Thursday 21 August 2014

Fat quarters

Fat quarters, those delectable little fabric temptations!  We all succumb to their charms at one time or another, and I'm very guilty in that direction!   I decided that the time had come to make another attempt to use up the fabric in my stash, and those fat quarters were first on the list!  I looked at several patterns and books to get some inspiration, but couldn't find what I wanted.  The patterns either seem to have instructions which call for a bunch of fat quarters, but only cut, say, 15" squares from them.  That's no good - I want to use them up, not just create more scraps!  Or they use up the fat quarters, but to complete the pattern you need coordinating yardage for backgrounds and borders.  That's no good either, as I want to use up fabric, not buy more!  So I decided to try and design a pattern for myself.
 
  
 
I started with these simple bordered squares.  They look good, and certainly fit the bill, but they're a bit limited.

 
So I added another border round each one.  This had the advantage of knitting up big, and looking a bit more interesting.
 
 
Then my creative juices got going, and I added cornerstones to each block.  Still good for using up all the fabric, but an even more interesting design.  Each block finishes at nine and a half inches, and you can nearly get four blocks from one fat quarter.  So that means you can add some strips from your scrap boxes to finish the last block - even better!  Now that's what I call 'fat quarter friendly'!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Those cornerstones really make it, and I love the yellow and blue colour scheme - very summery!

Lynda said...

hello, just checking.

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Love the colour scheme and the design idea. There was a time in the late 1990 for pattens to be focused on fat quarters, but there seems to have been a shift towards layer cakes and jelly rolls.. Perhaps it's time to start a revolution and bring back the fat quarter friendly quilt! :o)