Isosceles Triangle Quilt Along... the supplies.

Since I started quilting, I have been wanting to make a Christmas quilt to snuggle with during the Christmas season. I finally checked it off my to-do list and this lovely quilt has found it's home on my couch next to the Christmas tree... I am loving it! It's the perfect size for my littles to snuggle with and maneuver around, but it is big enough for an adult to use as well.

I fell in love with and was totally inspired by Amy's Kitschy Christmas quilt. I love how vintage and retro her quilt is! I may have to make another next year and go for more of a retro feel. 

I made mine using Riley Blake fabrics... I used two different lines... The majority is from Alpine Wonderland line and I also threw in two prints from the Marguerite line (red polka dot and the pink stripe). I wanted to go for a slightly girly feel to this quilt since I have two little girls... And I love that if I really wanted to I could use it if I want during the year since it is not totally Christmas-y looking.

Instead of trimming off the excess from the triangles and squaring off my quilt, I decided to try something new and left the zig zag edge. I love how it turned out! Just something different. 

 I used the Alpine Wonderland Main in blue for my backing and love how it turned out. The print is so big and fun. I took care to piece it together carefully so as not to see the seam in the backing and it turned out great. 

I contemplated hand quilting this one... and honestly I think it would have turned out really awesome if I had done that, but in the end, I opted to finish this quilt before Christmas instead of after and machine quilted 1/4 inch from every seam. I think it turned out pretty good. I love the straight lines and the design on the back looks really cool. 

I thought it would be fun to do a quilt along for anyone that wants to make an isosceles triangle quilt- Christmas themed or not....

Anyone in the quilt along mood?? I hope so! :) 

Supplies:

-rotary cutter and mat

-thread

-scissors

-iron and spray starch (totally a must for this quilt)

-For cutting my fabric into triangles, I used the Quilt Sense Kaleidoscope Triangle Ruler. I picked mine up at Joann's and was able to use a coupon to get it for pretty inexpensive.

(image source)

It is super easy to use- I just cut my fabric into 6 inch strips and then lined up the template on the 11" block line to cut my triangles... They are 45 degree triangles that measured 6" tall  and 5 1/4 " on the base of the triangle- so if you wanted to make your own template than that would probably work ok too.

-instead of giving you specific yardage, I am going to let you know how I made mine and give you some options. You can make this quilt with scraps, fat quarters, 1/4 yards, 1/2 yards, etc. The options are endless. 

I started with an Alpine Wonderland Fat Quarter bundle, and then added some yardage of the red polka dot and pink striped Marguerite fabric to compile my 156 prints/colored triangles. 

Then I used 2 yards of Riley Blake Clean White yardage for the 156 white triangles.

My quilt consisted of 156 colored triangles and 156 white triangles. The quilt measures roughly 50 x 63 inches. I say roughly because when I was making it, I realized halfway through that my new 1/4 inch seam piecing foot is slightly over 1/4 inch... So it kinda threw my seams off a bit... once I had pieced the triangles into rows, when it came time to sew the rows together I ended up having to use 1/2 seam allowance to compensate for the mistake in the seam allowance... So if you decide to make this- I definitely recommend using a scant 1/4 inch seam when piecing to make sure things line up perfectly- and then I think your quilt would measure slightly bigger... So this is gonna kinda be one of those do as I say, not as I do quilt alongs! But hey... I figured out all of the ways to do it wrong, so now you don't have to do any of that... you can just start out doing it correctly! :)

Ok... Like I said, I used a fat quarter bundle and some various yardage for my quilt top, so I will just let you know how many triangles you can get out of different cuts of fabric and then you can decide what cuts you want to use.

Fat Quarter: 18 triangles

(beware when using fat quarters... they have to be exactly 18x22 inches to get 18 triangles out of it- in my case, a handful of my fat quarters were smaller and I was not able to get the full amount of triangles cut out of them)

1/4 yard or 6" x Width of fabric: 14 triangles

1/2 yard: 42 triangles

Just something to think about-  After I had my quilt all finished, I realized that since I used an even number of triangles across the quilt, I ended up with a kinda funky shape of quilt. Meaning- on the top left of the quilt there is a white triangle so it zags out but then on the top right of the quilt there is a colored triangle so it zags in. It's no big deal, but makes it kinda tricky when folding it since the top corners are not symmetrical. So if I were to make it again, I would probably do my quilt 25 triangles wide instead of 24 so that it was symmetrical. I am just kinda weird like that though, so if that doesn't bug you then go ahead and do 24 triangles wide like I did.

Like I said, if you are following my layout, you will need 156 colored triangles so calculate how much yardage you will need depending on if you are using fat quarters vs. 1/2 yard cuts, etc.

Then you will need 2 yards of a solid/neutral fabric.

If you are wanting to make your quilt smaller or bigger than mine, just figure out how many triangles you want and calculate how much fabric you need to buy.

-1/2 yard to 3/4 yard for binding... just depending on if you decided to do the zig zag edge like I did or square your edge and do straight edge binding.

As for the batting and backing since my seam allowances were messed up when piecing my top, I recommend finishing your quilt top and then purchasing those two items after you have a final measurement so that you are not buying too much or too little.

I will be posting the directions for cutting your fabric and piecing your quilt top next week so stay tuned!

If you have any questions, leave a comment but be sure to include your email so I can get back to you!

Last but not least, I just wanted to give a big shout out to my sponsor for the quilt along- Riley Blake Designs.

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HAVE FUN FABRIC SHOPPING! :)

For directions to make this quilt, click HERE.