Originally Posted by
Sarah in Brooklyn
Hi everyone. I want to make this baby quilt:
I think the patterns should be quite small, since each section of each block will only be about 3x3. Is there a rule of thumb for this?
It depends on the look you want.
Do you want a theme, or a specific color to dominate (or be the accent)?
And if you choose a bunch of Kaffe&Co. fabrics, it could be interesting as you wouldn't know what you're going to get when it gets cut up.
I learned this technique around 10 years ago - took a class at the City Quilter called Slice and Dice.
I changed it a bit to Slice & Mince - I put 2 extra cuts in because I wanted it less chunky than just the 9 patches.
Each of my blocks has 16 different fabrics.
(Trick is start off with a bigger block and leave a larger section in the center so the pieces will be similar sizes.)
I make the blocks but set them together without a common background fabric.
Can you see how some of the individual fabrics are more graphic than others? Or more solid/blender types?
I can't find the pic but a friend did a brilliant baby quilt using just Aunt Grace fabrics - usually not my favorite but it looked fabulous.
67"x67" (over 150 different batiks)
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A small wallhanging - I had a FQpack of "skins" and wanted to use them up quickly
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A quick baby quilt - start to finish in an afternoon.
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I started with 8.5" to 9" squares (depending on which square ruler I could find).
By the end, I trimmed them down to 6" or 6.5" UNFINISHED - I usually just found the smallest ones and used that as the determining factor.