How to Make Postage Stamp Quilts for the 21st Century
The name postage stamp quilt refers to any quilt made of a large number of very little squares, often measuring no more than 1 inch square. These quilts were traditionally very labor-intensive projects, involving cutting out each square by hand and stitching them together with a needle and thread. Postage stamp quilts were often ongoing projects, added to as more scrap material was found.
Today's postage stamp quilts have the same intricate look from thousands of tiny squares, but modern methods have cut the required time to weeks instead of years to complete. Today's fabrics are bright and bold, creating an updated look for these quilts.
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Things You'll Need
- Bright cotton print fabrics
- Solid color cotton fabric
- Rotary cutter
- Rotary mat
- Rotary ruler
- Sewing machine
- Pins
Instructions
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Shop for modern prints by new designers for your quilt. Each fabric company puts out new lines every two or three months, so shop for the newest and brightest fabrics. Purchase full width quarter-yard pieces rather than fat quarters, so that you can cut the longest strips possible.
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Cut 1 1/2-inch strips from each print, and a number of them from solid fabrics in the same width. The total number of strips that you will cut will depend on how large your finished project will be.
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Lay a print strip on the table with the right side facing up. Lay a solid strip on top of the print strip, with the right side facing down. Pin along one long edge. Sew this edge, using a 1/4-inch seam.
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Open up the two seamed fabrics and lay them on the table with the right side up. Lay another print strip on top of the solid strip, with the raw edges matching and the right sides together. Pin this long edge and sew it together with a 1/4-inch seam.
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Sew a number of these striped sets. Make some of the sets with two prints and one solid, and the rest of them with two solids and a print.
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Lay one striped set on the cutting mat with the top edge along one of the horizontal lines on the mat and the left end lined up along one of the measurement lines. Place the ruler 1 1/2 inches in from the left end. Cut off a piece of strip at this point. Continue moving the ruler down the strip, cutting off 1 1/2 inch pieces. Cut all of the striped sets in this same way.
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Find one small piece that has prints on the outside and one that has solids on the outside. Place them together with the right sides touching. Pin along one long edge and sew it together using a 1/4 inch seam.
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Place another small piece on this sewn piece, making sure that the print and solid design is the opposite of the one that it will be touching. Sew this third small piece on to the other two. This will create a nine-patch checkerboard quilt patch.
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Use the rotary cutter and mat to cut a series of 3 1/2 inch squares of solid fabric. Sew together one nine-patch and one solid. Sew another nine-patch after the solid, and then another solid. Continue on in this manner until you have a strip as wide as your desired finished quilt.
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Make another strip of the same length, using solid first and then nine-patch this time. Continue making strips to create enough rows to finish your desired quilt top size. Sew all of the rows together to finish your quilt top.
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Tips & Warnings
Study pictures of old postage stamp quilts to get ideas for your block layouts.
Resources
- Photo Credit Carpet texture image by oddech from Fotolia.com
