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Sewing Girl Children's Story Quilt

This quilt is easy to make and uses mostly scraps left over from other projects. It uses redwork designs and each block tells part of a story. It's perfect to give away for charity or as a gift.

Children love following the story on their own.

The finished size is about 43" x 54". The embroidery designs used are: Sewing Girl Redwork Set, Sewing Machine Redwork Set and Sewing Redwork Set.

We used about 1 1/4 yard of white fabric, and a lot of scrap 2" x 5", 2" x 6", 2 x 7" and 2" x 8" strips in various red-and-white patterns. For the borders, we used about 3/4 yard of printed red-and-white fabric.

You will also need a piece of batting and fabric for backing.

For embroidery, we used embroidery polyester threads.

Cutting:

For the block sew all your 2" x 5", 2" x 6" and 2" x 7" strips into one long strip. Sew the longer strips at 45 degree angles, as you would do for binding. Sew the shorter strips straight.

All these strips are leftovers from past projects. If you do not have this many scraps, cut strips from any red-and-white fabrics you have.

Subcut the long strip into 24 strips measuring 2 1/2" x 8 1/2" and 24 strips measuring
2" x 11 1/2".

Out of any red fabric cut 6 squares measuring 2" x 2".

Out of white fabric, cut 12 squares measuring 8 1/2" x 8 1/2",
17 strips measuring 2" x 11 1/2",
2 strips measuring 2" x 49"
2 strips measuring 2" x 39 1/2"

Out of red-and white fabric, cut the borders. You will need 2 strips measuring 3 1/2" x 39 1/2" and 2 strips measuring 3 1/2" x 58".

The Block

The block used is very simple. Sew the 2" x 8 1/2" strips to the upper and lower edges of a white square.

Sew the 2" x 11 1/2" strips to the left and right sides of the white square.

Make 12 blocks.

The Sashing

Sew 3 strips consisting of 3 white strips and 2 red squares each:

Assembly of the Top

Stitch the rows of the quilt. Each row has 3 blocks with stripes of white sashing between the blocks. You'll get 4 rows:

Stitch the rows and the sashing strips together.

Attach the 49" white strips to the left and right sides of the quilt.
Attach the 39 1/2" white strips to the upper and lower sides of the quilt.

Attach the borders. First sew the upper and lower borders (3 1/2" x 39 1/2" strips), then sew the left and right borders (3 1/2" x 58").

Embroidery

Stabilize each block with polyester craft felt instead of stabilizer. Baste the quilt top to the felt in the ditch along the colored borders. After the embroidery is finished, rip the baste and cut away the excess felt around the embroidery. Make one block at a time.
We embroidered the designs from the Sewing Girl Redwork Set, Sewing Machine Redwork Set and Sewing Redwork Set.

Quilting:

Now place the backing on a flat surface (table) face down. Cover with batting. Spread your working piece over it.

Pin all three layers together with 1" pins and start quilting. We quilted along the lines of the embroidery and made stippling all over the white square. The rest of the quilt was quilted in a free-motion style.

After the quilting is finished, press the work with heavy steam and square the work -- all corners should be 90 degrees and opposite sides should be of the same length.

Finish the raw edges with the binding.