Happy Sunday readers! Now that the madness of the holidays is over and the madness of Quilt Con prep starting to ramp up, I’ve been craving a simple project with high visual impact and minimal stress. After staying up until 4 am on Christmas Eve finishing up one last gift, I was feeling burned out and missing my quilty mojo. This great big block was just what I needed to jump start the new year and I was lucky enough to partner with Sizzix as they promote their new line of dies designer by talented quilter Victoria Findlay Wolfe.
What you’ll need:
Sizzix Bigz XL 25″ Die – Strips, 2 1/2″ Wide
1/2 yard Kona Fern
1/2 yard Kona Aqua
1/2 yard Kona White
1 Yard backing fabric (I used Jennifer Paganelli’s Green Dots)
batting (no smaller than 44″ square)
***Tip: If you have the Big Shot Pro you can also use the Sizzix Bigz Pro Die – Square, 6″ Finished to make this project EVEN EASIER***
These jumbo blocks come together quickly and are so easy–I dare you to try and stop at only 3!
Step 1:
Using the Sizzix Fab and the 2 1/2″ strip die, cut the half yard of Kona Aqua and full yard of Kona Fern into strips. You should end up with 6 strips of the Aqua and 12 Strips of the Fern. Set aside 6 strips of Fern to be used as your binding later! Also cut six 6 1/2″ squares from the Kona White.
Subcut your remaining 12 strips according to the following chart (Fabric A is the Fern, Fabric B is the Aqua).
Block Assembly:
- For one block, start with 2 of the white squares.
- Sew a 6.5″ strip to either side of the square and press seams to the side. You’ll be left with 2 blocks.
- Sew a. 11.5″ strip along one long side of each block.
- Sew the two blocks together to form one center section for the block. When you do this, sew the sections so that the two “un-framed” ends face opposite directions. The side with Fabric A (green) will face with the unframed end down, while the side with Fabric B (blue) will face with the unframed end up. Now you have a new center of the block.
- Sew a 22.5″ strip of Fabric B along the top of the block.
- Sew a 22.5″ strip of Fabric A along the bottom of the block.
- Sew a 12.5″ strip of Fabric B along the left of the block.
- Sew a 12.5″ strip of Fabric A along the right of the block.
- Sew a 12.5″ strip of Fabric A along the left of the block.
- To finish the block, sew a 26.5″ strip of Fabric A along the top of the block.
- Congratulations, now you have one complete Locked In block!
- Make two blocks according to the above instructions and for the third block simply switch the fabrics (Fabric A would be Aqua and Fabric B would be Fern).
- Sew your three Locked Up blocks together, sewing the seams along the long sides of the blocks.
- From your Kona White Cut two panels 9″ by 42″ and sew down either side of your Locked Up blocks and your quilt top is finished. Now you just have to baste, quilt and bind and this quilt is just the right size to use one yard of fabric to make a whole cloth back if you don’t want to piece it!
I added a smaller strip of pink dotted fabric into my binding. I like to add a bit of contrasting binding into every quilt as a “signature”, and this quilt is headed to a nursery for a baby girl who should arrive any day, so I wanted it to speak a little to her darling pink crib set!
One of my favorite parts of this quilt was the actual quilting (and if you know me at all, that is NOT normal–I usually dread the quilting!) Because the quilt pattern is more minimalist, I really had a lot of fun playing with a mix of straight line and free motion quilting to play with the clean graphic lines of the block, and I really love the texture the quilting added. I just hope that the sweet mama-to-be loves it as much as I do!
This large scale block is perfect for making large quilts quickly and offers high visual impact. Try mixing a print and a solid, making a scrappy version, tone on tone…the Sizzix Fabi and 2.5″ strip die make it ridiculously easy to get your strips cut from your favorite fabric. I was really pleased with how much time the Fabi saved and especially how accurately everything was cut. Even when I am careful, there are times when my ruler slips against my rotary cutter, and the Fabi cut cleanly and precisely through 8 layers of Kona at a time. SO much faster than cutting by hand!
And now that you are all pumped up about this block, want to hear something SUPER exciting? Sizzix is giving away a totally deluxe package to one lucky reader–how does a new Fabi and die set sound? Totally awesome? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
After you enter the giveaway, make sure and check out some of the other fantastic projects on the blog hop and get some ideas for what to make when you win that awesome new die cutter!
January 16th Jamie Fingal
January 16th Tracy Mooney
January 17th Elizabeth Timmons
January 17th Nicole Daksiewicz
January 18th Ebony Love
January 19th Marni Weaver
January 19th Leslie Jenison
January 20th Karin Jordan
January 20th Sue Bleiweiss
January 21st Jenny Doan
January 21st Victoria Findlay-Wolfe
***Disclaimer: Sizzix provided the Fabi and the dies used in this tutorial, but all opinions are my own.***
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