Four Fats and a Focus

Copyright Jean Amundson July 2006 May be used for charitable purposes

Fabric choices (100% cotton):

1 ½ yards of focus fabric

4 fat quarters

This design works best if you use medium-value fat quarters and a light or dark focus fabric.

Plan for binding:

Use additional yardage of one of the fabrics. If you want to make additional borders, an additional fifth fat quarter will make a narrow border (1 ½ cutting width), and an additional ¾ yard will make a 5” border (5 ½ cutting width).

Preparation:

Preshrink, dry, and press the fabrics. Test for color-fastness. If either bleeds, buy a package of “Dye Magnet” and continue to rinse the fabric until “magnets” don’t pick up any more color. (Dye Magnet can be found in the detergent section of the grocery store.)

Cutting:

If you have selected five fat quarters, reserve one for the first (narrow) border that will be added after the sashing borders are sewn on.

Lay out the other four fat quarters on top of each other, aligning selvedge edges and bottom edges. Trim away selvedges, then cut four strips 4.5” x the length of what was the selvedge edge (approximately 17.5 to 18” long).

Cut strips into rectabgles 5.5” long. You should have twelve rectangles of each fabric, 4.5 x 5.5

From the focus fabric, cut two strips, each 5.5” by length of fabric. Cut strips into 16 rectangles 4.5 x 5.5. (You’ll have a 5.5 wide strip left over after the rectangles have been cut; save this for part of the sashing later on.)

Number the fat-quarter fabrics, one through four. Attach scrap paper or write numbers on fabric scraps so that you remember which fabric is which number! Lay out rectangles as shown in Figure 1.

Piecing:

Make four sets, either identical to the set above, or arranging the fabrics to make an appealing design. Make sure you use the focus fabric rectangles to make a design chain. Sew each set together but do not join the four sets to each other. Press the seams in each row opposite each other (rows 1 and 3 to the left rows 2 and 4 to the right).

Measure each set across the middle to determine their widths and to make sure they’re all the same. If not, re-sew accordingly. Cut seven strips from remaining focus fabric, each 4” long x length of fabric. You may be able to use the leftover focus fabric strip here; narrow the width from 5.5 to 4) cut two pieces from one of the strips, each the measurement of the set width. Sew these sashing strips to the bottoms of the top two sets, as shown in Figure 2. Then sew the bottom two sets to these sashing strips, as shown in Figure 3. Press seams toward the sashing strips.

Remaining Sashing and Borders:

Measure down the middle of the quilt top to determine length. Piece 4” strips if necessary and cut to match the length measurement you obtained previously – make three. Sew one between the sashed sets and the remaining two to opposite sides of the quilt. Press seams toward borders/sashing.. Then measure across the middle width of the quilt top, and piece and cut remaining 4” strips to match the width measurement Sew to top and bottom of quilt and press seams toward borders.

Outer borders: If you have the fifth fat quarter and the additional ¾ yard and wish to make more borders, do so at this time. The strips for the narrow inner border should be cut 1.5” wide and pieced to the proper lengths (measuring the top down and across the middles). The outer borders can be any width you find pleasing (or depending on how much fabric you have) – just measure down the middle and across the middle of the top after the narrow borders have been added to determine the proper length and width for the border strips.

Baste, quilt as desired, and bind.