Alison's Slashed Squares Quilt

 

I am always so excited when customers send me pictures of the quilts they make based on my tutorials. This is Alison's version of the Slashed Squares quilt. 

She based it on my Slashed Squares quilt, Terrazzo, which I made in 2017. (You can see my Slashed Squares quilts here. Terrazzo is my black and white version.)

Alison made "mini" blocks, and used up a lot of her black and white scraps. That means this quilt is about 56" x 70". 

I love the way Alison arranged the blocks, and the fabrics in each. I think the quilt is outstanding!

This is a Slashed Squares quilt. If you want to make one, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Second strip

 I've added the second strip to the mini slashed squares blocks. Here you can see all of them. I will make more, of course, and use the ones that work together the best.

What's Next?

 

Now that the PRIZM quilt and its backing are all ready for the longarm quilter, the design wall is empty.

EEK!

My studio has been a real mess, with fabric strewn about everywhere. I spent some time over the weekend folding up what could be folded and putting it back in the stash, but there's a lot that's just piled up. I wasn't in the mood to make slabs, but I did want to do something, and a dear colleague of mine has just become a grandfather for the first time. A scrappy baby quilt would be just the ticket to clear off my worktables and get me busy.

I decided to make a slashed squares quilt - but in minis. This is practically the simplest quilt anywhere. Surround a square with fabric, cut that apart and rearrange the pieces. You can see pictures of the various slashed squares quilts here. You can get the tutorial for them here. 

Over the last couple of evenings I cut squares and strips and paired them up. I used only what I had lying around. I did not cut into yardage from my stash, nor did I go rummaging in my scrap bins. I just took what was lying around in a mess, and cut from that. 

(True story. A couple of weeks ago as I was FaceTiming with my California family, I showed off a quilt I was working on in my studio. On my way to the design wall, I walked past my stash. "Oh Memere," my DGD exclaimed, "You have a lot of quilts." I paused. "Oh no, honey, those aren't quilts, that's just my fabrics. I use those to MAKE quilts...")

When I got bored with cutting I ran the pairs through my sewing machine, 

then I pressed them. Next up will be adding fabric to the opposite sides. Then I'll trim them down and add fabric strips to the other two sides. This stack has about 35 sets. I haven't calculated how big I want this quilt to be, or how many blocks I'll need just yet. 

BTW, it's my best pal Julie's birthday today. Swing on over to her blog and leave her some birthday cheer. This picture was taken last year when she came to New Hampshire for a visit.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!

One, Two, Three...

I finished sewing the binding on the last Slashed Squares quilt while watching the tennis yesterday. Then I gathered all three quilts and took them outside to take pictures.

This is the still as yet unnamed Slashed Squares tutorial quilt.

This is the pink Slashed Squares quilt, which I have named Pink Quartz.

This is the Slashed Squares quilt I made from mini blocks, called Jigsaw Puzzle. It's a scrappy quilt, and I was surprised at how much I liked it.

All three quilts are 56" x 56".

If you want to make a Slashed Squares Quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.  I've updated the tutorial to include photographs of the Jigsaw Puzzle and Pink Quartz quilts. If you purchased the tutorial in the past, you can log back into your Etsy account and download the new version at no charge.



Scarlett, You can find details about my binding here. I cut the strips 3" wide, but it's how I sew it to my quilts that helps set me up for success. You can read more about that here.

Jigsaw Puzzle, Finished

Rainy days are good for staying home, sitting in front of the TV and sewing binding on a quilt.

I really like the way this turned out.

Binding Jigsaw Puzzle

This is the scrappy mini slashed squares quilt I made last June and the backing I selected for it. It has been quilted, and I had to figure out what to use for the binding. Thing was, I didn't want to buy fabric if I didn't have to, so I poked around through my stash. I wanted a fabric that was multi-colored, to reflect the scrappiness of the top, and I also wanted it to look good with the backing. I decided the blue fish fabric I used as backing for Treasure Trove would fit the bill.

So I prepared that fabric and started to sew it to the quilt.

Regular readers know I sew my binding to the back of my quilts, and do my hand sewing down on the front.

I've got it all pinned and now it is ready for me to hand sew it down.

Yup, I think this is going to look just great.



The Slashed Squares quilt is a quilt that goes together very quickly and looks great made from scraps. You can get my tutorial to make this quilt here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

A Little Retail Therapy

I finally got the studio cleaned up enough to work in it again.

I added extra fabric all around the gigantic slashed squares block I made for the backing of the pink slashed squares quilt (because long arm quilters need it...)

and then I put the quilt over it so you can see it really is big enough.

Then I did the calculations for the backing of the other two Slashed Squares quilts and determined I needed four yards of fabric for the back of each of them.  Hmm. I don't have four yards of anything that could work.

Think, Lynne, think.

So I looked at the clock, gathered the flimsies and drove myself to Quilted Threads where I chose

this big print for the back of

this Slashed Squares quilt and

this one for the mini Slashed Squares quilt, Jigsaw Puzzle.

