Zig Zag Quilt from Hyacinth Quilt Designs

The past couple of days have been so fun! Thanks for all your support, Heather and I really love doing this blog.  We talk everyday about what's going on and the nice compliments we get.  We love you guys!!  Today we've got Cindy from Hyacinth Quilt Designs...let me tell you she is quite the talented quilter.  I really love this quilt top she just finished, I am smitten by anything gray these days.  Check out her 2010 round-up, such detailed quilts!  I'm amazed.  She's got a zig zag quilt (and tutorial) to share with us today, hooray!!  I have been dreaming, literally, of a zig zag quilt myself these days...however Heather has threatened me many times that my only goal and focus is Quilt Market in May.  Focus, focus, focus...


My Zig Zag quilt is done! I'm so happy with the results, especially the colors. Not a color combination I've tried before.

Gray, white, yellow and aqua...

And the back came out as pretty as the front. I used a gray Aurifil thread that had some subtle variegations in it. It was actually kind of an accident (or maybe a leap of faith), but the variegated thread created an interesting effect. I quilted each row in a "Feather Plume". The idea came from this Zig Zag quilt I found in my Zig Zag searching. The quilting was beautiful and she got the idea from this quilter.

Now for my little mishap story. I pin basted the whole quilt and as I added the LAST row of pins, I realized the backing was a little short at one end (I now think I had the quilt turned the wrong way on the backing). Not wanting to unpin and repin the whole quilt and knowing I had extra backing fabric, I decided that when I got to that end I would simply unpin a little and stitch another strip on to the backing. Of course when I was quilting and was almost done, in my haste I completely forgot to add the additional strip. My first thoughts were to unquilt (ugh!) or trim the quilt shorter (and ruin the design!). My easy solution was to take a strip of backing fabirc, turn under 1/4" on one long edge and applique it to the back. Voila! It worked (and actually looks like a sleeve). I hope you're never in that situation - but it seems like a good solution.

There are lots of ways to make a Zig Zag quilt. Here's my easy method. My quilt is 60" wide (10 triangles across) and 72" long (24 rows at 3" each).

From each fabric, cut a 7 1/4" strip. From the strip, cut 5 squares 7 1/4", cut twice diagonally and 1 square 3 7/8", cut once diagonally. You'll only need 19 of the large triangles.

Each row has 10 large triangles of one color and 9 large triangles plus 2 small triangles of another. Place them like this with one small triangle at one end...
and another small triangle at the other end.
Piecing these triangles is simple if you know the tricks. When sewing the small triangle on the ends, match up the 45 degree corners. On the opposite end you'll notice a corner hanging off also called the "dog ear" in quilting terms.
When you piece your large triangles together, you'll see that you have a "dog ear" on both ends. Line them up so that the inside of that little "V" that they form is 1/4" from the edge. When you first do this you may want to measure, but after you've done it for a while you can certainly eye-ball it.
Just keep making more and more rows and sew them together. You can use one set of triangles to split between the top and bottom rows.

Good luck! Let me know if you make one. I'm sleeping under mine tonight!