We’re moving on to our next set of instructions! We have three quilts in progress from our last instructions, but babies keep coming, so we need to keep moving too! Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed thus far. Everyone is welcome to contribute blocks to baby quilts, member or not. If you’d like to be on the email list for baby quilts, please email amy@vancouvermodernquiltguild.ca to be added.
We’re still sticking with the rainbow/low volume combo for baby quilts. Low volume fabrics coordinate well together for group projects, and don’t show dirt like solid fabrics will, and rainbows are a fun gender neutral choice that allow us to use the quilts for whomever’s baby arrives next. We’re adding a new rule though – please DO NOT use batik or hand dyed fabrics for your rainbow colours, they bleed too much.
Peg suggested this classic quilt pattern, which can look very modern with the right fabric choices! Please be sure to use nice, bright, colourful prints for the rainbow colour and modern prints for the low volume.
We are following the tutorial by Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew, BUT we will be making blocks that are a different size, because even at 6.5″ unfinished, we’ll still need 49 blocks per quilt.
PLEASE BE SURE TO NOTE THE DIFFERENT SIZE!
WE WILL CUT OUR SQUARES 7.5″ TO START, AND THEN TRIM THEM DOWN TO 6.5″ UNFINISHED.
(Of the 16 blocks I made, I had several where I had *just* enough space to trim them to 6.5″. If you’re a newer quilter or you know that you use a larger seam allowance sometimes, you may want to cut your squares at 8″ instead. It’s a bit more waste, but less waste than having blocks we can’t use!)
Once you cut your 7.5″ squares, you can follow her tutorial, but NOTE that when she talks about where to position the ruler to trim the block, your centre will be 3.25″ from the trim line. If you have a rotating mat, it will make the trimming easier, but it’s doable with a regular mat too.
This tutorial makes two blocks at a time, so once you get your squares cut, they’re pretty quick to sew. They go together very easily if you press your seam allowance towards the rainbow fabric the first time you sew, because then the two seam allowances fit together perfectly when you sew the centre seam. When you press the centre seam, press it open to reduce bulk.
This is a pretty simple block, but your second seam is sewn on the bias, which can be tricky for some people. If you don’t feel like your block is lying flat after it’s sewn, but your seam allowance is consistent, spraying your block with water and pressing it until it’s dry should make it nice and flat.
Once again, we’ll be using LOW VOLUME fabrics and BRIGHT RAINBOW fabrics that are mostly tone-on-tones.Â
Not sure what constitutes a low-volume fabric? Check out this link or this link for some examples and explanation. Please use prints, not solids. Light coloured solids show dirt and stains a lot more!
We want the bright colours to really read as the rainbow colour, that’s why we’re asking for tone-on-tones. If you have a print with a minimal amount of another colour (like blue with a bit of white), that’s fine, as long as it reads as a bright blue. (Squint your eyes and look at the fabric – what colour do you see?) Fabrics that read as pastels won’t be appropriate because they won’t be a high enough contrast with the low volume fabrics. Since we’re only using one rainbow fabric per block this time, please don’t use solids, they won’t blend in with the prints like they did in previous rounds.
And again, please don’t use batiks or handdyes!
A few other notes to keep in mind –
We hope that these quilts will be loved and used for a long time! Please use quilt shop quality fabrics and make sure that your seam allowances are 1/4″.
This tutorial makes blocks in sets of 2, and chain piecing works well. I suggest making blocks with a variety of colours, so that we don’t end up with 12 blue and no orange! If you cut a 7.5″ x WOF strip from your low volume fabric, you’ll be able to get five squares. Cut 7.5″ squares of five different rainbow fabrics, and you’ll end up with ten blocks at the end!
We’d like to get enough blocks to make 2 quilts using this tutorial, more if we can! That means we’ll need 49 blocks per quilt, and at least 98 blocks total.
Once all the blocks are finished, we’ll need people to sew them together and to quilt the tops. Please email amy@vancouvermodernquiltguild.ca if you’d like to volunteer for one of those jobs.