Erin’s Quilt

01What you’re making

This is a big quilt made of small pieces, but it is not a hard quilt. There are no curves, no set-in seams, and no templates. Every one of the 2,304 pieces is either a plain square or a square made of two triangles, and all 36 blocks are the same. Once you have made one block you have learned the whole quilt; the rest is repetition.

02How the design works

The painting looks intricate, and it is — but the complication is all in the arrangement, not in the sewing. Underneath it is one tidy grid: 48 small squares across and 48 down, organised as 6 × 6 identical blocks of 8 × 8 squares each.

Read the block from the middle out and it comes apart easily. There is a pink square at the centre. Four lavender diamonds sit around it, one on each side. The corners are deep purple — and because a purple corner meets three other purple corners when the blocks are sewn together, those four quarters combine into a whole purple square. That is the trick the painting is playing: half the shapes you see only appear once the blocks are joined.

03Choosing your size

One decision sets every other measurement: how big each small square finishes. Everything downstream — block size, quilt size, yardage — follows from it automatically.

The rest of this pattern uses 1½″, which gives a 12″ block and a 72″ top — a generous throw, or a very good twin-bed topper once the border is on. It keeps the design fine enough to look like the painting while staying big enough to sew comfortably.

04Fabric and shopping list

Use quilting-weight cotton. These seven colours were read straight off the painting — match them by eye at the shop and don’t agonise over exact shades. Amounts below include a working margin for trimming and the occasional re-cut.

Yardages assume 40″ of usable width once selvedges are trimmed, and include about 15% margin. If your shop’s bolts are narrow, round up.

Also on the list

05Tools and setting up

06Cutting

Cut in strips across the width of the fabric, then cut the strips into squares. It is far faster and far more accurate than cutting squares one at a time.

The whole quilt

Or, for one block at a time

If you would rather cut as you go, this is one block’s worth. Multiply by 36.

40 plain squares + 24 triangle squares = 64 pieces, which make the 64 units of one block.

07Make one block before you cut everything

08Making the triangle units

These are made two at a time from a pair of squares. It is one of the most satisfying things in quilting: two squares in, two perfect triangle units out.

1. Stack a pair right sides together, edges matched — one square of each of the two fabrics.
2. Draw the diagonal corner to corner on the back of the lighter square, with a sharp pencil.
3. Stitch a scant ¼″ away from the line, on both sides. Not on the line — either side of it.
4. Cut along the drawn line. You now have two units.
5. Press the seam open, then trim each unit to exactly 2″ square, keeping the 45° line of your ruler right on the seam.

The three pairings

There are only three combinations in the entire quilt. Work through them in batches — draw and stitch a hundred at a sitting, then cut and trim them all together.

Each pair of squares gives two identical units, so a pairing needing 288 units takes 144 squares of each fabric.

09Building a block

Work in rows, like reading a page. Lay all 64 units out first — on a towel, a felt board, or the floor — and check them against the diagram before a single seam goes in. This is the step where the diagram earns its keep.

What goes where

Each swatch below is drawn at the orientation the unit is actually sewn. For the triangle units, the picture is the instruction — turn the unit until it matches.

The block is symmetrical in both directions, so every row reads the same forwards and backwards. If a row doesn’t, a unit is turned the wrong way.

Sewing it together

1. Sew each row of 8 units, left to right. Keep the units in order — pick up the whole row and stitch it as a chain rather than fetching pieces one at a time.
2. Press the row seams. Odd-numbered rows press to the right, even-numbered rows to the left. That way, when two rows meet, their seams fall in opposite directions and lock against each other — quilters call this nesting, and it is how the corners end up matching without much pinning.
3. Join the rows top to bottom, pinning at each nested seam. Press these long horizontal seams open.
4. Measure. 12½″ square. Set it aside and start the next.

10Making all 36 blocks

Now it’s repetition, and repetition rewards a system.

• Chain piece. Feed pairs through the machine one after another without cutting the thread between them. You end up with a string of units like bunting; snip them apart at the end. This is roughly twice as fast as stopping each time.
• Work in batches, not blocks. Sew all the row 1s, then all the row 2s. Doing the same motion thirty-six times in a row is much quicker than doing eight different ones.
• Stack and label. Keep finished rows in labelled piles. A row 3 and a row 6 look similar and are not.
• Measure every fifth block. Drift creeps in as you get tired or the machine warms up. Catching it at block 15 is a small problem; catching it at block 35 is not.

