Sep. 11, 2006 - Coin Quilt

Today's post is put together by Shelly from Shelly's Journal.  If you have a little bit of quilting experience, this one is for you!  Shelly provides wonderful instructions for making a coin quilt like this one:

So how did I make this quilt?  I was inspired by this quilt from Amy of happythings.  But she did not provide a tutorial on construction, so it was up to me to figure out how I wanted to do it.  I wanted to share this with my fellow bloggers in the event that anyone was interested in making it themselves.

1. Figuring out the width.  I initially figured on 35 x 2 inch strips per row - which would have given me 70 inches on my 72 inch quilt.  I overestimated and ended up tearing off 3 per row - probably could have gone with 30 per row to allow for some borders.
2. Cutting the fabric - I used 23 different fabrics in this quilt construction.  I cut 1 to 3 strips of each.  Strip size was 2-3 inches wide (which allowed for 2 x 1/4 inch seam allowance and a little size variation to try and make it interesting) and width of fabric (around 40"). Note:  This would make a great design for a "scrappy" quilt.
3. Strip Sets - Since I wanted 35 strips per row, I put together strip sets of 7 different long fabric strips each and sewed them together and then into a tube.  I cut the tube into 8 1/2 inch segments which would allow my final strip size to be 8 inches high.  I used my seam ripper to tear apart the seams at different places. Leaving me with a pile of 7 strip x 8 1/2 inch sets.
4. Sewing the 8 1/2 inch strip sets - Then I sewed 5 of these sets together, trying to vary as much as possible,  making sure the same strips were not always next to each other and on the end.  I made 6 of these 35 strip sets.
5. Borders - After removing 3 strips per row, I sewed the solid lime green border (also 2 1/2 inches wide) on the top and bottom of all strip sets.  Then I added the lime green print border (3 1/2 inches wide) to one side of 5 of these sets.
6. The quilt top - I sewed all 6 sets together making the quilt top.  I trimmed one side of the quilt with my rotary cutter to make that side even. I added plain lime green strips (2.5 inches wide) on the sides and then bordered with the lime print(2.5 inches wide) all around.  I ended up tearing off the side borders when the quilt top was too wide for the batting.
7. Sewed together backing material and made my quilt sandwich for turning and tying.
8. Ran a zigzag stitch along the outer edge to seal the "hole" and provide additional stability to the quilt.  Also stitched in the ditch around the border seams for stability.