Ever fancied making a beautiful homemade quilt, full of your favourite patterns, colours and fabrics, but assumed it would take so long that there was no point starting? Well, in a brand new book, Quick & Easy Quilts, Lynne Goldsworthy shares a stunning collection of projects that you can run up on your sewing machine in record time – some can even be done in a weekend! And in a four-week series, we will be sharing some of Lynne’s most accessible projects; this week, the Birds Migrating quilt.

birds Migrating quilt

The idea for this quilt came from simple half-square triangle units. I love how playing around with these in all different layouts can create so many different designs. When turned on point, they create a whole new look, and the shapes and patterns made by including some plain squares in with the half-square triangles reminded me of the shapes made in the sky by flocks of birds migrating at the beginning and end of the summer.

As I often do with my quilts, I arranged the colours so they changed gently from dark to light through the quilt, to give the impression that some of the birds were nearer and some further away, flying off into the distance.

Finished size

  • • 53in x 70in (135cm x 178cm), approximately.

    • Notes

  • • WOF = width of fabric
  • • F8th = fat eighth (9in x 22in approximately)
  • • HST = half-square triangle
  • • Use ¼in seams, unless otherwise instructed

    • Fabrics used

  • • Quilt top and binding: Morning Song fabric range by Elizabeth Olwen for Cloud9 Fabrics
  • • Background: Cream Scandi by Makower UK
  • • Quilt back: Tuscany from Va Bene by Dear Stella
  • • Irish Country Living notes: For less-experienced quilters, a full explanation of techniques mentioned here, such as “making a quilt sandwich”, “squaring up” and “binding” can be found in Quick & Easy Quilts, or indeed online.

  • You will need

    17 different prints: a F8th of each

    Background fabric: 3yds (2.75m)

    Backing fabric: 4½yds (4m)

    Wadding: 61in x 78in (155cm x 200cm)

    Binding fabric:½yd (0.5m)

    Suitable piecing and quilting threads

  • CUTTING OUT

    1 From each of the 17 print F8ths, cut two 7¾in squares (for a total of 34 squares).

    2 From the background fabric, cut the following:

  • • Seven 7¾in x WOF strips. Sub-cut each strip into five 7¾in squares to yield 35 in total (you will need 34).
  • • Two 5in x WOF strips. Sub-cut each strip into eight 5in squares to yield 16 in total (you will need 14).
  • • Three 5½in x WOF strips. Sub-cut each strip into seven 5½in squares to yield 21 in total. Cut each in half on the diagonal once, to yield 42 setting triangles (you will need 36).
  • • Five 1½in x WOF strips. Sew these strips together end to end for the quilt border, press seams open and set aside for the moment.
  • • Two 5in x WOF strips. Sew these strips together, end to end, for the quilt border, press seams open and set aside for the moment.

    • 3 From the binding fabric, cut seven 2½in x WOF strips.

    4 Cut the backing fabric into two equal lengths.

    MAKING THE BLOCKS

    5 Pin one background fabric 7¾in square and one print 7¾in square right sides together (Fig 1A). Sew around all four sides of the square ¼in away from the edge (Fig 1B).

    6 Carefully cut the sewn squares along both diagonals, so you have four triangles (Fig 1C).

    7 Take each unit, open it up and then press the seam open or to one side and trim off dog ears. Trim each HST so it is 5in square. Repeat for all pairs of print and background squares.

    ASSEMBLING THE QUILT

    8 Sort the HSTs into three piles: dark, medium and light. The dark HSTs will be placed in the bottom third of the quilt, the medium HSTs will be in the middle third and the light HSTs will be in the top third. Lay out all the HSTs, triangles and squares on a floor, table or design wall to decide on the arrangement. Fig 2 shows how each of the rows is assembled, with the positions of the plain squares and the setting triangles. Fig 3 shows the final layout of the blocks.

    9 The piecing diagram (Fig 2) shows how to piece the quilt top, in diagonal rows. Seams should be pressed in alternate directions in each row. Trim off the little triangle corners (dog ears) after each seam. Finally, trim the corner triangles so the corners of the quilt are square (right-angled).

    ADDING THE BORDER

    10 You can now add the border to your quilt (Fig 4). Measure your quilt across the centre width – it should be 513/8 in, but make a note of your quilt’s measurement. Take the very long 1½in wide border strip you sewed earlier and cut a strip to this measurement. Sew this strip to the bottom of the quilt and press the seam outwards. When sewing a border strip to a quilt, match the centre of the border to the centre point of the quilt and pin. Now pin at either end and then add further pins in between, easing to fit, if necessary. Working in this way will help to avoid wavy edges.

    11 Take the very long 5in-wide border strip you sewed earlier and cut a strip to fit the width of your quilt. Sew this strip to the top of the quilt and press the seam outwards.

    12 Now measure your quilt along the centre length– it should be 695/8 in but make a note of your quilt’s measurement. Take the remainder of the very long 1½in-wide border strip and cut two strips to this measurement. Sew these strips to the sides of the quilt and press seams outwards.

    QUILTING AND FINISHING

    13 Sew the two pieces of backing fabric together along the long sides using a ½in seam and press the seam open. Make a quilt sandwich of the quilt back (right side down), the wadding and the quilt (right side up) (Technique: Making a Quilt Sandwich).

    14 Quilt as desired. The quilt shown was quilted with horizontal lines approximately 1in apart, using a cream thread.

    15 When all quilting is finished, square up the quilt, removing excess wadding and backing as you do so (Technique: Squaring Up).

    16 Sew the binding strips together end to end using diagonal seams, or straight seams if preferred. Press wrong sides together all along the length to make a double-fold binding. Bind the quilt to finish, taking care to mitre the corners neatly (Technique: Binding). CL