Ground Cover Quilt Tutorial

with
Jenny Doan

Ground Cover Quilt Tutorial

Quilt Size: 68" x 77"
Time: 11 Minutes
Jenny demonstrates how to make a gorgeous Ground Cover quilt using 10-inch squares of precut fabric (layer cakes). For this project Jenny chose a "Memoirs" Layer Cake by 3 Sisters for Moda Fabrics. This quilt was designed by Barb and Mary of Me & My Sister Designs for our annual Birthday Bash Sew Off!
Supplies list
  • 1 Pack x Print 10" Quilt Squares
  • 1 Pack x Background 10" Quilt Squares
  • ¾ yd. x Binding
  • 4¾ yds. x Backing
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video transcript

Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. And today we are talking about the second Birthday Bash sew off quilt. Now in all fairness, it did come in second. They were just a little bit behind us in making it. We finished ours first. But this is nevertheless, still as darling, still as cute, love the method. Misty, bring in that Birthday Bash quilt so we can see it. Now what was fun was Me and My Sister were on the other team but we sewed with their fabric and so they sewed with Sue Daley’s fabric. This is Sue Daley’s fabric. And this is the quilt that we made at the Birthday Bash. Isn’t it darling? Now Barb and Mary have a link to a free pattern for this. And really the only difference between ours and theirs is that when you make the block you get two very similar blocks made out of the same fabric. And they put theirs side by side. In ours right here, we just mixed it all up. Thanks Misty. So it just makes it really fun and quick. Now this is a great, great quick project.


So to make this quilt behind us, we used Memoirs by 3 Sisters for Moda. And we used just about as many as we could out of a pack. Ours is a little bigger. Our quilt measures 72 by 81. Again when you get a link to the free pattern, their free pattern, I think it uses 18 blocks. But the nice thing about pre cuts is if you just add more pre cuts you just get a bigger quilt. So just don’t be afraid to do that or you can follow theirs exactly. Also we used a background squares that were white and put them together. So here’s how we do this. It’s so cute. And so quick.


So we’re going to take a white ten inch square just like this. We’re going to take a colored ten inch square just like this. Line them up exactly. Then we’re going to come in and cut 2 ½ inches from the side. You know what I’m actually going to flop these over because it will be easier for you to see. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to lay our ruler right on the 2 ½ inch mark. And we are going to cut this on all four sides. So we’ve got 2 ½ here and we’ve got, we come over to this side and we’re going to cut 2 ½ again just like this. And I’m going to swap hands and you can do this if you do it very slowly just like this. Then we’re going to also cut 2 ½ top and bottom. So you’re going to go side to side, top to bottom. Line it up on your 2 ½ inch mark, make your cut and then come up here and do the same. So this one is actually going to be a little trickier. This would be a great time for a rotating mat. And I actually am just going to rotate my blocks because I don’t want to cut off a limb on YouTube although that would probably get a lot of views, wouldn’t it. Alright, here we go. I’m just going to cut off this side now. 2 ½ from the edge. I’ve got them all lined up, coming in from the edge. Alright now what I’m going to do is I’m going to lay these back here just like they are and hope I get them right. I’m going to get them close either way. Alright here we go.


The fun thing about this is that the way this comes together. You’re just going to take these two squares and we are going to put that one there and this white one out here. And we’re going to build two blocks. So our corner blocks are going to have the reds in it right here. And then we’re going to put these whites out here in this corner like this. Let me get this out of the way. And then we’re going to put our whites over here and our reds here. And then your middle bar is going to be your opposite color. So we’ll leave the white here and pull the red over here. You see what’s happening here? It’s so cute. They’re just so clever those Me and My Sister. If you’ve ever met Barb and Mary Grove, they are just, I mean it’s Barb Grove and Mary Jacobson and they’re sisters and their whole fabric line is called Me and My Sister. And if you ask them which one is the sister they’re going to say, she is. Just like that. They’re just so cute. Really good friends to us here. Alright so now look at these blocks. I know I was talking while that was all going around. But basically you’ve got your middles opposite, your edges are opposite and your corners are going to match your middle. So now we want to sew these together. And I would just sew this like a nine patch, so three rows of three.


So I’m going to sew my two little 2 ½ inch squares to either end of this little side piece right here. Alright now let me move this out of the way. I’m just going to do a quarter of an inch. Going to trim our threads and then turn this around and put this other quarter of an inch on here like this. And now with that being said is one of those what if things for me where I think of a lot of different things. So if you change the size of your cutting. You change your colors around, you lay them in a stack and rotate them. I mean these could be completely scrappy. There’s so many things you could do with a pattern like this. Alright now I’m sewing these side pieces to our middle like this. And then I’m going to flip this around and put the other side piece on here. Right sides together, a quarter of an inch right down the side like this. I’m going to trim my threads and then I’m going to finger press this open so that it just lays a little flatter. And now we’ll sew this bottom row right here. And again I’m just putting my little white squares against the color. On the other one you’ll do exactly the opposite. Now I haven’t really ironed any of these down yet. And that’s because I just want to make sure that as I’m putting this together I want these little seams that come between my wide rows and my skinny rows, I want them to nest. So what I’m going to do is I”m going to lay this piece on top of here like this. And I”m going to push my big seam to the middle. And I’m going to lay my small seam to the outside. And so I’m just going to match up this edge, take a few little stitches and then line up these two right here, make sure these nest right together. Sew right down. Make sure this goes to the middle. Sometimes I forget that but I’m going to try really hard to remember it this time. The big square our seams are going to go in. Our little sides the seams are going to go out. And we’re going to sew right across here. Alright now let’s go ahead and add the last piece to the other side and sew this down. Ok hang on, I’m losing my pedal. My long legs push that pedal way back. Alright seam to the middle, the big seam goes in and then this one is also going to go in. The big seam goes in, the little seam goes out. Make sure these stay lined up. And we’re going to trim off these threads right here. I’ve got a few little extra threads. If you ever get a sewing machine with a scissor cutter, oh I love those scissor cutters. They’re so good. This little Jubilant is just a handy little machine to use and it’s a great starter machine for anybody who’s looking for a great starter machine. I try to sew with, you know I don’t ever want you to think that you can’t what I make with any machine, because you can. You just need one that runs.


Alright here’s our little block right here. Its sister block is going to have the red in the middle. So let’s take a look at some of these blocks on the quilt behind us. So we have, let’s see if I can find some sisters here. Well here’s this block right here. White middle with the little roses. And then down here is the rose middle with the little edges. Let’s find a couple more. Let’s see. We’ve got this one right here, red middle, white borders with the red cornerstones. And then this one, white middle, red borders with the white cornerstones on there. And so the sister blocks, we just spread them throughout the quilt and mixed them up. Now you’ll notice on the edge of this, there is no border. You can do a quilt with no border. This one we just put a little binding on. We have our backing back here. Here’s our backing. It’s a nice floral. We just have a little binding on here, about ¾ of a yard to bind a quilt this side. And it just comes together so quick. Now you can, again, there’s a free link to that pattern. It’s called Ground Cover. And you’ll be able to see it and go there. Their quilt is a little smaller. You make yours whatever size you want. And I hope you enjoyed seeing these sew off quilts from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

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