Greetings Marigold Quilt dyers and sewers! How’s it going? Did you get a chance to do the natural dye work this week? I was stoked to have received some progress photos from a couple of folks which you can view at the bottom of this post. Thanks so much for sharing your work and please keep the photos coming! Are you ready to make a cute little quilt top this week? This is such a satisfyingly quick quilt top to whip up! In this post I’ll share some helpful tips beyond what I shared in the instructional booklet. Let’s get to it!
CUT
Before you begin make sure you remembered to do the final rinsing after dyeing to ensure that your colors won’t bleed. Give your fabrics a nice press to prepare them for cutting. Begin by cutting six 3 1/2” strips from the larger (lighter) piece of fabric. Then from the strips cut 3 1/2” squares. There should be enough fabric to cut 6 squares from each strip. You only need a total of 31 so cut only 1 square from the 6th strip. Someone mentioned that they were only able to cut 5 squares from each strip. I thought I factored in enough extra fabric to compensate for shrinkage during scouring but perhaps you will be a little short. If this is the case do not despair! You should have some extra dark value squares to slip into a light value spot. Nothing wrong with a little make-do-wonky.
left: cutting 3 1/2” strips | right: cutting squares from strips
If this is your very first time cutting squares from strips it may be helpful to pop over to the university of youtube for some guidance. From the smaller (darker) piece of fabric cut four 3 1/2” strips and then cut 3 1/2” squares from each strip until you have a total of 20 squares.
Sew your rows
Alrighty, your squares are cut and ready to become patchwork rows! First we will make five “a” rows as explained in your instructional booklet. I put together 5 handy dandy piles consisting of four dark squares and three light squares each and brought them over to the machine to become rows.
left: 5 piles ready to become patchwork “a” rows | right: the making of an “a” row
5 “a” rows complete! Let’s set them aside and make some “b” rows
Okay, on to some “b” rows! To make my “b” rows I made four handy dandy piles consisting of 4 light squares and 3 block printed flower squares and brought them over to the sewing machine to be sewn into rows.
left: piles consisting of 4 light squares and 3 block printed squares ready to become “b” rows | right: 5 finished “a” rows and 4 finished “b” rows ready for some seam pressing.
left: seams unpressed | right: seams pressed open
Sew Your Rows Together
Okay guys, we now have 9 finished patchwork rows that are ready to be sewn together to become a quilt top! Begin by pairing up and sewing “a” rows and “b” rows together. Use pins to match the seams. If you aren’t familiar with how to match seams you can refer to this blog post or the Matching Seams tutorial on page 142 of my book Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy. Once the rows are sewn together, press the seams open.
left: pairs of “a” rows and “b” rows pinned together at the seams ready to be sewn together | right: sets of “a” rows and “b” rows sewn together with the seams pressed open
Continue sewing pairs of rows together…..
boop!
boop!
boop!
You did it! Give your quilt top a nice good press and it’s ready to become a quilt sandwich. We’ll deal with that next week. Great job you guys! If you have any questions please ask in the comment section below. I can’t wait to see photos of your progress. Email is best but I will try to sort through DM’s over on Instagram. Be sure to tag me if you post any progress updates over there as well and I’ll share them in my stories. Thanks for dyeing and sewing along with me! I’ll see you here next Friday to talk about quilt sandwiches and hand quilting.
