Essence of Pearl

Here’s a strip-pieced project.

MATERIALS

• 3/ 8 yard light green/lilac floral (1)* • 3/ 8 yard purple sprigs print (2)* • 3/ 8 yard each lilac (3), green (4) and purple leaf prints (5)* • 3/ 8 yard seafoam (6) and sage wavy prints (7)* • 3/ 8 yard purple blossom print (8)* • 3/ 8 yard purple small floral (9)* • 5/ 8 yard lilac sprigs print (10)* • 5/ 8 yard light sage dragonfly tonal (11)* • 2/ 3 yard lilac dragonfly print (14)* • 3/4 yard each lilac (12) and silver dragonfly (13) tonals* • 3/4 yard light sage dragonfly print (15)* • 13/4 yards white/silver sprigs print (16)* • 8 yards white tonal • Backing to size • Batting to size • Thread • Spray starch or spray stabilizer • Template material • Basic sewing tools and supplies *Essence of Pearl fabric collection by Kanvas Studio, a division of Benartex, used to make sample.

CUTTING

To minimize stretching on the bias edges of pieces, apply a heavy coat of spray starch or spray stabilizer to the wrong side of fabrics before cutting; press dry. Fabrics were assigned numbers in the list of materials. Those numbers will be used instead of fabric names in the cutting and in the instructions to avoid name confusion. Pin identifying numbers on the fabrics, on the strips after cutting, on strip sets and finally on the A, B, C and D units. From fabrics 1–9: • Cut 6 (11/2" by fabric width) strips

each fabric. From fabrics 10 & 11: • Cut 9 (11/2" by fabric width) strips

each fabric. From fabric 14: • Cut 12 (11/2" by fabric width) strips. From fabrics 12, 13 & 15: • Cut 14 (11/2" by fabric width) strips

each fabric. From fabric 16: • Cut 19 (11/2" by fabric width) strips. • Cut 9 (21/4" by fabric width) binding strips. From white tonal: • Cut 145 (11/2" by fabric width) strips. • Cut 14 (41/ 8" by fabric width) strips.

CREATING THE TEMPLATES

1. Cut one 151/8" square from template material. Cut the square in half on one diagonal to make two triangles. Label one triangle A and the other triangle B as shown in Figure 1. Draw lines on A and B templates referring to Figure 1.

2. Cut one 81/2" x 231/2" rectangle from template material. Measure over 81/2" from the bottom left corner and mark. Repeat on the opposite end of the rectangle, marking from the top right corner. Using a 45-degree angle on your rotary ruler, trim off the ends of the strip to make angled ends as shown in Figure 2. Label this template C.

We saw a woven throw pillow and challenged ourselves to figure it out into a quilt.” —Melanie Greseth & Joanie Holton

3. Cut one 61/2" x 211/2" rectangle from template material. Measure over 61/2" from the top left corner and mark. Using a 45-degree angle on your rotary ruler, trim off the end of the strip to make an angled end as shown in Figure 3. Repeat on the opposite end of the rectangle, marking from the bottom right corner. Label this template D.

CREATING THE STRIP- PIECED UNITS

Press all seams in the same direction on all strips after creating all strip sets.

1. Join six same-fabric 11/2" strips alternating with five 11/2" white tonal strips and add one 41/8" white tonal strip at one end to make an A/B strip set; press. Repeat to make an A/B strip set with each colored fabric except fabrics 10 and 11, to make a total of 14 A/B strip sets.

2. Join four same-fabric 11/2" strips alternating with four 11/2" white tonal strips to make C strip sets as follows: one fabric 16 and two each fabrics 12, 13 and 15.

3. Join three same-fabric 11/2" strips alternating with three 11/2" white tonal strips to make D strip sets as follows: two fabric 14 and three each fabrics 10, 11 and 16.

4. Refer to Figure 4 to cut two A units and one partial A unit from strip set 3 using the prepared A template. Repeat to cut two whole and one partial each from sets 3, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

5. Refer to Figure 5 to cut two B units from strip set 1. Repeat to cut two B units each from sets 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9.

6. Refer to Figure 6 to cut two C units from strip set 16. Repeat to cut four C units each from sets 12, 13 and 15. 7.

Refer to Figure 7 to cut three D units from strip set 14. Repeat to cut six D units each from sets 10, 11 and 16.

COMPLETING THE QUILT

Refer to the Placement Diagram for construction steps.

1. Arrange and join two each A, B, C and D units and one each partial A and complete D unit to make a vertical row, referring to Figure 8 for placement by letter and fabric number.

2. Repeat step 1 to make a total of seven vertical rows, numbering rows from 1–7 and paying careful attention to placement of rows. Note: Colors flow from one row into the next row, so color placement is crucial in creating the design. 3. Join the rows in numerical order; press. 4. Trim top and bottom edge 1/4" above the corners of the inner D units on the top and 1/4" below the inner D corners on the bottom as shown in Figure 9 to complete the quilt top.

5. Create a quilt sandwich referring to Quilting Basics on page 102. 6. Quilt as desired. 7. Bind edges referring to Quilting Basics on page 102 to finish. QW