I’ve got a fun and simple precut pattern. It’s a houndstooth quilt made easy! We’re going to bypass cutting 3″ or 4″ strips with angles, etc. and instead opt for Jelly Rolls (Rolie Polies) and Charm Packs (Stackers) depending on the size you want your finished quilt to be.
Here’s what you need for a 45″x 54″ lap quilt:
20 – 2.5″ Strips of a solid color (navy) – or 1 – 2.5″ solid Rolie Polie
20 – 2.5″ Strips of a solid color (raspberry) – or 1 – 2.5″ solid Rolie Polie
30 – 5″ Squares of a solid color (navy) – or 1 1/2 – 5″ solid Stackers
30 – 5″ Squares of a solid color (raspberry) – or 1 1/2 – 5″ solid Stacker
2 3/4 yards Backing Fabric
3/8 yard Binding Fabric (for 2 1/4″ binding)
2 3/4 yards Batting
Basic quilting notions: thread, pins, scissors, rotary cutter, iron, sewing machine.
What do ya’ll say; let’s get started!
Step 1: Sew the strips together
We will be alternating navy/raspberry/navy/raspberry. This is important because we need to sew them together the same way creating continuity throughout the entire quilt. Start by sewing one navy strip to one raspberry strip per below. When setting your seams press them to the navy side. Repeat until you have 10 sets of 4-row strips.
Step 2: Cutting the strips into our ‘tooth’ blocks
This step will take a little prep and patience on your part. It is wise not to rush through this one or you will regret it. First, prepare your ruler. After trial and error I found that 5″ square blocks worked best to give you the houndstooth pattern as well as work with precut fabrics.
A perfect template for the 5″ square is the cardboard backing that comes with a 5″ stacker. I also wanted clean lines so I taped my cardboard backing to my ruler so I could see the lines I needed, but still got straight cuts. The reason I did this is because we will be lining the diamond portion of the backing up with the center line of the strip sets and this was the best alternative I could find for consistent cuts.
Line up your ruler on the center line between your center raspberry and navy stitching line. This is the angle of the block we want to create. Can you see how this will create our diagonal patterned block for the Houndstooth?
Pretty sweet, right!? Yes, yes, yes, you will have some waste on this one and I know that goes against my cardinal precut rule, but you will have enough left over to make a fun chevron table runner, funky bag or I’m sure you can come up with something fantastic!
Make sure you are lined up properly and are placing your squares close together. You need to get at least 6 squares out of each strip set to be safe since we need 60 strip squares in total. I used my rotating rotary mat for this and it made it a very easy process.
Step 3: Final assembly (I told you this one was fast!) –
I start every quilt with a sketch so I can keep track of where I am and have a mini-map so-to-speak. Hereis this quilt’s ‘map’:
The easiest way to sew our blocks together is to work in pairs of 5. Always start with the raspberry corner to the top left. Then stitch either a raspberry square to the right or a navy square to the right. This may not make sense now looking at the grid above, but all you have to do is turn the navy one around when you lay out the quilt and voila! it all works out!
Once you have all of your strip/solid pairs completed you can start assembling the rows. Alternate navy and raspberry per row never having a solid right next to a solid or a stripe right next to a stripe. This will create the houndstooth look we are going for. There will be 5 solid squares per row for this lap quilt. Here’s a small snip-it of how the design will look.
Here’s what the final layout of the quilt will look like once assembled:
Final Quilt
Once you’ve finished quilting and binding you’ll have a fun lap quilt.
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