This quilt goes together quickly, and most any colors/fabrics could be used, fabrics don’t have to match or even coordinate. If you need a graduation quilt or a quilt for a young person, make it in their school colors.
The drawing below can be printed and colored using pencil colors, or it’s a very simple quilt to draw in Electric Quilt.
The flying geese are sewn together in vertical rows.
When planning the quilt, there’s a sequence in that the first row (the row on the left) will have a flying geese unit with the big triangle shown as white and the two smaller triangles shown as gray. On the second row, the big triangle is gray and the two smaller triangles are white.
The photo above shows the first blocks from Row 1 and Row 2. You can see that the Row 1 block has a large turquoise triangle and two small brown triangles. The second row has two small turquoise triangles and a tan larger triangle. Row 3 would have two small tan triangles and a larger triangle of whatever the next color will be.
My geese finish at 8″ x 16″. Each of my rows has 6 flying geese sewn together along the 8″ edge. To make that size block, for the small triangles, cut 6 squares that are 8-7/8″. Cut those on the diagonal once to yield 12 triangles. For the larger triangle, cut 3 squares that are 12-1/4″. Cut those on the diagonal once to yield 6 triangles.
I will not give you exact fabric requirements because it depends on how many fabrics you use but to make one row, you cut three of the 12-1/4″ squares and would also cut 6 – 8-7/8″ squares of that same fabric for the next row. You would need one 12-1/4″ strip and two 8-7/8″ strips so I would say 31″ of each fabric.
Using the above quilt for reference, there are 12 fabrics, assuming each row has a different fabric, with the left and right fabrics being the same — on the left side, it uses the small squares and on the right side, it uses the large triangles. This probably sounds way more confusing than it really is.
If you’re making this quilt and using the same size blocks, I find it very helpful to use a 12-1/2″ square ruler. The pieces line up so much better if everything is cut very accurately.
Because there are lots of bias edges, it helps to starch the heck out of the fabric. I use Mary Ellen’s Best Press most often but for fabrics that are going to be cut where there’s a lot of bias, I use real starch. Vicki Welsh has a great article, including a homemade starch recipe, here.
Probably more than you want to know about a simple Chevron quilt but it’s so easy . . I think I’ll be making more of them.
Gari says
I went right to EQ and designed this quilt for myself. What a great and relatively easy quilt to make and it will look so different in different colors and fabrics. thanks for the idea.
Susan says
Wow, those ARE big! But it makes a quick and dramatic quilt.