11Joining the blocks into the top

6 blocks across, 6 down, sewn edge to edge — there are no sashing strips. The design is meant to run straight across the block seams, which is why the purple squares and half the diamonds only appear once the blocks are joined.

1. Lay all 36 blocks out in a 6 × 6 grid. All the blocks are identical, so orientation doesn’t matter — but do stand back and look, and shuffle blocks around if one fabric has clustered.
2. Sew each row of 6 blocks together. Pin at every seam junction. Press row 1’s seams right, row 2’s left, and so on, so the rows nest when you join them.
3. Join the 6 rows. Long seams — pin generously, at every block junction and between. Press these open.
4. Measure. The top should be 72½″ square raw, becoming 72″ once the border seam takes its ¼″.

A top this size is heavy and wants to drag off the table while you sew. Support its weight on a chair or your lap — letting it hang pulls the seam you’re stitching out of true.

12Adding the border

A 6″ border takes the quilt from 72″ to 84″ square. Cut 8 strips 6½″ wide across the fabric and join them end to end with diagonal seams — a diagonal join spreads the bulk out and hides in the border far better than a straight one.

1. Measure the top through its middle, not along its edges. Edges stretch while you handle them; the middle tells the truth. It should read about 72½″.
2. Cut two side strips to that measurement. Pin each to a side of the quilt at the ends, the middle, and then every few inches, easing any slight difference in as you go. Sew and press outward.
3. Measure through the middle again, this time across, including the two new borders — about 84½″.
4. Cut two more strips to that measurement, pin and sew them to the top and bottom, and press outward.

Why the measuring matters. Cutting borders to fit the edge rather than the centre is the most common way a quilt ends up with wavy, rippling edges that never lie flat and are miserable to quilt. Measuring through the middle forces the quilt back into square.

13Backing, batting and basting

The backing

You need a backing about 92″ square — 4″ bigger than the quilt on every side, so there is something to hold on to while you quilt.

• Extra-wide backing fabric (2¾ yd) needs no piecing at all. For a quilt this size it is worth the slightly higher price.
• Normal-width fabric (7¾ yd) means joining 3 panels. Trim the selvedges off first — they are tightly woven and will pucker — join with ½″ seams, and press those seams open.

Basting

Basting is what stops the three layers shifting against each other while you quilt. Do it on a big flat floor or two tables pushed together.

1. Backing down first, wrong side up. Smooth it flat and tape the edges to the floor — taut, but not stretched.
2. Batting on top, smoothed from the centre outwards.
3. Quilt top on last, right side up, centred, and smoothed out from the middle.
4. Baste with safety pins every 3–4″, or with basting spray between each layer. Work from the centre out, never from one edge across.

14Quilting

This top is already extremely busy, so the quilting does not need to be clever — its job here is structural, and anything fancy will simply disappear into the piecing. Any of these suit it:

• Straight lines through the block seams, making a 12″ grid across the whole quilt. Simple, fast with a walking foot, and it echoes the structure underneath.
• Diagonal lines corner to corner through the diamonds, in both directions. This picks up the on-point shapes and is very handsome on a design like this.
• An allover meander, free-motion. The most forgiving, and invisible on a top this busy.
• Hand quilting, if you have the patience and the winter. A simple grid in perle cotton would be lovely.

Whichever you pick: start in the middle and work outwards, so any excess is pushed to the edges rather than trapped in the centre. Don’t leave any area larger than about 4–6″ unquilted, or check what your batting’s packet specifies — batting needs stitching at intervals or it shifts and bunches in the wash.

There is no shame at all in sending a quilt this size out to be professionally longarm quilted. Many people piece tops for years and never quilt one themselves.

15Binding

The binding is the frame and the seal — it covers the raw edges of all three layers. You need about 336″ of it, so cut 9 strips 2½″ wide.

