Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And we’ve got a great project for you today. This is a new take on our Lattice quilt. And it’s just so fun how you add one more little element and it makes a whole different project. And I really love it when that happens. Let’s take a look at this quilt behind me. Alright so take a look at this. This is just like our Lattice quilt but we’ve added this cool element here with a little four patch and two strips giving it a checkered look. And it just makes this quilt come alive. I’ve also got a new technique to show you on how to cut those quarter square triangles. So to make this quilt what you’re going to need is one packet of ten inch squares. And we are using Vintage Daydream by Dani for Riley Blake. And you can see it’s just a fun line. You’re also going to need ¾ of a yard for your inner border and a yard and a half for your outer border. For your backing you’re going to need about 5 ¼ yards. And we’ve actually kind of doubled up on our fabric here. We’ve used two different ones. So we used that and that. And sometimes we do that because we just happen to have a couple of pieces so we’ll put them on and it mixes up our back a little bit and makes it kind of fun.

Ok so the first thing we’re going to do in making this quilt is we’re going to make our pieces for our checkered center. What you’re going to do to do that is you’re going to take your two colored strips like this. You’re going to take a black one and a white one, in this case. Of course, you can use any colors that go with your fabric. Or that don’t go with your fabric. You can use any colors you want is what I’m trying to say. So we’re going to sew those together, a quarter of an inch. And I have a piece that’s already done right here. So the first thing you’re going to do is seven of your strips, you’re going to cut into little inch and a half segments and sew them together to make our little four patch in the center. So what we’re going to do when we do that, let me show you right here. We’re just going to take our little ruler here. And we’re going to lay it over an inch and a half. Now our little ruler has a half inch on one side so it makes it real easy to line that edge up right there. And you’re going to need two of those for every four patch. Just like that, alright. So you’re going to make, actually you’ll make 160 of these pieces. You put them together, because you need 80 little four patches. Then what we’re going to do is we are going to cut the rest of our strips into 5 ½ inch segments. And so we’re just going to put that right there. Line that up. And I’m going to come over 5 ½ like this. And we’re going to cut the rest of our pieces like this. Alrighty. So you’ll do, you’ll need two of these and one of these for every block that you made. So let me show you how we’re going to sew these together.

We’re going to start with the four patch. When you iron to the dark side, and so that means your seam always lays toward the dark fabric. When you put them together those seams go opposite directions and so we’re going to do that. We’re just going to lay them together like this. And we’re going to sew a quarter of an inch right down that side. So let’s come over here and do that. I’m just going to sew a quarter of an inch. You make sure, you know you can feel that little junction with your finger to make sure that it’s right together. And we’re going to press this open. Oh it looks really good in the center. Love it when a plan comes together, you know. Alrighty. So here’s our little four patch right here. That little center looks really good. And then what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our center piece and we’re going to put our two side pieces on but you want to make sure they’re opposites like this. So you’re sewing the black to the white and the white to the black. Alright so let’s go over here and do that. And again just a quarter of an inch. And, oop, make sure I’ve got my white to the black and the black to the white. Alrighty. So now we have this little unit right here. We’re going to press it nice and flat. And I’m going to make my seams lay to the outside on this. And you need to do 80 of these. 80 of these for the middle of your blocks because there’s 80 blocks up there.

Alright so now we need to take and make our big half square triangle units and what we’re going to do to do that is take two squares, just like this. We’re going to put them right sides together. And just like we do on our other half square triangles we’re going to sew a quarter of an inch all the way around . I have one here that’s already done. And so you can see it has the two fabrics on it. And so what we’re going to do on this now is we’re going to cut diagonally corner to corner just like we always do and then we’re going to cut vertically and horizontally. So we’re going to make four cuts on this. And I think I’m going to go ahead and start horizontally. It’s fun if you have a rotating mat for this. It makes it a little easier. But even these mats rotate, they’re just, they’re just manual. So what I’m going to do here is I’m going to lay my ruler right here along the side. And my first two cuts are going to be horizontally and vertically. Just like this. So on a ten inch square that’s going to be five inches in. Then we’re also now without touching our fabric, we’re going to go ahead and cut it diagonally both directions. So here’s this cut right here. And then here’s this cut right here. Alright.

