Secret quilting project reveal

I’ve wrote a few times about a secret quilting project I’ve been working on and I can finally reveal it in full here.

The quilt was a group project made by my sit-n-sew for one of our members who had a baby. It has become a sort of tradition that when one of us is expecting the rest of us pick out a pattern, secretly figure out what the nursery plans are and then we produce a quilt to work with the color scheme and theme.

Each time we pick out a pattern that each person can accomplish, regardless of their level of skill and then we all make an equal number of blocks in the fabric theme, this time it was simply blue fabric. Then one of us pieces the quilt together, passes it off to someone else for quilting and binding. Then, usually six months to a year after the baby has actually arrived, we finally gift it to the new mom. We make the quilts huge since we know the baby will be practically a toddler by the time they get their quilt.

This time we chose the Patchwork Chevron Pattern from In Color Order that was featured on Moda Bake Shop. Each of us made nine patches from 5 inch squares and passed them off to another member of the group who turned the nine patches into giant half square triangles and pieced the top together.

If you ever try a group quilt, or decide you love this pattern and want to try it, I highly recommend buying a 15 inch ruler so you can square up the massive half square triangles before you put the quilt top together.

When you make group quilts it is highly unlikely any one person’s block will end up the same size as another. That’s because you’re dealing with multiple skill levels, machines, fabric and thread choices. Even if you all are great quilters, you still are going to have to square up the blocks or the quilt just won’t lie flat because there will be some variation in each person’s piecing.

In the case of our sit-n-sew the quilt was very well received. The mom has been consumed by finishing a king-sized quilt of her own design for her grandmother, and hasn’t had a chance to make her own son a quilt yet. So now he finally had a quilt of his own to snuggle up with.

For more photos of this quilt, click here to check out my Facebook page.