Making a dashing Mary Batik churn dash cushion cover

Glad you’re here! Today we will double the fun with a second quilted cushion cover. In yesterday’s post, we quilted and assembled a cushion cover. We’re using the rust colorway of the batik fabric line Mary – new to quilt shops this month from Banyan Batiks. We focused on the secondary design in the first cushion, this time it’s back to basics with all the focus on the churn dashes.

The batik fabrics might still steal the show, but the churn dashes are up for the challenge! You’ll have enough leftovers from the first cushion or you could try out another colorway of Mary – check out the green here😉

Fabric Requirements

Leftovers of Fabrics A, B, C, D, and F (cutting directions follow below)

A – Rust colorway Mary 80075-34

B – coordinating Ketan batik 81000-310 (Nougat)

C – Pink colorway Mary 80076-22

D – Rust colorway Mary 80072-37

leftover of fat quarter of coordinating Ketan batik 81000-377 (Chestnut Orange)

fat quarter of coordinating Ketan batik 81000-370 (Light Cinnamon)

fat quarter from stash for backing of front cushion panel

batting – 20″ square

Cutting directions for churn dash blocks

We’re making 2 sets of churn dash blocks, each set using two fabrics.

Fabric A

4 – 4″ squares
8 – 2″ x 3½” rectangle units
1 – 3½” square

Fabric B

4 – 4″ squares
8 – 2″ x 3½” rectangle units
1 – 3½” square

Fabric C

4 – 4″ squares
8 – 2″ x 3½” rectangle units
1 – 3½” square

Fabric D

4 – 4″ squares
8 – 2″ x 3½” rectangle units
1 – 3½” square

Make Half Square Triangles (HSTs)

Draw one diagonal line on the back of EACH Fabric C 4″ square.

With Right Sides Together, sew one Fabric C 4″ square to one Fabric A 4″ square sewing ¼” away on each side of drawn line.

Cut on the drawn line to create 2 HSTs; press the seams to Fabric A.

Trim each HST to 3½” square.

Repeat steps 1-3 to create a total of 8 HSTs.

Make Dash units

Make dash units by sewing one Fabric C rectangle along a long edge of a Fabric A rectangle; press the seam to the Fabric A side. Unit should measure 3½” square.
Repeat to make 8 total units.

Assemble rows

Referring to the photo below, layout the units you’ve made to sew them into rows.

To start make a block with the Fabric A as the churn dash and Fabric C as the background.

Sew the units into rows. Press the seams once the full row is sewn, pressing the top row to the right, the middle to the left, and the bottom row to the right.

Sew the rows together to complete the churn dash block. Press the seams away from the middle row. The churn dash block should measure 9½” square.

Repeat with the remaining Fabric A/C units to make a second churn dash block, this time with a Fabric C churn.

Now use the Fabric B and D pieces to make two more churn dashes. Remember to rotate the units to make one Fabric B churn and one Fabric D churn.

Now you should have four different churn dash blocks. I love the contrast between the two sets! Initially, I thought I would just sew these blocks beside each other and add a border to the outside, but even though I like how each fabric would meet in the center I felt the result was too busy. The churn dashes got lost where the different blocks meet.

To make sure the beautiful bold Mary batiks don’t become a blur I decided to add a sashing. But that’s enough for one day!

Come back tomorrow and see how adding some Ketan batiks to the Mary batiks help to make the churn dashes come out and shine.