QAL #5, week one

Welcome to the start the quilt along #5! I'm going to make this quilt step by step as I show the instructions, so there just may be some minor tweaking along the way.

To recap quickly, we are going to be using 4 1/2 yards of background fabric and 10 fat quarters, or 20 fat eighths, or 2 1/2 yards of printed or solid fabric.

If you are cutting from scraps, layer cakes or charm packs, you will need 490 colored squares and 490 background squares. Have fun with that! :)

Today we will be cutting up our fabric.

From the 4 1/2 yards of background fabric, cut one piece 65" x wof (width of fabric).

Fold the fabric lengthwise and cut into strips 2 1/2" wide.

First, I cut 8 strips of fabric. At that point, I was nearing the crease of the fabric, so I flipped the fabric around, trimmed off the selvedge from the other side and cut 8 more strips.

This left me with this center piece of fabric as a scrap. I did this because it seems to me that no matter how much I iron the fabric, the crease remains. It's easier to just work around it.

From the 16 strips that measure 65" x 2 1/2", cut as follows.

Cut 4 down to 64 1/2". Label and set aside.

Cut 2 down to 56 1/2". Use the remainder to cut 2 pieces 4 1/2" x 2 1/2". Label and set aside.

Cut 2 down to 52 1/2". Use the remainder to cut 2 pieces 8 1/2" x 2 1/2". Label and set aside.

Cut 2 down to 44 1/2". Use the remainder to cut 2 pieces 16 1/2" x 2 1/2". Label and set aside.

Cut 2 down to 40 1/2". Use the remainder to cut 2 pieces 20 1/2" x 2 1/2". Label and set aside.

Cut 2 down to 32 1/2". Use the remainder to cut 2 pieces 28 1/2" x 2 1/2". Label and set aside.

There will be 2 remaining pieces of fabric. You can set them aside as scraps, or you can substitute some of those for the next step.

Now, from the remaining piece of yardage, cut 31 pieces of fabric 2 1/2" x wof. If you are using jelly rolls or yardage, leave the pieces as they are. If you are using fat quarters, cut them in half to make 62 pieces of 2 1/2" x 21" rectangles. You don't have to be exact or precise in the length here.

All of your background fabrics should be cut.

Next step, iron your fat quarters.

I wanted to save the selvedges, so I trimmed them off first. Make sure there is about 21" of fabric to work with.

Cut 62 strips 2 1/2" x 21". I didn't bother squaring up my ends for these strips as we will be strip piecing them. If you are using yardage or jelly rolls, cut or select 31 strips to use.

I ended up having some cutting issues today, so I'm glad I had extra fabric. When it was all said and done, I had about 1/2 yard extra background fabric.

Next week we start sewing!

Please let me know if you see any errors or if you have any questions. Feel free to add your progress shots to the flickr quilt along pool.