Featuring: Henry Glass Fabrics Time Well Spent by Janet Rae Nesbitt

Pattern Design by: Sally Gauntlett

Sewn by: Sally Gauntlett

I absolutely love patchwork quilts; I love the nostalgic feel they can bring, and I also love the fact that they are perfect for using up all your scraps.  Quilts are a great thing to make because really, they are only sewing straight seams, just in various ways.  I hope you’ll enjoy my tutorial today making a basic square patchwork quilt. I’ll be using mine for sunny days in our garden, either as a picnic blanket or as a cozy cover for when it gets chillier in the evenings.  The ‘Time Well Spent’ collection was inspired by time in the garden so this collection was perfect for my project.

Important Note:

This fabric for this pattern is measured out in centimeters. 1cm = 0.39in. 

The seam allowance is 1/4” unless otherwise stated. The maker cuts Fat Quarters into 12 cm Squares, creating 99 total squares for the quilt top.  You can easily mimic this quilt top using 99, 5” Charms and adjust your batting and backing measurements to fit.  The most important element in creating this quilt top out of 99 squares is to the accuracy of your 1/4″ seam throughout the sewing.

Technique: Patchwork and Quilting

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Finished Size: 108cm x 132cm but you can make this quilt larger or smaller depending on your preference

Fabric Requirements: I used approximately 9 to 11 fat quarters (45.72 cm x  111.76 cm/18" x 44") for the quilt top 1.5m for the backing and 1.5m of batting. You will also need approximately .5m for the binding. Fabric requirements will vary depending on the size of quilt you decide to make.

Equipment needed: A cutting mat (optional); rotary cutteA cutting mat (optional); rotary cutter (optional, scissors would work fine); safety pins (optional), pins or fabric clips; quilting ruler (or straight edge for drawing your squares); sewing machine; thread. 

Additional Recommendations: A walking foot for your sewing machine is helpful but not essential.

Step One: Cutting

First you’ll need to cut your patchwork squares.  I used squares of 12cm x 12cm to make my quilt top which meant that I needed 99 squares in total.

I always find it helpful to make a paper template of my square to use as a cutting guide. You can make one from a piece of scrap paper. (Remember to include your seam allowance).

For speed, I double cut these by folding my fat quarter in half and then cutting fabric strips 14cm wide (this accounts for seam allowance). I then cut again vertically, using my template, to give my square. 

Continue cutting in this way until you have your 99 squares from your 9 to 11 fat quarters.  If you don’t have a rotary cutter and mat, you could always draw your lines with a ruler and cut with scissors.

Another option: If you don’t choose to use a square template, you can use your quilting ruler to cut your squares.

Step Two: Sewing squares into rows

Once you have all of your squares cut out, you then need to sew them into rows before piecing them together to make your quilt top.

Depending on how particular you would like to be about your finished design, before sewing, you may wish to lay your squares out to determine what will go where. 

For my chosen quilt design of 9 x 11 squares, I needed to sew together 11 rows of 9 squares each.  In my case I picked my squares using a very rough pattern of alternating of one light colour and one dark colour. 

Once you’re ready to sew, place two squares right sides together.  Continue adding square by square and sewing together in this way until you have a row of nine squares.

Continue in this way until you have 11 rows of nine squares each.

This part of the process can be quite therapeutic, so I like to listen to a podcast or a YouTube video whilst I’m working.

Step Two: Laying out your rows

Once all of your rows are sewn up, you then need to join them together to form the quilt top. I like to lay my rows out on the floor or a large table to make sure that I’m happy with the design, that nothing is clashing and that I don’t accidently run two fabrics together.  This part is by no means essential though, as the beauty of patchwork can be its higgledy piggledy nature so you can skip this part if you prefer.

If you do decide to lay out your rows it can be helpful to label them in the order you wish to sew them to ensure your keep that design you’ve worked so hard to get right.

I use a post-it notes torn into scraps and number each piece.  I then pin each number to the left side of each row and then when I come to sew, I know which row is to be sewn to which.  It just makes life that little bit easier.

