Have you ever wanted to make a quilt that looks so complicated it looked like you spent
your whole lifetime on it but you really did it in just a few days? I think this is the
perfect project for you. Let’s get started.
Look at this amazing quilt. And yes it certainly looks like it took forever. But it didn’t
at all. We simply make the same block over and over. We’ll add a little bit of sashing.
And it is super simple. But before we can even get started today I need you to go ahead
and drop down into that description below. Hey while you’re there hit the subscribe
button if you haven’t already. And print out our two-page free printable. It has one
full page of all the wonderful instructions that I’m going to walk you through here
in a second. But I’ve also included today an entire layout of the whole quilt. But I
want to remind you we’re just making the same block over and over again so you can
make this larger or smaller as you like. But you may need to change up your supplies. And
while we’re talking about supplies, today I’m using three different solids all from
RJR Fabrics. I’ve got a green and a blue. They’re pre cut at five by five. And then
I also have my cream color and it is pre cut at ten by ten. And I also have a roll of their
skinny strips that are 1 ½ inches wide as well by the width of the fabric. So that’s
all you need to build this entire quilt, ok? Now are you ready to do this? I certainly
am.
Check out this finished block. This is where we’re going and you’re right you don’t
see the sashing on it. The sashing will lay here and here. But let’s focus on this before
we get carried away with the sashing, right? This is where we’re heading. But it’s
super easy. I’d like you to start with four squares, two of each color. And we’re going
to simply build ourselves what would be known as a four patch or a very small checkerboard
or a checker game you could win in just one move. There you go. I want you to stitch always
together with a quarter inch seam allowance so that when you’re all done it’s going
to basically look just like this, right? Perfect. Then what we’ll need to do is we’re going
to take one of those ten by ten squares and I’m just going to take that four patch and
I’m going to set it on a corner. Then once I have it set on a corner I’m going to stitch
around all four sides so that it’s secured. But then we’re going to do a little bit
of trimming. So I’ve got one of those made for us here. Take out your rotary cutter.
First step I want you to do is to trim down the background fabric to make it match up
to your four patch.
The next step I love to do, because we’re going to actually diagonally cut this in a
few minutes. I want to dog ear the corners so that I’m not dealing with a lot of extra
bulk in my triangles when I get there. So I’m cutting just past where the threads
come to that corner. And I am removing that now so that I don’t have to remove them
later. Oop I hope I’m removing them now, ok? And then once I have all four of the corners
dog eared, sometimes that’s just as easy. . I am going to take and I’m going to lay
my ruler now right where those thread cross, ok? So it’s going to go right through there
and there. Let’s make this good on our bodies. And now I’m going to go ahead and make one
slice across here. And if you’ve seen the Jenny Doan half square triangle trick, this
is exactly what we’re doing. And I’m going to drop this down on here. And I’m going
to rotate it again so it’s easy on my body. And I’m going to slice through here which
is going to yield for us some awesome new half square triangles which will feature a
background neutral color and two of the triangles using the blue and green. Isn’t that amazing?
I love it.
Now we need to put these back together and there’s only one way to get these together
to form that checkerboard checker cross which gives the quilt its name. So we need to go
ahead and get them so that we have a blue and a green coming together and touching just
like this. Blue, blue, green, green, opposites, ok? Once you have that then you’re going
to drop in a cream and a cream into the center. And you’re double checking as you look around
that it goes blue, green, blue, green, blue, green, blue, green. That will give you the
checkerboard effect we need later. And then simply we’re going to sew these together
two by two by laying them like yay. After you’ve ironed them nice and flat to the
dark side. Nest those seams, run them through your machine a quarter inch. And when that’s
all built it’s going to look like this. I hope I’m not going too fast. I want to
get it down to this part so we can break it down for you to make sure that you understand
the next step. This is crucial.
