T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial, Part IV
This is a continuation from Part III.
6. Cut sashing - if you want it
I promised to come back to the issue of how much material you'll need for sashing. This is tricky, because it is very closely related to the order in which you'll assemble the quilt and what kind of material you've chosen. I'll use my quilt as an example for how to figure out how much fabric to buy, and how to cut the fabric in the proper configuration. You'll see what I mean in a minute.
To the left is my quilt layout diagram again, but this time I've outlined in red how the sashing and border pieces are broken up. This is based on the order in which I intended to assemble the quilt top. First, assemble the rows with vertical bars between blocks, then put all the rows together with horizontal strips between the rows. Then, add the vertical borders, and then the top and bottom borders. (Note: I chose to do the borders in this order so the top & bottom would be closer in length to the side borders.) As you can imagine, this determines the size and number of sashing strips you need to cut. Now, let's get into some numbers, for those who may not be sure how to approach such things:
1. Assemble rows. Since I have 6 blocks per row, I need 5 vertical strips per row to connect the 6 blocks together. There are 7 rows, so I need a total of 35 vertical strips. I want a finished width of 2", so with a seam allowance of 1/4" on each side, the strips should be 2.5" wide. They should match the height of the blocks, which is 12.5" (including seam allowance for when I sew the rows together.)
2. Connect rows. There are 7 rows, so I need 6 strips to connect the 7 rows. For the same reason as above, they should be 2.5 inches wide. The length of the row is 6 blocks @12", plus 5 vertical strips @ 2", plus 2 seam allowances @ 1/4", which adds up to 82.5" long.
3. Add side borders. There are 2 identical vertical side borders. I wanted the borders to be 3" wide , so I decided to cut strips 4" wide. This allows 1/4" seam allowance to connect to the rest of the quilt top, and 3/4" allowance for the seam to the backing. Also, I chose 4" because it is a nice round number. The length of the side border is 7 blocks @12", plus 6 horizontal strips @ 2", plus 2 seam allowances @ 1/4", which adds up to 96.5" long.
4. Add top & bottom borders. There are 2 identical horizontal borders. Again, the strips are 4" wide. The length of the border is 6 blocks @12", plus 5 horizontal strips @ 2", plus 2 side borders @ 3", plus 2 seam allowances @ 3/4" (to connect with the backing), which adds up to 90.5" long.
OK, to recap, we need:
However, if your fabric does have a noticeable orientation, you'll have to be more careful. If you chose the same order of assembly that I did, here's an example of how you might lay out the strips. The problem with this is that you'll have to cut all of the longer strips in segments, since typically fabric is limited to a width of 45". Assuming the vertical borders are cut in thirds and spliced together later, and all horizontal strips are cut in half and spliced, on the right is a potential layout on 3 yards of fabric (barely!) It's not particularly elegant:
In this case, you might prefer to assemble the quilt in a different order (also reducing the border by 1/2" or reducing the seam allowance with the backing to 1/4" so it fits better on the sheet of fabric):
1. Assemble columns. 36 (horizontal) strips of 12.5" wide x 2.5" tall
2. Connect columns. 5 (vertical) strips of 2.5" wide x 96.5" tall
3. Add side borders. 2 (vertical) strips of 3.5" wide x 96.5" tall
4. Add top & bottom borders. 2 (horizontal) strips of 89.5" wide x 3.5" tall, each created by sewing together two 45" strips
The resulting layout could be as shown on the left, and only the top & bottom borders would require splicing together out of shorter strips. The black strip at the top indicates that actually slightly more than 3 yards of fabric is needed, but I think this layout is much more elegant (if you have a fabric for which orientation matters.)
(Note: If your fabric isn't as wide as mine, or if you want wider borders, you might want to add top/bottom borders before adding side borders; this will reduce the length of the top/bottom borders.)
The whole point of this was to show you how I figured out how I would get all the strips of sashing from a piece of fabric, and in doing so I figured out how much fabric I needed to buy (in my case, it fit onto 45" wide fabric with a length of about 3 yards.) Everybody's cases will be different; if you're not great at mental visualization, I encourage you to draw it out on paper. And don't hesitate to buy a little extra fabric in case of mistakes.
Once you have a plan for cutting your sashing & borders, it's a simple matter to PREWASH THE FABRIC, iron it, and then cut it using your rotary cutter, self healing mat, and a nice long straightedge.
Coming up, I'll cover:
7. Assemble quilt top (it's already described to some extent in this section.)
8. Buy backing and batting
That's the last step I've done so far. I'd better finish up my quilt, so I can finish the tutorial as well!
Here's a link to Part V.
