Lady Edith's Rectangles

 

When Inspiration Hits

I was surfing the other day and of course I ended up oggling all the pretty fabrics that can be found online. One fabric line that always catches my eye is Andover's Downton Abbey. This time when looking at Lady Edith's line (which I find to be a bit too modern to fit in with the rest, but that's not the point here) I found the Patches Blue fabric:



source: https://www.fabric.com/buy/0314288/downton-abbey-lady-edith-patches-blue

And I suddenly realised that this would make a terrific quilt pattern!

So here is a quick and dirty tutorial:

 

Fabrics Needed

You'll need three different fabrics. One with a beautiful print, two with small ones or solids. I would choose at least one solid fabric, just to let your eyes have a resting point.

 

Cutting and Sewing

Cut 4" strips WOF from the small prints/solids.

Take one strip each and sew them together lengthwise. Then cut 6" pieces crosswise from the strips. If you're lucky, you'll get 7 pieces from one strip set. But just to be on the safe side, calculate with 6 per strip set when buying your fabric.

 

Now take two of the pieces, flip one of them and sew them into a rectangular 4 patch.

 

 

And that is the first finished block! Once you finished them all, measure them (they should be 7.5"x11.5") and square - or rectangle as the case might be - them up. Only then cut the focus fabric to this size as well. This way you can make sure that you won't have to recut your fabric.

 

And now you have the two blocks necessary to complete the quilt top:

 

 

As the focus fabric I chose Kaffe Fassett's Millefiore Blue for this mock-up.

 

 

And here is how the completed top would look like:

 

As you can see, it's a really fast and easy way of making a quilt. You can choose an equal number of rows and columns and it will still end up as a rectangular due to the form of the blocks. Of course you can also vary the size of the strips at the beginning and make the blocks as big or as small as you want!

 

You can make the cutest baby quilts with this pattern (especially if you have to have it done by tomorrow, because of the last minute invite to the baby shower), or display the colours of your favourite sports team.

 

Maybe even finally cut into that wonderful fabric you bought that is far too pretty to cut into, because it is just so beautiful and you don't really want to cut it up into small pieces (Come on, you know The One, it's been in your stash for a while now and you secretly get up in the night, take it out of your closet, pet it lovingly and whisper breathlessly "My precioussssss!").

 

With these big blocks your fabric will be displayed beautifully!

 

 

Let me know if something is unclear to you. I am happy to help!

 

As always, I would love to see your quilt if you decide to use this pattern.

 

Best,

Cat


Update:  Fellow blogger Preeti Harris actually used this design idea to create an adorable baby quilt. How cool is that?! I felt like Christmas in July!

Here is a sneak peak:



Preeti's Pretty Giraffe Baby Quilt

Head on over to her blog to read Lady Edith rides a Giraffe (how's that for a creative blog post name?!). But be prepared to spend some time there, 'cause you'll find some interesting stuff!