Quilt-along Materials List

You guys! I'm so energized by your excitement for this quilt-along. I even have a really awesome related giveaway to announce soon for my quilt-along peeps (international too!).

I went ahead and started a flickr group so that we can share pictures of our fabric selections, progress and finished quilts. It'll also be a great place to chat about the quilt-along, ask questions, and give each other support. The group has only been live for a day and already -- eeek! -- we have 45 members! If you haven't joined yet, hop on over and join! Remember, you can quilt along at your own pace, whether that's now or after the holidays.

Pick your size
When I decided to do this quilt-along, it was really important to me to offer the pattern in various sizes. Some people love big quilts but others would prefer to make a baby-sized one and, let's face it, it's a pain in the butt to scale a project down yourself.

So I've calculated fabric requirements for four sizes:

• Baby (36" x 48")
• What I'm calling "petite" (48"x 60")
• Lap (60" x 72")
• And the original "manly" size (72" x 84")

Go here to see the sizes side by side as well as some examples of some of the ways you can use color with this pattern. Okay, do you know what size you want to make? Great, let's move on to the materials you'll need.

Materials List
Regardless of what size quilt you decide to make, you'll need:

• A rotary cutter and cutting mat 
• A quilting ruler(s). A 12" square ruler will be very handy when trimming up your blocks. You'll also want a ruler that is at least 19" long.
• 12" x 12" paper -- I use scrapbooking paper
• Regular old stick glue
• Thread for piecing your blocks and thread for quilting your quilt
• Cotton batting (I like Warm & Natural or Warm & White -- both easily found at JoAnn's)
• Basting pins or spray adhesive
• Walking foot attachment for your machine (highly recommended) 
• ADDED 11/11: Something to use as your trapezoid template. We'll use this template to speed up the cutting process. Don't worry, I'll walk you through how to make the trapezoid shaped template with a straight ruler. You can use a sheet of template plastic, cardstock, or even scrapbooking paper taped together. Whatever you use, it will need to be at least 18 inches long.  This will all make more sense when we get to the cutting part of the tutorial. If the idea of cutting trapezoids is giving you a headache, you can just make rectangles. If you do this, you'll have more scraps and you'll need just a bit more fabric. The trapezoids were my answer to minimizing scraps. I've included a visual below. 
• ADDED 11/14: (Optional) Fabric marker -- This will be helpful when tracing and cutting out the trapezoids.

Fabric requirements
The blocks for this quilt are made using three shapes: long strips for the lattice (A), trapezoids (or rectangles) (B) for the background, and triangles (C) for the (eventual) center squares.

OPTION 1: Using trapezoids. See how little waste there is?

 

OPTION 2: Using rectangles. This is definitely the way to go if you want an easier, quicker route.

Your triangle pieces (C) will start off as 5.75" squares of fabric. How much fabric variety you have among your triangles is completely up to you. I believe I had 19 different fabrics in my original Urban Lattice quilt. For my quilt this time around, I have 24 fabrics pulled to be used as the triangles. But you may just want to use 10 or 12 or even six. So in the fabric requirement lists below, instead of giving a yardage amount for the triangles, I will give you just the total number of squares you will need to cut. Make sense?


If you are making the manly size quilt you will need:

• 1 yard of center strip fabric (A) for 42 strips
• 6 yards of background fabric (B) for 84 trapezoids (6.25 yards if you are doing rectangles)
• 42 5.75" squares that will be cut in half to make 84 triangles (C)

If you are making the lap size quilt you will need:

• 3/4 yard of center strip fabric (A) for 30 strips
  
• 4 1/3 yards of background fabric (B) for 60 trapezoids (4.5 yards if you are doing rectangles)
• 30 5.75" squares that will be cut in half to make 60 triangles (C)

If you are making the petite size quilt you will need:

• 1/2 yard of center strip fabric (A) for 20 strips
  
• 3 yards of background fabric (B) for 40 trapezoids (3.25 yards if you are doing rectangles)
• 20 5.75" squares that will be cut in half to make 40 triangles (C)

If you are making the baby size quilt you will need:

• 1/4 yard or fat quarter of center strip fabric (A) for 12 strips
  
• 2 yards of background fabric (B) for 24 trapezoids (2.25 yards if you are doing rectangles)
• 12 5.75" squares that will be cut in half to make 24 triangles (C)

 Please note: I have not included yardage for the binding as there are various ways to bind (I bind most of my quilts with 2.5" strips) and I want you to do what you're most comfortable with. As it relates to the binding, I would highly suggest that the color match that of your center strips. I also have not included yardage requirements for the back of the quilt since this is an area where you can really customize the quilt and I want you to feel free to do whatever you want -- a sheet or a pieced backing or whatever. 

What do you think? Does this give you enough info to start pulling fabrics and brainstorming?  My background fabric and center strip fabric is being mailed to me as we speak and I hope to be cutting into it this weekend. As I get pictures taken of my progress, I'll start posting the first parts of the tutorial.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Click here for the next quilt-along post.