Our new window display was designed around the colour scheme of teal, coral and citron. So when it came time to plan the quilt, we basically handed Kelly of Jeli Quilts a stack of our favourite basics in these colours and let her dream up a quilt design that would complement them. We could not be more thrilled with the result: against a (nearly) white background, the bold design and bright colours are electric! Read on for the tutorial and make your own Kaleidoscope Quilt (and don’t forget to share a picture of us on Flickr!) Thanks, Kelly!
Supplies:
• 12 fat quarters (this bundle includes all of the same fabrics)
• 1.75 metres solids fabric for background (Kona Snow)
• 3 metres backing fabric
• Lap sized wadding (52” x 64”)
• ½ metre of binding fabric
All seam allowances are ¼” unless stated otherwise
RST = right sides together
WOF = width of fabric
HST = Half square triangles
• Finished quilt size: 48” x 60”
• Finished block size: 6”
Cutting and prep:
1. From background fabric:
a. Cut (8) strips 7.5” x WOF.
b. Sub cut these into (40) 7.5” squares.
c. Cut the (40) 7.5” squares across the diagonal to make 80 HST to be used for section A1.
2. From each of the 12 Fat quarters cut:
a. (7) 10” x 2” strips for A2 sections
b. (7) 6.5” x 2” strips for A3 sections
c. (7) 3.75” x 2.25” strips for A4 sections
3. From the backing fabric:
Cut fabric in half and sew together to make a backing piece approx. 52” x 64”.
4. From binding fabric:
Cut (6) 2.5” x WOF
Printing template:
Print 80 copies of the template, making sure that you select actual size. (Print one and check that it measures 6.5” square). A ¼” seam allowance is included in the template.
Cut out template about 1/8” from the outside line for all 80 blocks.
Click on this image to download the template PDF
Sort strips:
Lay out all 80 HST and sort the fabric strips, so that each block has a different sized strip from the 3 colour ways. This way you avoid too many repeats and the actual sewing of the blocks is a lot faster.
Foundation piecing the block:
**** Reduce your stitch length to around 1.5-1.8, to make tearing the paper off easier****
1. Flip the template over to the wrong side and place the background HST (section A1) with wrong side facing the paper (Figure a), making sure to cover at least ¼” around all sides of A1. Pin in place.
Figure a
2. Take an A2 strip and place RST with the A1 fabric, overlapping the line between A1 and A2 by at least 1/4in. (Figure b)
Figure b
3. Flip the template, so that the fabrics are underneath and sew on the line between A1 and A2. Backstitching at the start and end. (Figure c)
Figure c
4. Fold the paper back along the line just sewn (figure d) and trim the seam allowance to1/4in. Flip fabric and press (Figure e).
Figure d
5. Repeat steps 1-4, adding the fabrics in numerical order (figure f).
Figure f
6. Once complete, flip template to wrong side and trim on the dotted line to make a 7.5 inch block. (Figures g and h)
Figure g
Figure h
7. Repeat steps1-6 with the remaining 79 templates.
8. Press the blocks well with lots of starch and then carefully remove the paper by tearing gently along the sewn lines.
Quilt layout:
**** Return your stitch length to normal****
Lay out the blocks referring to the layout picture (Figure i). I laid my blocks out fairly randomly, which gives quite a psychedelic look! The stripes will look more pronounced if you stick to a colour for each row, as the diagram shows.
Figure i
Once you have your layout finalised, stack the blocks into rows and label. You need to be careful to note which way is up, so they are not sewn upside down etc.
1. Sew blocks A-G together into rows, press seams
2. Sew rows 1-10 together, press seams
Give the quilt top a good press.
Finishing:
1. Make a quilt sandwich with your quilt top, wadding and backing using your preferred basting method. (I am a spray baster).
2. Quilt as desired. I quilted chevrons using #Aurifil in cream (number 2026) and my walking foot.
3. Cut off excess wadding and backing and square the quilt up.
4. Join the binding strips together, fold in half and press.
5. Machine stitch the binding to the front of the quilt and then sew to the back either by hand or machine.
Voila, you are done!!