Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Crosses quilt tutorial, part 1 - designing

You need to start out with a few pieces placed in rows as shown, with each piece overlapping the bottom third of the previous piece.  I am using 2.5" squares and 6.5" rectangles but it could be 3" and 8" or 3.5" and 9.5" if you want larger pieces.

Then I add the 2 side squares for each cross.
The next row to the left starts with the top right corner of each rectangle matching the bottom left corner of the rectangle in the first row.  Notice on the photos below that each vertical row is a sequence of 2 squares, a rectangle, 2 squares, a rectangle, etc.
Now add the 2 squares to finish those crosses.  As you put each piece on the design wall, they should be just touching the fabric above them.  You will not want any overlapping because when you decide to switch a color from one place to another you will have pieces fluttering to the floor if they overlap.  Also when removing rows to sew you don't want to disturb the next pieces.
If you look at the base of the lightest cross you can see the pieces line up in a horizontal row, but the ones above and below are mismatched slightly.  This is how it will look in the designing stage.
If you look at the pink cross nearest to the top of the quilt, you can see the side squares are not lined up perfectly when designing, but a little farther down the row it is matched perfectly.  They will be perfectly matched when you sew it together.  At this point look over the whole design and see if your colors and values are distributed evenly.
On the upper edge I used 2.5" squares and 4.5" rectangles to fill in and make a straight edge.  There are also some single squares in this row.
The lower edge is treated the same as the top with reduced size rectangles.  If you look at the left edge, it is a 6.5" rectangle and one square with single squares filling in to make the edge even.  Since I was using all scrap pieces of 2.5" strips, I only had enough to cut the edge filling crosses with some, and enough to make 2 full crosses with others.

I will be doing part 2 on how to take the pieces off the wall and sew them.

19 comments:

Sewing Junkie said...

Great job of enxplaining. Once you get in the rhythm of cutting the pieces the sewing will go easy. Chris

MARIA CRISTINA said...

Gracias por el tutorial!!
Espero ansiosa la segunda parte!
Saludos!

Impera Magna said...

Very clear... and beautiful fabrics! Looking forward to seeing how you keep all those pieces in the right order when sewing them together!

Debbie said...

Great tutorial. You made it so easy. I love the interlocking effect, and you explained it well. This will make a great donation quilt. Thanks so much.

hetty said...

Thanks for the great tutorial, Wanda! You make it clear and concise. This would be a lovely quilt to make with all of my scraps.

Sue said...

That was a great tutorial. I look forward to part 2. You truly are a great teacher.

Sheila said...

Your instructions are very clear. Thank you.
On vacation at the moment, but I plan to make one when I get back home :D

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

thanks for explaining that, makes it easier once you pointed out.
Karen
http://karensquilting.com/blog/

Bonnie H said...

My next quilt...thank you very much! See you at the library !

fiberchick said...

Thank you so much for a great tutorial. Looking forward to Part 2...

Quiltdivajulie said...

Like this version SO much better than the way the crosses were used in the recent KF in Sweden book's quilt. Great tutorial - thanks!

Lola said...

Great tute, Wanda....Looking forward to pt. 2. Will be doing this one for sure!

Jan said...

Wow, thanks for sharing this. I would never have come up with diagonal placement. Can't imagine the mess I would have made of this! I really love this quilt, and have put it on my to-make list. Especially now that you have simplified it!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Great tutorial Wanda, your choice of colors is always so neat too! I need a new design wall!

Elaine/Muddling Through said...

Oh, you know I want to make one of these, Wanda! Thanks for doing such a good job of explaining how to get started. You make it look easy.

Gari in AL said...

Well,I can understand what you have written but all I can see is how easy it would be for me to get those pieces out of order when sewing them together. However, I think I would like to try this and will be anticipating your Part 2.

Lynne said...

Very interesting and helpful, thank you.

Rachel said...

Thanks for a very helpful tutorial. I often can put a design together just by looking at it, but I got myself confused with this one, and your clear directions and method help a lot.

Rachel said...

Thanks for a very helpful tutorial and explanation.