Easy Quilt, Part Two

I had so many comments on the Easy Quilt I posted last week, that I decided to explain it better.

This pattern was inspired by a quilt in the book Loose Change, by By Claudia Plett and Le Ann Weaver. We sell the book. They make the quilt from 5 inch squares, which they call 'nickles'. I make it from 3" strips, but it is the same idea.

Pictures are better than words. Okay, this quilt without borders measures 90 inches square. To make one this size, you need 4 1/2 yards of black. Cut your scraps into 3" wide strips, and the black fabric into 100 (that's right, 100) 1-1/2 inch strips. The blocks are 9" square, and there are 100 of them. Each block takes forty inches of black one and one-half inch strips.

Okay, take a 3" scrap strip. Sew a black strip to each side of it. Press towards the black. How many pieces you get out of it depends on how long your scrap was. Crosscut these strip sets every 5 inches. Anything less than 5 inches gets chunked (hey, the whole idea is reducing scraps, right?) After you make your first strip set, its a good idea to measure it. If your seam allowance is different than mine, you might end up with something wider or narrower than 5". Take that measurement and cut your strips into segments that are square. Make a gazillion of these, using lots of different scraps. You will need 400 of them all together. When I got tired of doing this, I'd sew them together for a while.

When you sew them together, you sew one side to one end. There isn't anyway to get it backwards if you do that. This unit should measure 5 inches by 9 1/2 inches.

Then sew these together on the long side, trying to not duplicate any of the scrap fabrics.

You can't see it well in the picture, but my 'matching' seams missed by 1/4 inch on this block. That's whats so great about this quilt - it doesn't matter! Black mismatches just are barely visible, and all the places where anything meets anything are black! Black is beautiful! These are 9-1/2 inches square.

Anyway, when you go to sew the blocks together, you don't have to fuss about getting them turned any which way, they go together right no matter which way you turn them. Easy as pie!