DT Project – SJ – Making a simple patchwork quilt~Part One

Hello! Today for my design team post, I want to post part one of how to make a really simple patchwork quilt.

First of all – you will need the following items:

1: Scissors – and there really isn’t any better than Fiskars!

2: Rotary Trimmer – not essential but OH MY brilliant and convenient!
I have both the 45mm and the 60mm – both are my most loved patchwork tools ever.

3: A fabric ruler – again, not essential if using scissors, but if you are using a trimmer they are!

4: A cutting mat. This really is a must if you don’t want to slice through your table top!

The first step is to chose your fabric. I love buying fat quarters to do patchwork with, but you can use whatever fabric you like (always best I feel to work with one fabric type though, cotton is my preferred choice)
Then start to trim using your rotary tool and ruler. For this quilt, I chose to make my patches 6″x6″ squares.

How many you cut, is your choice. For this quilt, I have cut 42 squares, as it only needs to be big enough for Finlay to use in the car on cold days *bless*

Once you have your squares lay them out in rows. I have rows of 7 squares.
You can be specific with the pattern, stagger the design etc or be as free as you like.

Once you have them lined up, collect up each row individually and start to sew the squares together to form a strip.

repeat this step for each row till you have all your rows sewn into strips.

Now – iron! It is SO important to iron now at regular stages – as the crisper and flatter your fabric, the more likely that the corners will all match up beautifully.

After you have ironed – pin the first strip to the second, and sew together. Repeat till all your strips are sewn to create your patchworked quilt top.

Iron and then lay it out and give yourself a pat on the back whilst admiring it’s beauty!

This marks the point where I will stop today….. but my next entry will be the quilting part! *eeeep!*

tips: Always make sure you sew the right sides of the fabric together, as you want the seams to be on the “reverse”
BUT fear not – you can unpick the seams with the Fiskars multi sewing tool (which is genuis)

I hope you find this useful! (unless you are a quilting extraordinaire, in which case, please don’t look to closely at my sewing lol!!)

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