Blue Elephant Stitches

Assembling the Quilt Top Jacob’s Ladder Value Quiltalong

Time for the final assembly of the blocks!  (if you’re looking for the rest of this tutorial, click the Value Quiltalong under the Labels on the right sidebar–>

You will need 48 blocks total. (the photo above is 4 blocks put together)

Assemble the 48 blocks that you made in last weeks tutorial into 12 large diamond blocks as shown above.

Then sew those 12 large blocks together like this.  It will be 3 x 4 big blocks.

Now for the borders.  I was not originally planning on adding borders, and you sure don’t have to either.  If you like the way your quilt looks at this point, then don’t add them.  I decided I wanted the darker color to frame the whole quilt, so I added a border at the last minute.  It also has the added benefit of making it bigger without a lot of extra work.

On my original cutting instructions post, I said to cut 8 strips that were 6″ wide from your border fabric.  Now take two strips and sew them together on one short end.  Make 4 long strip sets like this.  You should have four long strips that measure 6″x 80″ish.

Press these long pieces well so they lie flat.

Now it’s time to measure the quilt and cut the borders to the right size.  I start with the side borders.

Lay your quilt top flat on the floor.  ( I know mine is hanging, just prentend it’s on the floor)  Take a measuring tape and carefully measure the length from top to bottom in three spots.  Measure close to each side, and up the middle.  In a perfect world these measurements would all line up.  In real life they might vary a bit, although hopefully not more than an inch or so!
Take an average of these three measurements, and that is the magic number that you will cut your two side borders.  
Take two of those long border strips and cut them to this length.  Now find the mid point on both the border piece, and the side of your quilt.  I just fold them in half and put a pin at the center fold.  Now pin the border on to you quilt side, matching up the center and ends, and then pinning along the sides.  Now you can sew the border on!
Doing it this way will keep your border from being bigger than the quilt top, and will keep away the dreaded rippling effect.
Repeat the above process for the border on the other side of your quilt, then press these seams.
Now lay your quilt flat again, and measure the across the quilt horizontally in three places (including those side borders you added)
Follow all the same steps that you used for the side borders, and now your quilt top is completed!!

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Comments

  4. I am just in awe of this quilt. I am still kicking myself that I missed the etsy listing to buy the extra cut pieces! I will make myself one though for sure – just got to keep an eye out for those elusive darker fabrics!

    Reply

  10. Fabulous! I just found this through Pinterest, but I'm going to have to catch up! I really love the tones and values you used. Can't wait to look back through and see how you approached this project.

    Reply

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