Monday 4 March 2013

the 2 hour quilt top



I don't know about you, but I love a fast project. Sometimes I just want to turn a pile of fabric into a quilt without much effort, and to be done in a day.


the 2 hour quilt top


This little quilt measures 36" x 48" which is the perfect size for a baby quilt, and would also work well laying across the bottom of a single bed as a decorative throw.

From the pile of fabric, to the finished quilt top this took me literally 2 hours. I did sew fast, but the whole quilt didn't take me more than one day, with the binding hand stitched to the back of the quilt as I watched TV that evening.

For the quilt top you will need;

8 Fat Quarters of fabric - 4 in dark colour values and 4 in light colour values (see directions for a little explanation on this) (I used in the forest by Steffie Brocoli for Cloud 9 organics)

Sizzix Bigz Pro Die - half square triangles, 6.5" finished square (compatible with Big Shot Pro only)

Cut 12 half square triangles from each fat quarter of fabric (concertina the fabric so there are 6 layers)


HST 1


Sort into 2 piles - light and dark. My 'light' fabrics are all multi coloured with a white background, and the 'dark' fabrics are more of a solid print in primary colours. If you don't feel confident choosing fabric by value, use prints for the 'darks' and plain solid for the 'lights'. If you choose a plain solid you need 1 metre total.
Sew a light half square triangle to each dark half square triangle (right sides together). Be careful as you are dealing with bias cut edges, which are stretchy - so pin well!


HST 2


The beauty of this die is there's no trimming after you've sewn the triangles together. Simply press (with the seam to the dark side) and you have a perfect 6.5" square!


HST 3

Arrange into 8 rows of 6 squares, following the photo below as a guide


2 hour quilt layout

Sew the squares together into rows, and press the seams of even numbered rows to one side (eg 2,4,6,8 to the left) and odd numbered rows to the opposite direction.

Sew the rows together, and press well all over.

Et voila - you just made a really cute baby quilt top and hardly broke a sweat! Now you can take a break and think about the quilting and finishing later!

To finish you will need a crib size pack of wadding that you can trim down to at least 40" x 52". (I used pellon legacy 100% cotton which is a low loft (thin) wadding that shrinks just the right amount for a vintage crinkly look). You will also need a piece of backing fabric that measures slightly more than the wadding all the way around, 42" x 54" is just right. For binding, download and follow my how to here. 




3 comments:

  1. Great tutorial, thanks. I've been looking for a quick baby quilt tut, this could be the one!

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  2. Brilliant! Sometimes I just need inspiration.

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  3. This is fun. I love a fast project.

    ReplyDelete