There is a real pleasure in seeing just three fabrics turn into a quilt with genuine movement across it, and this cheerful tutorial from Quiltin Stitchin and Kitties does exactly that. One fabric takes the leading role while two others play alongside it, and together they build a surface that looks far more intricate than its short list of fabrics suggests.
Here is how it comes together. The three fabrics are each cut into strips of equal width, run along the length of the fabric, with the feature fabric set to sit in the middle and the two companions on either side. Those strips are sewn side by side into a long band of three, and the band is then cut across into squares, so every one of these squares carries all three fabrics running through it. An equal number of plain squares, cut to match from the feature fabric on its own, are made alongside them. The two kinds of square are then set out like a chessboard, one striped, one plain, one striped, one plain, all the way across. The move that makes the pattern appear is orientation. In alternate rows the striped squares are turned a quarter turn, so the stripes lie horizontally along one row and vertically along the next, and it is that shift from row to row that draws the woven lines across the whole quilt. It is the sort of thing you find with the blocks already made, by turning them this way and that on the design wall until the surface suddenly reads as one.
Here is why this one is worth watching:
- One fabric leads, two play alongside. A single feature fabric carries the design while the two companions frame it, so your fabric choices are doing a great deal of the work.
- A woven look from a checkerboard layout. Alternating striped and plain squares, then turning the striped ones between rows, is what conjures those crossing lines over the surface.
- Wonderfully open to your own palette. The three fabric structure holds whether you keep it to three or bring in more, so you can make it calm and tonal or bright and graphic.
Would you keep this to three fabrics or let a few more join in, and which one would you give the leading role? I would love to hear how you would set yours out.
