ModBox QAL Week #4 – Put It All Together

Welcome back! It’s the last week of our ModBox QAL and it’s time to put it all together and finish your quilt top! Hurray! There will be no companion video this week as this week is simply about piecing your quilt top all together – pretty easy !

By now you should have laid out your blocks from Week #3 in color order according to your fabric color key and also placed the background fabrics #1 & #2 sashing strips in place in between the colored blocks (refer to Fig 8 & 9 in the pattern). Remember to alternate your background sashing strips from block to block following the layout diagrams in the pattern. See my first vertical row laid out in the photo on the right.

START TO PIECE THE FIRST VERTICAL ROW TOGETHER –
Referring to Fig 9/page 5 of the pattern, notice that each vertical row is made up of a left column of blocks and right column of blocks. First things first, starting on the left side, piece the background sashing strips to each of the colored blocks (similar to how we pieced the colored strips to these blocks in last week).

Here’s my first block in the first vertical row on the left side with the sashing strips laid around it and then stitched together.

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Make sure to double check the unfinished size of these blocks and trim them down if needed (refer to page 4 of the pattern).

Also be sure to follow the pressing instructions so your seams nest nicely together when you stitch the rows together – remember: when stitching Background Fabric #1 sashing strips on each block, press all seams toward Background #1 (or the white fabric in the diagram), and when stitching Background Fabric #2 strips on each block, press all seams toward the colored blocks!!

Once you have the background sashing strips pieced on your colored blocks, stitch the blocks together in a vertical row or create a column of blocks. Make sure you keep double checking your fabric color key for the order of your blocks. Nest and pin the seams together from block to block.

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Then repeat on the right hand side to form a second column of blocks, and finally stitch the the two vertical columns together to form your first vertical row of blocks. Repeat the above on additional rows if you making the Large Lap size or the Baby quilt. Be sure to press all the seams to one side.

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IMPORTANT!! PIECE THE RIGHT SIDE VERTICAL SASHING STRIPS –
Before stitching the vertical rows together, don’t forget to piece together and attach to the right hand side of the vertical row the long sashing strip made up of the (7) 2-1/2″ x 12-1/2″ background fabrics 1 & 2 as shown in Fig 12.

I must admit I get so carried away with getting the quilt top complete, I always forget this vital step and then end up seam ripping my vertical rows apart in order to add back in these long thin sashing strips. Argh! And double argh!!

Also note if you are making the Table Runner, this would be your final step and your quilt top is complete!

FINISH THE QUILT TOP –
If you are making the Large Lap or Baby Quilt, once the vertical rows are complete, simply stitch the first row to the second row and second row to the third row, and then your quilt top is complete! Yay! Here’s a sneak peek of my quilt top in that gorgeous Kaffe Fassett! I love it!

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This concludes out ModBox QuiltAlong – I hope you enjoyed it!

Thank you so much for following along and for your continued support!  Look for more Colourwerx QuiltAlongs on our Colourwerx Facebook page or on our website under QuiltAlongs!

Until your next colour fix – happy quilting!  Linda & Carl xxoo

ModBox QAL – Week #3 – Piece the Block

Hello, hello! Welcome back to Week #3 of the ModBox QuiltAlong! Finally – the week we’ve been working for – this week we start to piece the blocks together and let me tell you, they go together in a breeze!

By now, you should have decided upon the colour order of your fabrics, precut the fabrics and then grouped the colour combinations together. If you are need to refresh or are just joining in, check out Week #2’s blog post right here!

As always there is a short companion video tutorial as well. You can view the video here!

STITCH YOUR FIRST BLOCK –
Grab your first set of Fabric “A” blocks combined with Fabric “B” strips. Remember: All seams are scant 1/4″ (which is a hair less than a full 1/4″ seam). Following the directions on pages 3 of the ModBox pattern, stitch the Fabric “B” short strips to the top and bottom edges of the Fabric “A” block. Press the seams towards Fabric “B” – then stitch the remaining Fabric “B” longer strip to the left edge of the unit. Be sure to measure the block and trim it to match the benchmark measurements included in the pattern on page 3.

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That’s it! Super easy! Now continue on piecing blocks in this manner until you have pieced all the blocks and strips together. Make sure you keep the fabric combinations together of blocks and strips you created in Week #2!

LAYOUT FIRST VERTICAL ROW FOR PREPARATION OF WEEK #4 –
In preparation for Week #4 (where we put the whole quilt together), begin to layout the first vertical row of blocks. Follow the diagrams on page 5 of the ModBox pattern.

Once you have the blocks for the first vertical row in place, begin to place the background fabric strips in place between the colored blocks. This can get a bit confusing because if you are like me, I am using (2) purple fabrics for my background and the pattern diagrams show the background fabrics in black and white.

