Hi Everyone! Here is a nifty way to whip up a quilt really really fast. If you can believe it, I made this quilt start to finish in about three hours. I came up with this pattern(ish) for all us participating in the vintage sheet swap graciously organized by Katie. All you need to piece the top is 12 coordinating fat quarters. You can use all FQ’s made from vintage sheets or mix in FQ’s from your stash to complement them as I do here (I think I have 7 sheets and 5 quilting cottons in this top). The important thing here is that they are all accurately cut and all the same size—hopefully your swap partner did a good job when cutting them up!
Okay first off-a little caveat emptor here: the process of piecing the top I describe here is a little different and requires some work on your part. I am showing you a way to design a quilt top rather than giving you straight up directions for the top shown here. So, needless to say, there is some tinkering and improvisation needed on your end. If you are are not up for this, then this tute is not for you. But hey, the worst that can happen is you fudge 12 FQ’s from the swap and if you sent in 80 FQ’s that means you are out about 30 cents a FQ. So you are dropping $4 on the quilt top so get over it you cheapie and take a risk why don’t you!
Here are my 12 FQ selections:
Okay, first take your 12 FQ’s and arrange them (randomly) in four rows of three and sew them all together using the standard ¼” seam allowance. I like to press my seams open, but hey whatever works for you. At this point you should have a really boring quilt top made up of 12 rectangles measuring roughly 65” X 70” and it could look a little something like this
So here is where it gets a little hairy (and fun!). Using Powerpoint, Adobe, Paint (does anyone still use this?), or even just a paper and colored pencils, make a scaled print of your boring FQ quilt top. Here’s a little math (skip this if you are not numerically inclined):
fat quarters = 18” X 22” and 22/18 is about 1.25. This means that your rectangle’s height to width ratio is 1:1.25. So for any height you use for your miniature model take that value and multiply it by 1.25 to get an accurate width that will be to scale.
Or don’t worry about anything in the preceding sentences and use a 2”X2.4” rectangle for your mini model. If using this model you should have a 4X3 grid that is 6” X 9.6.” Now color or fill these in such that your mini model resembles your boring FQ quilt top. If possible, make at least a few copies of this. Here is what mine looks like next to the FQ’s that I pulled for the quilt tops:
Trim the excess paper away so that you now have a piece of paper that resembles your boring top.
Now here is the fun part: Using a ruler guide and an old rotary cutter (cutting paper greatly dulls the razor) cut strips of your mini quilt and rearrange these strips in a new way. Tape this new arrangement together and then cut and tape again. Here is one attempt I made:
Here I cut a sliver off of the right side, flipped it around and taped it to the left side.
Here is one attempted rearrangement next to the original
It’s a good idea to look at your model from far away so you can get a different perspective:
I don’t like this one so I will try another one:
I like it! So this is the “design” I am going to be using for my boring FQ quilt top. So here is the thing: You are going to mimic all the cutting you did on your model on your real quilt top! For example, in my model, I cut columnar strips wherever there was a seam or an edge:
I then rearranged these strips using my mini model as a guide and sewed the top back together again. Then I did the same thing horizontally (sorry forgot to take a pic here!) to get my final quilt top.
Here is the finished quilt:
It measures 52”X58”
Here are some important points to remember/think about:
- You are probably wondering how to cut an entire quilt top? Use your ruler guide and rotary cutter; and measure from seams or from edges. Just keep repositioning your quilt on your cutting mat and overlap your ruler guide with what you have already cut so that the cutting line stays consistent.
- Generally speaking, you should only use vertical or horizontal straight lines when cutting your model and your quilt. You could use diagonal lines, but the seams won’t line up properly.
- You don’t have to use every cut strip in your final quilt! Look at this picture here:
- 
- I left out the side cuttings completely and just utilized the two inner strips.
- Remember, for every cut you make, you are going to lose about a ½” on your final dimensions. For example, this quilt started out 65”X72” and ended up being 52”X58” because of the cutting and also because I left out some of the cut strips.
- Keep track of your cutting in the mini model and keep it simple for your first try. This quilt can be as simple or as complicated as you like.
- I use a 4X3 grid utilizing 12 FQ’s in this example, but you can easily scale up or down depending on your needs. You can start out with a bigger 4X5 to make a full size quilt or 2X3 to make a baby quilt. You don’t even have to use fat quarters, you could use fat eighths, charm squares, a layer cake, etc.
I guess this is really more of a technique than a pattern. You can adapt this to any size or setup you want really. This is my first tutorial, so I am a little nervous that this makes sense to people not living in my head. So please email or comment with feedback, suggestions, critiques, etc. I’m a big girl, I can take it, and it will help me with my future tutorials.
Thanks and happy quilting!
