Having tantalized you with all that preparation, we're now ready to actually start damag... I mean, cutting, fabric. Seriously, from here on things will move faster and faster, as you realize just how easy this quilt is. I will spend a bit of extra effort on this unit, so you get started right, but you'll be champing at the bit quick enough.
First, make sure you're set up.... new needle in sewing machine, newly wound bobbin, good thread that you are used to using. We are working with bright solids in a wide variety, so i chose to use white thread. Personally, I like cotton thread, but follow your own karma. Make sure you have a good blade in your roller cutter. Have your work/cutting surface clear.
First, set your black, red and cream fabric pieces aside. They will be cut to different measurements than the others and you don't want to get mixed up.
Black, red, cream fabrics separated from other colors, to be set aside for now.
The half yard pieces of fabric you bought will have been cut or torn across the bolts, and when washed, these edges will have become ragged. They have to be squared up before you can use them.
Here the light yellow has been laid out and the ragged cross-bolt edge is ready to be squared/cut off. This will give you a square edge from which to measure and cut the pieces you will need.
The ragged edge having been squared, the fabric has been turned around so that the now square edge is at the left. Being right handed, I ALWAYS cut on the right edge of the guide... never crosse-handed! You will need a 6 1/2" strip of the light yellow, and here you can see that the guide (one of the 8 1/2" x 24" ones I mentions earlier) has been set for that cut.
For Unit 1, you will need 6 1/2" strips of Lilac, Light Yellow, Orange, Medium Green and Blue. Here you see the strips I cut.
NOTE: I screwed up already! I cut bright orange rather than Light Orange. (Hey, it was early in the morning!) Just to show you how uncritical this quilt is, I am not changing it. I will simply use the Light Orange when the pattern calls for regular Orange.
Next you will be cutting the exact length pieces from the strips. You have already trimmed the rough edges from where the pieces were cut from the bolts. However, you still have "selvedges" at the ends of your strips. They may be raggedy, or they may actually be more tightly woven, but they must be cut off. Here you see the selvedge edge of the Lilac strip cut off.
NOTE: My bad! In this photo and the next one, you can see my roller cutter, sitting with its blade exposed! I had not realized I had gotten into this habit until someone pointed it out from these pictures. This is a NO NO and I will be working to correct it.
OK... From here on, the measurements get critical if you want to end up with the size quilt you planned and with all the vertical rows even. Unit 1 will consist of two vertical rows, made from pieces of your 6 1/2" strips. (Note: I know that some of you may be working to a different size. I will mention this once... if you are, do your own math. I won't be saying, "Unless you are working to a different size every time a measurement comes up. ) Cut a piece of the Lilac 20 1/2" long. Here you see the cutting guide being used to make this cut.
I think you have the idea of the cutting guide's use now. Cut the following additional pieces:
Light Yellow: 14 1/2" Cut two.
Light Orange 14 1/2"
Blue: 17 1/2"
Green 17 1/2"
With the Lilac 20 1/2" piece, this should give you six pieces.
This is Vertical Row 1: Lilac, Light Yellow, Orange (Nominally, yours should be light orange, mine happens to be dark orange.) Join these pieces, using 1/4" seams. Iron seams to the dark sides. Seams on this quilt will not be lining up, so there is no need to be super consistant.
This is Vertical Row 2: Light Yellow, Blue, Green. Join these pieces, iron seams to dark sides.
Join the two vertical rows as shown. When pinning long rows like this, I align each end and put in two pins. Then I gently stretch it out to see if the two pieces are even. Usually, one will be slightly longer than the other. If this is really noticeable, measure them and trim the longer one. However, in this case it was slight, and I just split the looseness to either side and pinned the middle, then the middle of each side, etc. until the whole seam was pinned and the difference in length was "eased" in. This finished piece should be 48 1/2" long x 12 1/2" wide.
By the way, did I mention that this was going to be a bright quilt?
That's all for Unit 1. Hopefully, you can now see just how easy this basic quilt will be. We are going to add three more units, (which will not necessarily be the same shape as this one!), do the second quilt of the pair, and then move on to the decoration which will really bring it alive.
From here on, I will put the units up as fast as I can, just giving you the shapes and measurements to cut and join. Enjoy!
Link to Instructions for Unit 2