Squares within Squares

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Difficulty:

Category: Quilting

Type of item: Functional

For: Infant/Baby

Style: Classic

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Materials

quilting layer cake - plus some added fabric to enhance the contrasts

What was your inspiration?

A photo of a finished quilt. I made my blocks smaller than I calculated the squares in the photo were, however when I went to assemble the squares the quilt I'd set up was at least a twin bed size and I only wanted a crib size so I reduced the number of squares by almost half! Because I made some extras (for the back, I thought) it turns out that I have enough squares to make a second quilt!

What are you most proud of?

I quilt in the hoop because my free-motion embroidery isn't good enough. With this quilt I created the embroidery design as a single-run from a triple stitched design, then cut the design in half for the triangles, and then used a portion of that design for the corners. The design stitched out well. I was pleased with the density of the stitching, and the stitch length.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

Be sure to trim as you go - otherwise you won't get the points of the squares to align correctly. I ended up with 9" squares which means I trimmed them to 9 1/2" before assembling them. I cut the triangles from 10" square blocks cut along the diagonal - I trimmed them slightly after they were attached to the ends of the rows. BTW - this quilt is assembled along the diagonal - 1 square with end pieces (including the 1/4" piece in the corner); 3 squares with end pieces, 5 squares with ends pieces, 5 squares with end pieces, 3 squares with end pieces and finally 1 square with end pieces - 18 squares in all. My contrast border was cut to 1 1/2" - resulting in a 1" stripe.