Making a square quilt out of circles – OLFA rulers make it work!

My advice yesterday was to always have SCHMETZ Piecing and Quilting Assorted Needles and neutral threads such as Gütermann Cotton 50wt Thread in Lt. Slate and Gütermann Cotton 50wt Thread in Ivory. These items should be in all quilting studios as basic items.

Gütermann neutral threads and SCHMETZ needles

I mentioned three OLFA rulers in the list of notions and tools I listed in Monday’s post, Quilt a Cathedral Window Quilt! For best results use OLFA tools. I used the OLFA 12¹⁄₂″ Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler to cut the 8½” x 8½” fabric squares I needed to cut the circles. Tomorrow, I’ll show how I use the OLFA 4¹⁄₂″ Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler. Today, my ruler of choice is the OLFA 6¹⁄₂″ Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler as it’s the perfect size.

OLFA rulers

I placed the OLFA 6¹⁄₂″ square ruler on the side of the circle that has the slit. I squared off the ruler on the circle. By moving the ruler, I was able to get a 5⅜” x 5⅜” square.

Note: Don’t worry if the slip is close to the edge of the ruler. This will not matter once the sewing and quilting are completed.

Squaring off the ruler on a circle

After finding the square, I marked the outline with a pencil. I repeated this step in all circles.

Mark a square outline on all circles.

I pinned all circles in pairs trying to match the drawn line as best as possible

Pin circles in pairs.

Once I completed the pinning, I sewed along the marked lines.

Sew along the mark lines to sew the two circles together.

I then sewed all pairs together making sets of four.

Sew pairs of circles into sets of four.

Then, I pressed down all the curved edges.

Press curved edges.

The second last step is to sew the four sets of four circles together making a square quilt. Then press down the curved edges between the rows.

Join the four rows together and press down the curved edges.

This last step is two steps in one – quilting by sewing down the edges of the curves. This step completes the Cathedral Window Quilt.

Note: If I made much larger circles, I’d consider adding more quilting in the center of the circles.

Completed Cathedral Window Quilt

Having the correct tools and notions, like the OLFA 12¹⁄₂″ Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler, the OLFA 4¹⁄₂″ Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler, and the OLFA 6¹⁄₂″ Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler makes this an easy-to-make quilt. It’s a perfect project for a sew day or retreats. Give it a try!

Great tools and notions are must-haves in a quilting kit.

Tomorrow I’ll give everyone a couple of suggestions on what to do with the leftover scraps from making this quilt. I’ll also show you an awesome notion to use with batting. It’s so cool.

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: Sewing up circular quilt sandwiches for the Cathedral Window Quilt

Go to part 5: How 128 leftover corner pieces of fabric make 2” x 2” four-patch blocks

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