Let’s cut to the chase: it’s cutting week for the Retro Tetro Quilt Along!!! Look sharp!

Retro Tetro Quilt Along

Dates: September 15 through November 23
Duration: 10 weeks
Quilt Sizes: Mini, Crib, Throw, or Twin

How to Quilt Along

Share your progress on Instagram using #retrotetroqal. That’s where you’ll find the weekly photo prompts, livestreams, and more! Sign up here to be eligible for prizes, and get the weekly emails with tips for the coming week’s fun.

Join the Retro Tetro Quilt Along

Schedule

Week 1: Pick your fabrics, get your pattern, plan your coloring sheet
Week 2: Cut, label, and organize your pieces
Week 3: Make Large HSTs
Week 4: Make Block 2 (12 blocks)
Week 5: Make Small HSTs
Week 6: Make Block 3 (10 blocks)
Week 7: Make Blocks 4 (8 blocks)
Week 8: Make Block 5 (8 blocks)
Week 9: Sew blocks and strips into columns
Week 10: Finish quilt top

Step 1: Mark up your pattern

Use sticky notes, highlighters, masking tape, whatever you need. With 24 fabrics, 4 sizes, and 2 layouts, you can easily make a mistake if you’re looking at the wrong page or wrong column in a table.

Keep your swatch sheet handy to quickly translate the fabric numbers to the actual fabrics that you’re using.

Go to the cutting instructions for your size of pattern, and write the name of your fabric (e.g., “blue skulls”) beside every color code on every line of the cutting instructions, and in the cutting tables for the background strips and the squares.

Step 2: Change your rotary cutter blade

No excuses. Yes, it’s been too long. No, you shouldn’t put it off again. I’ll wait here.

Step 3: Starch and press your fabric

Here’s a post with a DIY starch recipe, if you’re all out of the store bought kind

Step 4: Cut your squares

Note: in the cutting instructions, this comes after the background strip cutting instructions (but you already know that, since you labeled the colors, right?) but we’ll be sewing the blocks first, so I figured you should cut them first, in case you run out of time to cut everything.

(There’s a giant dependency chart in my head, always. You can take the quilter out of project management, but you can’t take the project manager out of the quilter.)

The Square Cutting Table is on page 7. Circle the size of squares that you need to cut at the top of each column, then cut the required quantity from each fabric.

Put aside your smallest squares in an envelope, baggy, or binder clip labeled “blocks 2 and 4”.

Carefully follow the instructions to sub-cut triangles only from the indicated fabrics. Put the triangles aside in an envelope, baggy, or binder clip labeled “block 3”.

The rest of the squares are ready for making HSTs next week!

Step 5: Cut your background strips

Here’s a helpful video showing how to make sure your WOF cuts are square across the grain!

Step 6: Sub-cut and label your background pieces.

Follow the background sub-cutting table for your size of quilt to cut your strips down to rectangles, then write the Block # near one of the short edges of each rectangle. (We’ll be sewing these together using the flippy-corner method in week 9, so you can just use a pencil.)

Once they’re all cut, your future self will thank you if you sort them alpha-numerically by block number before you put them aside.

Step 7: Share!

Remember to share your progress on Instagram using #retrotetroqal.

Giveaway!!

This week’s prize is a beautiful pair of thread snips from LDH Scissors!

In 1990, LDH Scissors was founded in Shenzhen, just outside of Hong Kong, by a young couple who simply needed better quality sewing scissors. Built with Love, Dedication and Happiness, the company has been serving the sewing community ever since. Fast forward to 2018, their son Roy and his wife Ursula have brought the company to Toronto, Canada, bringing with them the same Love, Dedication and Happiness that made it all possible. LDH Scissors is also proud to be immigrant-, female-, and family-owned!

Win a beautiful pair of thread snips in the colour of your choice! Thread Snips cut thread exceptionally well, and are also good for snipping seam allowances, trimming edges, layering seams, and any other sewing task that requires fine, detailed control. Never clip your stitches by mistake again!

Head over to today’s Instagram post for the details! Best of luck!

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Don’t forget to check out all our amazing sponsors!

• Birdie and Dot Fabrics
• Craft de Ville
• The Electric Quilt Company
• Hobbs Bonded Fibers
• LDH Scissors
• Mister Domestic
• PreQuilt
• Purple KATZ Quilting
• Ruby Star Society
• Shannon Brinkley Studio
• Silly Moon Quilting Co
• Wonderfil Specialty Threads

Join the Retro Tetro Quilt Along