Tuesday 8 July 2014

Lattices and Lillies Quilt

Because I ran out of white thread AGAIN while making a second Turning Squares quilt, and because our local HobbyCraft seems to have no white thread that's 100% cotton, I decided to get some fat quarters and some colourful thread and start another quilt to sell.

I found a cute line of fabric called Free Spirit by Rowan, which has sort of a modern Asian vibe to it. I wanted to do something a little more intricate than previously, and a little more challenging, so I decided to make some sketches first.

My sketch.

I like the kind of lattice look to it. To do this I calculated that I needed to make 36 half square triangles (HSTs) from my fat quarters, and I had 5 fat quarters in total. I calculated how many squares I could make of various sizes using this fat quarter chart I found on Google:

I'm not sure the original author of this chart, sorry!

Using my 5 fat quarters, I needed to make approximately 8 squares from each quarter, so I needed to make 6" squares.

6" squares.

Once I made my 6" squares, I drew a line diagonally and cut across the line. Make sure you pin multiple fabric layers together so they don't swivel around too much while you're cutting, unless you are cool enough to have a rotary cutter.

Cut HSTs. 

If you're into a more random quilt you can just sew 2 squares together 1/4" to each side of the line, but I wanted it a bit more planned than that, so I just cut them all first (You wont need all of them if you're following along). I then took out 4 single triangles for the corners.

Then what I did was matched up the triangles and sewed them together so that I had an equal number of every combination of fabric, just to make sure I had enough to play with. I then laid them out in the desired positions. My only concern was that there were no identical fabrics next to each other, so other than that it was pretty much random.

 My initial layout.

Once I constructed all the squares I then started adding the lattices. I chose to just make 1 1/2" strips of my lattice fabric and sew them on as is without cutting them to size first. I picked a corner and started from there, adding the short strips one by one.

Starting the lattices.

Once I added all the short strips on the same diagonal, I then attached strips in the opposite direction. On the longest strips I had to sew two strips together, making sure to keep the seam in the centre of the quilt to avoid it looking odd.

I then wanted a border, but I decided to make it slightly bigger, so I made 2 1/2" strips and sewed them around the edges.

The finished quilt top!

Originally I was going to add 2 borders, but I didn't get enough of the backing fabric, so I decided to just have the one border, it looks pretty good anyway!

For the back I only got 1 metre of a sort of light greenish fabric, but I have a bunch of extra HSTs left over, and some of the lattice strips so I think I'm going to put some kind of embellishment on the back as well. Possibly a horizontal strip of the lattice to divide the back up so I have enough fabric, but I'm saving that as tomorrow's project!

----

On a separate note, I have put up my first pattern in my Etsy shop - Tara Doodle Doo - to sew your own knitting needle roll, designed to hold interchangeable circular needles, only £2.99!

Or, if you want to just skip the crafting and buy a 
pre-made roll, I've got a few ready to ship!

No comments:

Post a Comment