Framed: My Most Popular Moda Layer Cake Quilt Tutorial

This is my most popular quilt tutorial, Framed Quilt, and I want to include it here from my previous blog, Ann Ferguson Quilts.

Hello Luscious is a  beautiful modern feminine collection by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics. There is something about their designs that just really appeals to me. I love their lush floral, slightly off key colour and pattern combinations and their delicious Grunge Basics. I try to add a little to nearly everything.

Hello Luscious Layer Cake: 42 x 10 inch squares across the whole range of fabric!

One of my favourite things to do with a Layer Cake, is make a sort of stack and slash “Blocks in a Box” block quilt. There are lots of ways to do this, but this one is a straight-forward even cut one as opposed to random, or uneven ones. The one below was made from a selection of 10″ squares, but it could be a Layer Cake.

Random Framed Quilt

First you open your Layer Cake and look at the wonderful fabric selection contained within 🙂
Then you pair up squares to get 21 pairs. Mix and match patterns, colours and values. Don’t be too predictable.

Next, take one pair of squares and place one exactly on top of the other. Cut a strip 2 1/4 inches wide on two sides. Separate them from the middle wide strip, like in the picture. (I find a rotating cutting mat extremely useful for this.)

Now, position the block pieces so the two cut strips are on top and bottom. Cut 2 more 2 1/4 inch strips on either side. You will now have two 2 1/4″ x 10″ strips, two 2 1/4″ x 5 1/5″ strips, with one 5 1/2 inch square in the centre.

Swap the top and bottom fabrics around in the centre square. These are the fabrics which will compose the first block. You will discover that two 10 inch squares will make 2 blocks in your quilt and that a Layer Cake will make a nice sized throw quilt with 42 blocks.

Start sewing! Use a 1/4 inch seam allowance and sew the two small rectangles to the sides of the centre square. Press. (I pressed the seams open for these blocks.)
Now, sew the two longer rectangles to the top and bottom of the pieced centre.

Look at the picture below. You can see how I sewed the top and bottom pieces on, lining them up even on one side of the block. This makes it easier to trim the blocks at the end.

Finally, place the blocks exactly on top of each other again and trim the two excess ends from them. Your blocks should measure 9 inches square.

You can now separate the blocks and see how nice they are, a positive and negative image in fabric, of each other.

I like to put them up on my design wall, in pairs, as I go to see how they look and build up a feeling of how the quilt might look, and where to move things later. You can see it growing in the top photo, as the pairs of blocks are added to the wall.

N.B. See how the blocks are placed so that the long and short seams are next to each other? This makes the quilt very easy to sew together as you’re not having to match hundreds of seams. This is also one of the reasons I pressed the seams open.

When the blocks are completed, move them around to create a pleasing arrangement, spreading lights, darks, colours and patterns across the surface. It’s that easy to make a pretty quilt!

This is it finished:

Here are some more!

PB & J Quilt

Prayer Flag Quilt

The quilting was done on my Janome 6500 quilting machine by free motion sewing lines up and down in alternate block squares. I use white or neutral Aurifil thread because I love it.

I challenge you to have a go at making my Framed Quilt… are you up for it?
Happy sewing!
Ann.