Super-Sized God's Eye Quilt

This is one of my favorite quilts ever!  I was inspired by an article in Quilty magazine (May/June 2013).  They had taken a single star block and super-sized it to make a very contemporary quilt.  I liked the idea, but traded out the star block and replaced it with one of my favorite blocks.  Not only is it a striking design, but it was incredibly fast to make!  I pieced the top on day one, finished the quilting on day 2, and finished binding it on day 3.  I probably could have done it faster than that, but I had to squeeze it in after work.  (I sometimes get quite annoyed that I have to interrupt my quilting with reality!)

I was working with a specific color palette – Green and purple – because it was a gift for a very special person in my life.  I started with a trip to JoAnn Fabrics and found a wonderful paisley print for the backing material.  These days we seem to be backing our quilts with big, bold, flowery prints in almost garish colors!  It adds a bit of fun and contrast to the clean lines and minimal color scheme of the contemporary designs.  Once I chose the backing fabric, I picked three colors to use for the block.  I used black, purple and green.

My quilt finished 48” by 56”.  The center block was 40” square and I added borders to get the size I wanted.  I used a wrapped binding technique to bind the quilt.  If I were to do it again, I would do a traditional binding.  I did simple straight line quilting from top to bottom spaced about half an inch apart.  Because of this style of quilting, the quilt shrunk up a bit in the top and bottom edges, but not on the side edges.  So the binding is a bit wavy at the top and bottom from trying to stretch it to fit.  I think a traditional binding would have been a better choice, but I didn’t have time for all that handwork!

Shopping List:

4 yards – backing material
2 yards – Background (Black)
½ yard – Green
¾ yard – Purple
Thread – I used a charcoal grey color and went through the better part of 1200 yards
Batting – At least 53” x 61”
Basting Spray

Cutting List:

Purple                   2 – 11 ½” squares
                             2 – 13” squares
                             4 – 6” squares

Green                    2 – 11 ½” squares
                             1 – 13” square

Background          1 – 13” square
                            8 – 5 ½” squares
                            4 – 6” squares
                            4 – 5 ½” x 10 ½” rectangles
                            4 – 5 ½” x 15 ½” rectangles
                            2 – 8 ½” x 40 ½” rectangle (top borders)
                            3 – 4 ½” x width of fabric (side borders)

Backing Fabric – divide into two 2-yard lengths and sew together along the selvedge edges to form a rectangle measuring about 72” x 84”.  I know this is too big, but I like leftover fabric, and I don’t like any more seams than necessary on the back of my quilts.

Technique:

I used the “Quilt in a Day” method for making flying geese.  Of course, you can choose any method you want to use.  I am quite certain that Eleanor Burns can explain her technique better than I can, so I will simply say that you need to make 14 flying geese blocks that measure 5 ½” by 10 ½” (the finished size is 5 x 10).

 

Four of them are purple with black corners.  Use one 13” square and one 11 ½” square.

Six of them are green with purple corners.  Use two 13” purple squares, and two 11 ½” green squares.  This method actually makes 4 blocks at a time, so I just made 8 and set 2 of them aside for my next scrappy project!

Four of them are purple with green corners.  Use one 13” green square and one 11 ½” purple square.

Now make 8 half-square-triangle (HST) squares that measure 5 ½”.  Again, you can use any method you want.  I line up a 6” purple square on top of a 6” black square, draw a diagonal line on the purple square from corner to corner, stitch ¼” away from both sides of the line, and then cut on the line.  Press the seams open.  You will have two blocks that are slightly over-sized, so trim them to the correct dimensions.

Now assemble 4-patches using the HST squares and the black squares.  You will need four of these blocks.  Just be sure that the purple triangles are on opposite corners from each other.

Now take all your blocks to the design wall and lay them out like this:

Assemble the quilt in rows and then assemble the rows to make the top. 

Carefully sew the borders to the top and the bottom and then to the sides.  Use lots of pins for this step to avoid wonky seams!

Baste the layers together using basting spray (or pins) and begin quilting.  I did simple straight-line quilting up and down the quilt spaced about ½” apart.  I intentionally went a bit crooked and spaced the lines a bit more or less than ½”.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to be perfect, so I tried to emphasize the imperfection!

When I made my quilt, I wrapped the backing material around the edges to bind the quilt.  This is the one thing I would do differently next time.  So I would suggest you trim all the layers even and add a binding instead!