Chunky Race Quilts

When I saw Jasmine's Chunky Race Quilt, I knew I needed to make some to practice my quilting. Here are my first two.

She gave great directions on how to make a chart like this on graph paper.  I followed her instructions and made mine and then drew it in excel so I could have a chart that wasn't in pieces.  I wanted my quilt to be a bit bigger so I used 10 fat quarters and cut 49 pieces.  The only way to get the quilt taller was to add a row after strip piecing the quilt because this method produces an even number of rows. My quilt finishes at 49.5 by 59.5. If you want to follow Jasmine's way but want my bigger size,  use this chart. If you want to skip laying out on a design wall jump to the Chunky Race Quilt directions below  my quilt top.

The first two quilts I made took a while to get all the pieces on the design wall. It was more time than I wanted to spend to get to the fun part of practicing my quilting.  So I came up with a way to skip this step and still have a great layout with the colors spread out. The entire top from cutting to sewing can be done in less than 2 hours.

Here is the third one I made to test out the new faster directions. This is my order of fabrics 1 to 10 starting on the left.  I put similar colors together so they would be separated in the quilt.

49.5 x 59.5

CHUNKY RACE QUILT

This quilt is sewn in a similar method to the Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  You will need to make your pile of strips before you start sewing.

10 Fat Quarters - Cut 5 pieces 4" x 18"

1. Set fabrics in order from 1 to 10.

2. Layout pieces in a STACK  in order according to the chart below. First column is piece number, second column is fabric number. So start with fabric 6, then put fabric 1 on top of that, then fabric 8, then fabric 6, then fabric 9 until you reach the last one.

3. Set pieces 47 to 49 aside for later.

4. Cut piece 1 to 9" long. Remember that piece number 1 is on the bottom of the stack.

5. Take your stack and sew pieces 1 to 46 in order end to end. Iron seams open.

6. Bring bottom of the strip to the top, right sides together, with bottom piece on top. Sew along the right side. Trim end.

7. Bring bottom of the strip to the top, right sides together, with bottom piece on top. Sew along the right side. Trim end.

8. Bring bottom of the stip to the top, right sides together, with bottom piece on top.  Sew along the left side. (Do this by turning the piece over and sewing down the right side.) Trim end.

9. Bring bottom of strip to top, right sides together, with bottom piece on top. Sew along the right side. Trim end.

10. Sew pieces 47 to 49 together end to end.  Iron seams open.

11. Add 47-49 strip to top of quilt. (18-17-16-15 is top)

12. Iron all long seams open.

13. Trim top row along edge of quilt.  (You may wish to trim half inch off this side.)

14. Have fun quilting!