Instructions for Assembly of Quilt Top
Now you have assembled the four sub-units of the top. It's time to put them together, which, hopefully, you will find surprisingly easy. Remember, you are getting into longer seams, with some cross seams in them, so be generous with your pinning. If things have gone well, your pieces will all come out the right size... more on that later.
Step 1
Join Units 3 and 4 together as shown here. The finished piece should measure 24.5" x 48.5", or very close to that.
Step 2
Measure Unit 1 for length. It should measure 48.5", the same as the joined units you created above. If it is long, trim it. If it is only short a little bit (maybe 1/4", ease the pieces to a match as you pin. If it is shorter than easing can accomodate, trim the larger unit to match. Join Unit 1 to the left edge of the joined Units 3 and 4, as shown.
Step 3
Do the measuring thing again with Unit 2. It should be 48.5" and match up with the other pieces. if it doesn't, decide whether you can pin and ease or need to trim whichever pieces are too long. The actual height is not stupendously critical, but you do want even, square edges so that you can border them. Join Unit 2 to the right edge of the quilt, and you have finished the quilt top, except for the decoration we will add to bring it to life and give it character.
A special note: In this large size, as compared to Ann's smaller work, the cream doesn't show up as well as I might have hoped. If I were doing it over, I would use the brighter yellow in the two spots where I used the lighter yellow, and would have used the lighter yellow in place of the two pieces of cream. Don't sweat it though.... the major piece of decoration will be going into the larger cream area and will add a lot of life.
The next unit of instructions I post is going to be "educational", rather than practical. As I went along doing this, it came to me that there is a great, great deal to be learned from this simple quilt pattern. By now you are perfectly aware that it is simply a combination of variable rectangles. In fact, for lack of a better name, I will call it the "Variable Rectangle Pattern Concept". What I want to do in the next section is explore what you can do with this, because it includes some very easy but exciting things. I'm going to show you an easy way to design your own variations and create your own patterns with this concept. Then, rather than giving you a step by step instruction for the second quilt of this pair, my challenge to you is going to be to take the instructions I give you and design your own second quilt, to match but not be identical to your first one. Sound scary? It won't be. When I started this out, adjusting from Ann's design, I found it pretty intimidating and made far more work out of it than I needed to. By the time I was working on Unit 4, I had made it all so simple I couldn't believe it... and you won't either!
I'll try to do this "educational" presentation tomorrow or Thursday. After that, I'll get busy on instructions for the applique decoration for this quilt. These will, again, show you something that can be done with this idea, but you may well have other ideas of your own.
One more thing... any newbies who get to this point, I'd appreciate a direct email to rwightman@mindspring.com, telling me how you made out. Did you find the instructions easy, hard, confusing, clear? This kind of input really helps me.
Captain Dick
Link to Instructions for Making Decoration for Top