I am well into my second Sidewalk quilt. I got such good feedback on it at the guild meeting last month that I decided to write a tutorial for it. I want to encourage people to make donation quilts using the 16 patch blocks the guild makes tons of. This tutorial will enable you to make one of your own.
I saw the original quilt at the Sonoma County Fair. There was no attribution. If I find that someone has written a pattern for the quilt, I will add a link here.
Supplies
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- Sewing machine
- Background fabric
- Random scraps
- Basic sewing kit
- Thread
- Iron
- Pressing surface
- Graph paper
- Pencil
- Optional: Colored pencils
Draw
1. Draw out the design on graph paper
2 Mark the pieces that will be background. You could do this with colored pencils
3. Mark, or color in, the pieces that will be your foreground
4. Count up the pieces on your design and confirm my math is correct.
This gives you a map to work from.
Cut
Nota bene: Cutting directions are duplicated below. I have included cutting here in case you want to cut the background in advance.
Cut 25 4.5 in. x 4.5 in. background patches (B blocks)
Cut 16 8.5 in. x 8.5 in. background patches (C blocks)
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- I used one full yard to cut these 8.5 inch blocks out.
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Sew
1. Create 40 8.5 in. x 4.5 in. patchwork blocks, unfinished. (A blocks) There are several ways to do this:
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- half 16 patch using 2.5 in. squares
- scraps, e.g. blue strip blocks
- improv piecing similar to my improv donation quilts / made fabric
- one solid piece of fabric cut at 4.5 in. by 8.5 in.
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2. Cut 25 4.5 in. x 4.5 in. background patches (B blocks)
3. Sew 24 4.5 in. x 4.5 in. background squares (B blocks) to 24 patchwork pieces (A blocks). This creates an A+B block.
3A. Keep back 8 A+B blocks for the ‘border’ or outside edge
4. Press to the background squares (B blocks), because there is less bulk. If you are using white, there might be a shadow.
5. Cut 16 8.5 in. x 8.5 in. background squares (C blocks)
6. Sew 16 8.5 in. x 8.5 in. background squares (C blocks) to 16 patchwork pieces (A blocks). This creates an A+C block
7. Press to the background squares (C blocks)
8. Sew 1 4.5 in. background + patchwork combination block (A+B block) to 1 A+C block )8.5 in. background + patchwork combination block).
You will end up with a block like the one shown on the left.
You need a total of 16 of these blocks, so go ahead and sew them.
9. Put all of your blocks on the design wall.
10. Rearrange them until you like the design.
As I was looking at these blocks on the design wall, I realized that I had focused on putting like blues together rather than mixing them up, so in this arrangement there are big blobs of dark blues that I will need to mix up before I sew the blocks together.
11. Find the 8 A+B blocks for the ‘border’ or outside edge that you set aside in step 3A. Position them along the right side and the top.
12. Add your last B block to the corner.
13. Chunk your blocks together.
14. Make a back
15. Make a binding
16. Take to your longarmer or quilt as desired.
I am having a fun time trying different things with this pattern and I hope you will as well.
Pattern for improv version.
I’ll make updates if needed. Remember: this is a free tutorial that I created in my spare time. Thank you!
