Tuesday Treats: Just Spooling Around with Aurifil

Following on from Ladybirdee’s market report we thought we would share the pattern for our “Spooling Around” quilt.

All the slaves, I mean workers, at Always Quilting had a hand in the making of the spooling around quilt.

Judysew4th created the initial design in Electric Quilt in time for one of our staff meetings. We all, then had a say in modifying the blocks to end up with a quilt that is approximately 100cm x 100cm.

Once the  patterns were fine tuned, we each had the job of making a set of blocks (1 x large spool, 2 x medium size large spools & 8 x small spools) in time for the next staff meeting.

We decided we wanted a modern quilt look with the spools set in a bright white background, using the Aurifil spool colours for the bases (orange, green, grey & red) and as many “thread” colours as we fancied.

The layout for our “Spooling Around” quilt

I got the job of  piecing the quit top and it was very satisfying to find that the blocks all fitted together perfectly …. our measurements worked!

We opted for a squarish “edge to edge” background quilting design around the four large spools, then quilted each of these separately using the thread weight that matched the spool.

After all it was a display piece for our Quilt Market stand.

The large spools have been quilted in the relevant thread weight. Cotton Mako’ 28 was used here for the spool with the grey base & spindle

Keep reading for instructions to make your own version of our quilt:

We used 4 large spool blocks, 8 medium size versions of the large spool & 32 small spool blocks for our quilt. You should make as many blocks as you need to create your own version.

Spooling Around Quilt Fabric Requirements:

Pieced with Cotton Mako’ 40
Quilted with Cotton Mako’ 40 (ditch stitching & background quilting) & Cotton Mako’ 50, Cotton Mako’ 40, Cotton Mako’ 28 & Cotton Mako’ 12 for the “thread” quilting on the spools

For one Large Spool:

Large Spool

Background fabric:

Cut 2 x A (2 1/2″ x 12 1/2″)
Cut 2 x B (2  1/4″ x 1 1/2″)
Cut 2 x E (1 1/2″ x 10″)

Spool Fabric:

Cut 1 x F  (2 1/2″  x 1  1/2″)
Cut 1 x D  (6″ x 1 1/2″)

Thread Fabric:

Cut 1 x C  (6″ x 10  1/2″)

For One Medium size Version of Large Spool:

Medium version of Large Spool Shape

Background Fabric:

Cut 2 x A (1 1/2″ x 7 1/2″)
Cut 2 x B (1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″)

Spool Fabric:

Cut 1 x B (1 1/2″ x 1 1/2′)
Cut 1 x D (3 1/2″ x 1 1/2″)

Thread Fabric:

Cut 1 x C (3 1/2″ x 5 1/2″)

For one Small Spool block:

Background fabric:

Cut 2 x A  (4″ x 1 1/2″)
Cut 1 x B (1 1/2″ x 1″)

Spool Fabric:

Cut 2 x B (1  1/2″ x 1″)

Thread Fabric:

Cut 1 x C  (2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″)

Piecing Blocks Together:

 Two medium blocks are the same height as a single large block so the block layout is interchangeable.

These blocks can be set to the left or right of each other

The small spools make a versatile sashing set.

Use the small spool blocks to make sashing sets

Add borders to suit your preferred quilt size.

I hope you have fun making your own version of our Spooling Around with Aurifil quilt.