Years
ago I decided to sew a ‘Dear Jane’ quilt and eagerly bought the two rulers
designed to help centre and trim the two predominate blocks. One is an
elongated isosceles triangle and the other is a five inch square ruler.
As the years passed by it became obvious that
this quilt was going to be a very long term project. The rulers sitting on my desktop
are a constant reminder of the blocks tucked away in a box with other WIP’s.
As I hate things to go to waste, I decided to make two quick and easy quilts using the two
rulers.
The instructions for the first of the
quilts is described here for the lovely Jan because she always admired my quilt
and is waiting patiently for the instructions so she can make one.
The 5” square ruler quilt
In an old patchwork book I came across
a picture of an old lady with a quilt on her lap. It was
a top her grandmother had made and not finished.
This is such a simple design but is so effective, as simple designs can often be!
All the fabric you need for this is scraps, but if you like to make
‘matching scrappy’ quilts like me you will probably end up going out and buying
some more fat quarters.
Cut a 5 ½ inch square for the background
square
Press the square in halves twice and then
unfold.
Cut a smaller centre square 2 ½” square (in
a contrasting colour)
You will also need a 1 ¾” square cut from
freezer paper.
Centre the 1 ¾” square of freezer paper
shiny side up, on the back of the 2 ½” square of fabric.
Press the sides of the fabric over onto the
shiny surface and they will temporarily adhere to it.
Turn the square over so that it is right
side up and centre it onto the background fabric square making sure that the
points line up on the pressed lines you made earlier.
 |
| Fold lines horizontally and vertically through the square |
Pin and applique into place. You can either remove the freezer paper
before sewing down the fourth side or wait until the square is completely sewn
on and cut away the fabric from behind (a ¼” in from the stitching) and remove
it then.
Now we get to use our ruler. (This is why
we cut the background square bigger than we needed). No matter how well we create
press lines and line up the centre squares we will always move things out of
wack a little. Line up the two lines
going vertically and horizontally through the ruler so that the four points of
the smaller centre square fall on one of these lines. Now trim the block. The
block of course is now 5” square and will be 4 ½” when sewn together.
Sew as many blocks as you want to make a
quilt the size you want.
I used 169 squares, 13 squares by 13 rows.
My final border is sewn from strips cut 5" wide for a
4 ½” finished border.
As a finishing touch I hand stitched a
pretty lace around the edge of the blocks.
Finished quilt is 172 cm X 172 cm.