1. Trim the quilt square, cutting the batting and backing flush with the quilt top.
2. Join the strips end to end with diagonal seams; press those seams open. Then press the whole length in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, so you have a long double-thickness strip.
3. Sew it to the front of the quilt with a ¼″ seam, raw edges together, starting partway along one side and leaving a tail of about 10″ loose.
4. Mitre the corners: stop ¼″ from each corner, backstitch, fold the binding straight up away from the quilt to make a 45° fold, then fold it back down level with the next edge and carry on. The fold makes the mitre when you turn it later.
5. Join the two ends where they meet — overlap them by exactly the width of your binding, trim, and seam them diagonally so the join matches the others.
6. Turn the binding to the back and stitch it down, covering the line of machine stitching. By hand with a blind stitch is the traditional and prettiest finish; by machine is quicker and more hard-wearing.

16Label, and looking after it

Put a label on it. A scrap of the backing fabric, hemmed and stitched to a back corner, with the maker’s name, the date, and a line about where the design came from. In fifty years that label will be the most valuable part of the quilt.

Washing. Cold water, gentle cycle, mild detergent. Use colour-catcher sheets for the first few washes — there is a lot of navy and grape here. Tumble dry low or, better, dry it flat or on a line. The first wash is when the quilting puckers slightly and the whole thing softens and starts looking like a quilt rather than a project.

Storage. Folded loosely, out of direct sun. Refold along different lines occasionally so the creases don’t become permanent.

17When something goes wrong

My block came out at 12¼″ instead of 12½″.

Your seam allowance is a little too wide. Across 8 seams, being 1⁄64″ over costs you an eighth of an inch. Move the needle one position to the right and sew another row of three squares to check.

The diamond points are getting cut off.

Two usual causes. Either the triangle units weren’t trimmed to exactly 2″, or the seam joining them is running slightly wide and eating the point. There should be a full ¼″ of fabric above each point before it meets the next seam.

The corners don’t line up when I join rows.

Check the pressing. If two rows’ seams both press the same direction they can’t nest, and they will fight you. Re-press one of the rows the other way and pin at each junction.

The border is rippling and won’t lie flat.

The border strips were cut to the edge measurement rather than the centre one. Unpick, measure through the middle, cut to that, and ease the quilt to fit the strip. It will pull square.

There are little pleats on the back after quilting.

The basting was too loose, or the quilting started from an edge instead of the centre. Unpick the affected area, re-baste that section firmly, and requilt outwards from the middle.

I’ve run out of one fabric.

Substitute its nearest neighbour — sage for seafoam, orchid for grape. The painting does exactly this from block to block, and the quilt will read as livelier for it, not wrong.

18Glossary

Finished vs unfinished

Finished is the size a piece ends up once it’s sewn in on all sides; unfinished is its size while it’s still loose, with seam allowances attached. A 1½″ finished square is a 2″ unfinished one.

Scant ¼″

A seam a thread or two under a quarter inch, allowing for the fabric taken up when the seam is pressed to one side.

Half-square triangle (HST)

A square made of two triangles joined on the diagonal. Called a “triangle unit” throughout this pattern.

Right sides together (RST)

The two printed faces of the fabric facing each other, so the seam ends up on the inside.

Nesting

Pressing two seams that will meet in opposite directions, so they lock together and the join lines up.

Chain piecing

Feeding pieces through the machine one after another without cutting the thread between them.

WOF

Width of fabric — a cut running selvedge to selvedge, about 40″ usable.

In the ditch

Quilting stitched directly into an existing seam line, where it hides.

Basting

Temporarily fixing the three layers together — with pins, spray or long stitches — before quilting.

Binding

The folded strip of fabric that wraps and encloses the raw outer edges.

19How these numbers were worked out

Nothing here was estimated by eye. The painting was measured directly:

• The grid was located by fitting a spacing and offset to the painting that minimised colour variation inside each cell — landing on a pitch of 27.63 pixels and a 48 × 48 grid.
• The 8 × 8 repeat was confirmed by shift-matching: the design matches itself at multiples of 8 far more strongly than at any other offset.
• Each cell was split into four triangular quadrants and each quadrant matched to the nearest palette colour, which is what distinguishes a plain square from a triangle unit.
• The single block above is a majority vote across all 36 blocks in the painting and their mirror images — 288 readings per position — then resolved to the nearest legal quilt unit. That averaging is what removes the hand-painted wobble.

Every count, cut size and yardage on this page is calculated from that one block definition, so they cannot drift apart from each other or from the diagrams.

Two things are judgement rather than measurement, and worth naming: the choice of 1½″ as the finished square, and the 6″ border, which the painting does not have — it stops at the piecing. Both are easy to change.