Creating Illusions
Last month I finished a traditional quilt called Tyler's Quilt for a young man going to off to college. Tyler's a very smart and pleasant young man who plans to major in pre-med.
I used a traditional two-color sashed Disappearing 4 Patch block, arranged so that the backgrounds form a secondary square. This gives it a dimensional feel, as if there's a skinny grid superimposed on the background blocks. High contrast enhances the effect, and the cornerstones can provide a pop of color.
Tyler’s Quilt
This post describes my favorite sashing technique. You know what a pain it is to attach rows and columns with veeeeery looooong strips that inevitably don't match up to the blocks perfectly? Sashings don't have to be that complicated and messy. I attach sashings to each individual block, then sew the block/sashing combinations together. So easy. Here's how to make a Disappearing 4 Patch with shortcut sashings.
1. Make a simple 4-patch block. It can be scrappy, but for the most impact, use two high-contrast colors. Slice the 4-patch with 4 cuts. These cuts can be any width. In Tyler's quilt, the original 4-patch is 13 inches square, and I chose to make the slices 2 inches from the center.
Four patch block, sliced
2. Rotate and rearrange the resulting pieces as shown, and sew them together. I prefer to press seams open wherever I can. When I join pieces where two open seams must match, I like to use forked pins to align the seams on top and bottom.
Four patch slices rotated and sewn together (back view)
Securing 4Patch pieces using forked pins
3. Trim the block. The ruler I use for trimming a block like this is the 12" Creative Grids (actually 12.5"). It's got a nice little circle in the exact middle (at 6.25") to align the block for trimming.
Trimming the block
4. Layout the blocks as desired. To create the illusion of Tyler's Quilt, arrange the blocks so that background colors and skinny strips match squares and skinny strips of the same color. I like to mark the top side of the block with a clip to keep the orientation correct when I add sashings.
Squares aligned and skinny stripes aligned
5. Cut sashing strips and cornerstones. The cut strips are 2" wide, finishing at 1.5". The cut cornerstones are 2" square, finishing at 1.5" x 1.5".
6. For each block, take one sashing and add a cornerstone. Attach sashings to one side (say, the right side) and the top of the block, with the cornerstone between them. Add sashings on the left side of each block in the leftmost column of the quilt. Add sashings and cornerstones to the bottom of each block in the bottom row of the quilt.
7. Proceed to sew blocks into rows and attach the rows together. Add borders if you wish. Yay! The top is done!
This sashing/cornerstone technique is also included in my Birdland pattern. Follow the link to my Etsy store for the pattern.
