Choosing your Fabric:
This simple queen-sized quilt pattern is ultimately a large center block with a series of 4 borders around the edges for framing.
For the center of your quilt, choose a large scale print or a “cheater” print. Cheater prints are prints that already look like a pieced quilt. This will give the look of a more complicated quilt without all the work. If you don’t choose a cheater print, then you’ll want to use a print with a fairly large scale…meaning the pattern or picture on it is fairly large. One advantage of using a cheater print is that it’s pretty easy to hide the one seam we’re going to have to make through the middle of it.
Choose fabrics for your borders that both coordinate and contrast with your main fabric. My husband’s aunt chose the fabrics for this quilt and asked me to sew it up for his cousin. All of the fabrics came from the same fabric collection, so they coordinated well. In this case, I felt they coordinated just a bit too well, so I added in some solid pink which matched the flowers, but also contrasted enough to break up the coordinating fabrics to keep the quilt from looking too busy.
Choosing fabrics from the same fabric line and adding in a couple solids or near solid “blenders” is a great way to choose your fabrics.
Most quilting fabrics come 45″ wide, so we’re going to have to sew two pieces together to make the center of our quilt. Cut your 4 1/2 yards of fabric for the center of your quilt in half into 2 – 2 1/4 yard pieces.
Sew them together the long way, matching the pattern, so so that the seam won’t be noticeable. I did this by sticking my pin through the very tip of each of my squares to ensure the the two layers matched. Trim your seam allowance to about 1/2 an inch.
Trim your center piece to 60 1/2 by 78 1/2 inches.
Cut 8 strips 1 1/2 inches wide of your first narrow border.
Sew them in pairs end-to-end, so you have 4 long strips.
Add the first border around the edges of your quilt. Start by sewing the strips to the two long sides of your quilt with a 1/4 inch seam.
Trim the ends even with the short sides of the quilt.
Add the first border to the top and bottom of the quilt with a 1/4 inch seam.
Cut 8 strips 6 inches wide of your second wider border.
Sew them in pairs end-to-end, so you have 4 long strips.
Add the second border around the edges of your quilt. Start by sewing the strips to the two long sides of your quilt with a 1/4 inch seam.
Trim the ends even with the short sides of the quilt.
Add the second border to the top and bottom of the quilt with a 1/4 inch seam.
Cut 9 strips 1 1/2 inches wide of your third narrow border.
Sew 5 of the strips together end to end, to make one really long strip. Sew the other 4 in pairs end-to-end, to give you 2 double-long strips.
Use the really long strip to add the third border to the two long sides of your quilt with a 1/4 inch seam.
Trim the ends even with the short sides of the quilt.
Add the third border to the top and bottom of the quilt with a 1/4 inch seam using the two double-long strips.
Cut 9 strips 1 1/2 inches wide of your third narrow border.
Sew 5 of the strips together end to end, to make one really long strip. Sew the other 4 in pairs end-to-end, to give you 2 double-long strips.
Use the really long strip to add the third border to the two long sides of your quilt with a 1/4 inch seam.
Trim the ends even with the short sides of the quilt.
Add the third border to the top and bottom of the quilt with a 1/4 inch seam using the two double-long strips.
Cut 9 strips 8 inches wide for your fourth wide border.
Sew all of the strips together end to end, to make one really long strip.
Sew the fourth wide border to the two long sides of your quilt with a 1/4 inch seam.
Trim the ends even with the short sides of the quilt.
Add the fourth border to the top and bottom of the quilt with a 1/4 inch seam using the two double-long strips.
Because this quilt was so large, I delivered it to my local quilt shop for professional quilting on their long-arm machine. (The Fabric Patch in Ephrata, WA, well worth the trip if you’re ever in Central/Eastern Washington.)
A few things to keep in mind if you’re taking a quilt to be professionally quilted…they like the batting and the backing to be about 4 inches larger in each dimension for ease in loading onto their machine, so I actually used a king-sized piece of batting.
It’s easiest to use a single large pieces of extra-wide quilt backing which usually comes 108″ wide. I had lots of extra fabric from my quilt top, so I ended up making a pieced backing with strips.
And after your quilt is quilted, finish it off with a nice binding. You’ll need 10 strips cut 3″ wide. Sew them all end-to-end. Iron them in half the long way with right sides FACING OUT. Keeping the strip folded in half, line the raw edges up with the raw edges of your quilt. Stitch to your quilt with approximately 3/8 inch seam allowance. Fold the binding around to the back. Pin. Stitch in the ditch to secure the binding in place.