Step Three: Sewing together your rows

Next, you need to start sewing your rows together.  Take your first row of squares over to your ironing board and give all your seams a press over to the left.

Next take your second row and give all the seams a press to the right.

Then, in order to give us a neat flat finish to our seam we need to pin together our rows, nesting each seam together so that the seam from each square is lying in an opposite direction.  This will ensure your seams lay flat and reduce some bulk.

Pin each of your seams along the row and then sew together.

Press your sewn seam upwards.

Next take your third row of squares and pin to your second row in the same way, nesting your seams as you did with rows 1 and 2. Sew again, this time press downwards.

Continue this process until all your rows have been sewn.

Once you have sewn together all your rows, give everything a lovely, satisfying press.

Admire your beautiful new quilt top!

Step Four: Pinning your quilt ‘sandwich’

Now that you have your beautiful quilt top, you now need to make it into a ‘proper’ quilt by adding the wadding and backing.

For my wadding I’ve used an Heirloom cotton wadding fabric but if you want to be frugal you can always use an old blanket, a couple of warm brushed cotton sheets or anything else that you think might be suitable.  Just make sure that, of course, it’s big enough and that it’s machine washable and non-flammable.

Likewise for the backing, you can use co-ordinating cotton fabric, or you can be creative and piece together a few different fabric scraps to make yourself a patchwork backing too.

Since I had some of my ‘Time Well Spent’ pieces left over, I decided to piece four of them together to make a piece of fabric large enough to back my quilt top.

Once you’ve got your wadding and backing sorted, you’ll then need to attach them together in a three-layer sandwich.

You might find it easiest to do this on the floor or a large table.  Place your backing fabric wrong side up first, next layer your wadding on top of your backing fabric and then place your quilt top on top.

This will probably take a little bit of faffing and fiddling around to make sure that everything is laying straight and lining up correctly.  Just make sure that your backing fabric and wadding extend out a little all around the edges of your quilt top.  This will give you a little bit of wiggle room when sewing and we can trim off any excess fabric later.

Once your layers are all laying lovely and flat you can go ahead and pin them together using either curved quilting pins, safety pins or normal pins if you don’t have any of those.

I like to pin from the middle row outwards as this allows me to smooth as I go.  You don’t have to pin every square; alternating squares works well.

Step Five: Quilting

When it comes to quilting, there are several ways in which you can do this.  Today I’ll be machine quilting but if you prefer, you can quilt together your layers by hand using a running stitch and a strong thread.  Any stitch that will keep your layers together will be fine. My instructions today will be for machine quilting with a long, straight stitch.

When you’re ready to quilt, take your pinned layers over to your machine and, starting with a middle row, machine stitch with a long straight stitch.  You can stitch in the ditch if you prefer not to see the stitching.  I’m using my sewing machine walking foot for this part because it helps to feed the layers through more evenly but if you don’t have one, don’t worry.

Once you come to the end of your row, quilt your next row in the same way.  Continue quilting until all of your horizontal rows have been quilted.

Once your horizontal rows have been quilted, repeat this quilting process with your vertical rows.

TIP:  Your quilt will be very heavy and possibly a little awkward to manoeuvre at times during the quilting process.  You might find it helpful to roll the edge that will be fed through the machine up to keep it out of the way while you sew.  It can also be helpful to drape your quilt over a chair if you find it wants to slip off of the table all the time.

Step Six: Trimming your quilt

Once everything has been quilted, you can remove all your pins and take your newly quilted quilt over to the ironing board to give it a good press.  Doesn’t it all look lovely!!

You’ll probably now have some untidy edges of wadding and backing to trim up so you can now go ahead and trim your edges flush with the straight edges of your quilt top. 

Again, I used my quilting ruler and rotary cutter for this as it gave me a nice straight edge, but scissors would also be just fine.

Step Seven: Making your binding

We’re on the home stretch now!  Next, we need to enclose all those raw edges with some lovely co-ordinating binding. 

