Creative articles about quilting

Sugaridoo Quilt Along Part 3 – ‘Tetris’

23.01.2020 by 60 Comment now!17,544

Hellooo! How are you doing? How was part 2 of the quilt along for you? Did you like the foundation paper piecing technique? So great to see all those finished rows. Amazing how beautifully they all come together.

But I know not everyone has finished their row yet. Maybe you are struggling with it, or are a little intimidated by the size of the project. That’s all OK.

Trying new things, starting a new project can be hard. Especially when you see others finish their work so quickly and it’s just not that easy for you. Remember that everyone started at zero some time ago. Quilting takes time and practice to learn. And that is exactly what this quilt along is all about.

Allow yourself to make mistakes, allow yourself to take all the time you need. Be kind to yourself and don’t expect your first quilt to be the best one you will ever make. With every row in this quilt you will learn and improve your sewing skills. 

When you’re stuck at some point or just want to hear how other quilters did something. Hop over to our Facebook group. This quilt along comes with the most wonderful community of quilters. Everyone in the group is so willing to help. Please feel free to ask any question in there or in the comments below this post. You can do this!

New here?

If you’re new here, welcome! On the 28th of November we kicked off a super fun quilting project. We started a quilt along, where thousands of quilters from all over the world are making the same quilt. Every four weeks a new part of the pattern, a new row, will be released. After 12 rows you will have a quilt of 70 x 90″.

Even though we started four weeks ago you can still join us! You will have enough time to catch up. There are also still fabric kits available for this quilt along. You can make the quilt in rainbow colors on silver fabric, in rainbow on white fabric or with blue fabrics. Of course you can also pick your own fabrics or use what you have in your stash.

On this page your can find all the links to previous blog posts about this project. Hop over to this blog post to read all the general information about this quilt project. And also read this one to learn more about the materials we use and the fabric requirements.

Row #12 ‘Tetris’

And now it’s time to show you what we will be making in Part 3 of our quilt along. We will go back to my childhood favorite pocket game, Tetris. We will make another row with cutting and sewing strips. It’s the last row of the quilt, row #12.

This is the row that we will be making today:

Are your excited? I sure am! In this YouTube video I’ll go over all the steps to cut and sew your fabric to make this row. 

Fabric + Material

For everyone working with the rainbow kit, we will use Capri as our main fabric, Titanium as accent and Silver as background fabric. When you are making the quilt with the blue kit you should get your Jade fabric out as your main fabric. 

For those of you who want to play with the location of the accent color in each row, or add extra accent colors or just want to get a little more insight in the layout of the quilt. Here is a schematic of the rows and the placement of the accent colors. 

And this is what the schematic of the quilt looks like for the blue fabric kit. 

You will need the following to make this row.

  • Main fabric: 12 inch
  • Accent fabric
  • Background fabric: 11 inch
  • Inch ruler (12 x 6 of 24 x 6 will be fine)
  • Rotary cutter
  • Cutting mat
  • Iron + ironing board
  • Sewing machine with a 1/4″ foot, I’m using the #97 patchwork foot
  • Thread (I use thread in the color of my background fabric)

Cutting scheme

We are going to cut strips, sew them together and cut them again to make our Tetris pieces. 

Cut the following strips. Where it says WOF it means that you will cut a strip over the whole Width Of Fabric. All measurements are including seam allowance.

  • Main fabric (Capri): 
    • One strip of 4 inch x WOF
    • Two strips of 2 1/4 inch x WOF
    • One piece of 4 x 2 1/4 inch
    • Two pieces of 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch
  • Background fabric (Silver):
    • Two strips of 4 inch x WOF
    • Four strips of 4 x 2 1/4 inch
  • Accent fabric (Titanium):
    • Two pieces of 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch
    • One piece of 4 x 2 1/4 inch
  •  

Cutting scheme for main fabric Capri

Cutting scheme for background fabric Silver

Cutting scheme for accent fabric Titanium

These cutting schemes can also be downloaded as a PDF: Cutting schemes for QAL part 3 – Row #12 [Rainbow]

Here you can download the cutting scheme for the Blue fabric kit: Cutting Schemes for QAL part 3 – Row #12 [Blues]

1/4″ seam allowance

This is another row where you can practice sewing with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Just like we did in row #5 from Part 1 in our QAL. I have put a little wiggle room in this pattern. This finished row will measure a little over 70 1/2″. So when your seams are a bit off, you’ll still be fine. In this blog post you can read some tips on how to sew with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Let’s start sewing

We will first sew all the strips together. 

Sew the two thin blue strips on the outside of one silver strip. I’m pressing all my seams open for this row.

Sew the wide blue strip to the other silver strip.

Sew a squared Capri pieces to a silver piece, sew a accent piece to the other end. Make two of these strips. 

Sew the rectangular Capri piece to a rectangular silver piece.

And finally sew the rectangular accent piece to a silver rectangular piece. You should now have the four strips you see in the picture below.

Chop chop chop

Now we will chop these strips up in smaller strips that will make our Tetris pieces. 

Cut the Capri/Silver/Capri strip in to 18 strips of 2 1/4″ wide

Cut the Capri/Silver strip in to 19 strips of 2 1/4″wide

We now have:

  • 18 Capri/Silver/Capri strips
  • 20 Capri/Silver strips
  • 2 x Capri/Silver/Titanium strips
  • 1 x Titanium/Silver strips

Assemble the row

Time to put everything together. This is going to be the layout of this row:

We are alternating the Capri/Silver and the Capri/Silver/Capri pieces. Starting to look like it right? This is how the row starts on the left side. From here you will continue adding pieces to the right. Take a look at the schematic of the row below to know where you should place your accent fabric pieces.

Now we ‘only’ need to put all the strips together and then our row is finished. Don’t rush this, take your time. Try to be consistent in your 1/4 inch seam allowance.

There are 41 pieces to sew together, that’s 40 seams. When you would be off by 1/16 of an inch (1,5 mm) on every seam, your row would end up 2,5 inches (6,25cm) shorter that planned. I’m not saying this to scare you. This is a great row to practice your seams. 

When you would end up with a row that’s shorter than 70 1/2 inch you can just add a Capri/Silver/Capri piece on both sides of the row to make it longer. So there’s nothing to worry about, you can’t go wrong with this row. 

 

Done!

And that is how we make row #12, part 3 of the quilt along. When you’re done with this row you already have completed 25% of you quilt. Pretty cool! 

I hope you will have lot’s of fun making this one. I can’t wait to see your rows. 

Bye bye for now!

Irene

Ps. On Sunday, the 2nd of Fabruary 5PM CET I’m doing a live Q&A about this row in our Facebook group. See you there? 

 

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