Kids' Quilts Blog Hop: Day 4

Welcome back for Day 4 of our Kids' Quilts Blog Hop! Today Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict is here, sharing a tutorial for a one-block quilt using the Yard Dog collection from Kanvas.  Sarah will also tell you about her involvement in charity quilt giving, and is hosting her annual charity quilt challenge on her blog beginning in March. Enjoy the tutorial, and don't miss the chance at the bottom of this post to enter to win a FQ bundle of Yard Dog.

 

Hi, all!  I'm Sarah, and I blog over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  I'm just thrilled to have been asked to be a part of this blog hop!!  Quilts for children is kind of a passion of mine - I think because it lets me work with fun prints and lots of color! 

Most of the quilts I make are given away, to both children and adults.  I work with a growing quilt ministry in my church, and also host a charity quilt challenge on my blog each year.  This will be the fourth year for the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  In the past three years, we have involved 167 quilters who have donated 281 quilts to various charities, including quilts for orphans in Romania, Russia, and Ethiopia, chemotherapy patients, and hurricane survivors in New Orleans.  This year's Challenge starts on March 16th, with signups all week and a signup giveaway on March 23rd.  I hope you'll consider joining in the fun - and you could use this tutorial as your design!  

When I was asked to do a tutorial for this hop, I wanted to come up with a design that was simple but interesting, and that could be made with yardage, precuts, or scraps.  This one-block quilt tutorial is for a child-sized quilt, but this also would be easy to make larger or smaller by simply reducing or increasing the number of columns and blocks in each column.  Enjoy!!

Floating Boxes Tutorial

Quilt Size: Approximately 50” x 54”

Fabric Requirements:

Beautiful "Yard Dog" fabrics!

Prints: You will need 21 2.5” wide strips for the 42 "A" Blocks required.  You can use strips from a jelly roll, or cut them from 1/4 yard each of seven different fabrics.

Solid:  1 3/4 yard for "A" block centers, outside of 7 "B" Blocks, strip ends, and borders.

1/2 yard for binding

3 yards for backing

This quilt is made using one basic block construction, in two different fabric combinations.  

"A" Block

"B" Block

Cutting Directions:

A and B blocks:

PRINT FABRICS:

If using yardage for the prints, cut three 2.5” WOF strips from each print. (21 strips)

Subcut each 2.5” WOF strip into eight 4.5” x 2.5” pieces. (168 pieces)

From the remainders of the 2.5” strips, cut one 2.5” x 2.5” square from each print (7 pieces total) for the centers of the “B” blocks

SOLID FABRIC:

Cut six 2.5” by WOF strips.  Subcut those into twenty-eight 4.5” x 2.5” pieces and forty-two 2.5” x 2.5” pieces.

Cut one 6.5” x WOF strip.  Subcut it into six 2.5” x 6.5” pieces and four 4.5” x 6.5” pieces. 

Borders:

Cut five 4.5” x WOF strips from the solid fabric for the borders.

Binding:

Cut six WOF strips for binding in your preferred width.

To make the block:

Use a scant 1/4 inch seam. That is a seam that is approximately 2 threads less than a true 1/4” seam.

For each block, you will need four identical 2.5” x 4.5” pieces and a 2.5” center piece.  Use a solid center for the forty-two print blocks, and a print center for the seven solid blocks.

Place the center piece face up, then lay a 2.5” x 4.5” piece on top, face down.  

Stitching on the long right-hand side of the 4.5” piece, stitch approximately 1” down, backstitch and remove from the sewing machine.  This is a partial seam that you will finish later.  

Finger press the top part of the seam away from the center block.  Lay another 2.5” x 4.5” piece on the long edge (1/2 center, 1/2 border) and stitch the entire seam.  Finger-press away from the center block.  Continue around the center piece in this fashion until you sew all four pieces on.  

Now you can finish the partial seam you made in the first step.

Press the block, pressing all seams away from the center block.

Make forty-two “A” blocks (print on the outside) and seven “B” blocks (solid on the outside).

Arrange your blocks in a pleasing order, placing six “A” blocks and one “B” block in each column.  Stagger your columns by one or two block segments as shown in the picture above to give the effect that they float on the background fabric.  Add the 2.5" x 6.5" and 4.5" x 6.5” wide pieces as needed to make the columns equal lengths.  Assemble the columns.  

Join the columns side to side.  Pin carefully to match up the seams as appropriate.

Once the center is complete, add the borders.  To make a nice flat quilt, measure across the center of the quilt from top to bottom and cut your side borders to that length, then pin the center to the borders, easing as necessary to make them fit.  Sew using a 1/4” seam.  Next, measure across the center of the quilt from side to side and cut the top and bottom borders to that length. Then pin those pieces to the top and bottom of the quilt top, easing as necessary to make them fit.  Sew using a 1/4” seam.

Your top is finished!  Quilt as desired and bind, then find a lucky child to enjoy it!

This quilt can easily be made smaller or larger by adding or subtracting blocks. You can see examples of this on my blog post today. Also, if you'd like to receive a PDF version of this tutorial, please stop by my blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and leave me a comment with your email information.  I'll email it to you right away!  If you request one and don't hear from me, it's possible you are a no-reply blogger - just email me directly at the address you'll find on my blog!

Thanks for letting me share this tutorial with you!!  Be sure to check out the rest of the great tutorials that have been shared this week, too!  And remember to come by and join in the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge - signups begin March 16th!!

Thanks Sarah!

For a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the Yard Dog collection, simply sign up to follow this blog, either through Bloglovin' (or another blog reader service) or email (both options are in the right hand sidebar) and leave a comment letting us know you follow. In your comment, since the fabric featured today is Yard Dog, let us know--are you a dog person? cat person? neither? Leave a second comment and receive a second entry by following us on Facebook and letting us know. This giveaway is open through Monday, March 3 at 11:59 PM EST. 

Make sure you check out all the tutorials from the Kids' Quilts Blog Hop:

Day 1: by the Benartex Blog Team, featuring Monkeying Around
Day 2: by Nikki from The Girl Who Quilts, featuring English Rosey
Day 3: by Emily from Mommy's Nap Time, featuring Doodle Dog

And check back on Monday, when we'll share some additional free pattern ideas for kids' charity quilts, as well as a list of links of other charities accepting quilts for kids.