First Flake Quilt with Precuts
11-02-2020, 06:49 AM
#1
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Magnolia, Texas
Posts: 124
First Flake Quilt with Precuts
Has anyone used 2 1/2 strips instead of yardage to complete the First Flake Quilt Pattern by Janae Shearer? If so how many precut strip bundles did you use? I have pletny of white yardage for the snowflake but want to use some pretty xmas fabric strips for the background. Thank you
11-02-2020, 02:59 PM
#3
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Ontario, Canada
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Found this for those wondering what the quilt is ....
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/7319..._listing_top-1
Otherwise, I know nothing further about the pattern and assembly.
... other than some guesses I would make!
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/7319..._listing_top-1
Otherwise, I know nothing further about the pattern and assembly.
... other than some guesses I would make!
11-03-2020, 12:08 PM
#4
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Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 1,866
You may to check with the Etsy seller - that person is likely the designer and may be able to answer your question. I can see from several people's blog posts about the quilt that it is all strip pieced, but I don't know exactly what width strips it uses.
That said, I like math puzzles, and your question can be answered with math. (Caveat: I will assume that the pattern calls for 2.5" strips of the background fabric.) The pattern calls for 3.25 yards of background fabric, which gives you 117 inches. When you cut that length into width-of-fabric 2.5" strips, that will give 46.8 strips, so round that down to 46. Jelly rolls often (but not always!) contain 40 strips, so if that matches your jelly rolls, you need two jelly rolls, but you won't need many strips from the second one.
Looking at the pictures of one of the blog post entries, I can see that the background is made up entirely of small squares sewn together:
Personally, if I was going to make this I would be tempted to modify the design use larger pieces away from the snowflake. I raise this issue just so you can consider whether having many small squares through the background appeals to you or not. (I don't know whether you are thinking of doing your strips so that strips/patterns are split up all over the quilt, or if you want to have many squares of one strip/pattern are all in a line.)
Correction: The background does have some half-square triangles mixed in, but I expect you got my point.
That said, I like math puzzles, and your question can be answered with math. (Caveat: I will assume that the pattern calls for 2.5" strips of the background fabric.) The pattern calls for 3.25 yards of background fabric, which gives you 117 inches. When you cut that length into width-of-fabric 2.5" strips, that will give 46.8 strips, so round that down to 46. Jelly rolls often (but not always!) contain 40 strips, so if that matches your jelly rolls, you need two jelly rolls, but you won't need many strips from the second one.
Looking at the pictures of one of the blog post entries, I can see that the background is made up entirely of small squares sewn together:
Personally, if I was going to make this I would be tempted to modify the design use larger pieces away from the snowflake. I raise this issue just so you can consider whether having many small squares through the background appeals to you or not. (I don't know whether you are thinking of doing your strips so that strips/patterns are split up all over the quilt, or if you want to have many squares of one strip/pattern are all in a line.)
Correction: The background does have some half-square triangles mixed in, but I expect you got my point.
Last edited by platyhiker; 11-03-2020 at 12:11 PM.
11-04-2020, 03:50 PM
#8
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Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 20
I had the same thought about using much larger pieces of fabric for the background around the snowflake itself. If using all the same fabric, I think I would really prefer not to sew endless 2 1/2” squares for the textural effect. That said, I think you could do some very interesting things with the 2 1/2” squares if they were not all the same fabric. Such as a diverse collection of wintery neutrals of about the same value, or inky blues or maybe even forest greens.
And thank you OP for sharing your quilt question. It has offered me a lot of food for thought.
And thank you OP for sharing your quilt question. It has offered me a lot of food for thought.
11-04-2020, 06:08 PM
#9
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Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 1,866
EasyPeezy raised a good point about making HST from strips. Using strips (and wanting to get HSTs the same size as the strip), means that you don't have the option of the two at a time HST method, where you use a larger square and sew on either side of the diagonal.
If you want to minimize waste, you need to be sewing trapezoids together. Here's a diagram that may be helpful.
The red lines are sewing lines, and gray lines are cutting lines. The first rectangle shows how to get two identical HSTs out of two strips. The second rectangle shows one way of getting a whole bunch of identical HSTs - with a bit of marking your sewing lines, you could sew all the seams in one go at your sewing machine.
Sewing on the bias is always a bit fussy. If your seam angle is a little bit off, you will get a shape that is slightly off from a true square. Because of the fussiness, many people (myself included!) like making HSTs a bit oversized and then trimming them down to exact size needed, which also makes the shape a true square. For anyone considering the strip approach to this quilt, I suggest making a handful sample HSTs at the very beginning and evaluating whether the size and shape of those HSTs meet your personal standards.
If you want to minimize waste, you need to be sewing trapezoids together. Here's a diagram that may be helpful.
The red lines are sewing lines, and gray lines are cutting lines. The first rectangle shows how to get two identical HSTs out of two strips. The second rectangle shows one way of getting a whole bunch of identical HSTs - with a bit of marking your sewing lines, you could sew all the seams in one go at your sewing machine.
Sewing on the bias is always a bit fussy. If your seam angle is a little bit off, you will get a shape that is slightly off from a true square. Because of the fussiness, many people (myself included!) like making HSTs a bit oversized and then trimming them down to exact size needed, which also makes the shape a true square. For anyone considering the strip approach to this quilt, I suggest making a handful sample HSTs at the very beginning and evaluating whether the size and shape of those HSTs meet your personal standards.
