How about a patchwork tutorial for a scrappy quilt block? Here’s one I’ve been playing with over the past few days called Feeling Cross.
I’m not actually feeling cross….far from it. Without a doubt the hardest part of quilt-making is thinking up names for the blasted things. I regularly show my husband and children quilt layouts and drill them for naming inspiration:
“What does this look like to you?” (painful tickles if they answer “a quilt”)
“What does this remind you of?”
“How does this design make you feel?”
Or when those all fail, “Gah! What am I gonna call this???”
After my 13 yr old and I couldn’t come up with a name I figured Feeling Cross was apt and left it at that!
If you’d like a PDF copy of this scrappy quilt block pattern, just fill in the fields below and it will be automatically emailed to you.
Here’s what you’ll need to make one 9.5″ (unfinished) block. Once sewn into a quilt, the block will measure 9″.
First up, let’s sew some HSTs:
Take the 4 dark blue squares and match them with 4 green squares to make 8 HSTs. Press toward the darker fabric and trim to 2.5″.
Then take the two light blue squares and match with the remaining 2 green squares to make 4 HSTs. Press toward the darker fabric and trim to 2.5″.
You can now sew 2 dark blue/green HSTs, 1 light blue/green HST and 1 white 2.5″ square together in a four-patch:
The arrows on the blocks above show the seam pressing directions, so that the seams will nest within the four-patch.
Once you have 4 four-patches, sew them together either side of the shorter sashing pieces. Then sew the two halves together either side of the longer sashing piece:
And there you have it!
I think these blocks make a great scrappy quilt when joined with sashing (and the bonus when using sashing is you don’t have to press your seams a particular way to ensure the blocks nest).
The sashing in the version above is cut at 1.5″ wide to finish at 1″.
I’ve used the same three colours in my blocks, just rotating them through each position in the block to give a point of difference.
A 4 x 5 block layout like the one above would give a 41.5″ x 51.5″ crib quilt.
If you make one of these blocks (or your own scrappy quilt), make sure you let me know!
And again, if you’d like the PDF, you can receive a download below:
