When I stumbled upon Drygoods Design Online my jaw dropped, what a mix of modern fabrics put together so skillfully! TRUELY I had landed in fabric heaven. Keli had somehow sourced fabrics that I had never laid eyes on and that’s saying a lot considering looking at fabric online is one of my favorite time sucks past times.
Keli, the brainchild behind Drygoods Design Online runs her shop out of Seattle, so I skipped right over to go shop in person. I had my mind set on a simple cross quilt and had to continually refocus due to all the fabric I wanted to play with.
I picked a cross quilt because the design is simple for beginners, they are fun for showcasing favorite fabrics and I’d seen a few that have inspired me in our guild.
They go together quick, making them ideal for a unique baby gift. Simply add more rows or columns if you desire a larger size. Any size square will do, but I went with 4” squares.
I give basic directions for making the quilt, but if you need more detail check out I Heart Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale, she has a similar quilt constructed with squares and rectangles or my friend Meaghan’s online tutorial.
Most important mantra when designing a quilt and choosing fabrics, pay attention to value. Everyone say it together, “Value is important.”
Value, defined as the relative lightness or darkness of a color is what creates contrast, allowing the design to emerge.
The diagram above roughly shows what the values in this quilt are broken down to. When we see a quilt we would like to duplicate it is likely that we won’t find all the fabrics used, so removing color and focusing on value can make choosing replacement fabrics easier.
Pick a mix of light, medium and dark fabrics. Try not to place lights next to lights or darks next to darks, fabrics too close in value or a high percentage of one value will create a less defined or softer design, mucking the definition of each cross.
Large-scale prints often contain more than one value, such as the View Finder fabric I picked as my starter/focus fabric. To maintain contrast try to stick to one, maybe two of these larger scale fabrics with mixed value for a few crosses and surround those crosses with smaller scale prints or solid fabrics of a different value.
To produce a similar quilt with 4” squares you will need about 8 different fabrics.
There are 143 squares total if you wish to use scraps. Each cross uses 5 squares. I bought enough of each fabric to play around with the layout. You can use leftover squares on the backing, but the 4″ square size allows you to use a single selvedge to selvedge piece of fabric for the backing, no piecing required.
Finished size 38.5” x 45.5”
MATERIALS:
Here are the fabrics I used rounding up to the nearest 1/3 or 1/4 yard:
*1/2 yard or 24 squares of Nettie Dot Purple by Hoodie
*1/3 yard or 20 squares of View Finder in Cool by Melody Miller
*1/4 yard or 15 squares of Kona mustard
*1/2 yard or 24 squares of Geometric Mikaela Golden by Jennifer Paganelli
*1/4 yard or 18 squares of Toomuchery Damask Steel
*1/4 yard or 16 squares of Alexander Henry Heath in lavender
*1/4 yard or 11 squares of Heather Ross Far Far Away
*1/4 yard or 14 squares of Smirk Grey Grid by Kayla May
*12” of fabric for 2 1/4” cut binding
*1 2/3 yards of fabric for backing
To cut the squares, align the selvedges of each fabric and cut a four-inch strip, then sub cut the strips into 4” squares.
Follow the diagram or quilt photo to layout your squares.
I worked by piecing in rows, but you could work by piecing a 9-patch block as well.
I free-motion quilted it with the same orange peel design I used on my Mom’s Birthday Quilt last May.
It was a very simple design to execute free-motion because of the built in grid pattern of the squares. I used a hera marker to mark a line through the middle of each row and a vanishing marker to mark the middle of each square.
I took into account the extra 1/4″ not yet taken up by binding at the raw edge of each square when marking the middles of the outer squares. I attempted when quilting to kept the stitches in a 1/4″ from the perimeter so it wouldn’t be covered by binding. It sorted itself out well enough.
I sewed the binding down on our drive to Vancouver last weekend. I love having a binding project on a drive.
Yeah, finished!
Thanks Keli for the fabric inspiration and my friend Rendy at rendytuckerphotography.com for the photos!
I’ve always loved the cross quilts. Yours is beautiful, as are your photos. Thanks for the great post.
I love your diagrams! That is exactly how I design quilts! None of this horribly expensive EQ whatever. Just MS word or publisher and a focus on value and pattern of pieces and sizing and the elements of design. Thanks for all your great tips!
to die for! i love it so much, and the quilting just tops it off, amazing!
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! I love the purple polka!
Oh wow, that is fab! LOVE the colours front and back, and the quilting is to die for. Off to pin this for later drooling/inspection…
Love this, particularly the color combination. Thanks for showing the design graphics.
Those are some great tips of picking fabric!
This color combo is perfection!!! Thank you for a detailed and informative post. I think I just found the perfect quilt design for my mom’s quilt. Beautiful job on yours!!!
oh hello to my new favorite on line fabric shop too…. just checked it out! love!!!!
Just stunning! I’d love if you could share a bit more about your quilting. It looks like you quilted a straight line through the center of the blocks in one direction? Did you do the curves individually in each block? or move down the length of the quilt? It’s a quilting design I’d love to try and perfect!
What a fab quilt, I can’t get over the quilting. You did an amazing job! Love the colors.
Really lovely Katie! I’ve been wanting to do one of these for a while. My Daughter-in-law wants one, guess I’d better get going on it!
Thanks for the tutorial!
what a beautiful quilt. I love the fabric combinations you used. Drygoods design is a great store. I wish i lived in Seattle to be able to go to the brick and mortar version!.
Yeah, I completely love this.
Gorgeous quilt! I especially love your binding fabric choice. Note to self: must bind something in yellow…
Love this post, especially the bit about the importance of value! Your quilt is awesome and I, too would love more information on how you free motion quilted this beauty!!
It looks great!! I am so glad you’ve enjoyed shopping at Drygoods Design. Keli’s taste really is impeccable.
This beautiful quilt inspired me so much that I had to start my own yesterday…
awesome!
Love your color composition on this pretty quilt. And the quilting is amazing! It is a beautiful finish!
Wow those colors are just great! I have seen many many crosses but the colors and composition on this one are just wonderful!
Lovely quilt! Everyday I keep getting nudged a little closer to embracing purple and this is definitely a quilt in it’s favor. Ok, that sounds a little like I’m about to accept purple as my personal savior and get baptized in grape juice, but whatever.
Is Drygoods Design always open to the public? I’m heading to Seattle next month and would love to check it out.
No, but there is plenty of good fabric shopping in Seattle. Have fun!
Pretty, Katie. But, I have to admit that I’m totally jealous that you can FMQ like that. That pattern is beeeautiful. Thanks for reminding me that I really do want to learn FMQ. I’m not much for stippling and such, and that was what we saw most at The Sewing Summit.
I’ve never stippled, never been a fan. This is actually pretty easy and if it helps get your courage up, this is the 5th or so quilt I’ve fmq. Hope you had fun!
So pretty! And I absolutely adore that fabric you chose for the back. It gives me such a nostalgic feeling… Lovely.
Just ordered all these fabrics. My baby girl due in 7 weeks needs this quilt. Need to figure out how to do the orange peel quilting. I’m getting tired of all the stippling I’ve been doing lately! Thanks for inspiring me with this beautiful quilt.
Oh Franson just did a tutorial on the quilting.
Do you sell any of your quilts? I’ve been looking for a cute bedspread quilt for a year now and I can’t find any I love until I came across this site. I absolutely love this quilt and want to know if you sell them when you’re finished!!
Some are for sale. The cross one is stored and is $325. Thanks!
I just love this pattern! I am about to start my own using blues and greens! Dd you use 1/2″ seam allowance? Thanks!
no, I use the standard 1/4.” have fun!