How to make quilt blocks from strip sets | 5 easy steps

Yesterday on QUILTsocial, I showed you how to cut receiving blankets and coordinating fabrics to prepare for making blocks for a quilt. I used my OMNIGRID Ruler – 6″ x 12″ (15.2 x 30.5cm) and my OLFA RTY-2/GP5 – Printed Handle Rotary Cutter 45mm to cut fifteen 3¼” strips from the receiving blankets, ten 1½” wide strips of gray fabric and sixty 2½” x 10½” strips of pink fabric.

Today, I’m using all of these strips to sew together strip sets and then use my OMNIGRID Ruler – 121⁄2″ x 121⁄2″ (31.75 x 31.75cm) to cut these into sections to make the blocks.

Step 1 Sew together the strips.

The first thing I’ll do is sew together three different receiving blanket strips with two strips of gray fabric. None of these strips are the same length, so I’ll just line up one end of each of them and sew them together.

After I add each strip, I’ll press the seams to one side using my OLISO PRO^TM TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron – Tula Pink^TM.

Step 2 Square up the end of the strip set.

Once the five strips have been sewn togther, I’ll square up the end of the strip set using my OLFA RTY-2/GP5 – Printed Handle Rotary Cutter 45mm and my OMNIGRID Ruler – 121⁄2″ x 121⁄2″ (31.75 x 31.75cm). The best way to do this is to line up the seams of the strip set with the horizontal lines on the ruler and then trim off the uneven left-hand side of the strip set.

Step 3 Cut sections from the strip set.

Now that the left-hand edge of the strip set is squared off, I’ll use my OLFA RTY-2/GP5 – Printed Handle Rotary Cutter 45mm and my OMNIGRID Ruler – 121⁄2″ x 121⁄2″ (31.75 x 31.75cm) to cut the strip sets into 6½” sections. I line up the sewn seams with the lines on the ruler each time I cut to make sure that each of the sections is cut correctly. If needed, I’ll square up the edge before cutting the next section.

Because of the length of the receiving blankets, I’m able to cut six sections from each of my strips sets. The far end of each strip set looks like this. After cutting my six sections, I’ll set the ends of the strip sets aside – I’ll use them when I’m making the backings for the quilts.

Step 4 Sew on the two sides of the block.

Next, I’ll sew one of the pink 2½” x 10½” strips of fabric to each long side of these strip set sections. This will result in a block that is 10½” square. I’ll press each of these seams towards the pink fabrics.

Step 5 Repeat.

Now that one block is stitched and trimmed, I’ll sew the remaining pink fabric strips to the rest of the strip set sections. Once I’m done, I’ll have 30 blocks. If you don’t end up with 30 blocks after cutting your strip sets, you can either make more strip sets OR just make a smaller quilt. Alternatively, you can make more strip sets and make more blocks to make an even bigger quilt. This pattern is very versatile.

Now that I’ve got all my blocks made, tomorrow I’ll assemble the top of the quilt. It’ll be so cute when it’s done – I can’t wait to see it. Using my OLFA RTY-2/GP5 – Printed Handle Rotary Cutter 45mm and my OMNIGRID Ruler – 121⁄2″ x 121⁄2″ (31.75 x 31.75cm) to cut the strip sets into 6½” sections made the process easy and accurate. See you tomorrow.

This is part 2 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 1: Upcycle baby receiving blankets into meaningful memory quilts