1st Saturday Demo :: Puzzle Quilt

The demo for today in my shop is for this quilt. It finishes at approximately 40" by 50".

Here is what you'll need to make one:

One Frivols Tin of (42) 7" squares or (42) 7" squares of scraps;
1/2 yard of an accent fabric for a few blocks and the inner border;
2/3 yard of outer border fabric.

Cutting: From the accent fabric, cut (1) 3.5" by WOF (Width Of Fabric) strip; subcut this into (6) 3.5" by 5" rectangles. Cut (5) 2" by WOF strips; subcut one of the strips into (18) 2" squares.

From the Frivols squares (7" squares) cut (1) 3.5" by 7" rectangle; subctu into (1) 3.5" by 5" rectangle. Cut (1) 2" by 7" strip; subcut into (3) 2" squares.

From the border fabric, cut (4) 5" by WOF strips.

Sewing: Stack your fabric for the blocks into 48 piles. Each pile should contain (1) 3.5" by 5" rectangle and (3) 2" squares of the same fabric. Note that you will have (6) piles of pieces cut from your accent fabric; the other (42) piles of pieces are cut from the squares.

Pick four piles that look good together. If you are using Frivols this is easy because the fabrics all look good together! Layout your pieces as in the photo below:

Look at the lower right section in the photo above, the large white rectangle with the two small white squares and one blue square above the large white rectangle. Sew the two white squares to either side of the blue square. Press your seams away from the center blue square. Repeat this for the other groups of three small squares.

The photo below shows how the seams need to be pressed.

Sew the three square units to the long side of the appropriate 3.5" by 5" rectangles. 

Press seams toward the 3.5" by 5" rectangle.

Sew these units together in pairs.

Press toward the side with fewer seams. In photo above, the top row seam is pressed toward the left and the bottom row seam is pressed toward the right. Photo below shows the pressing for the bottom row.

Sew these units together to completed the block.

Spinning your center seam will allow for all of the blocks to nest nicely together when assembling to center. See photo below.

The blocks should measure 9.5" by 9.5" at this point and will be 9" by 9" in the finished quilt.

Sew the blocks together in a 3 block by 4 block layout. Sew (2) of the 2" by WOF inner border strips to the sides of the center. Sew the remaining (2) 2" by WOF inner border strips to the top and bottom of the center. Repeat these steps with the outer border strips. Quilt as desired and bind.

Here is a photo of the completed top again.

You could easily resize this block. To have a 12" by 12" finished block you need to cut your squares (3 of them per fabric) at 2.5" and your rectangle needs to be 4.5" by 6.5".