MERRY BERRY
Featuring rich berry tones paired with pops of citrus yellow and orange, Hadley Gordon’s quilt top looks good enough to eat.
Featuring rich berry tones and pops of citrus yellow and orange, Hadley Gordon’s quilt top looks good enough to eat.
A drunkard's path unit is perfect for first- time sewing with curves – just take your time to pin accurately and take it slow and steady on your machine.
FABRIC USED
■ Corsage in Clementine from the Sunprint collection by Alison Glass. ■ Haystack Bouquet in Navy from the True Colours collection by Anna Maria Horner. ■ Wildflowers in Blaze from the Nordika collection by Jeni Baker. ■ Pointelle in Yellow from the Art Gallery Fabrics Chromatics collection.
CUTING OUT
1 Cut the background fabric ( white) into twenty ( 20) 4 ½ in x WOF strips, use Template A ( see page 100) to subcut one hundred and seventy- six ( 176) white concave DP pieces.
2 Cut each of Fabric A, B and C into four ( 4) 4in x WOF strips. Cut Fabric D into seven ( 7) 4in x WOF strips.
3 Use Template B ( see page 100) to subcut convex DP pieces, as follows: ■ Fabric A ( yellow) – forty ( 40) convex DP pieces. ■ Fabric B ( red) – thirty two ( 32) convex DP pieces. ■ Fabric C ( purple) – forty ( 40) convex DP pieces. ■ Fabric D ( orange) – sixty- four ( 64) convex DP pieces. 4 Cut one ( 1) 8 ½ in x WOF strip from Fabric A, B and C and subcut as follows: ■ Fabric A ( yellow) and Fabric C ( purple) into four ( 4) 8 ½ in squares. ■ Fabric B ( red) into three ( 3) 8 ½ in squares and two ( 2) 8 ½ in x 4 ½ in rectangles.
5 Cut two ( 2) 8 ½ in x WOF strips from Fabric D ( orange). Subcut into six ( 6) 8 ½ in squares and four ( 4) 8 ½ in x 4 ½ in rectangles.
6 If using a single fabric for the binding cut seven ( 7) 2 ½ in x WOF strips. If using up left- over fabrics, cut 2 ½ in wide strips and sew together end- to- end to create a strip at least 270in long.
PREPARING THE DRUNKARD’S PATH UNITS
7 Sew together each DP unit, matching one background ( white) concave DP piece with one Fabric A,B,C or D ( coloured) convex DP piece. To do this, take one template A piece and finger press a crease at the centre point of the curve. Do the same on a template B piece. Place the pieces right sides together, matching up these crease lines, and pin at this point ( Fig 1).
Now match up the side edges and pin there. Add further pins along the curve,
easing the fabric curves together. Sew the pieces together with a scant ¼ in seam. Clip into the curved seam at intervals and then press the seam towards the white background fabrics. Check that the sewn unit is 4 ½ in square and trim, if necessary.
8 When all of the DP units have been sewn, set aside four ( 4) Fabric B ( red) units and eight ( 8) Fabric D ( orange) units. Sew the remaining units into colour matched pairs ( Fig 2).
9 Take an 8 ½ in square the same colour as two pairs of DP units and sew to opposite sides ( Fig 3). 10 Sew your remaining orange and red paired units to one long side of each of the matching rectangle pieces ( Fig 4). 11 Using Fig 5 and the quilt layout diagram as a guide, sew alternate paired units in strips. Note the positions of the single units set aside previously, adding these to the sides of the strips where shown.
12 Sew the large pieced units into strips, using the layout diagram as a guide.
13 When all strips are pieced, place them on a design wall or floor and double check the shapes and colour placement matches the layout diagram. Now complete the quilt top, stitching the strips together and taking care to match all seams.
14 If piecing the backing, ensure it measures at least 70in square. Make a quilt sandwich of the backing, right side down, the batting and the quilt top, right side up, and baste using your preferred method. Quilt as desired. We quilted offset, intersecting circles all over our quilt.
15 Square up the quilt, removing excess batting and backing. Join the binding strips together into one long length and press in half along the length, wrong sides together. Use this double- fold binding to bind your quilt, mitring the corners neatly.