Are you starting, do you want to make a quick quilt? Choose one of these two blocks and make a quick quilt in a weekend.
Both blocks are perfect for the beginner. Both are also a stash buster.
The gingham quilt works better with tone on tone or solids. You can make a bricks quilt with fabric scraps too and experiment with different sashing colours.
And above all have fun!
How to make a bricks quilt
New book out on December 3
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
If you make any of my tutorials and upload pictures to Instagram please tag me with @teresadownunder on private message me in Facebook with some photos and I’ll post them for everyone to see!
Or preorder on Bookdepository and get it delivered for free.
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
Do you wish to receive my tutorials in your inbox?
If you make any of my tutorials and upload pictures to Instagram please tag me with @teresadownunder on private message me in Facebook with some photos and I’ll post them for everyone to see!
These are two of my favourite blocks: garden fence and windmill cathedral window block.
I love blocks with narrow white strips like this one. It’s a quick and fun block to make. I also love fabric manipulations and this windmill block is easy enough and quick enough. It can get a bit bulky.
How to make a Garden fence quilt block and a Windmill cathedral window block
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
If you make any of my tutorials and upload pictures to Instagram please tag me with @teresadownunder on private message me in Facebook with some photos and I’ll post them for everyone to see!
First of all I’d like to thank everyone who has subscribed so far to my first mystery quilt that starts on 19 August.
Some of you wanted to know how to choose the fabrics for this quilt.
The list I provided with yardage a few days ago is only indicative.
To design the quilt I picked a colour scheme -below- because I knew some of you like to make quilts with coordinated fabrics.
I prefer my quilts scrappy and that’s how I’ll be doing my tutorials.
I won’t use the palette on my videos but I will provide a drawing of each block with the palette below on my blog.
The fabrics belong to the solids Bella collection by Moda. The colours are Mustard, Strawberry, Porcelain, Aqua, 30’s blue, Admiral blue, Royal, Boysenberry, Sprout, Teal and then there’s Essex Yarn Dyed by Robert Kaufman.
An alternative palette using batiks could be:
Or just choose your own.
One of my favourite colour tools is Adobe Color. In this application you can create your colour scheme from scratch or upload an image you like and get a colour scheme based on the image colours. It’s a lot of fun to play with it!
How to choose fabric for your quilts with confidence
Choosing fabrics from my stash is almost the most enjoyable part of designing a quilt.
There’re many ways to choose fabrics that will go well together but let’s just focus on the 2 simplest ways to find matching fabrics.
1. Use fabrics from one single fabric collection
Usually fabrics in the same collection go well together.
2. Using the fabric colour palette
Another easy way to choose fabrics for a quilt is to use the coloured circles that are printed on the selvage. Those coloured circles are the palette for that fabric.
Use the palette to choose the rest of the fabrics that’ll will go well together.
Get a busy print for instance and then match the other fabrics around it.
To match the secondary fabrics try to use tone on tone, solids or less busy fabric. This will ensure that the match is more harmonious.
You have 2 examples below showing the main fabric and secondary fabrics based on the palette for the main fabric. See how I matched the colours in the circles to the major tone of the secondary fabric.
As you can see, it’s a lot easier to match fabrics when you choose one busy fabric and then a secondary fabric with one, two or 3 colours.
If your fabric doesn’t have a colour palette on the selvage, you can still match it by finding the palette yourself.
What about the background fabric?
The majority of the quilts I make have a unifying background fabric.
My favourite colours for the background fabric are whites and creams.
The reason I like whites and creams best is that they add “breathing space” to the quilt as well as making the design pop up.
I hope you enjoy making the quilt!
How to follow my blog
If you don’t want to miss any tutorial that makes this quilt, your best bet is to follow my blog so you receive an email in your inbox when the next tutorial is out.
This video demonstrates how to follow or subscribe to my blog:
New book out on December 3
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
If you make any of my tutorials and upload pictures to Instagram please tag me with @teresadownunder on private message me in Facebook with some photos and I’ll post them for everyone to see!
Mysteries Down Under is my first mystery quilt and it started on 19 August.
I won’t reveal the full quilt until the end so the mystery remains throughout the project.
The tutorials for this quilt will be released over the next few weeks. The tutorials can be used to make the quilt but can be used independently as well.
I’ve used a number of techniques in the tutorials. If you find some techniques too hard you can always replace the block with another 6″ block from the quilt.
Quilt details
Sill level: confident beginner.
Blocks: 42 blocks (5 x 7 plus a 5″ border).
Finished block size: 6″ x 6″.
Quilt size: 53″ x 60″.
Approximate fabric needs for colour coded quilts based on a useable width of fabric of 40″ – 42″:
Background fabric: 3 yards
Colour 1 (pink): 1 yard
Colour 2 (acqua): 1 yard
Colour 2A (lighter acqua): 1/8 yard
Colour 3 (navy): 1/2 yard
Colour 4 (medium blue 1): 5/8 yard
Colour 5 (yellow): 1/8 yard
Colour 6 (burgundy): 1/4 yard
Colour 7 (green): 3/8 yard
Colour 8 (teal): 1/8 yard
Colour 9 (admiral blue): 1/4
If you make your quilt scrappy like me you don’t need to worry about fabric needs.
How to follow my blog
If you don’t want to miss any tutorial that makes this quilt, your best bet is to follow my blog so you receive an email in your inbox when the next tutorial is out.
This video demonstrates how to follow or subscribe to my blog:
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
If you make any of my tutorials and upload pictures to Instagram please tag me with @teresadownunder on private message me in Facebook with some photos and I’ll post them for everyone to see!
