Friday 25 September 2015

Necessity is the mother of invention

I needed to make this quilt.

I needed a random colour explosion after the previous project.

I had absolutely no idea what kind of quilt I was going to make, other than it needed to be colourful and I pulled a lot of fabrics.



Once I pulled them I started cutting them up into 5" squares while I pondered what to do.

Then I started chain piecing them into pairs.



Then I sewed two pairs together to make a four patch.


After which, I placed two four patch sets together - right sides facing - and pinned on all the matching seams.
NOTE: You must be accurate pinning these matching seams together because this will form the centre point of the new blocks this method will create - four points will meet here.


Using a 1/4" seam allowance, I sewed round all four edges.


Next, I rotary cut across the diagonal, making sure I went exactly through the centre.
Or as exactly as you can get - it's more important you are exactly slicing through the beginning and the end points, as the centre point actually becomes the end of each block...you'll see later.



It helps if you have a rotating cutting mat so you can turn it round to do the opposite diagonal.

Either way, you are left with four of these.



Which when pressed open, become four of these.



Then it was really just a question of playing around with the blocks till I found something I liked.

Most of the different fabrics I left random but I did make sure I made the leopard print and some of the other blocks whole squares, just for more visual impact.





Linking up to Finish It Up Friday


Definitely feel I am back in my happy zone now.

37 comments:

  1. Lovely explosion of colors. Thanks for the tutorial too!

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  2. What a clever idea ! Its a beautiful quilt ! I spy fabrics from Jenifer Paganelli in there !

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  3. Great tutorial, such an easy way to make these blocks!!! Love it! Thanks!

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  4. Perfect! I am feeling the need for some loose and free piecing too.

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  5. Brilliant! Everything I associate with you - colour, colour and colour!

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  6. Really fun and straightforward. I like this idea a lot.

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  7. Love it! It's cool how you arranged the blocks so the leopard print fabric looks like a random square here and there.

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  8. I love your quilt . . . LOVE IT ! ! !

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  9. Brilliant! What a great idea, and I loooove the finished product. I'm gonna have to steal this idea 😍

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  10. What a fantastic idea! A riot of colour but with a controlled element that really works so well! Congratulations on a wonderful idea!

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  11. It is such a you quilt. It is the kind of colour explosion that makes me uncomfortable to make, but I love seeing it here at your house.

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  12. That is really cool!! I love it!

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  13. Sometimes you have to do a project like this to get back into it! I totally know the feeling. Love the color explosion!

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  14. Well that was fast --and gorgeous!

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  15. Brilliant! I always make my HSTs like that, but it never would have occurred to me to do it with 4 patches! I must try this, so thank you! And I love all your colors

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    1. exactly my thought. thanks so much for the inspiration and new technique. you rock my weekend.

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  16. There's something very satisfying about seeing a quilt top finished and pressed, even if someone else has made it! I love the riot of colour :)

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  17. Such glorious colours - like someones jewelry box exploded.

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  18. Happy quilt, bet you feel better after the fix.

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  19. Oh yes! I have a charm pack laying around that I don't know what to do with ... this could work!

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  20. Love the way you did a tutorial during your reveal! Sometimes after completing a big project, I need a fabric "fix" that is the total opposite- color, color color

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  21. I'm new to your blog. Wow! So many lovely colorful quilts to inspire!

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  22. Your quilt is just wonderful! What a clever idea to combine the leopard prints to let them built squares. Thank you for sharing the process.

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  23. What a great idea! I have boxes of 5" squares that have done little but gather dust over the years. Next time I need to just sew and keep busy, I hope to remember this idea. Yours is just beautiful. Glad you got your color juju going again.

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  24. Beautiful colours! Thanks for the inspiration on what to do with all of my fabric squares!

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  25. So much fun! Beautiful quilt! The leopard print is perfect. And thanks for the new technique! I am not one of those people who love HST's so another approach is VERY exciting to me!

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  26. A wonderful riot of colour ... and I love the occasional squares of leopard print! I'm always on the lookout out for scrappy solutions, thanx for sharing!

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  27. Wow - that's very clever. You certainly have got your colour fix with this!

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  28. Great idea & beautiful result.
    A riot of colours! ( I love that combo of words)

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  29. Another powerful punch in the retinas! That's a good thing BTW ;)

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  30. This is amazing! I've done something similar ,but with one charm on top of another.... But 4 charms is genius! Thank you.

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  31. What a great idea and a colorful quilt. I may need to try this!

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  32. Love this and I reckon even I could do this!

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  33. seems obvious to me..... All of the colour, All of the time.....can we fit more colour in there? Lets find out! :) going to slash my stash now.

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