Original Recipe Glace Forever Quilt by Nicole Willmore I'm super excited to be posting here again at the Moda Bake Shop; I've really missed it. The name of this quilt is fitting on more ways than one, mainly because it took me FOREVER to do this tutorial. I hope you will like it. As always, come on over to my blog Our Cozy Nest {ourcozynest.blogspot.com} to say hello because I'd love to hear from you.
- 1 Glace Jelly Roll (I have to apologize, I made this quilt a while ago and I used Glace which is no longer available. Any jelly roll will work great though.) -Fabric for back of quilt. The finished quilt is 45" x 50", so you will need that much plus however much you like to leave for quilting. - Warm and Natural or any other thin cotton batting - Enough fabric to make 210" of bias binding. (It definitely needs to be binding cut on the bias.) Make sure you read all of Step One carefully. Step One - Group your strips of fabric together into groups of 3. I tried to pick colors that were contrasting and would show up well against one another. You should end up with 13 groups of 3. Sew them together in groups of three using a 3/8" seam allowance. Note: It is super important that you use the correct seam allowance, otherwise this quilt will not work. Also, when sewing the three strips together, it is important that you stagger them, meaning that when sewing the second strip to the first, the second strip needs to be 1" down from the top of the first and the third strip down 1" from the top of the second. (Refer to 2nd picture down) Step two - Once all of your strips are sewn together in groups of three, you'll start cutting triangles. You will do this using the 60-degree mark on your self-healing mat. Be super careful to in the beginning to only cut off the very edge (pictured below). You are going to need every bit of this fabric. Out of every group of the three sewn together fabrics, you are going to need to get 12 triangles. After you make your first cut, flip the fabric over, line if up and make your second cut so you get a perfect triangle. If you don't like this method, you could always make yourself a triangle template. Here is how it should look. Sorry about using different fabrics. I realized after I make the quilt I forgot to take pictures of some of the important steps.
Step three - lay the triangles out so that you have 2 hexagons. Step four - Now you are going to sew the hexagons together. But only sew the top three together and then the bottom three, do not sew the top and bottom together. Note: You can now use 1/4" seam allowance. Pin and sew the first two pieces together. Now pin and sew on the third piece of the three. Here is how it should look when you're done. Repeat step four for all of your triangles. You should end up with 25 hexagons with bottoms not sewn to the tops. Step Five - The fun part. Layout your quilt how you want it to look.
Step Six - Sew your half hexagons together (pinning at the seams) to make a row like pictured below. After this, sew your rows together (still pinning) and your quilt top is done. Binding I was super nervous about binding this quilt but honestly, it wasn't that bad. Just make sure your binding is cut on the bias. I started sewing the binding on in the middle of the top straight edge of the quilt using 1/2" seam allowance. When you get to your first outside corner sew until you are 1/4 inch away from the outside corner and backstitch a 1/4". Now take your quilt off of the machine. Fold your binding strip up so that it is at a 45-degree angle. Hold onto that 45-degree angle and then fold it back down so that your binding strip lines up with the edge of your quilt. Now starting at the fold sew straight down the edge of your hexagon until you get to the inside corner. Mark where the middle of the inside corner is about 1/2" in (or however big you seam allowance is) on your binding. Sew until you reach that mark. With your needle down on that mark lift up your presser foot and turn the quilt so you can sew down the next side of the hexagon.
Right here is why you wanted your binding cut on the bias. Just pull your binding so that it lines up with the next edge of the hexagon you are going to sew down. If the fabric seems to bunch up on the left of the needle, don't stress, when you stitch the binding down on the front side it will look fine. Continue sewing on your binding until you are finished. Take a deep breath; you just finished a way cool binding job. Now the fun part (at least to me)... put on your favorite movie, grab a needle and thread and start stitching down the binding on the front of your quilt. If you have any questions, you are always welcome to e-mail me at ncl.willmore@gmail.com or leave a comment on my blog {ourcozynest.blogspot.com}. I really did love making this quilt. I think it's my favorite yet. If you happen to make one, I would really LOVE to see pictures of it. I love seeing how all the different lines of fabric work together. A beautiful 45 x 50" quilt. Nicole Willmore {ourcozynest.blogspot.com}