Chevron Quilt Tutorial

This weekend was my sister-in-law's bridal shower in Sherman! She told me that she really wanted a hand made quilt, so I decided to make one for her. She told me that she really likes grey and white chevron, so that's what I decided to do. I made the back a dark navy blue. It turned out to be the best quilt I've done to date (this is only my 3rd one).

Here is a mini-how-to for this quilt:

First of all, I used 80 (9" by 9") squares (10 rows of 8). I think the finished quilt was about 76" x 72" (these aren't exact dimensions because I can't remember for sure!

So, on to the how-to:

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First things first! ALWAYS pre-wash your material. Right after I got home from the fabric store, I threw my material into the washing machine. When it's done washing, I throw it in the drier with a fabric softener sheet to make it nice and soft. When the material is dry, iron all the wrinkles out. 

Note: make sure you don't wash lights and darks together in case they fade/stain the lighter colors!

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I figured out a much quicker way to cut out the squares this time around. For the first quilt I ever made, I used fat quarters and I cut out all the squares individually. This time, after ironing the fabric, I started folding the material over and over again until I got it down to a nice square. (If you do it this way, be sure to flatten out all the layers so you don't have folds in the middle of one square when you're done.)

Once the material is all folded up, lay a 9" by 9" square piece of tissue paper on the top and pin. Next, use the rotary cutter to trim off the edges. You should be left with a nice pile of uniform squares.

Maybe I'm a moron for not figuring out how to cut squares like this sooner, but I felt like I had a revelation when I finished cutting squares in about 10 minutes instead of 2 hours!

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Once all the squares are cut, stacked one grey square and one white square on top of each other, pin them together, and then draw a straight diagonal line from one corner to the opposite one, creating two triangles. Next, sew two straight lines on each side of the diagonal (see below).

Next, take the rotary cutter and cut on the drawn diagonal. When you unfold the pieces, you should have two squares with a grey triangle on one side and a white triangle on the other (see below).

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Arrange the squares in the pattern you want for the top of the quilt. Sew blocks together to form 10 rows in the pattern you have selected. Sew individual rows first, then combine them.

This is what my rows ended up looking like. Note, every other row will have a slightly different pattern in order to make the chevron. When you sew all the rows together they should look like this:

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Once the top of the quilt is sewn together, lay out the material for the bottom of the quilt and pull tight so there are no bunches in the material. Next roll out the batting, and then lay the top over that. 

Carefully start safety pinning the layers together. I start by first pinning the corners and then working my way down the sides and then fill in the middle, but it's really up to you however you find this easiest. 

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Once all the pins are in place, roll the edges of the quilt to make it easier to fit into your sewing machine. You can do whatever pattern you like for the quilting, but no matter what pattern you do, you should start somewhere in the middle of the quilt and sew outwards making sure all the layers are flat under the needle so they don't bunch up.

For the stitching on this quilt, I did a little pattern on the grey stripes, and I left the white blank. Here's what I did:

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After you've done all the quilting your little heart desires, cut all the strings where you picked up the needle, and then take a straight edge down the side of the quilt and cut off all the excess batting to make a nice straight edge on all sides of the quilt. 

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Cut strips for the binding 2 1/2" thick to go around the perimeter of the quilt. Always cut extra so that you have enough binding to turn the corners.

Once you cut the strips and sew them all together in a continuous string, iron it in half longways and sew it to the quilt! You may need to find a tutorial to teach you how to attach the binding. I don't find it to be that difficult, but the first time you do it can be tricky.

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You are done!! Happy quilting!