Woo Hoo!  That's done!

Jigsaw Puzzle is a Flimsy!

Here's the finished flimsy of the scrappy Slashed Squares quilt made from mini (7") blocks. (Try saying that three times fast.)

Here's the all pink version, made with 14" sized blocks. (These two flimsies are the same size.)

Here's the Dark/Light version, again made with 14" sized blocks.


If you want to make your own Slashed Squares quilt, mini or otherwise, you can get my tutorial here, in my Etsy shop. It has instructions on how to make these blocks in three sizes. The tute is an instant download, so you can get started right away.

Third Quarter

Yesterday I sewed the third quarter of the newest Slashed Squares quilt.

But that wasn't all I did.

 Macy's was having a sale, and this picture of some luggage caught my eye. I wasn't very happy with the suitcase I set up for my travel kit and had decided I would get a new one, but I would wait until there was a sale.

Well, there was a sale. So I went shopping. More on that tomorrow.

Half

The blocks on the right are sewn together and sewn to each other. So the right half is complete.

I love these little slashed squares blocks a lot more than I thought I ever would, but they take for-ever.

...

OK, I wondered how long I had been working on this, so I went back into my photos and saw I started working on May 22. So that's what, 11 days. Hmm. Guess I should stop whining.

LOL.



If you want to play with the Slashed Squares, you can get my tutorial here, on Etsy. Like I keep saying, it's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

A Quarter Done

I've sewn a quarter of the blocks together and then sewn them together into one big chunk. I've worked with mini slashed squares blocks before, in Terrazzo, but for some reason I am amazed at how tiny these blocks are (7" square).

When I designed the blocks, I tried to make each block with two "busy" outer fabrics opposite each other, like this. That means the inner square will also have two "busy" fabrics diagonally opposite each other, like this one.

 But as I was sewing this block together, I realized it had four "busy" fabrics all in the outside edges, like this one.

That made me wonder if I had designed any blocks with the four busy fabrics in the inner square, and sure enough, I had designed this one.

It really doesn't matter, because clearly all of these blocks are handsome. It's fun to see the blocks as I sew them up together.



If you want to make your own Slashed Squares quilt, mini or otherwise, you can get my tutorial here, in my Etsy shop. It has instructions on how to make these blocks in three sizes. The tute is an instant download, so you can get started right away.

Jigsaw Puzzle

 

When you cut sixty-four blocks in quarters, you end up with two hundred fifty-six pieces. 

 I started creating blocks on my ironing table, but it was only big enough for ten blocks,

 so I moved them to the design wall.

Then I just gave up and brought all the pieces over and just started putting pieces where I thought they would work.

At the end of the day I had this, and although this is a "first pass" I won't be doing much tinkering with it. It's a scrap quilt, and I like it. I may move a few individual pieces around, but it doesn't need to be over designed.

And I think it titled itself: Jigsaw Puzzle.



If you'd like to make your own Slashed Squares quilt (even if you don't make it out of mini blocks) you can get your tutorial at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

Mixed Up

The other night as I was going to bed I thought to myself, "Did I get anything done today except sew?" Well, I had made pancakes for breakfast, made a salad for lunch, and a good dinner. I washed all the dishes and watched the French Open tennis on TV, but nope. All I really did was sew those last 24 blocks together, so when I saw Dorothy's comment yesterday I had to laugh. Then again, the weather was lousy so I was "stuck" inside.

 It was a bit easier because I had paired them up earlier. I had meant to show this step first, but I was so involved making the squares, I forgot.

.

Four of these 48 fabrics never ended up in the quilt.

I cut all the blocks apart. And yes, I fussy cut this particular center square I placed JUST SO it would look like this when I did.

If you want to make some of these Slashed Squares, you can get my tutorial here, in my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

Forty

I have made 40 blocks, and I have to make 24 more before I can rearrange them into a quilt, but I am having a good time making fabric matches.

 Here are some pairs.

Each block has a busy print on the center block or a busy print on the outside.

 .

It's been a lot of fun to find the appropriate "match."


 If you want to make your own Slashed Squares Quilt, you can get my tutorial here.

Sixty-Four

To make my scrappy Slashed Squares quilt using the mini blocks, I'll need 64 of them. Here I have 16 blocks made, and I've selected the center blocks for the rest. Now I can have some fun building the rest of them.




If you want to make a Slashed Squares Quilt, go to my Etsy shop and get the tutorial. It includes the dimensions to make these minis.

Make Mine Mini!

I made a few more of the mini blocks last night and then cut up eight of them and rearranged their parts so I could get a sense of what it would look like.

I'm trying to use only the scraps that are currently lying about on my worktables and what's in my scrap bins.

Here is another photo, with a "standard" sized SS block, just to show the scale.



If you want to make your own Slashed Squares Quilt, you can get my tutorial here. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.