6. Cut sashing - if you want it
I promised to come back to the issue of how much material you'll need for sashing. This is tricky, because it is very closely related to the order in which you'll assemble the quilt and what kind of material you've chosen. I'll use my quilt as an example for how to figure out how much fabric to buy, and how to cut the fabric in the proper configuration. You'll see what I mean in a minute.
To the left is my quilt layout diagram again, but this time I've outlined in red how the sashing and border pieces are broken up. This is based on the order in which I intended to assemble the quilt top. First, assemble the rows with vertical bars between blocks, then put all the rows together with horizontal strips between the rows. Then, add the vertical borders, and then the top and bottom borders. (Note: I chose to do the borders in this order so the top & bottom would be closer in length to the side borders.) As you can imagine, this determines the size and number of sashing strips you need to cut. Now, let's get into some numbers, for those who may not be sure how to approach such things:
1. Assemble rows. Since I have 6 blocks per row, I need 5 vertical strips per row to connect the 6 blocks together. There are 7 rows, so I need a total of 35 vertical strips. I want a finished width of 2", so with a seam allowance of 1/4" on each side, the strips should be 2.5" wide. They should match the height of the blocks, which is 12.5" (including seam allowance for when I sew the rows together.)
2. Connect rows. There are 7 rows, so I need 6 strips to connect the 7 rows. For the same reason as above, they should be 2.5 inches wide. The length of the row is 6 blocks @12", plus 5 vertical strips @ 2", plus 2 seam allowances @ 1/4", which adds up to 82.5" long.
3. Add side borders. There are 2 identical vertical side borders. I wanted the borders to be 3" wide , so I decided to cut strips 4" wide. This allows 1/4" seam allowance to connect to the rest of the quilt top, and 3/4" allowance for the seam to the backing. Also, I chose 4" because it is a nice round number. The length of the side border is 7 blocks @12", plus 6 horizontal strips @ 2", plus 2 seam allowances @ 1/4", which adds up to 96.5" long.
4. Add top & bottom borders. There are 2 identical horizontal borders. Again, the strips are 4" wide. The length of the border is 6 blocks @12", plus 5 horizontal strips @ 2", plus 2 side borders @ 3", plus 2 seam allowances @ 3/4" (to connect with the backing), which adds up to 90.5" long.
OK, to recap, we need:
- 35 (vertical) strips of 2.5" wide x 12.5" tall
- 6 (horizontal) strips of 82.5" wide x 2.5" tall
- 2 (vertical) side borders of 4" wide x 96.5" tall
- 2 (horizontal) top & bottom borders of 90.5" wide x 4" tall
However, if your fabric does have a noticeable orientation, you'll have to be more careful. If you chose the same order of assembly that I did, here's an example of how you might lay out the strips. The problem with this is that you'll have to cut all of the longer strips in segments, since typically fabric is limited to a width of 45". Assuming the vertical borders are cut in thirds and spliced together later, and all horizontal strips are cut in half and spliced, on the right is a potential layout on 3 yards of fabric (barely!) It's not particularly elegant:
In this case, you might prefer to assemble the quilt in a different order (also reducing the border by 1/2" or reducing the seam allowance with the backing to 1/4" so it fits better on the sheet of fabric):
1. Assemble columns. 36 (horizontal) strips of 12.5" wide x 2.5" tall
2. Connect columns. 5 (vertical) strips of 2.5" wide x 96.5" tall
3. Add side borders. 2 (vertical) strips of 3.5" wide x 96.5" tall
4. Add top & bottom borders. 2 (horizontal) strips of 89.5" wide x 3.5" tall, each created by sewing together two 45" strips
The resulting layout could be as shown on the left, and only the top & bottom borders would require splicing together out of shorter strips. The black strip at the top indicates that actually slightly more than 3 yards of fabric is needed, but I think this layout is much more elegant (if you have a fabric for which orientation matters.)
(Note: If your fabric isn't as wide as mine, or if you want wider borders, you might want to add top/bottom borders before adding side borders; this will reduce the length of the top/bottom borders.)
The whole point of this was to show you how I figured out how I would get all the strips of sashing from a piece of fabric, and in doing so I figured out how much fabric I needed to buy (in my case, it fit onto 45" wide fabric with a length of about 3 yards.) Everybody's cases will be different; if you're not great at mental visualization, I encourage you to draw it out on paper. And don't hesitate to buy a little extra fabric in case of mistakes.
Once you have a plan for cutting your sashing & borders, it's a simple matter to PREWASH THE FABRIC, iron it, and then cut it using your rotary cutter, self healing mat, and a nice long straightedge.
Coming up, I'll cover:
7. Assemble quilt top (it's already described to some extent in this section.)
8. Buy backing and batting
That's the last step I've done so far. I'd better finish up my quilt, so I can finish the tutorial as well!
Here's a link to Part V.