Fabulous Freebies Blog Hop: The Staggered Strips and Squares Tutorial

Are We Hoppy? Today is Day 4 of the Fabulous Freebies Blog Hop hosted by Calico Joan of MooseStash Quilting where bloggers are sharing their favorite freebie project found online--either their own or another bloggers. This is really a fun and great blog hop and I am loving the projects posted so far. Here is the list of the participants:

Monday August 20

Just Let Me Quilt

Seams To Be Sew

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats

Quilt Fabrication

Tuesday August 21

Life in the Scrapatch

Songbird Designs

Samelia's Mum

Vroomans Quilts

Wednesday August 22

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Creatin' in the Sticks

Just Because Quilts

Hazel's Daughter

Adventurous Applique and Quilting

BeaQuilter

Thursday August 23
Sew Many Yarns
Words & Stitches

Patchouli Moon Studio

something rosemade   You Are Here

Sew Golden A Chance

Clever Chameleon

Friday August 24

That Fabric Feeling

Selina Quilts

Quarter Inch Crafter

Yanicka Quilt

MooseStashQuilting

I am happy to be sharing my Staggered Strips and Squares Tutorial which I originally posted back in January.  I love making quilts with lots and lots of fabrics and joining the Fabulous Freebies Blog Hop was a wonderful reason for making another Staggered Strips and Squares quilt. The name of my quilt may be a bit of a misnomer because there are rectangles in this quilt but I originally had planned to use just squares but realized the focal print needed to be more than a 4.5" square.  My latest quilt, Smiling Sloths, which is made entirely of Cotton + Steel prints, old and new and you can see the Sloth print needed to be showcased.

The tutorial was based on a baby quilt I made, The Hinto Minto Baby Quilt and both of these posts will give you an idea as to how I came up with this idea for this quilt and the tutorial.  Since I've made this baby quilt, I have made two lap-size version and in the process of making another one.  What I love about this pattern is that the 2.5" strips were cut from my stash using my die cutter and it's a wonderful way to use up some of the wonderful focal prints I have; also this quilt sews up quickly. 

Over thirty Cotton + Steel prints were used for the The Smiling Sloths quilt; some of the prints are from the first C+S collection by the original five designers who are sadly no longer a part of Cotton + Steel so making this quilt was a little bittersweet.  If you've read any of my previous posts, you will know that I am a big fan of Cotton + Steel fabrics and sometimes have to challenge myself to use the other fabrics in my stash.  

I originally intended to make a baby quilt but because I love the Smiling Sloths with the neon Iguanas so much, I decided to make it a lap size, 56"x72" (approx.).  The Staggered Strips and Squares pattern is very flexible and can be adjusted to any size depending on the amount of fabric you have.  The quilt is based on the pattern I drew up once again on graph paper and my patches and strip blocks are based on increments of 4".  Here are some details of the number of cuts which are in parentheses and the sizes:

• around 100 strips, 2.5" x 20" were used and then half of these strips were subcut approximately 10" (you may not need all of these and I like to have extra)  Once the strips were sewn together in one long strip and then sewn together, as detailed in the tutorial, the strip sets were then cut as follow: (25) 8-1/2", (12) 12-1/2" and (17)16-1/2".  You can always cut more if needed.
• the Sloth patches were cut (13) 4.5" x 12.5" 
• the Accent patches (the navy, gold and coral plaid) were cut (14) 4.5" square

Here's a photo of the patches and blocks laid out on my big design board. As mentioned in my tutorial, the pattern drawn on graph paper is just a guideline and you can always change it around, just make sure the patches and strip sets measure the width of the quilt you decide.  Adjusting the rows is easier when it is made wider than if it's made an inch or two narrower. Also, as you can see by the red arrows, it's okay to have strips sets with the same fabrics next or above each other to create "globs" like I call them to add to the improv look of this pattern.

Here are some close-ups of the horizontal, wavy and straight quilting I did using Coral thread, nice and easy.

The backing is the Alexa Abegg, C+S Hatbox print which I fortunately had yardage along with the gold print for the binding which is a newer print.  I really wanted to use the Navy Add-It-Up print which sadly did not have enough of and couldn't buy more since I am observing an August fabric fast.

The Smiling Sloth Quilt is now the third Staggered Strips and Squares I've made; you can see my second one, Big Cat Crossing here.  I have the fourth one ready to sew now, the patches and strip sets have all been cut. I'm looking forward to making this one because I love the combination of the teal and peach prints which is one of my favorite color combinations this year thanks to Susan of PatchworknPlay who used it for her beautiful Delilah quilt.

If you like making Jelly Roll Race Quilts or making quilts with 2.5" strips, I think you would like making the Staggered Strips and Squares quilt.  It is a great stash buster.  Just like challenging myself to use other fabrics besides my Cotton+Steel stash, I'm doing another challenge to make other quilt patterns besides the Staggered Strips and Squares, of course, after I finish my fourth one.  You can't always make easy quilts, can we now.  

If you haven't already, please visit the other Bloggers' posts; they're fun, inspiring and filled with great resources.  Good Blog Host, Calico Joan has created a Pinterest Board where you can find all of the Fabulous Freebies posts there.  It's nice to be able to have one spot to find all of the Fabulous Freebies posts. 

Thank You Joan for hosting the Fabulous Freebies Blog Hop!

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday