A Finish and a Tutorial: Chain of Love Baby Quilt

Ahh, so much better:
If you remember the story of the ugly special baby quilt from last week, here is the result of the revised effort. (Scroll down to the previous post if you want to see more about the ugly special baby quilt.) I'm so much more pleased with this.

Special Baby Quilt - "Chain of Love"

All finished and labeled, ready for baby

 

Detail

 

 

Linking up today with Friday Finish at Crazy Mom Quilts and Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

 

 

This is fast and easy, using a simple chain block and some sashing. How about a tutorial?!

Copyright 2014 by Jan Ochterbeck. For personal use only. Please do not pin without attribution.

 

Chain of Love Baby Quilt

44” x 44”

Skill Level: Easy

Chain of Love Baby Quilt

 

Fabric Requirements:

All fabrics at least 40” cuttable width (excluding selvages).

Cutting and piecing directions are given for directional (one-way) fabric.

·        Focus Print:                                                      3-1/4 yards. Used for top, backing, and binding.

·        White:                                                               5/8 yard

·        Color 1 (orange) and Color 2 (aqua):          1/4 yard each

·        Colors 3 (green), 4 (blue) and 5 (teal):        1/4 yard each per EQ7; you may be able to get by with 1/8 yard each

• Batting: 48" square

Cutting:

·        Focus Print: For optimum fabric usage, the backing and binding will be cut first.

o   Cut a 50” length of WOF yardage for backing.

o   Cut a lengthwise strip 10” wide including selvage by 50” long, also for backing.

o   Cut 3 (three) lengthwise 2-1/2” by length of remaining yardage strips for binding (no selvage).

o   Cut 6 (six) 4-1/2” x 16-1/2” strips on the crosswise grain for sashing.

o   Cut 6 (six) 4-1/2” x 16-1/2” strips on the lengthwise grain for sashing.

o   Cut 8 (eight) 2-1/2” x 8-1/2” strips on the crosswise grain for blocks.

o   Cut 8 (eight) 2-1/2” x 8-1/2” strips on the lengthwise grain for blocks.

·        White:  

o   Cut 8 (eight) 2-1/2” WOF strips.

o   Sub cut from each strip, 2 (two) 12-1/2” lengths and 2 (two) 4-1/2” lengths, for a total of 16 (sixteen) 2-1/2” x 12-1/2” strips and 16 (sixteen) 2-1/2” x 4-1/2” strips.

·        Colors 1 and 2 (orange and aqua)

o   Cut 2 (two) 2-1/2” WOF strips of each color

·        Colors 3, 4, and 5 (green, blue, and teal)

o   Cut 1 (one) 2-1/2” WOF strip of each color.

o   Sub cut each strip into 16 (sixteen) 2-1/2” squares.  

Assembly:

All seams are ¼” unless otherwise noted.

Make Four-Patches:

·        With right sides together, sew orange and aqua strips lengthwise. Make two. Press seams toward the orange.  

·        Place the strips right sides together with opposite colors atop each other. Make sure the seam is closely abutted and press the strips together.

·        Cut off selvages; carefully cut 2-1/2” sections across the width of the strip, squaring up as needed. Cut a total of 13 (thirteen) stacked units.

·        Keeping the units stacked and making sure seams are well matched, sew together along one length. Open units and press seams to one side.

·        Make a total of 13 (thirteen) four-patches.

Block Assembly:

·        Chain-piece the following:

o   To each end of 8 (eight) 4-1/2” strips of white, add a green square.

o   To each end of 8 (eight) 8-1/2” strips of print, add a blue square.

o   To each end of 8 (eight) 12-1/2” strips of white, add a teal square.

o   Press all seams toward the strips (away from the colored squares).

 

·        To left and right sides of 4 (four) of the four-patches, sew a white 4-1/2” strip. Press toward the strip.

·        To the top and bottom of the resulting partial block, sew the white/green units, matching seams. Press seams toward the strip.

·        Sew 8-1/2” print strips to the left and right sides of partial block; press seams toward the strips.

·        Sew print/blue units to the top and bottom of the partial block; press seams toward the strips.

·        Sew 12-1/2” white strips to the sides of the partial block; press seams toward the strips.

·        Sew white/teal units to top and bottom to complete the blocks. Press seams toward the strips.

·        Examine blocks for any places where colored seam allowances or threads show through the white or print on the face of the block, and carefully trim away as needed to prevent show-through.

 

Top Assembly:

·        Lay out sashing strips so the grain/print direction goes in the direction you want.

·        With right sides together, sew a print 16-1/2” sashing strip to the left side of each block. Sew a sashing strip to the right side of two of the blocks. Sew the blocks into rows. Press seams toward the sashing.

 

·        Sew four-patch units to one end of 6 (six) sashing strips and to the other end of 3 (three) of the sashing strips. Join the sashing strips into rows. Make three rows. Press seams toward the four-patches.

 

·        Sew rows together; press seams toward the sashing.

·        Examine top for threads and show-through and trim as needed.

 

Finishing:

Assemble back:

·        With right sides together and aligning print direction, match selvages of backing fabric and sew, using a 1” seam allowance.

·        Cut away selvage, leaving at least ¼” seam allowance, wider if selvages permit.

·        Press seam open and fully press backing.

Layer backing face down, batting, and top face up and baste.

Quilt as desired. Sample is quilted as follows:

·        Using a walking foot, stitch in the ditch along all sashing seams.

·        Stitch along the diagonal across all blocks.

·        Stitch 1/8” from the edge all around the quilt.

·        Mark dots at edges of long strips in each block at 2” intervals. Quilt a diagonal grid across each block by stitching from point to point, using the patch intersections and marked dots as guides. Where necessary, stitch over the previous SID in the sashing seam to get to the next grid point to avoid a lot of starts and stops.

 

·        Using a darning or free-motion foot, FMQ or meander in the sashing.

·        Bury all thread tails.

Binding:

·        Join strips lengthwise and trim seam allowances to ¼”; press seams open.

·        Fold binding in half lengthwise wrong side together and press.

·        Square up quilt by trimming a scant 1/8” outside the outer edge of the top and squaring up corners.

·        With right sides together, attach binding to front of quilt with a generous ¼” seam, mitering corners.  Join ends using your preferred method (I use The Binding Tool).

·        Hand or machine sew the binding down to the back.

Label:

Every quilt should be labeled. Add a label of your choice to the back. Note: label can be inserted into the binding seam before the binding is sewn down to the back if desired.