A NEW BLANKET FOR HENRY

 It has been a while since I shared a tutorial for a new quilt, but this one is surprising easy and looks awesome when it is finished. I liked it so much that I made one quickly for Henry, our ten year old grandson in CO. I can't wait to make another one for Blankets of Hope, the quilt ministry at church.

I just love when I see a picture of a finished quilt especially if it looks challenging but discovers it really isn't when I see what the pattern is. I so enjoy "patterns". When I taught math in middle school, I was always telling the students to look for the pattern.

Back this fall, I took a day trip with two quilting friends to Hamilton, MO to a quilt show. We didn't see as many quilts as we thought because I was helping one of them who is new to quilting to look at the quilt and find the pattern. By the end of the day, she was doing really well. 

Henry living in CO is a Denver Bronco fan so a few days before we left to go to have an early Christmas with them, I decided to make him a blanket using some scraps I had left over after I made a Blanket of Hope for a young man at church who was very ill. I asked his mother if he liked the Chiefs (we do live in Kansas City afterall) and she said, "No. Actually he likes the Denver Broncos." I had to order the fabric because our fabric stores sell Chiefs material. I did have to buy some more blue and orange flannel because I was out of it for Henry's quilt.

I didn't have enough time to completely finish it before we left, but I got the top made, sandwiched it with backing, machine quilted it, and sewed the binding on. After we got to CO, I handstitched the binding down in the hotel that night and gave it to him the next morning when we saw them. 

This is the best picture of the quilt top for you to see how pretty the pattern is. It looks like a Bronco square is resting on top of blue and orange squares/blocks.

 Here it is hanging over the railing which is where quilt tops usually "live" after I get the top made but before it is finished as a quilt. It does usually end up back here after it is finished until the group meets.

Here it is as it went with me to CO with the binding sewed on with the machine. Many of my friends sew the binding down also with the machine, but I like to finish the binding by slipstitching it down by hand. It is so relaxing for me and gives me a chance to enjoy the quilt.

This binding was a piece in my stash that I have had a long time. It worked perfectly though with its navy background and small orange flower with a little added green leaf. 

And finally a picture of the finished quilt showing the backing. If you look closely, you can see how I machine quilted it. Since I made the blanket a little bigger than my usual lap-sized quilts, I purchased an oversized throw and it worked perfectly. I didn't use any batting since the blanket was thick and the top was mostly flannel.

     

My quilt/blanket consisted of sixteen 12-inch finished blocks and a top and bottom 3-inch finished row that is a partial block. I hope that is easy to see. The secret to the pattern though is that it is sewed together in 6-1/2 inch rows and not this 12-inch finished block.

Let start at the beginning with the cutting...just two ways of cutting.

The focal square is a cut 6-1/2 inch square from the print that I wanted to "showcase". I cut sixteen of those. I did this by cutting three 6-1/2 inch wide strips across the width of the fabric (wof) and then cutting six 6-1/2 inch squares from each strip. I had enough of the fabric, that I could "fussy cut" (chose where I was going to cut) where I cut the strips to feature either the word Bronco or the horse's head. (I initially cut twenty squares but settled on just using sixteen of them.)

I arranged the squares on my design wall to make sure I didn't have two similar blocks next to each other.

With the blue and orange flannel fabrics, I cut 3-1/2 inch wide strips across the wof from each color. I sewed two strips together, one of each color and made a bunch of these. They will form what looks like the blue and orange squares that the Bronco squares rests on. This technique is called "strip piecing".

I pressed them open and

then cut across in either 3-1/2 inch pieces (called a twozie*) that will be used with the 6-1/2 inch focal print square 

or

6-1/2 inch square pieces also a twozie* that will be used in rows with other 6-1/2 inch square twozies*.

That's it. After I have all of my pieces cut,  I go back to my design wall and lay the pieces out in the pattern. Look at the picture on the right at the top row above the blue line. This row consists of the 3-1/2 inch twozies* and the 6-1/2 inch focal print squares. (There is a twozie* before and after each focal print alternating for a checkered board effect. As you look at the picture you can see the fourzie** that forms with the twozies* since they come before and after the focal print. The row consists of four focal prints squares and eight twozies*.) 

or

eight of the 6-1/2 inch square twozies*  cut from the orange and blue wide sewed strips. (just below the blue line) Every other square is inverted to give a checkered board effect.

To further show making the row with the focal print, first sew two of the twozies* together alternating the colors to make a fourzie**. (four squares sewed together) (I know you can't see this in the picture.) Press the seam to one direction.

Then sew the fourzies** between the focal print starting and ending each row with a twozie*.

I did the same for the other row of just 6-1/2 inch twozies alternating across for the checkered board look. The top three rows are sewed in the picture, but not sewed together even thought it looks like it in the picture. I usually wait until I have all of the rows made, but you don't have to.

When you are ready to sew the rows together, the only seams that you have to match are the ones between what is the 12-1/2 inch block. To make this easier, I resort to my normal way of pressing seams...the odd numbered rows, I press back toward the beginning of the row and the even numbered rows, I press toward the end of the row. This allows me to "nest" the seams. 

I finished the top by repeating a  row of the 6-1/2 inch square twozies* and sewed one on the top and the other one on the bottom. 

To machine quilt the blanket, I first sewed an asterisk in the center of each focal square. This was a fancy stitch on my machine that made a line of these. I just stopped it when it finished the asterisk. Look closely - it is below the big C in Broncos and the ER in Denver.

I made sure I had the layers flat and pinned it in each corner and then pinned the center where I would stitch the asterisk. 

After that I machine stitched along the seams of the 12-1/2 inch block horizontally and vertically with a wavy pattern my machine will make.

Depending on the look you want for your quilt, if you want it to look 3 dimensional, if you want to use prints instead of solid colors for the background, choose small prints  so that the seams won't stand out. You also should not chose a directional print since you are alternating/inverting the background pieces. 

As I said earlier, I know I will be making another quilt by this pattern for Blankets of Hope.*** I would love to see pictures of your finished quilt, if you decide to give the pattern a try. If you have any questions just ask in the comments. 

My finished quilt/blanket for Henry was 48 x 54 inches.

 

It consisted of five rows of the 6-1/2 inch square orange and blue fourzies** (eight 6-1/2 inch twozies* sewed together) 

and four rows of the 3-1/2 inch twozies* before and after each focal print. (eight 3-1/2 inch twozies* on each row and four 6-1/2 inch focal print squares.) 

If you do the math, from the 3-1/2 inch x wof strips, I started with each color and cut thirty-two 3-1/2 inch twozies* and forty 6-1/2 inch twozies*. So I cut about 10 strips of each color, orange and blue - 3-1/2 inches x wof from approximately 1 yard of fabric of each color. I had a yard of the Bronco focal print.

* a twozie or two squares sewed together

** a fourzie or two sets of twozies sewed together. The four smaller squares can be four different colors or two different colors arranged with the same colors/prints sewed* diagonally from each other.

*** I picked out three pieces for the Blanket of Hope. What do you think?