Step One. Cut your pieces. I cut mine to be 7 inches square. At this stage you don't have to be particularly precise....you'll see why later. An easy way to cut your squares is just by cutting some strips that are 7 inches wide (or whatever size you need) and then turning an edge over to make a triangle. Cutting along the edge of the triangle will give you a decent square.
Step Two: Cut a boat load of squares of quilt batting. Mine were 6 inches square. My quilt has 10 rows of 13 squares, so I needed 130 squares of batting and 260 squares of fabric.
Step Three: layer a piece of batting between 2 fabric squares and machine stitch a X across it.
Step Four: As you can see my pieces aren't perfectly lined up in the quilted square pictured above. What I found is that even if you start off with 2 precisely cut pieces of fabric, it can be difficult and tedious to keep the layers nicely lined up. And, between you and me, I am more likely to stab myself in the eyeball with a seam ripper than complete a project that is tedious and time consuming.
So I solved the problem by cutting the squares fairly imprecisely (as mentioned in step one) and not worrying too much about keeping everything perfectly in place while stitching. Instead I just cut the finished square again with a rotary cutter and a 6 1/2 inch cardboard template. The result is nicely lined up and precise squares without having to stab myself in the eye out of sheer frustration.
Step Five: Once you've completed steps 3 and 4 with all of your cut pieces, you can begin assembling your quilt. Remember to sew your squares together wrong sides together. I had to rip a few seams out because I kept forgetting that I want the seams on the right side!
Step Six: Sit down to a few good movies with a sharp pair of scissor and snip all of the edges so that the seams will fray up nicely. Be careful not to cut any stitches.
Step Seven: Wash and dry the quilt to get the seams to fray nicely. It will take a few washes to get really frayed, but if you're in a hurry (and I was) one wash will be a good start.
Don't these colours just make your heart happy?