Here again, you can have fun using up your scraps to make some pretty binding that will look lovely against your patchwork quilt.  I’ve used more of my fat quarters and pieced them together to make my binding, but you can use whatever you have available.

We’ll want to make enough binding to encase all the edges of our quilt, plus a little extra for ‘wiggle room’ again.  You don’t have to use a piece of fabric that is already the length or width of your quilt, you can use lots of shorter pieces and join them together (I personally think this looks lovely) just remember that you’ll need to add on a seam allowance for joining in your calculations if you’re doing it this way.

Cut strips of fabric that are approx. 8cm wide until you have enough strips to be able to encase all your quilt edges.  Go ahead and join them with a seam allowance if necessary and press all your seam joins open.

Next, you’ll need to fold the long raw edges of your strips together and press so that you have a lovely crisp crease in the middle of your strip.

When you have your crease in the middle, you’ll then need to fold in the raw edge on either side of your strip to meet your middle crease.  If you’ve used bias binding in the past, you’ll know how this is supposed to look.

You can then press your binding again along the middle fold, right side up so that your edge creases are enclosed, and you have a nice neat strip of binding.

Step Eight: Binding your quilt

Take your binding and pin it right sides together to one of the raw edges of your quilt, leave a bit of an overhang at either end - just in case! You can trim this later if you need to.

Take your binding to the opposite quilt edge and pin in the same way.

Sew your binding to your quilt along the pressed edge of your binding on both of your pinned edges.

Once sewn, fold your binding over to the back of your quilt, encasing all the raw edges and pin just below the seam line that you’ve just sewn.  Your binding raw edge should be encased here too to give a lovely, neat finish.

From the right side, *stitch ‘in the ditch’ of your binding catching in the binding on the underside of your quilt too.  If you find this a little too tricky, you can sew from the wrong side of your quilt if you prefer but it might be a little more difficult to keep the stitches invisible this way.  You could even hand sew this down if you rather.

[*Stitch in the Ditch is the term used to denote the top stitching done (with the sewing machine) in the ‘ditch’ or ‘well’ formed in a seam, from the top, to catch the fabric on the back, after the seam allowance is pressed to one side. It is done to make the stitching line less noticeable on the face of a garment.]

Now, it’s time to bind the last two sides of our quilt.  To do this, pin your binding, right sides together along the edges of the quilt as before, but this time, fold over the edge of the binding, wrong sides together and pin so that when it’s turned to the back there’s a nice neat edge.

Pin your binding along both raw sides this way and sew as before.  Fold to the back of the quilt and stitch in the ditch in the same way.

 Step Eight: Finishing and tidying up

Take your quilt over to the ironing board and give everything a really good press.  Trim any loose threads and if you want to, you can hand stitch the corners of the binding closed so that it looks a little bit neater.

And that’s it – you’re done!!

Take a step back and admire your beautiful new patchwork quilt.  If you want that really lovely wrinkly quilt feel you can give it a machine wash before use but this is personal preference.

So, there we have it, I hope you’ve enjoyed this patchwork quilt tutorial.  Quilting may seem a little daunting and complicated at first but, making a quilt is a great project for the beginner sewist as it really is just sewing straight seams. 

The imperfections are often the charm with quilts so don’t worry if you don’t think things look perfect or if your seams are a little wonky, no one will notice when they’re cosied up in your new creation anyway, they’ll be too busy admiring your beautiful patchwork! 

If you’re new to patchwork and quilting, start small and work your way up to a larger project.  You’ll be addicted in no time and have great fun using up all those fabric scraps you didn’t know what to do with until now.

Thanks so much for reading, if you give this tutorial a go, share a photo on Instagram and tag me @secret_life_of_a_seamstress so that I can see it.  Don’t forget to tag @sewityourself too.

Happy sewing!

Sally x

 

Fabric Details:

Henry Glass Fabrics Time Well Spent by Janet Rae Nesbitt 
View full collection & find a retailer near you here.

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Learn more about Sally here.