A little tutorial

I thought I would write a little tutorial about what I did with the four fat quarters - I made a very quick and easy quilt, which has minimal cutting, and minimal sewing

 

first, for non-quilters, what is a fat quarter.  It is a metre of fabric, cut in half across the width, and then down the length.  This generally gives you a piece of fabric nineteen and a half inches by twenty one or twenty two inches.  But not all fat quarters are cut accurately, as you can see from this one, which doesn't meet the line on its left hand corner

 

but it does on the right

 

it is also over an inch longer than it should be - good for the quilter, but cutting into the shop's profits

 

and you can see the difference in these two fat quarters

 

so, let's start the quilt.  From the centre fat quarter, cut a piece twenty one and a half inches by eighteen and a half inches, and from one of the plain colours cut two pieces twenty one and a half inches by nine and a half inches, and stitch them together like this

 

from the other plain fabric cut two pieces eighteen and a half inches by nine and a half inches, and from the fourth fabric cut four nine and a half inch squares.  Make two units like this one

 

press the seams towards the patterned fabrics, then butt the seams up like this

 

and pin them ready for stitching

 

a little word about stitching.  I always start with a thread catcher.  begin sewing about half an inch from the edge

 

then when you stitch to the edge and sew on to  your seam, the edge won't be chewed up, as often happens if you try to stitch from the very edge.  After stitching, snip off the thread catcher - the ends of thread are on the thread catcher, instead of on the floor.  You can see that I am using my quarter inch foot ....... there is a lot of nonsense spouted about these feet, with certain well known quilters saying you should never use them, but use a regular foot, changing your needle position to obtain a quarter inch seam.  Please be assured that the quilt police won't turn up at your door if you use your quarter inch foot - I have been using one for more than twenty years without any dire consequences!

 

this shows the neatly matched seams

 

and here is the finished quilt, which measures 36"x39".  Of course you don't have to make the quilt in such bright colours - you might like to make it in pastel colours for a new baby

 

I hope you have enjoyed this little tutorial, and will be inspired to make a quilt.  Next week I will show you how to layer up and quilt it.