Last week (or maybe the week before that), I cut out a bunch of squares for a Floating Squares crib quilt. Here is a link for the tutorial: http://land.missouriquiltco.com/floating-squares/. I thought it would look so cute with these charms. I admit that I may have fallen in love with the charm on the front! It didn't hurt that the charm pack was on their daily deals list. Yeah, that list is pretty much my downfall!
However, I wanted a colored background so I crossed my fingers and chose some fabric yardage online (I think it was 1 3/4 yards). It turned out to be a little stronger of a color than I wanted, but I think it still looks good.
The cutting turned out to be the longest part of the whole process so far. Here are the steps:
1. Separate 30 charm squares. I took out the reds and oranges because they seemed a little strong for the violet-pink. These 30 charms (5"x5") will remain in a whole piece.
UPDATE! 2. Cut 5" strips of the solid color fabric yardage and then subcut those strips into 5" squares so you are basically making charms. Don't buy a solid color charm pack since you need 49 of these, which is a little more than one charm pack.
UPDATE! 3. Cut 40 2"x5" rectangles. You need 40 of these rectangles. Do NOT cut them out of the 49 squares you just cut!!! You can still use the same cutting strategy as step 2 by cutting 5" strips and then subcutting the strips into 2"x5" rectangles. Much less waste that way too.
4. Now take about 5 of the leftover charm squares, and cut each square into 4 little 2"x2" squares out of each charm piece. You need 20 little squares.
That, my friends, is the hardest part of the whole quilt! Now you are ready to sew the floating squares block. I'm not even going to try to explain that in print; watch the tutorial. Jenny Doane explains it very well. Take my word for it though: I'm a novice, and these were quick to put together!
However, I wanted a colored background so I crossed my fingers and chose some fabric yardage online (I think it was 1 3/4 yards). It turned out to be a little stronger of a color than I wanted, but I think it still looks good.
The cutting turned out to be the longest part of the whole process so far. Here are the steps:
1. Separate 30 charm squares. I took out the reds and oranges because they seemed a little strong for the violet-pink. These 30 charms (5"x5") will remain in a whole piece.
UPDATE! 2. Cut 5" strips of the solid color fabric yardage and then subcut those strips into 5" squares so you are basically making charms. Don't buy a solid color charm pack since you need 49 of these, which is a little more than one charm pack.
UPDATE! 3. Cut 40 2"x5" rectangles. You need 40 of these rectangles. Do NOT cut them out of the 49 squares you just cut!!! You can still use the same cutting strategy as step 2 by cutting 5" strips and then subcutting the strips into 2"x5" rectangles. Much less waste that way too.
Sorry, no pictures of this one!
4. Now take about 5 of the leftover charm squares, and cut each square into 4 little 2"x2" squares out of each charm piece. You need 20 little squares.
Nothing here either. I need to remember to take pictures of the process!
That, my friends, is the hardest part of the whole quilt! Now you are ready to sew the floating squares block. I'm not even going to try to explain that in print; watch the tutorial. Jenny Doane explains it very well. Take my word for it though: I'm a novice, and these were quick to put together!
I'll put all of the squares together into the quilt and post it later this week. My son is leaving for a 2-year church mission early Wednesday morning so I don't anticipate having time to do anything further until at least Wednesday. Glad and sad all rolled together into one. Mostly glad though. That will help me through the missing-him spells. That and quilting. :-)
*****UPDATE**********
I just laid this out, and discovered this is going to make a large crib quilt--very large 58"x48"--or a small quilt. The patterned pieces are fine and the pieced pieces are fine, but there aren't enough solid-colored squares. I need to figure out what I'm going to do now. I'll get back to you as soon as I figure it out!
Okay, you need 49 squares for this quilt and then you still need to cut 40 rectangles 2"x5". It is about double the size of a crib quilt too. I have revised the directions above. The tutorial is a good one, but this part was misleading. The binding tutorial can be found here.
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