Hey everyone. Today we're making an easy Layer Cake Quilt, one big square at a time, with almost no cutting to start.
Here we go.
Meet the fabric
This is the All Star Layer Cake, from United Notions.
It is a Moda precut.
The designer is Stacy Iest Hsu.
And the group name is All Star.
Inside the pack you get 42 assorted pieces.
Each square measures 10 inches by 10 inches.
That is your classic Layer Cake square.
Big, even, and already cut for you.
The tags call it multi color, so the mixing and matching is already done. Somebody coordinated this stack so the pieces play nice together.
The number on this one is 20850LC, if you keep notes for your stash.
My favorite part?
A 10-inch square is a generous piece of fabric.
You see the prints properly.
Nothing gets chopped down to a sliver.
Open the pack, fan the squares out, and you are already designing a quilt.
The project: a Layer Cake Quilt
We are making a simple patchwork quilt, straight from the stack.
No sub-cutting.
No specialty ruler.
Just squares, sewn in rows, exactly as they come out of the pack.
We're not reinventing the wheel here.
This fabric suits the project for one plain reason.
The project is built on 10-inch squares, and a Layer Cake is nothing but 10-inch squares, all cut to match.
Here is the math, and it is friendly math.
You have 42 squares.
Lay them out 6 across and 7 down.
That uses every single square in the pack.
Sewn with a quarter-inch seam, each square finishes at 9 and a half inches.
So your quilt top lands at 57 inches wide by 66 and a half inches long.
That is a really, really good throw size.
Big enough for the couch, and small enough to finish without it turning into a six-month project.
Materials
- 1 All Star Layer Cake — 42 pieces, 10 inches by 10 inches
- Batting, about 65 inches by 75 inches
- Backing fabric, about 65 inches by 75 inches
- Binding: about 1/2 yard, cut into 2.5-inch strips
- Thread to blend, and a size 80/12 needle
- Pins or clips, a ruler, and your iron
Brief steps
First, lay all 42 squares out on a bed or a design wall, 6 across and 7 down.
Move them around until the colors feel balanced, then walk away for ten minutes and look again with fresh eyes.
Second, sew each row together, left to right.
Use a quarter-inch seam, and set your stitch length around 2.5, roughly 10 stitches per inch.
Third, press as you go.
Press one row's seams to the left, the next row's to the right.
That way the seams nest together when you join the rows, and your corners line up sweet and flat.
Fourth, join the rows, pinning at every intersection.
Take your time here.
Slow down at those thick seam crossings, or the needle can deflect and snap.
Fifth, layer it up: backing wrong side up, batting, then your top right side up.
Baste it well.
For quilting, stitch in the ditch along the square seams is clean and classic. You can echo those lines, add a soft meander across the whole top, or try a little ruler work if you are feeling brave. Completely up to you.
Finish with binding, all the way around, and just like that — a whole quilt from one pack.
Tips from my table
Take a quick photo of your layout before you start sewing rows.
I learned that one the hard way.
I once set one row down flipped and sewed for twenty minutes before I saw it.
The fix was easy — a date with my seam ripper, a laugh at myself, and the photo trick from then on.
Also, do not stretch the squares as you feed them through.
Guide them, let the machine do the pulling, and your rows will come out the same length.
And here is your permission beat, folks.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
You're your own worst critic.
If one corner misses its match by a hair, nobody is bringing out a ruler at your house.
Take your time.
It's not a race.
If I can do this, y'all can do this.
Want it smaller? Use 30 squares, 5 by 6, and save the rest for pillows. Want it bigger? Add a border from your stash. Either way works, and it is completely up to you.
Alrighty.
Thanks so much for sewing along with me today.
We'll see you next time. Bye.
Shop the All Star Layer Cake at Linda's Electric Quilters.
