Easy and Versatile Delectable Mountain blocks from scrap 8.5" squares
This quilt started out as a special
guild charity quilt project. A
guild member had passed away recently from cancer, and her stash was
donated to the guild. I needed to come up with a quilt design that
would use these fabrics in a hurry and work out well for a group
project. This is what I came up with! These quilts are being donated
to the Breast Cancer center in memory of the member who's stash was so
lovingly donated for this cause.
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Finished block size: 6"X7.5"
Lap Quilt size approx 60"X70" before quilting.
The large quilt above is 85" X 93"
It
seemed that there was more green in
the donated stash than anything,
so I decided to look for a pattern that would use fabrics in two color
ways. Here you see neutrals from white through gold to tan, and various
shades of green including some almost-turquoise.
This
makes a really nice lap sized quilt. For this size quilt you will
need the following:
Assorted light fabrics:
Lap: Cut (32) 8.5" Squares
Full: Cut (66) 8.5" Squares
Assorted dark fabrics:
Lap: Cut (32) 8.5" Squares
Full: Cut (66) 8.5" Squares
Assorted light fabrics:
Lap: Cut (32) 8.5" Squares
Full: Cut (66) 8.5" Squares
Assorted dark fabrics:
Lap: Cut (32) 8.5" Squares
Full: Cut (66) 8.5" Squares
You can start by making just one
Mountain Majesties block at a time to
get the technique down. When you get the idea and the light goes on as
to what you are doing, you can easily chain stitch batches and assembly
line the steps.
Start by taking two squares, one
light and one dark and
putting
them right sides together. With your ruler and rotary cutter,
slice through the two squares from corner to corner.
Chain piece these large 1/2 square
triangle units through your machine
with a 1/4" seam. Press squares open with the seam towards the dark
triangle.
Take the triangle squares to your
cutting mat and square them up to 8"
square. This is an important step. You COULD cut your original squares
at 8 3/8" and perhaps get away without trimming, but I find the larger
the triangle squares, the more unwieldy they get no matter
how accurate
your pressing and sewing is, so I cut them 8.5" and then square up to
8".
When your squares are squared up,
layer them one on top of the other,
with the dark of the top triangle on top of the light of the bottom.
This way you will be sure that you have one 'uphill' block and one
'downhill' block when you are done cutting.
Cut 2" segments through both layers as shown.
Carefully peel the top layer off
the bottom layer and
you
will have uphill and downhill strips!Simply rearrange the
strips into the Mountain Majesties blocks and
stitch together.
Notice that by turning the blocks
you can have a dark mountain with a
light sky, or a light snowcapped mountain with a dark sky behind it.
There are lots of fun ways to twist and turn these blocks to form many interesting designs. Here are just a few:
Zig Zag Mountains Stacked Lanterns
Mirror
Image
Mountains
Jagged Diamonds
Streak of Lightning*
*Note* for the streak of
lightning variation, the quilt is made with all downhill blocks, no
uphill blocks at all! So instead if placing your triangle-squares with
right sides together, you would stack them one on top of the other both
facing up and cut both squares the same way.
Questions
or Comments? I would love to hear from you!! Bonnie@Quiltville.com© 2004 Quiltville Custom Quilting.All Rights Reserved. No part may be used, copied or otherwise
altered without express written permission from the webmaster.