Blue Dream - Stack'n Wack Quilt

Blue Dream - Stack'n Wack Quilt

This is another quilt that I had started with the intent of donating it to the office charity fund raiser.  However, I was busy doing 3 baby quilts one after another and this one got sidetracked for a while.  Since I retired before I could finish it I decided to finish it and see if I can sell it.

This is based on the Stack'n Wack pattern for making quilts.  Pretty simple process whereby you first decide if you are making a multi colour quilt or a single base colour quilt.  In this case I chose to go with a single base colour, blue.  We selected fabric in 9 variations of blue,  I cut 3 stacks of each colour plus 1 extra set as this takes 28 blocks.

All 3 stacks of 9 colours are placed in the same order to begin with.  Taking the first stack, you cut an angle line from the top right to the bottom right using different starting points.  For example start at 2.5 inches from the top corner and cut down to 3 inches from the bottom right corner.  While some quilters will cut all 9 pieces in one slice, I prefer to cut them one at a time to ensure that the cuts are accurate and even.  Once all 9 pieces are cut and stacked in the same order, take the first right side cut piece and place it at the bottom of the pile then sew the pieces together creating 9 blocks with two colours.

Once the first cut is done and sewn, cut the pieces on the left side repeating the process using a different set of measurements top and bottom.  Once the cuts are made, take the two top left side pieces and place them at the bottom of the stack then sew the pieces back together.  Now you have 9 blocks with 3 colours each.

Next, turn the entire stack 90 degrees counter clockwise then repeat the above process, again using different measurements for the cuts.  After making the first cut, move 3 pieces to the bottom of the stack and sew.  Cut the left side, then move 6 pieces to the bottom of the stack and sew.

Now  you have 9 blocks each with 9 colours in different orders.  For the second stack, move the two top pieces of fabric to the bottom of the stack then cut and sew in the same manner using different measurements from the first stack.  For the third stack move the top 3 pieces of fabric to the bottom of the stack and repeat the process.  You now have 3 stacks of 9 blocks with 3 different patterns and colour combinations.  This is 27 blocks.  For my quilt I needed 28 blocks, so I had to make one more block manually by cutting 9 pieces of material to the same size as one of the existing blocks.

Once the blocks are squared they are placed one from each stack in order the pin board, 4 across by 7 down.

Then they are moved about in order to avoid having two of the same individual colours next to each other and/or two same patterns next to each other.  This process can take a while.  Having a nice big pin board that you can stand back from to view the results is a big plus!

Once the blocks are in the desired order, sew, add the borders and it's ready for quilting.

For this I used a simple diamond shape crisscross pattern.

 Each quilt line starts and stops at the edge of the small border.  Each of those sets of threads has to be tucked in since I am not using knots.

That's a lot of work but the end result is very nice!

Once the crisscross pattern is done, I sewed a small diamond stitch down the edge of the small border, then down the middle of the outer border.

A close up of the crisscross stitching.

The fully completed quilt on my cutting table.

Handing on the pin board.

The back side of the quilt.

I used the same small diamond stitch to finish the back side of the binding instead of sewing it by hand.

Here is the quilt name and signature block.

 A close of of the back side finishing.

Another view of the back corner of the quilt.