,
I have such a quantity,
I should be able to make some subsets.
So for this project,
I am choosing just to put them in a simple grid
just using one size of block at a time.
If you're interested in improv layouts,
take a look at this video here.
So this is a basic quilt layout.
All the blocks are square
and they align with each other on the horizontal
and the vertical.
This layout is also the most straightforward
for calculations.
Now some of you might not want to do the math
so I've made a free handout
that you can download from my website
with a different page for each block size
and you can use this chart several ways.
First, you can lay out your blocks
by seeing how many vertical
and horizontal rows you can make
and in this example, we're using eight inch blocks
in a layout of eight rows by six.
Grab the chart for your block size
then find your rows on the header bar.
Where the vertical row intersects the horizontal row,
it tells you what size quilt you can make
and how many blocks you used
or you can start with how many blocks you have
and find the sizes that that quantity will make.
So for example, if you have 15, 12 inch blocks
these are all the sizes you can make
or you can start with the quilt size that you need,
so if you have 6" blocks
and you want to make a 45 by 60 inch quilt,
you ha ve an option of 42 by 60 or 48 by 60
I'll size up.
So that means you'll need 80 blocks
in 10 horizontal and eight vertical rows.
The next step is to get all the blocks up on the design wall
and see what you have.
Once they're all up,
switch out any that look out of place
then stand back and check for value placement.
Take a black and white photo and adjust accordingly.
On this quilt, I want to alternate high
and low value blocks like a checkerboard,
so I need to do a bit of shifting.
When you're happy with your layout, do one last check
for any blocks that have directional elements
that are upside down or more importantly,
all the seams nest nicely with their neighbours.
You might need to rotate your blocks or swap out a few.
For me, my blocks are either crosses
or dot in the middle.
Blocks #5 & #6
and six from my scrappy sampler block video
and they are made so that all the seams nest nicely
with each other, but it doesn't work all the time.
Taking the time to check will mean
that when they are all sewn together and pressed,
the seams will lie flat.
You might want to use sashing for a variety of reasons.
If your blocks are different sizes if they're small
or if they don't nest together well,
sashing will solve that problem.
But maybe you want more colour or the opposite,
you want to tone down too many colours.
Sashing can help with that too
and the good news is that you can still use the chart.
Just add the sashing finished width
to the block finish size and use the appropriate sheet.
So in this example,
we would use the chart for the 8" block
and since you'll most likely add sashing to the bottom
and the side of the quilt, add one sashing width
to the height and the width of your quilt.
Now I'm going to skip over the details of how to make sashing
as I've already made a full video about it.
Why to sash, how to use colour
how to choose the right width
and how to sew it all together
and I'll leave a link to that video in the notes below.
Before we get to the next layout,
let me tell you about today's sponsor, Skillshare.
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which can help you reach your goals
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I've enjoyed Skillshare for many years
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But I've also enjoyed learning about other creatives
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This month I had been working
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I can't tell you how much fun this class was.
Lauren's enthusiasm and ideas has helped invigorate me
and I have some new project ideas
that I just have to follow through on.
I love that classes are designed
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Some people love scrappy, some people not so much,
so you can tone down the chaos by controlling the contrast
and we can do that several ways.
We can choose a limited colour palette
by only using particular hues.
This quilt used only purple and orange
which are on opposite sides of the colour wheel.
This quilt has less contrast
by using analogous red, orange, and yellow.
This one is just red blocks.
They're all still scrappy in their various patterns
and from a big variety of shades, tints, and tones.
But within those hues, there is a cohesion
through the focus on colour.
You can also control where the contrast is.
This is a blue quilt
with just a touch of yellow in a band here.
Here I've only used cool coloured blocks
but I've alternated the low value dark fabric
with the high value light fabric.
In this example, I've used all the colours
but only desaturated versions, that is colour from this side
of the colour wedge, giving it a soft, warm feel.
And how about these zigzags
which is easy enough to do if you're consistent
in your block orientation when you lay them out.
If you're wondering what these colour terms mean,
hue, value, saturation, I have a full colour series
and of course I'll leave a link
to that playlist in the notes below.
Sometimes you need to make a bigger quilt
but you don't have enough blocks.
Let's say you have some six inch blocks
and you need to make a quilt that's 60 by 80.
If you look at the chart,
you would need 140 blocks in 14 rows by 10.
