Strippy Quilt or Finally, A Tutorial!

I finally got my crafting bug back! I almost didn't know who I was without it. This weekend I worked on two projects that have been on my to-do list for quite a while: some hooded towels for an order (should be up in an etsy shop in the next few months!) and a Cars quilt for my son.


Lincoln is in love with all things car, so I decided to make him a quilt to encourage his habit. It's on the smallish side because I used a Cars panel for the backing, but this is a super easy quilt to modify to make bigger. It's a style of quilt my MIL has been making for years, and it's one I've not seen elsewhere. It goes together very quickly because you quilt it as you piece, so once you're done piecing you just bind and you're done!


Here's a quick tute:

Gather material - backing fabric and 3-5 (or more) fabrics for strips. I used 10 4" strips for a 35" panel and ended up a little short because I was just winging my seam allowance. You would need more yardage for a longer quilt - I would suggest 1/2 yard of 5 fabrics for a 2-yard backing fabric.

Start by laying out your backing fabric, front side down. Then place your batting on top.

Next place your first strip, right side up. So the first strip is wrong sides together with the backing. Pin that down.


Now, before you sew, place your second strip directly over the first, right sides together. It should look like this:


Sew along the bottom edge, then fold the second strip down so the right side is facing you and iron the seam open. Then move on to the third strip, placing it right sides facing with the second strip, like this:


Sew, iron, and continue for the length of the backing fabric. Notice how the front is being quilted with straight lines as you piece the strips:



When I got to the bottom, I had just a few inches left:


Since the panel is just a checkered piece on the bottom, I decided to cute an inch off rather than have a narrower strip. Depending on your backing fabric, you may or may not go with this option. If your backing fabric is not as forgiving, you'll want to pay more attention to your seam allowance and the strip width than I did.

Finally, bind along the unfinished edge, and you'll all done!


Easy peasy. I would love to make some of these with jelly rolls because the cutting is usually the most tedious part for me. I also think that embellishing the quilting with decorative stitches, stitching along the center of the strip, ribbons, etc, would be a fun variation. If you make a quilt like this, I'd love to see how it turns out!

I'll be linking to the parties on the left.