Monday, September 27, 2010

The Pong Quilt Tutorial


I made my oldest son a nap time quilt this past week. It was a fairly quick & easy quilt and a scrapbuster quilt too! I love finishing off bits of fabric....just so I can go fabric shopping again :) That's my favorite part!

So why is it called the Pong quilt? My husband said it reminded him of The Atari game- PONG. I thought it ended up looking like a graph chart...my oldest pointed out the letter "i". So maybe it's a graph chart quilt. or a 'dot the i' chart. or the pong quilt. Or a route 44 quilt. that was my magic number in figuring out the math. Ha! Either way, I love the colors & my oldest now asks for it at nap time. I'll do anything for him to continue taking naps!

Here is how I made it:
The finished quilt came out to 43" X 60"

8 X 4" strips of varying colors (I liked the solids for boys) by 44" long. I used 2 fabrics twice.
3 yards of a solid fabric (62" for the back & 9 strips of 4" X 44" for the front)
1/2 yard of contrasting fabric for binding
1 3/4 yard of batting

First I cut my contrasting colors of fabric into 4" strips X 44".

Then same with the solid grey (this ended up being 9 cuts 4" X 44"). Oh how I love Kona Cotton.

Next, I didn't want stripes all the way across the quilt, so I cut 4" X 4" blocks out of each colored strip & separated the square & strip by grey fabric.

Here's my math on each strip:
Red dots: 4" X 7" strip, 4" X 4" square -> which means I needed a 33" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Stripes: 4" X 25" strip, 4" X 4" square -> which means I needed a 15" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Navy Blue: 4" X 11" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 29" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Green: 4" X 36" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 4" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Red dots: 4" X 28" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 12" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Orange: 4" X 32" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed 8" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Multi colored dots: 4" X 18.5" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 21.5" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Navy Blue: 4" X 10" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 30" strip of solid grey to make 44"

I first pieced each individual strip. Square, Grey Strip, solid strip.

Then pieced accordingly with a solid grey strip between each colored/grey strip combo.
The front was a pretty easy, quilt front to put together. The backing was solid grey & I quilted it with my walking foot in long strips about 3/4" apart.

1 comment:

Marianna said...

I think it is a neat design with a clean modern edge.

I also enjoy seeing what my family members come up with when they see a simple image. If it is abstract enough it can have many fun interpretations. One of the joys of quilting that I get to share.

My good thoughts to you and yours.