To make it easier to follow the diagram and avoid confusion – I code my background fabrics and label one white and the other black.

Then I can place the correct background fabric around each colored block like so!

ALSO AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON FIGURE 12 IN THE PATTERN –
There is an updated Figure 12 for page 6. Especially for those of you doing the ModBox Large Lap and using half yards, please be sure to download the new Fig 12 (file PDF below for you to print) – this revised Fig 12 gives you the correct color sequence and block layout – again, especially if you are using half yards and making the Large Lap. You can retrieve the updated diagram here.

That’s it – we are ready for Week #4 where we will put it all together! See ya next week and until then, happy colouricious quilting! XX00 L&C

ModBox QAL – Week #1 – Get Your Pattern and Gather Your Materials

Hello!  And welcome to the ‘first week’ of our eighth Colourwerx QAL (quilt along) where we’ll be making the bold and graphic super fabulous and oh – so – easy “ModBox”. This is a super fun quilt to make, and it’s a great project for half yards, fat quarters or even fat eighths (depending upon which size you make).

JOIN THE COLOURWERX FACEBOOK GROUP: First, I want to thank you so much for joining us here.   If you want to meet with other Colourwerx quilty friends and aren’t yet a member of our Facebook group, I  invite you to join our free QAL Facebook group where you can ask questions, share your progress and of course, post pictures of your finished projects so everyone can share in the fun!  Also feel free to share this invite and any other QAL news with quilty buddies and invite them to join along in the fun!

JOIN THE COLOURWERX QUILTALONG FACEBOOK GROUP HERE

COMPANION VIDEOS: Each week of the quiltalong, also look for a companion video to be posted within the blog post like this one below.   If you’d like to receive alerts to when the videos are posted and other neat tutorials and replays of our Fab Friday Live broadcasts, then subscribe to our Colourwerx YouTube channel right here!

If you’d like to view this week’s companion video to Week #1 of the ModBox QAL, view it here:

So this is Week#1 of the ModBox QAL – 
First let’s review our super fast 4-week schedule!
• Week 1 (this week) we’ll gather our pattern and our fabrics together…
• Week 2 is all about deciding the color order and precutting your fabrics….
• Week 3 is all about piecing the blocks….
• …and Week 4 we’ll be putting it all together.

Super fun!!

Week #1 – GATHER YOUR PATTERN & MATERIALS —
Here’s what you’ll need to join in on the stitchin’ fun –
• The ModBox Pattern! You can purchase it in either paper or PDF formats buy clicking the links below….

Purchase the ModBox Paper Pattern here!

Purchase the ModBox PDF Pattern here!

WHICH SIZE WILL YOU MAKE??
Once you get the pattern home, check out the back cover and determine which size ModBox you’d like to make. There are three versions to choose from:

1. The Large Lap Size – measures 72″ x 84″ and requires (10) half yards (or 20 Fat Quarters) plus (2) background fabrics – 1 yard and 1-1/4 yards each;

The Baby Size quilt – measures 36″ x 45″ and requires (18) Fat Eighths (or 9 Fat Quarters) plus (2) background fabrics – 1/2 yard each fabric.

• The Table Runner Size – measures 18″ x 63″ and requires (13) Fat Eighths (or 7 Fat Quarters) plus (2) background fabrics – 1/2 yard each fabric.

DIFFERENT VERSIONS
Let’s look at some different versions of the ModBox quilt that we’ve either made or rendered for different fabric companies in a variety of color motifs. This may give you an idea of what colors you might want to use for your ModBox Quilt. Click the arrows to view each version.

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WHAT FABRICS AM I USING??
I always like to stitch up a new sample along side you while we do QuiltAlongs and this time, will be no exception. I’ll be making the Large Lap version out of the Kaffe Fassett Collective February 2021 fabrics that just arrived into shops! Here’s a rendering of the quilt we made up in Electric Quilt Software 8.

And here’s a close up of the gorgeous new Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics – I just love these hot tropical colors and patterns in this new collection: fucshias, magentas, peachy oranges and deep burnt apricot!

My background fabrics will be these two deep dark plum fabrics and the binding will be my new fave Kaffe Fassett fabric – this fiery orange button fabric! I think it’s going to be really spectacular!

So go forth and choose fabrics and be sure to get your ModBox pattern from the Colourwerx Shop! Once your fabrics are selected, you might want to start thinking about the order for your fabrics. We’ll talk more about this next week in Week #2!

That’s it for Week #1 – that was fun! And I can’t wait to see all of your fabric selections! Week #2 we’ll decide fabric and color orders and then precut all of our fabric !

Until then, please be sure to email us at colourwerx@yahoo.com if you have any questions.  Or feel free to post questions or progress pictures on our Colourwerx QAL Facebook Group.

Until your next colour fix and next week’s QAL post ~  happy and bright quilting always!   

L&C xxoo