Crafts : Quilt Block Of The Month : Strolling the Block: Quilt Top Assembly : Home & Garden Television

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Welcome back! We've strolled together from January through December and now it's time to pull it all together. Follow these step-by-step directions on how to assemble and add those finishing touches to your Strolling the Block quilt.

Materials:
one yard of tone-on-tone fabric for sashing - 45-inch width bolt
leftover fabrics from quilt

Cornerstone and sashing pieces

Steps:
Cornerstone, border and sashing cutting

For the cornerstones, cut 20, 2-1/2-inch squares from scraps of leftover fabrics used in the quilt, cutting just one from each fabric.
To cut the sashing strips, begin by doubling the length of sashing fabric, then double it again and cut it into 11, 2-1/2" x 45" long strips. Cut each strip at 12-1/2 inch intervals until you have 31, 2-1/2" x 12-1/2" strips.
For the border, cut 76, 3-1/2" x 6-1/2" blocks from scraps of leftover fabrics used in the quilt. For a non-repetitive border, cut just one piece from each scrap of fabric.

Figure A

Figure B

Squaring the Blocks and sashing

One of the most important steps to assembling the quilt top is squaring up the blocks to make them all an equal size. To do this, measure each of the 12 blocks to ensure that they're at 12-1/2 inches (figure A). Trim each to 12-1/2 inches if they're larger (figure B). If any don't measure up, don't panic. Just square all the blocks up to the smallest measurement (i.e., if the smallest block measurement is 12 inches, trim all 12 blocks to 12 inches) and adjust the measurement of the sashing pieces to accommodate the smaller size of the blocks.

Figure C

You'll create five cornerstone/sashing rows and four block rows. For the cornerstone/sashing rows, pin then stitch a cornerstone piece (chosen randomly) to a sashing piece, repeating until you have a row of four cornerstone pieces separated by three sashing pieces (figure C). Make five of these.

Figure D

Figure E

For the block rows, first lay out the blocks in order—January, February and March go in the first row (left to right); April, May, June in the second row; July, August, September for the third row; and October, November and December for the fourth row. Align, pin and stitch a sashing piece on the left side of the January block. Repeat on the right side of the January block. Continue building the row by pinning and stitching on the February block, then a third sashing strip, the March block and finishing the row with a fourth sashing piece (figure D). Repeat for the remaining three rows. To set the seams, press along the stitch line on the front of the row (figure E) then press the seam allowance toward the sashing on the back side of the row.

Figure F

Figure G

To assemble the rows, pin a cornerstone/sashing row to the first block row, matching up the seams (figure F) then stitch the rows together. Use the same technique to attach a sashing row to the bottom of the first block row. To optimize manageability, pin then stitch a sashing row to the bottom of the remaining block rows (figures G and H). Finish assembly by pinning and stitching the second block row to the sashing row at the bottom of the first block row. Repeat for the third and fourth block rows (figure I).

Figure H

Figure I

Two scrappy border units

Border

The quilt features a scrappy border that doesn't repeat. Instead of analyzing how to place the blocks, put all 76 blocks in a paper bag and mixed them around. Next, randomly pull out two blocks and stitch them together using a 1/4-inch seam.
Pull out another two blocks and stitch one to either end of the stitched blocks. Continue this process to create four separate sections—two sections with 23 scrappy blocks for the sides of the quilt, and two sections with 15 scrappy blocks for the top and bottom of the quilt. The 15-block sections will be slightly longer than needed. You'll trim the end blocks of these units to fit the top and bottom of the quilt.

Figure J

Center and pin the 15-piece border units to the top and bottom of the quilt (figure J). Trim the end blocks to the exact size of the quilt. Stitch.

Figure K

Center and pin the 23-piece border units to the sides of the quilt (figure K). Trim any excess from the end blocks of the units, squaring up the quilt top. Stitch and quilt top assembly is finished.

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Editor's note: After Jan Schmidt completed the quilt top, there was a real time crunch to get the quilt finished in time to tape an episode of Simply Quilts, so she shipped it off to quilter extraordinaire Dori Hawks, who did the basting (pinning quilt top, batting and backing layers together), machine quilting (stitching through all three layers) and binding (covering the raw edges of the quilt with fabric). Hawks quilted an array of delightful details into the Strolling the Block quilt, and was gracious enough to provide instructions and details.

Crafts

Strolling the Block: Quilt Top Assembly

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Crafts

Strolling the Block: Quilt Top Assembly

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