Break the Quilting Rules—Create Column Quilts

Take a recognizable tumbler quilt design and turn it on its side. Combine several sizes of tumbler shapes and presto, you have a modern quilt design that breaks most sewing rules. This week’s Sewing With Nancy features two traditional quilt designs that are sewn in columns, not rows. Plus the piecing is super-simple. This is the second episode of Quick Column Quilts. I hope you’ll enjoy creating your next quilt with the Grandmother’s One Patch Template, create hexagon designs with ease. Watch online by clicking here.

Tumbling Tumblers Quilt

The first quilt of this episode is called Tumbling Tumblers. Transform a design, traditional to modern, with a simple turn of the design.

The tumbler template from the Trace ‘n Create Grandmother’s One Patch Template  is used to create this quilt design. There are four sizes of tumbler shapes—4″, 6″, 8″, and 10″ in one template. All four sizes are traced on the fabric and then cut, using a ruler, rotary cutter, and mat.

The tumbler shapes are stitched together using traditional quilting techniques.

Multiple background colored tumbler shapes are sewn together to add negative space to the design. Negative space is the new buzz word in quilting, and it references the space around the quilt design, not the design itself, which forms an interesting or artistic look.

You can see how the rest of the quilt is created while watching the TV show or see all the dimensions detailed in the book, Quick Column Quilts.

Hit and Miss Table Runner

At first glance, hexagon shapes cause many quilters to think, Oh no, the dreaded Y-seam! Not so with this speedy column quilt design. The hexagon shapes are created with two halves, eliminating the intersection of three seams, otherwise known as Y-seams. With this technique, faux hexagon halves are stitched in columns with relative speed and ease. Plus, the results are dramatic.

The second template in the Grandmother’s One-Patch Template set, the faux hexagon, is used for this project.
Only the 4″ shape is traced and cut from the fabric, including the end pieces. ( Watch me demo this online , it’s a lot easier to show this in action than to write about it!)

Four fabrics are traced and cut from the faux hexagons, plus the background fabric, which again creates the negative space design element. This photo was taken during my design process. Notice my design sketch—elementary!

The faux hexagons are sewn together with straight seams. No Y-seams in this column quilt project.

Columns are created.

Then, the columns are sewn together. That’s it—all straight seaming.

Full details, including the yardage, are in Quick Column Quilts.

Watch   Quick Column Quilts (Part One, Part Two, and Part Three)  on Sewing With Nancy  online.

To watch Sewing With Nancy on your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone, download the app.

For a chance to win a copy of the book, Quick Column Quilts, compliments of F+W Media, please let me know which of these quilts is your favorite by leaving a comment below.

Don’t forget to submit your Pillow project  for the 2016 Pillow Sewing Challenge! The deadline to enter is March 20, 2016. Click here to see how to enter. Make sure you are subscribed to my enews mailing list so you won’t miss a thing. Sign up here.

Bye for now,

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