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Monday, January 25, 2016

Churn Dasher Quilts for A Quilt Show

January has been very satisfying in that I finished, bound, labeled, and put sleeves on three quilts.  They are on their way to Virginia for a group display at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, in Hampton, VA February 25-28, 2016.  Here are the details about two of them.  I'll save the third one for next week's post.

The blocks The Churn Dashers exchanged were nine patches and snowballs.  I blogged about making my quilt (Here). On a comment on that blog post, Laura V. requested details on how I made my quilt, and today I will try to explain how I made this quilt and the measurements I used.  

To refresh your memory, here is the quilt I saw on the Quilt Index:



Here is my quilt, using the nine patches and the snowball blocks from the exchange.  It measures 82" by 93".



I also made a small doll quilt to match it, and here it is with my little dolls:



Details for the large quilt:

The block exchange was for 6 inch blocks, so the nine patch pieces were cut at 2.5 inches square, and finished 2"+2"+2" to be 6".  The requirements were to make them of dark and medium dark civil war repro fabrics.  The snowball blocks also finished at 6 inches square.

For this quilt, I made an additional block that has three 2 inch squares down the middle diagonally, and has four triangles - all of the dark and medium fabrics.  The background fabric is cut at 5" square, and then cut in half, to use on the sides of this block.  The block is then trimmed to 6.5" unfinished size.  You can see where I creased the two background fabrics to find the centers, to guide me in attaching them.



The outside border row background pieces are cut a little bigger than on the original quilt.  I wanted to have the stars float, and also save myself the grief of possibly cutting off a star point with the binding.  

The blocks are then arranged as per the picture of the original quilt, and sewed into strips, and then into a quilt top.   Here is a picture of the strips:




The doll quilt:

I divided the block measurements in half, and the doll quilt blocks measure 3" by 3" finished, with the completed top measuring 19" square with the borders. 

My binding was cut at 2 inches, and folded in half before applying.  Years ago, I started quilting with 2.5 inch binding size, and then moved to 2.25 inch.....and now I'm happy with 2 inch cuts.  I don't forsee making binding any narrower.  What size to do cut your binding strips?

I'm linking up with Design Wall Mondays today, to see what others are working on today.  (Here)


10 comments:

Charlene S said...

Pretty quilt! Thanks for the tutorial.

Charlotte said...


I love the scrappiness and the beautiful fabrics of the quilt.

For large quilts, I use 2.25 inch binding strips which I fold. For small quilts, I use 1.12 1/2 bindings strips and do not fold.

Charlotte

Tina W. In Oregon said...

Love both the big and doll quilts! Would you mind if I pinned them to one of my quilt boards?

Jan said...

Both of your quilts are fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing them both, and the math.

Louise said...

Love your quilt, the design, fabrics and beautiful piecing. Thank you for sharing. I used to cut my bindings 2 1/4" but am going in the direction of smaller. For small quilts I like my binding to finish at 1/4" or less. Love your small one.

Unknown said...

Stunning and inspirational! Puts me to shame, but I love this one so much. I am short-listing it for my projects file!

Jana said...

Great quilts and thank you for your measurements.
For the big quilts I use 2 1/4" binding and thinking of 2" would be enough. For the small ones I discovered "temecula´s finishing small quilts - they use 1 1/2" binding and iron the 1/4" before putting it on. And the ironing makes a great difference - at least for me.
Have a great year 2016
Jana

Anita said...

Both quilts are stunning! Thank you for sharing the measurements!

Sandra said...

Wonderful large quilt and super sweet doll size quilt. Love the fabric choices.

Gypsy Quilter said...

I've been cutting up a lot of old 2" strips this week, trying to think of ways to use up these squares. This quilt is perfect! Thanks for sharing the idea.