Ribbon Quilt

A wonderful friend of mine lost her mother to a long,hard fought battle with breast cancer.  She saw a 'pink ribbon quilt' online and asked if I could recreate one for her.  So, I sat down with my eQ7 program and worked out the layout and dimensions to make a lap size quilt.  As it turns out this is a very simple quilt that works up quickly and easily.  Wanted to share how I made my quilt in case anyone wanted to make one of their own (could be customized to any cancer color).

the inspiration

 EQ7 pattern

This is my first attempt at a tutorial, and apologize if anything is unclear or left out.  My friend wanted at lap size quilt so I made my overall dimensions 54" x 66".  To keep the math nice and simple (and because I hate working with small pieces, especially triangles) went with 6 inch finished squares for ribbon motif, then worked my way out from there.

Fabric requirements are:

• white/background fabric = 2 yards
• assorted pink fabrics = 2 yards (can use as may or few as desired depending on how scrappy you like your quilts)
• pink outer border = 1&1/4 yards (unless you use a 'directional' fabric like I did then will need more)
• backing & binding fabric = 4 yards

my fabrics!

Found a little fabric shop in town that didn't have a huge selection, but had everything I needed.  I picked out 6 different pinks for my pieced squares and border, a plain white for my background, and a directional 'love' fabric for my outer border.  The bottom pink fabric with thread will be used for the backing and binding.

Step 1.Press fabrics.  I do not subscribe to the pre-washing fabrics club.  Lots of folks do & lots of us do not...feel free to do which ever you are comfortable with.

Step 2. Rotary cut all pieces.  This is such a hard step for me to follow.  When working on a new pattern, it's so hard not to cut just a few pieces and jump into sewing because I'm so excited to see things start coming together.  But, cutting everything up front makes the sewing/piecing so much faster.  Here are the rotary cuttings needed:

• from background fabric:  
• need 1 strip 6&7/8" by width of fabric
• from this strip cut 4 squares 6&7/8" wide & then cut once on the diagonal - this will yield 8 half square triangles needed for piecing the 8 'A' blocks
• can then use remaining strip fabric to cut out 3 squares 5&1/8" which will also be cut once on the diagonal to yield 6 half square triangles.  Five of those triangles will be used to piece the 'B' blocks.
• need 2 6&1/2" squares for ribbon motif
• need ~4 strips 6&1/2" wide x WOF (width of fabric - from selvage to selvage) for border #1
• need ~ 4 strips 2&1/2" wide x WOF for border #3
• from assorted pinks
• cut strips 5&1/8" wide, then cut into 5&1/8" squares - need 16 squares total.  Next cut squares in half diagonally to yield 32 half square triangles - will use 31 to piece squares.
• next cut 6&1/2" squares - need 28 total for block border
• from pink outer border fabric
• need ~5 strips 4&1/2" wide x WOF

half square triangles

can cut on either diagonal

be sure not to cut 6&1/2" blocks

Step 3.  Begin by laying fabrics out to for pink ribbon center (use diagram as guide).  Once you have your fabrics laid out the way you like, it's time to start sewing!!  (tip:snap a quick pic of pieces before beginning to sew in case pieces get shuffled)  Piecing can be done in any order....can make all 'A' blocks, then all 'B' blocks, or work blocks one row at a time (which is what I did).

Block 'A'

 For 'A' blocks, begin be sewing 2 pink triangles together and press seam towards the darker fabric.  Next sew the big pink triangle to the white triangle to make a square pressing seam toward pink fabrics.

Block 'B'

For 'B' blocks, will sew 2 pinks together and then pink and white.  Here will want to press seams in opposite direction (for white/pink combo press towards pink & then in opposite direction for the 2 pink triangles - note this may not end up being toward the darker of the 2 pink fabrics, but that's ok.)  Sew the 2 large triangles together now, locking the center seams together to ensure seams line up.  Press final seam towards the 2 pinks triangle.

my quick pic of fabric placement

Once blocks are pieced, can start sewing blocks together in rows (I sewed my in horizontal row, but can do in vertical rows if desired....just want to be sure and sew seams between blocks in opposite directions from row to row so that when rows are sewn together can lock seams to ensure block alignment). 

all pieced together

Step 4. Adding the borders!!

1. For the first border, begin with the 6&1/2" wide strips of white fabric.  Attach the vertical pieces first, and then the horizontal.  I did not trim the vertical strips until after I attached to quilt center and pressed seam.  For me, I feel like this helps to keep the quilt nice and square as well as take away chance of measuring incorrectly and cutting too short (by less than an inch.....believe me you do not want that to happen).  Save those trimmed pieces as you will need to attach them to horizontal pieces before they get sewn onto quilt to ensure they are long enough.  Again leave them long and trim later.
2.  The block border is next.  Again would suggest to layout placement and snap a quick pic once you get blocks where you want them.  Can put blocks in a pattern or completely random, whichever you are comfortable with.  Will need 7 blocks sewn together for each border section (two sets of 7 blocks vertically & 2 sets of 7 blocks horizontally.

   

   block border fully assembled

3. Border number 3 is the 2&1/2" strips of white fabric.  Sew this the same as border #1.
4. The last round of border material for my was a little tricky.  I had purchased a 'directional' fabric, meaning the pattern only works in 1 direction, so I had to do a few extra steps.  Also because of the directionality of my fabric, I cut my fabric wider than pattern called so as to make the fabric look right when cut.  These strips will be attached the same as all the other borders, vertical first then horizontal.

   

   my completed quilt top ready for quilting!

   Hope someone finds this tutorial useful!  Please let me know if anything is unclear & I will do my best to clear up the confusion.

Thanks for stopping by!!