Friday, May 10, 2013

Layer Cake Tutorial #4

Another quick tutorial using twenty 10" squares or half a layer cake. For this one I used lots of directional print fabric. Directional prints can be a bit tricky when quilt making if you want to keep them facing all the same way. In this quilt I have just cut them into rectangles and a few squares which means you can keep them going the same way very easily.
 The blocks need to be cut in half. To make sure I am cutting exactly in half I use two rulers and line up the 5" mark on the sides with each ruler (The ruler on the right is upside down when I do this).
 
 Now remove one of the rulers and cut the squares in half so you have two rectangles 10" long and 5" wide.
 After you have cut all your blocks into rectangles choose four of the rectangles and cut them into two 5" squares. You will have 36 rectangles and 8 squares.
Lay all the rectangles and squares out as in the picture below. Four rows will have five 10" long rectangles and four rows will have four 10" long rectangles and 2 squares at each end.
 

 

From the rectangles at each end of rows 1,3, 5 and 7 trim 1/4" from one end (so those rectangles are now 9 3/4" long. (You need to do this as rows 2, 4, 6 and 8 have an extra seam and will be 1/2" shorter).

 Sew row 1 together. Repeat for rows 2-8. Press. I pressed my seams to the side. Now sew all the rows together and Press. I pressed all my seams to the side. The quilt top is finished!

2 comments:

Amy DeCesare said...

Great instructions, and the result is so cute! I think using directional prints really adds to this design. I'll keep this in mind to try for a fun and quick quilt.

Karen said...

Thank you Kate for another great baby quilt tutorial. Such a fabulous idea for dealing with directional prints.