So now we have all these pieces like this. And they’re already seamed, look at this. Actually this technique, one of the girls who sews with me, she says couldn’t we do it this way? Couldn’t we try it this way? And I’m like, oh my gosh that really will work. And it’s always fun when you find a new little technique for this. So we’re going to press these open. And we’ll set our seam and roll them back. And just open them up. Now half of these, you want to lay them kind of in two stacks because half you’re going to have your, your pink on one side and half the pink is going to be on the other side. So make two piles because you want to make sure they’re opposites. You don’t want your same colors ending up on the same sides.

So now we’re ready to assemble our blocks. But one thing, I just want to reiterate, it’s important that your strip sets are all the same. So if you put these together on your blocks and you happen to get one this way, it’s not going to checker. So this set needs to be the same. You need to always have your, your whichever color you choose. I have my white in the top right side. And so you just make sure that these are the same and then all your blocks are going to checker. I know this because I put some together and when you put some together backwards, you know, then you end up with a black line that goes straight through on a few of them or something like that. And I was like, wait a minute. So I know this, so just watch that. And make sure that these pieces are the same so when you stack them all up, this piece, this, this four patch is oriented the same direction all the time.

Alright so now we’re ready to put our side triangles on. And what you’re going to do is you’re going to take two from each pile because that’s going to put your colors on opposite sides. If you grab one from each pile your colors are going to line up and I just didn’t like the look of that as well. Of course it’s entirely up to you. You can also scrap them up and every one can be different as well, which I think I would like the look of that as well. So what we’re going to do is on these center seams on our triangles, we’re going to match up to the center seams on our four patch. It makes it a really easy way to put these together. We’re going to go ahead and nest these seams here. We’ve got this seam going that way and this seam going this way. And we’re going to go ahead and put a pin in here. I don’t always put a pin in but on this I wanted to because I don’t have any, you know, complete starts and stops. I just, you know, I’m kind of here, you know, out here in the middle. So we’re going to start out here, sew across, all the way across. And then add the other one on the other side. So again it’s just a quarter of an inch. And we’re going to sew down the side of this. Make sure we’re still lined up in the middle. Go across. Alrighty. Now we’re going to go ahead and lay our triangle on the other side, just like that. I’m going to roll this one back for the time being. I’ll iron it in a minute. And then we’re going to put this over here and sew it down making sure that middle is lined up. And again put a pin in there if you feel like you need to. There we go. There my fabric lifted up a little bit right there so I’m just going to lay that back down and go ahead and sew across, all the way out to the end. And then we’re going to come over here and press this open. Hey that looks pretty good. It’s fun when you have an actual place to line them up. It makes it a little easier for putting your block together. And this is what your block looks like.

You now need to trim your ends. There’s a couple of ways to do that. You can actually, I’m going to show you a couple of ways. You can actually lay your ruler up here making sure your point comes to the middle of your, your two strips right there. And you can just clip that off like that. You can do it so your ruler comes up the side and just cut off one side at a time. You can also fold your block in half like this and run your ruler straight up the side like this. I’ll show you. So you make sure your blocks are matched up. You make sure your strip is in the middle. You have a seam there so you can lay that right over. And you’re just going to lay it along the edge like this and go ahead and trim it straight up. So whichever way really is easiest for you. So what we’re looking for is a block like this.

Then when you go to put them together. This is when the fun happens. What you’re going to do is you’re going to put these together so they lattice up and down like this. Just like that. Do you see how those are, you know, opposites, everything is working. Let’s add another row. So once you get all your blocks done you’re ready to lay them out. You’re going to lay them out in rows and you’re just going to sew every block together quarter of an inch. And as you get your rows done you’re going to sew your rows to each other. Always make sure that you still have your lattice design going on because every once in awhile you know, you’ll be putting some together and all of a sudden you’re like, oop nope, check that. Make sure the lattice is still there.

Alright let’s look at this quilt behind me for how many squares. We’ve got eight across the top, ten rows. That makes 80 blocks and it’s going to make a quilt that’s about 70 by 84. We’ve added a 2 ½ inch inner border, a 5 ½ inch outer border to bring it to that size. So I hope you enjoyed this. I love it when we add just a little something special in there. It gives it a little oooh, ahh factor and makes it a little more fun. So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Checkered Lattice quilt from the MSQC.