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WEEK 1 – RAIL FENCE QUILT – GETTING STARTED
RAIL FENCE QUILT
A big congratulations to you all for completing Your First Quilt – you are now considered graduates of Quilt Club with Stacey Lee! You have completed a quilt from beginning to end, and understand the fundamentals of making a quilt. From now on it is all about slowly building on your skills and to do this we will move on to the Rail Fence Quilt.
The Rail Fence Quilt is a simple design, yet it is slightly more challenging constructing the quilt top.
Here’s what I want you to do: Watch my YouTube videos and read the notes, then get started on making our quilt top for your Rail Fence Quilt.
VIDEOS TO WATCH | Week 1 – Part A – Rail Fence Quilt – Preparing Your Fabric Week 1 – Part B – Rail Fence Quilt – How to Group Your Fabric Week 1 – Part C – Rail Fence Quilt – Sewing Your Strips Together |
TO READ | Week 1 – Rail Fence Quilt – Getting Started (Column Number Cards found here) |
TOOLS NEEDED | Ruler, self healing mat, rotary cutter (if using fabric off the bolt), iron, ironing board/mat, sewing machine, pins |
SUPPLIES NEEDED | Fabric for your quilt top, thread |
NOTES |
You need the following amount of 2½” strips to make your rail fence quilt:
Lap Quilt – 40 x 2½” strips
Larger Quilt – 80 x 2½” strips
There are two methods to cutting fabric, with the lines on the mat or the lines on the ruler. If you have trouble cutting accurately it doesn’t hurt to use both options when cutting your 2½” strips and I will show you how.
REMEMBER |
Always lock your rotary cutter whenever you are not using it, it is basically a razor blade on a wheel!
Always cut away from yourself. Keep your fingers away from the edge of the ruler.
PREPARING YOUR OFF THE BOLT FABRIC
Iron your fabric
Cut 2½” strips according to how many different fabrics you have how many you need
Iron out the manufacturers fold in all your strips
PREPARING YOUR JELLY ROLLS
Iron out the manufacturers fold in all your strips
Iron kinked beginnings and ends, and anywhere else that may need it
HOW TO GROUP YOUR FABRIC
The different patterns you can create using the Rail Fence Quilt technique are endless and something you need to think about before you get started. If you do a Pinterest search you will see all the different variations you can achieve
How you group your fabric is entirely up to you and will be heavily determined by the fabric you have chosen to use You need to group your fabrics into groups of four, in the order you would like them to be sewn together
RANDOM PLACEMENT
If you would like the random look you simply need to place your 2½” strips into groups of four, in a way that you are happy with them
However, be careful not to place fabrics that are very dark, very light, very bold, or just stand out for whatever reason in the same blocks of four. Space these out within the different groups of four
ZIG ZAG LOOK
If you would like the zig zag look you need to have your fabrics grouped from lighter to darker shades
It doesn’t matter if the fabrics are different, as long as they are a similar shade and/or pattern
FOLD TOGETHER
In order to not mix up your groupings, carefully fold your fabrics to prepare to sew them together
SEWING YOUR GROUPS OF FABRIC TOGETHER
Taking your first folded group of four 2½” strips, carefully unfold it
We need to alternate the direction of the stitching (top or bottom) to prevent warping
If you might forget which way you have sewn, attach a “Place number holder” on it with the arrow facing down onto your first strip, this is to help you remember which direction you have sewn.
Take the second strip and pin together, sew all the way along
Set your stitches
Finger press the seam up, we will set the seam up for every seam
Press the seam with your iron
Take your next strip and sew from the bottom
Press as described above
Repeat these steps until all four strips are sewn together, remembering to alternate the direction that you sew
TASK | Cut our blocks into squares |
Arrange our blocks for our quilt top | |
Sew our blocks together | |
TOOLS NEEDED | Ruler, rotary cutter, self healing mat, sewing machine, iron, ironing board/mat |
SUPPLIES NEEDED | Your sewn together groups of 4, thread |
THESE COURSE NOTES ARE FOR THE EMAIL RECIPIENT ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT COPY OR SHARE THEM. IF YOU HAVE A FRIEND THAT WOULD LIKE A COPY PLEASE ASK THEM TO JOIN THE QUILT CLUB BY SIGNING UP TO THE NEWSLETTER.
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