“Hey Mom! Can you make a quilt with trucks on it for Sawyer?” 

“Dear Daughter – Do you want a crib size or twin size?”. 

“Make it a twin, he can use it when he grows into a big bed”

Why is it when you lovely daughters ask for things, you go out of your way to make them? Here is my latest adventure.

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Cheater Quilt Fabric to the Rescue

Time was NOT on my side with this one, so to save time I bought a fabric “Cheater quilt”. What is a cheater quilt you ask?? A cheater quilt, also known as a wholecloth, basically is fabric that looks like it has already been pieced. They are a fast way to finish a last minute quilt because you basically only need to add a backing and a binding and voila, a quilt is born.

When you can’t find fabric in a theme you want to check out Spoonflower.  Although a little more costly, they have everything!  And they have a large selection of “cheater quilt fabric“. And it is unique. Therefore, Step One was to choose the fabric at Spoonflower.

I ordered two yards, meaning I will have a piece of fabric 42 inches by 72 inches.  With Spoonflower, I am guaranteed the size will be perfect! 

But a twin size quilt is approximately 60 x 90. What do I do?  The fabric I ordered was too small. 

Design a border of course!

To get to 60 x 90, you need to add 18 inches to both the length and the width of the fabric.  (42 plus 18 = 60  and 72 plus 18 = 90)  This works out to 9” on each of the four sides.

There are so many options for borders. I did not want to take the attention from the main fabric, so decided to stay simple.  I choose some solid colors that I liked (with the help of a few FB friends) and ordered them from Connecting Threads. 

Now the design.

The first option would be to simply frame the fabric but a 9 inch frame seemed boring.  A 3 inch inner frame and 6 inch outer frame was the first choice.

Then I decided to check Pinterest (a very dangerous place).  I was flooded with ideas and finally decided on two 1-1/2 borders with a pattern between them. 

Half Square Triangles (HST’s) make great borders. They can be arranged in a number of combinations and fabric color choices offer endless design possibilities.   CHECK THESE OUT!

Fast and Easy Half-Square Triangles

After years of making HST’s one at a time, I learned something when making this quilt.  You can make this great little squares 2 or 4 even EIGHT at a time! My examples will reflect measurements for 5 inch squares because that is what I needed for my borders, however, HST’s can be made in ANY size!!

HST TWO AT A TIME – To make your HST square, place two squares of fabric right sides together. Draw a line from one corner to the other on the diagonal. Sew 1/4″ on both sides of the line. Cut on your drawn line.

HST FOUR AT A TIME – To make HST’s 4 at a time, place the two squares together right sides facing. Draw an “X” from corner to corner. Sew 1/4″ all around the edges of the square. Cut on drawn line

HST EIGHT AT A TIME – Draw an “X” as if making Four at a time. Sew on both sides of both lines, then cut the square in half, then in half again, then cut on the diagonal.

THE FORMULA

To calculate the size of squares you will need, you are going to do a little math. If math is not your forte, add a 1/2″ or so to the formula. You can always fix the squares when you trim! When talking about the “finished” size of the square, I am saying this will be the size of the square when sewed in.

For HST’s made two at a time, you will add 7/8″ to the finished block size. Therefore, to make a 5 inch square, you will cut the squares to 5-7/8″. (or use 6 inch squares and trim)

The formula for making four at a time HST’s is a little more complicated. It used the unfinished size of your square x .64. For the 5 inch square, you will need to add 1/2″ to get the unfinished size of 5-1/2″. Multiple this by .64 to arrive at 3-1/2 inches.

If making your HST’s eight at a time, start with the measurement of the finished block size and multiply by 2, then add 1¾. For 5 inch squares, you will need to cut your squares 11-3/4 inches. (5″ x 2 = 10 plus 1-3/4). I made mine 12″ to allow some space for trimming.

There are lots of charts out there, that do the math for you. I saved a few to my Pinterest Board – Quilt HST’s to assist you in calculating the correct size required for your project.

TRIM TO SQUARE

I always take a minute to trim the HST blocks to square. It is so worth it to be sure everything fits just perfectly! Remember that when you are squaring the HST, they need to be 1/2 inch bigger than the finished size to accommodate the 1/4″ seam allowance. So, if you need 5 inch squares, you will trim to 5-1/2 inches.

Press your HST open. Place the 45 degree line from your ruler on the seam and the left side of the HST square on the UNFINISHED measurement on the ruler. Trim.

Woohoo, get me started! My solids arrived from Connecting Threads and while I waited for my Spoonflower order to arrive, whipped up the four borders in no time.

Finishing up! The Cheater Quilt fabric arrives

As soon as the “Cheater Quilt” fabric arrived, I attached those borders, quilted the quilt and added the binding in no time!! My dear daughter loves fleece for backing and because it comes 60 inches wide, no need to piece the back.

What do you think??? He loved it!