You could use sashing.
If you use two inch sashing,
then going to the eight inch block chart
you would still need 80 blocks.
But what if you only had 48 blocks, let's say?
Well then you can make use of negative space
by substituting background fabric for those missing blocks.
In this example, I am sewing my sashing strips
on the vertical making stack columns with varying heights.
I'm only using warm colours
and I don't want a lot of contrast in my background,
so I'm using this small red check.
As I sash my blocks,
I can see that I'm going to have some challenges
aligning my blocks between the rows.
If you have this problem too,
here's a big tip, stagger them.
In this quilt, I'm adding a three
and a half inch piece of background
or half a block of sashing to the bottom on every other row,
so now alignment isn't so much of an issue.
After the stacks are pieced,
add a strip of the backing fabric
to fill in the row to make the row 78 inches tall.
Then sashing strips are added in between the columns.
Then the columns are sewn together.
I always use a quilting glove on my left hand
to help handle the bulk and a good press and thread check.
One last step to square up the top
and this quilt top is finished.
My next stack of blocks are jelly roll block #2.
From this video here, this is where you sew a set
of four jelly roll strips together
and trim them to 9 inches.
Then trim a 2 1/2" strip from the side
and either spin it or switch it out with another strip.
So I want another 60 by 80 inch quilt.
These blocks finish at eight inches square.
They're all warm oranges and reds.
However, I only have 21 of them,
even if I sash them with a 2 inch strip,
so they're 10 inches,
if I use the chart, I would need 48 blocks to make a quilt
but I'm not making 27 more blocks.
So another method that you can use is just to make a corner
and have a descending step and it's perfect.
I have just the right amount of blocks.
I'm using this olive linen for the sashing and background
which adds a nice contrast in hue to make those blocks pop.
This is very similar to the last method
except the first sash rows
are on the horizontal instead of the vertical.
Eight and a half inch strips are used to fill
in the background.
A sashing strip is sewn between the rows.
Then an 18 by 62 inch strip is sewn along the top.
I just love this one.
It might be too good for the campfire.
Sometimes the grid layout is underwhelming.
You feel like it just needs a little bit more something.
You can try changing the orientation of some of your blocks.
Here I have 9 jelly roll block #5.
I love this block.
It's made with two orphan jelly roll strips sewn together
then divided into three equal pieces
then sewn back together
then cut again into another three equal pieces
spitting the middle one and sewing them all back together.
It finishes at 12 inches by 12 inches
and I find if I just turn some of the blocks,
it gives the layout a bit of punch.
This is my favourite block layout.
Putting your blocks on point is easy enough
but a bit challenging to figure out
as the size of the quilt
is a function of the block diagonal
and as you lay out each row point to point,
another row with a different number of blocks
is formed in between them.
You also need a half square triangle
to finish off each corner and quarter square triangles
to finish off the end of each row
and you assemble the quilt top in diagonal rows like this.
As I said, it's easy, but a bit tricky.
Yes, I did a chart for these ones too
but it has a number of changes from the grid layout one.
For example, if you want to make a baby quilt
and you had 54 inch blocks, you can look on the chart
and see that you can make a 28 and a half by 34 inch quilt,
having six horizontal rows plus five vertical ones
plus the shorter rows in between them.
At the top of the chart,
it tells you that you need four HSTs
and to make them,
you need two three and a quarter squares
cut on the diagonal.
You also need six and a half inch squares
for the inset QSTs and for these dimensions
you need five cut on both diagonals.
Once you have the blocks all laid out,
it's pretty simple to sew them all together,
but it's always good to lay out
those quarter square triangles
to be sure you have the right orientation before you sew.
(gentle music)
I was worried when I started this project
that scrap fatigue would set in quickly
and I made a promise to myself
that I would stop as soon as boredom set in,
but I kept making them
and then I made some more
and then I made some more after that.
I met 19 quilts and counting.
My scrap block pile is almost gone
and I have so many flimsies to get quilted.
My next goal is to practise my free motion quilting skills,
so stay tuned.
If you want your own copy of the chart
for grid layouts or OnPoint layouts,
follow the link in the notes below or visit my website,
Just getitdonequilts.com/quiltlayouts.
If you want to catch my colour series,
I will leave a link to that playlist here.
If you want to make some scrappy blocks
I'll leave a link to that one as well.
Take care, and I'll see you next time.