Now we’re going to measure from one edge to the other, top and bottom as well. I’m
hoping we have a square. Mine is 12 inches, ok. I need to divide this into thirds because
I’m going to make like a nine patch out of it next. So if it was 12 inches, thirds
means I need four inch strips out of this. Coming off of my center seam, I’m going
to use a two inch cut and a two inch cut giving four inches, watch this. Ok, making sure I
don’t mess it up at this point, ok. And I also really don’t want you to move your
fabric at this point because I’m going to make another series of cuts running the other
direction. That’s why this lazy susan is so wonderful. Get that there. And we’re
going to now do the same coming off the center seam. And if things move just line up your
center seam again. Come in here, make sure it’s nice and square. And we’re cutting
and we’re going to cut it again. And we’re going to divide this up so we can start mixing
around our elements. The more accurate you do this though the easier everything will
piece back together for us so just slow down a little. This is probably the most accurate
step we need you to do, ok? So now from this point on we have this wonderful nine patch,
right?
We’re going to go ahead and start mixing some things around to come up with this element.
So if I lay this right here and slide this down a little bit. I’m hoping you’ll be
able to see both of them come together. So the first thing I ended up doing is you can
see that this checkerboard and this checkerboard are matching here. So I’m going to go ahead
and swap these around and put this in here. And then this one I’m bringing down into
here. And I’ll do the same for these two. So we’re moving a lot of our pieces around.
Ok, just like that. And then these pieces do not move and they do not twist and they
do not relocate. So that goes ahead and builds out our checkerboard cross. From this point
we’re going to go ahead and join these seams all the way through and then the long seams.
Let me take a quick moment here and get a few of these put together. I’ll be right
back.
Now you can see that I’ve already joined the top and bottom seams just to get a little
head start on all of you. But I want to teach you how to put this together. So we’re just
going to lay this into the center like this. We’re going to go over to our sewing machine
with our quarter inch and our seam allowance edge guide is really great . Now one of the
things I really like to do is I’m nesting those two seams together where the blocks
come. That’s one of the first places I pinch as we go under the machine. And you may have
noticed that based on the layout of this block that it looks like all the angles are coming
together but then once you construct the block some of those angles start to disappear and
that is come of the magic in the block, I think. We’re just going to line this up
here and get through that. Next block, next seam allowance, perfect. Now I will also encourage
you though to do this slice and swap one block at a time. I have not been able to figure
out a good way to chain piece that or to stay organized in doing it, ok? So I just want
you to handle one block at a time. Now we’re going to put this side onto the center making
sure I have my checkerboard in the middle. And flip this over like this. Here we go.
Super easy like that. I’m just going to take a second and press it out.
Now team what we still need to discuss today is our sashings. There’s a little bit of
a trick happening with these blocks I want to show you before we get too carried away,
right? So let’s go ahead and get this flattened down, move this out of the way here for us.
And now join me at the quilt. The magic here in my opinion of course is this wonderful
white square. And it comes from using the corners of our blocks. You can see it dropping
in right there. So what that really needs is that square is going to need to be able
to rotate around to form the cream colored square coming together. And in order to do
that we can’t just sash every left side of the block. We’re going to have to layout
all of our blocks together and then add sashing to two of the sides of the blocks. Or there’s
another trick you can do where you actually take your sashing and you only sash the side
of your block like this. Once all your blocks are built into a row you can take a long strip
and lay it out that way too, if the strip is long enough for your project. My instructions
are written so you have a small piece of sashing and a small piece of sashing there. Obviously
not easy to say. You do it the way you’re most comfortable. I don’t have a recommendation
to which is easier. I just did it that way. But I want to remind you we’re going to
focus on getting these cream squares together. And then once you know where your sashing
is going to go, you’re just going to go ahead and take a piece like this. And I actually
stitch it on and then trim it off.
So I’m back over at my quarter inch seam allowance here. I’m going to stitch this
down, real simple, ok. And then what I would like to do is I’m going to come over here
and I’m going to press it open like this so that I can trim it so that it
fits my block. And then from that point you get to make the decision if you’re going
to sash small pieces or a small and a big. That’s completely your choice. I’m just
going to trim off these edges. And what I would then do personally in this project would
just take that piece, come right down here and add that to this unit of measure. But
remember this one over here is going to have the sashing on this side. So lay it out, sash
it up, baste it, quilt it. And have a blast with this super complicated looking quilt
that you did in just a couple of days. And while you’re playing with I cannot wait
to see all the color combinations you all come up with. Drop them in the comments below.
We ready every single one of them. We love you out there. And we’ll catch you next
time at Man Sewing.