I have a friend who has been ill and in the hospital. I wanted to do something helpful for him so I set to work sewing a "feel better quilt". I wanted to get it finished quickly so I drew up a simple block in EQ7. This quilt took me four days to finish and I also worked 26 hours at work in those four days so you may be able to get it done in even less time if you have a weekend off. This quilt measures 60" x 72" and the blocks are 12" finished.
Here is the block diagram:
To make the blocks here is what you do:
Fussy cut a centre square that is 2 1/2 inches square. I used a 2 1/2" square ruler so I could get my fussy cuts centred as best I could by looking at the print through the clear plastic ruler.
For the first round in light grey cut 2 - 2 1/2 inch squares and 2 - 2 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch rectangles.
For the second round in dark grey cut 2 - 3 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch rectangles and 2 - 2 1/2 inch by 12 1/2 inch rectangles.
Sew the light grey squares to either side of the fussy cut square and press towards the light grey. Sew the two light grey rectangles to the top and bottom and press towards the rectangles. Then sew the 3 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch dark grey rectangles to either side and press towards the dark grey. Sew the 3 1/2 by 12 1/2 inch dark grey rectangles to the top and bottom and press towards the dark grey.
Make 20 blocks.
Layout your blocks in five rows of four blocks each. I added a pop of orange into my quilt so you could consider doing something like that to add a bit of interest to the quilt.
Once your quilt top is sewn together you just need to add the borders if you wish to have them.
Originally I planned to have 3 two inch borders but in the end I went with a two inch inner border, a one inch middle border and a three inch outer border. These borders added a foot to the width and length of the quilt to get it up to the size I needed but you could leave them off or sew more blocks if you wish.
So there you have it! A simple and fast quilt to make quickly when you find out someone needs a "feel better quilt."
You can see more photos and close ups of this quilt in my Instagram feed.
I fussy cut dogs (and one spooky fish) for the centre of the blocks.
I put in one block that was different from the rest to add interest and a pop of colour.
Spooky the fish!
If you are a newsletter subscriber this tutorial was also sent out in last week's newsletter Issue 27. :)