Starter Quilt Simple Project: Step Two

We talked about fabric selection in step one, now we're ready to talk yardage and cutting. For those of you who object to doing mystery quilts, just wait until all the posts are up. Those of you who love adventures and prefer to look at the work one tiny step at a time... begin now. I will clue you that this is a really easy square baby quilt or wall hanging.

Yardage. Whenever possible buy more than you need -- not more than you can afford -- but enought to buffer if you make a mistake in cutting. I prefer having a quarter or half yard left over to having to go back to the store and not be able to find more of the fabric I need to finish my quilt. That said, in the following measurments, I've cut it close with a couple of them so if the yardage has an asterisk (*) beside it you may want to buy a little more than I list.

Fabric:

A) Stripe -- one and a third (1.33) yards*
B) Accent #1 -- quarter (.25) yard*
C) Main Block -- two thirds (.667) yard
D) Contrast Block -- half (.5) yard
E) Accent #2 (could be the same as D) -- quarter (.25) yard (or scrap)

We will cut our pieces for the whole project.

A) Cut eight (8) pieces 3.5 inches by 15.5 inches and twenty-four (24) pieces 3.5 inches by 9.5 inches. This is your stripe, you can cut across the stripe or lengthways (I'll demonstrate in a sec.)

B) Cut twenty (20) 3.5 inch squares. (This could be fussy cut -- I demonstrate that in another post.)

C) Cut five (5) 9.5 inch squares

C) Cut four (4) 3.5 inch

D) Cut four (4) 9.5 inch squares.

E) Cut eight (8) 3.5 inch squares. (could be same fabric as D)

Now, for the stripes:
You can cut the stripes sideways, like so:

Or you can cut the stripes longwise, which I will demonstrate in a Michael Miller yellow stripe, because that's what I have step by step photos in.
You will have some "waste" but I have another project that we can use leftovers for, so save them.

For a 3.5" strip you need to find your "center" line and line it up with the 1.75 inch mark on your ruler. Make your first lengthwise cut.
Your second cut will trim the extra, making the piece 3.5 inches wide.

If you have selected a stripe wider than 3.5 inches or with a repeat that is several inches apart, you will have more waste and will need extra yardage to use the stripe lengthwise.

You can also mix your cuts.... I am cutting my strawberries across the stripe for the 9.5 inch pieces and with the stripe for my 15.5 inch pieces. Something to keep in mind with wider or more varied striped fabrics:
Isolating the strawberry stripe for those eight 15.5 inch pieces meant getting extra fabric. There are only five strawberry stripes across the width which means I needed 1.75 yards (I bought 2) in order to get the pieces I wanted in the directions I wanted them. There's alot left over but like I said, I've already got a project in mind for the future that will use leftover stripes. Actually, I think the leftovers project is even more fun that the original... But I'm getting ahead of myself let's finish this project first. On to Step Three.