I told you Rosie was tired of the quilting room. She is. Here’s proof.
No worries though Rosie…we have another quilt finish and that means we’re one step closer to tackling all of these. Today Rosie and I are sharing Churn Dash in Plaids….what do you think?
Me, I’m in love!!
I showed this to Kalissa and she said, “Mom, when you make big boy quilts for the boys, please make them like this.”
Yes, yes I will. I love working with shirts. Yes, all of this was made with 100% cotton recycled shirts.
If you’re new to shirts and would like to know how I destruct them and make them into fabric, you can read more about that HERE. The link can always be found in the right-hand column here on the blog in the tutorial section.
I took a ton of pictures of this quilt as I wanted you to get an idea of all of the different quirky ways I made the blocks. I did somewhat of an anything goes type feel when constructing them.
The pattern alternate between a churn dash block and a regular block.
For the quilting motif, I used my Hook and Point…see??
Again, I was in a “use it up” mode so I used any spool of blue-ish thread or bobbin that needed using up. Then when they were all used, I used a variegated thread on the back.
The top thread was a steel gray color. I think they both ended up working nicely.
I did a video on how I do the Hook and Point motif. Here it is if you missed it…
The backing was a duvet cover…It was a little brighter than I wanted but it was sheet material. I love using 100% cotton sheets on shirt quilts. I pick them up at the thrift store. The only problem was that this was a really big quilt and the sheets that I had weren’t big enough…so duvet cover it was.
Even with that, I had to piece it together.
The reason I like using sheets that have been washed is that the quilt has a built-in loved on feeling to it on both sides this way. They shrink the same too once they are washed…and let’s be honest, I’m a cheapskate.
Keep with the idea that I wanted all the fabrics to shrink the same, I used shirt fabric for the binding too.
I picked about five shirts and cut up the sleeves to get enough strips.
Oh, I love this quilt.
Some people refer to this style of a quilt as a utility quilt. They are meant to be used and not particularly considered beautiful.
It has such a wonderfully worn feeling.
Here are some close up of the blocks. Each is constructed the same way. The only thing different is the placement of the colors.
In some blocks, I used two colors like a traditional churn dash block. In others, I used as many as five different colors.
I reversed the placement of colors to create a block like the yellow and blue one below.
I mixed prints. Notice the block below. There are blues but it’s two different prints, reds but again two different red prints.
There is even this one. As I was finishing up the blocks, these are the pieces I had left and I just put them together.
There are 181completely different blocks in this quilt. None are the same unless it happened by complete accident.
Not all have a typical “background” print. Some are blendy like the red block below.
I seriously don’t think I’ve ever had more fun making a quilt.
I love this one…
Oh look, there is even a traditional churn dash block.
While we are this far along, how about I give you a little tutorial on making the block…
For the sake of the ease, I’m going to show you how to make a perfectly made one. These are churn dash blocks. They finish at 5″ so unfinished is 5 1/2″.
With that in mind, here’s what you need to make a block….I use strips and my Easy Angle ruler. My strips are 2 1/2″. I took two pieces of fabric that were 7″ long, paired them together, and cut four half-square triangles. If you aren’t an Easy Angle girl, make 4 half square triangles in your own method that will be 2 1/2″ UNFINISHED. Then I cut two 1 1/2″ strips are 6 1/2″ long. I also cut one 1 1/2″ square.
I put them through the machine and ended up with this….
Then I cut them into four 1 1/2″ segments.
I sewed the pieces together like this….Here is where most people iron, I don’t. I find the pieces have more give to them and the seams pieces can be pulled or left lax in order to make the seams match easier. (I know some of you are gasping now…Kelli would be too!!)
If you’re a presser that’s fine. Press however you want. These blocks don’t butt up next to each other so seams don’t need to coordinate with an adjoining block.
All pressed, you have this.
When I made mine, I went to my scrap users bucket of 1 1/2″ strips and picked two, and sewed them together. Those became my scrappy middle segments. I also cut 1 1/2″ squares for the center of the block. Then I went to my 2 1/2″ bucket and grabbed two strips and cut 4 matching sets of half-square triangles. Then I randomly grabbed pieces and sewed the blocks together. It was fun.
Now and then I would cut a full block out and do it the traditional method with only two prints.
The alternate blocks are cut at 5 1/2″ square and you need 180 of them. You need 181 of the churn dash blocks.
To make row one you need 10 churn dash blocks and 9 plain. Sew them together starting and ending with a churn days block. Make ten rows.
To make row two you need 9 churn dash blocks and 10 plain. Sew them together starting and ending with a plain block. Make nine rows.
Then sew the rows together as shown starting and ending with row one.
Here’s another look at the quilt…
The quilt finishes at 95 1/2″ x 95 1/2″.
I took the quilt to Kalissa’s when Kelli was there one day watching the boys. The kids immediately were all over it.
We all agree that this is likely our favorite style of quilt.
Of course, no quilt is complete without Rosie pictures… Actually two. I couldn’t decide which one I liked better. Sitting??
or laying??
All this writing of this post has me thinking. Maybe I should gift this one to Carver for his big boy bed and make another for Gannon only make a different block instead of the churn dash block. That way the quilts would be similar yet different. Hmm. Any ideas on a 5″ finished block that would work in a similar way? Please leave a comment if you can think of a block.
Thanks for letting me go on and on about this quilt. Seriously, if you couldn’t already tell, I love it!!