Sugar Pie – A 3 Yard Quilt

First up in my 3 Yard Quilt experiment is Sugar Pie.

In making this quilt, I switched the dark and light position in the pattern. Why? I think it is because my focus print had a black background and I wanted the metallic aqua grunge, my light fabric, next to the print.

What do I like about the pattern?

1) I like that it is a great pattern for showing off a large scale print. We sometimes buy a fabulous print and then never use it because we don’t want to chop it up. Sugar Pie lets you show off your gorgeous print.

2) Press to the dark and all your block pieces will nest.

3) If you want a larger quilt, there are directions included for twin and queen size. Twin can be made with 2 yards of each of three fabrics.

4) These patterns make up quickly!

What did I not like?

1. 1.5″ strip sets. ARGH! And there are three sets of 24 to do. Boring and tedious, but needs must. I ended up making them a fraction (1/16″ or a bit less) wider just to give me a little breathing room. I still got my 24 pieces out of each strip.
2. You will need to keep a stringent scant 1/4″ seam on this pattern.
3. The pattern allows for 1.5” binding strips. Ugh, not happening. I had enough fabric to do a 2.5” binding strip.

Tips: Check that your squares are square after each addition of strip sets. With these narrow pieces, getting off 1/16′ or (heaven forbid) an 1/8″ can easily build into serious wonkiness. Watch your square! When I sewed them all together, they squared, so checking as I completed each new set of strips paid off.

I modified the side borders a bit, making my dark fabric (the middle border) 1.75″ instead of 2.5″. I wanted to use a batik yardage for the backing and it would have been a few inches too wide, so I narrowed the borders to keep this to 45″ wide. It is 54” long. I also like the look of the narrower border between the two slightly wider ones.

Happy quilting all!

Lennea