Quilt Along Week 2

Quilt Along Week 2- Cutting the Fabric for your quilt

Week 2 means we have our fabric and supplies, and we are ready to get started.
You need: an iron, a rotary cutter, cutting mat, straight edge, and fabric
ok... good luck see ya next week
Just kidding! Let's get started
First I like to lay out all of my fabrics, sometimes you can tell one isn't going to match or go for the look you are going for, I actually eliminated a fabric when I did this.

Next you want to iron out all of your fabrics. You want nice straight cuts and nothing ruins that faster than lumps, bumps, and wrinkles. So get out your hot iron and press all of your fabrics.

After ironing all of your fabrics we are ready to cut! Ok so here I have layed out one of my fabrics on my cutting mat. After I ironed it, I matched it up along the "selvages" The selvages are the pieces you won't be using in your quilt fabric, usually it is a plain color and has the maker of the fabric written on it or they are frayed edges. You want a nice smooth edge to start your cutting, so we need to cut this off. If you have never made a cut into fabric before and are nervous, go to youtube and look for how to videos on cutting fabric. They give a lot of good tips. And a good tip I'll give you, start with your least favorite fabric first, in case you mess up lol

A good thing to remember is everything is fixable, don't stress! So line up your straight edge across your cutting mat, whip out your blade and go to town!

Ok, make your cut! You did it! ahhh look at that nice straight edge! Voila, you are catching on fast!! Ok, now you can move your straight edge down to measure three inches, make your cut. Then6 inches and again 9 inches. Next you will cut your strips into squares that are 3'x3', 6x6 and 9x9. I promise it's as easy as it sounds. If you were/are good at math/geometry this will come a little easier, if you weren't/aren't don't you worry you will get it! My first quilt I messed up the first two fabrics and now look at me, on my own :)

From the fabric I have been showing you, it was a 1/2 yard cut and I got four 9' squares, six 6' squares, and 18 3' squares. Obviously you want to mix up your cuts for each fabrics to give yourself a varation and you don't need 400 3' squares... get me.

Now move on to the rest of your fabrics, cutting them the same. In the end you want a total of thirty 9' squares, thirty 6' squares, and thirty 3' squares. After I cut my material I had thirty-six 9' squares, fifty-three 6' squares, and one hundred and tweleve 3' squares. Whoa Brittany! Too many!!! I know I know.. I like to have the choice of varation and I'm working on a scrap quilt too. You do as you like :)

Doesn't it feel good to be finished with the cutting, look it only took two seconds, JOKE! It takes a while and you want to take your time. So be patient! Not much longer and these little squares will be a blanket in your house!! Ok one more look at our hard work.... feels good my friends.

See ya next week ladies! We'll start putting together our squares!