Strip Tease Quilt

Supplies and fabric needs below

9) Admire the work of these "frenz"
and see their "stripper quilt" pic's!

Thread to sew (I use light to medium gray depending on my fabrics)

A lot of wound bobbins

A ruler (see below) with a 45 degree line on it. I have several rulers listed that you can use... you only *need* to have one so don't run out and buy them all!

Rotary cutter with nice sharp blade and cutting mat. You don't need that knife in the picture!

Cleaned up 45" area to sub-cut your strips on... yes, I said "clean and at least 45" of space!".

Something to lay the sub-cut strips on so you can see what you are doing to layout the quilt top. I know a lot have design walls, but you can just use a sheet or a piece of flannel or batting on the floor.

That is about it... oh yes, make sure you can sew an accurate 1/4" seam on your machine. I use a glob of tape on my sewing machine bed to guide me, never depend on the foot cause I "wave". You may have a guide of some sort you can tape or screw to your machine.

Maybe some more fabric if you want a bigger quilt or more "flavors" of fabric. More later on the sizes.

mab... who is sure she will remember something else later.

Some things you will need for cutting ...

You will need a 6" x 24" ruler such as an Onmigrid or other of this type. You can use a 3.5" x 24" ruler if you have 45 degrees marked on it.

If you don't have this large ruler with 45 degrees marked on it, you can use one of the other rulers below to tell you where a 45 degree is * in addition to any long ruler*.

You need the long ruler to span the 4 rows of strips we will be sewing together to sub-cut.

A good ruler to have if you don't have a big one with 45 degrees marked on it is a 6" square-up ruler or a 12" "square-up" OR

A medium 45 degree angle that is plain will do but you might have one of these in your stash. Check through your gadgets because you probably "had to have one" for something else at some time. ... anyway, something that will allow your to cut a 45 degree angle... OR

This one will work too and is good.

Fabric selection and Quilt Size
for "Strip Tease" quilt.

There is really no "pattern" for this quilt. By that, I mean "templates". It is all stripped pieced, sub-cut, recut and sewed back together again. Easy as can be and a lot of fun.

Cut your strips 3.5 inches wide by the width of the fabric.

So basically you will have 3.5" x 44" strips to sew together.

Some fabrics are more narrow than others. It will work out okay.

For the basic quilt below, you will need 50 or more assorted strips.

Any and all colors, patterns... this is a scrap quilt... the more colors and patterns the neater your quilt will look.

If you are whacking up fat quarters to use them up, your strips will be 3.5" x 22" or so. You will need two fat quarter strips for every 1 regular 44" strip. You don't have to cut two of the same fat quarter fabrics, just two strips of 22" to equal the 44" of a normal strip. You will get much more of a variety of fabrics this way. You may need a few more, depending on your sewing and cutting.
See below

The basic strip quilt without any borders

measures about 48" x 72".

You can put on plain straight borders or more borders to make this basic quilt larger. If you put just one 3" plain border all the way around, it will be 54" x 78"... more borders/wider borders will make it larger..

The basic strip quilt with the "built in border",

the quilt will be approximately 60" x 86".

If you want bigger than that... it will take a little figuring... more strips are all you will need.

Thoughts on value of colors...
what to use and what to toss.

The quilts I make like this will have a piece of amost everything in my stash. It looks great because I have a wide range of colors from light to dark. So, if you have many strips and they are an assortment of light, medium and darks, all kinds of different prints and patterns... all of them in pretty equal amounts, you can use all values in your quilt and it will look grand...

However... if you have a "collection" you are using and the collection is say, 30 reproduction fabrics, you probably would want to stick with that type of fabrics and not use 30 repro strips and then stick in 10 beach bum strips with tropical fish! This is just for difinete "collections" of fabric styles.

Get it? Just something to ponder...

It really is easy and don't be put off by all the talk above if you don't understand it... Pictures will make it all clear.

Look through your fabrics you choose. If you have all pastel colors strips (yes, you can do this!) you will not want to put in two black strips... they will stick out first and scream "why am I here!". You will want to keep your color values in a lighter "range".
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If you have all dark rich color strips like Amish Jewel tones, you will not want to put in a few white or very light ones or a bunch of yellow. . once again, they will stick out first and scream "why am I here!" It looks good in patchwork but not in this quilt. You will want to keep your color values in a deeper "range".

All for now... I need a some chocolate! mab

Introduction and objective	1) Supplies and fabric needs	2) Basic quilt / quilt with "built-in borders" 2b) standard matress sizes	3) Larger quilt chart	4) Sew your strips together
5) Press your strips	6) Sub-cut your strips	7) Sew your diamond rows together	8) Sew your diamond rows together, page 2	9) Admire the work of these "frenz" and see their "stripper quilt" pic's!
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