the french twist quilt

My first quilt of the year and I am calling it the french twist! I bought the fabric for this quilt in the summer of 2012 (Puttin' on the Ritz by Bunny Hill for Moda) and was waiting to come across a pattern for it and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I got the pinwheel pattern from Moda's Bake Shop and then added the french braid boarder (instructions below).

Fabric Requirements:
1 Layer Cake
1 Charm Pack
1/4 yards for inside boarder - my boarder is 3 inches
*Additional yardage required for backing and binding*
Finished size = 52 x 64 inches (not pre-washed)

The Blocks:
I used this tutorial from Moda's Bakeshop to make the pinwheel quilt blocks...Candy Box Youth Quilt .
Since my layer cake was the pink set, I decided to use the blues and brown/greys from the charm pack for the centers. I did not use the scraps from the layer cake to make my binding. Instead I used it to make the french braid (see below)...

The French braid instructions:
I took my leftover 4x10 inch pieces from above and cut them into 2x5 inch pieces. I then began to sew these together into one long piece.
Sew piece 1 and 2 together, then 3, then 4 and keep going till you are out. I had barely enough to finish the boarder of the quilt and had to use additional charm pack squares to finish. Hint- The braid will stretch a lot when sewing so be careful...the stretch is almost like sewing with jersey knit.
I then trimmed out the edges and sewed the boarder onto the quilt. I decided to not cut the braid into 4 strips and instead wait until I was at an end then cut. I did the top and bottom sides first then the left and right. I literally just had a 1/4 of an inch left at the end....whew! It gets tricky measuring out fabric that is so stretchy...I was sweating bullets the whole time!

I found the most perfect backing for the quilt at JoAnn's and decided it would look great as a boarder too! I machine quilted diagonal lines to keep with all the angles in the quilt (and it made it easy to keep a straight line unlike my kids who love to hang out under my sewing table ONLY when I am at the table sewing...haha) and used a brown/grey thread.

My quilt label: I use printable iron-on fabric from Avery. I like to iron it on so its in place nice and then do an applique zig-zag stitch around it. I prefer to attach my labels right before I am finished machine quilting so I know it is in the perfect spot and not crooked....It's so hard to tell when you have all your excess binding and backing fabrics hanging out...make sense?



Please let me know if I left anything out or if you have any questions! I am still deciding if this quilt will live with me or if it will find a new home with someone to love on it and thanks for reading my blog and all about frenchie (that's her pet name...fyi).

Melissa


Comments

  1. I am brand new to quilting and have been searching Pinterest for days looking for a way to do a border with several different color/pattern fabrics. This is perfect! Thanks for sharing your expertise.

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  2. Is there anyway of still getting this pattern?

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  3. The link didn't work so copied link and got this http://http//www.modabakeshop.com/2009/08/candy-box-youth-quilt.html took out the http// with out the colon to make this link http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/08/candy-box-youth-quilt.html then took to moda page but not the paticulaar pattern.

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