I’ve had a bunch of questions about the 3 yard quilts so I thought I’d answer them here. HeartStrings quilters are working on them now but we don’t have just one pattern we’re using or any real specific guidelines. We’re just making and sharing them.
Most of them are coming from the Fabric Cafe books but my Quick Strippies “count” in my book too because you pull 3 coordinating fabrics for them. I have two of the Fabric Cafe books. Fast and Fun 3 Yard quilts and Easy Peasy 3 Yard quilts and I’ve used 3 patterns in addition to my quick Strippie for the 6 tops I’ve made so far.
- top left and top middle are Town Square – from the Easy Peasy book
- top right is Brick Street – from the Fast and Fun book
- bottom left and bottom middle are Easy Street – from the Easy Peasy book
- bottom right is one of my Quick Strippies
One thing to note is that when following the patterns exactly, they use small narrow borders on many of them and a single fold binding. I like to either leave one or more of the narrow borders off to have enough fabric for my usual double fold binding if I’m working with exactly 3 yards, or in some cases I have more yardage of one of the fabrics, OR as Ann, one of HeartStrings members suggested, use 4 fabrics to give you some flexibility – that’s what I did with the quilt in the middle on the bottom. I was able to use 4 fabrics which made that one a little larger too. At any rate, I’ve been using some of the patterns from the books but am adapting the borders/binding to suit my style and fabric amounts.
All of these were quick and easy to piece in an afternoon and make cute quilts for donation or gifting. Because I’ve been making my Quick Strippies for years, I have a small stash of Novelty fabrics for kids quilts that work well with these patterns but other more “adult” prints work too like the floral used in the top right quilt. None of these are huge, I’d call them all lap size, some a little larger than others but the books do give you cutting directions for making larger twin and queen size quilts … you just double or triple the yardage. Some HeartStrings members are also playing with making smaller quilts with half yards or using fat quarters. There are lots of options.
You do have your work cut out for you! It sure can get stressful. I think your doing a great job! I felt very tired with my second shot for a couple of days. After that I was fine. It feels good to have them behind me. Now if everybody else gets theirs !! ox
All great designs and you choose some lovely choices of fabrics. Easy Street really appeals to me, I love the lines of little squares going down the diagonal…. the “streets”?
Thank you for taking time (a precious commodity for you lately) to share your three yard quilts. I am a great fan of your Strippie quilt, but the easy street quilt looks great too. My bucket list isn’t getting any smaller, but that also keeps life interesting.
When my group got together for a Sew Day on National Quilting Day we made 3-yd quilts using the Fabric Cafe patterns. I just pulled from stash and had quite a bit more of a couple of the fabrics so used them for a wider outside border, backing and binding. It made the quilt a little larger than the pattern but I like the look of the wider outside border. Quick and easy!