Mondrian Inspired Quilt Top

This is the quilt top I made for my nephew T and his fiance S.  He requested a maroon and gray quilt.  He said that it would be really neat if I could design it after his favorite artist, Piet Mondrian.  Mondrian's work is mostly primary colors in squares and rectangles with black lines separating them.  

I decided to make the quilt in blocks and rows to simplify things.  I didn't want any partial seams.  I used a simple trick which I learned from Christina Cameli to make the block math easier.  It you slice into a block and add a one inch wide strip, you don't change the size of the block at all.  The one inch piece equals all the seam allowances.  

I thought I would share my process here in case anyone would like to make a similar quilt.  

I bought one yard each of four different fabrics plus two yards black for the outlines, sashing, border, and binding.  (1.75 yards black was enough but I like to have extra on hand.)

I started by cutting out five 14 inch squares from each of the four fabrics.  I put them all on my design wall.  My plan was to make four each of five different blocks.  

I cut the black out as I needed it to prevent fraying.  I cut one fourteen inch WOF strip from the black fabric.  Then I cross cut 42 one inch pieces.  Four of them were cut down to 1 x 9 inch pieces.  Then I cut six one inch by WOF strips for the sashing between rows.  The border is seven 2 inch wide strips.  The binding is seven 3 inch wide strips.  (I like it extra wide when I have minky on the back.)  

Block A is just a 14 inch square unfinished.  So it was already done.  

For block B, I cut one 14 inch square of each fabric in half.  I mixed up the rectangles, and sewed one 1 x 14 inch black strip in the middle of each set.  I always pressed towards the black strip.  

There were two steps for Block C.  I again cut one of each large square in half.  Then I sewed one skinny strip between two 7 x 14 inch rectangles twice.  (Using one of each fabric.)  

Then I cut each of those pieced sets in half again.  I added a plain 7 x 14 inch rectangle to three of them.  I left one unsewn so that I could offset the blocks in the even numbered rows.  

For block D I cut a five inch strip off of one of each large square.  Then I added a skinny strip to sew the 5 x 14 inch rectangles to the 9 x 14 inch rectangles.  

I once again cut a five inch strip from each set.  I mixed them up, added a skinny strip, and got these four blocks.  You can see that I didn't fully sew the upper right block together.  That is to offset the even rows.  

For block E I cut a five inch strip off of one of each large square.  Then I cut the 9 x 14 inch rectangle in half to get two 7 x 9 inch rectangles each.  

 Then I mixed up the pieces so each block had three different fabrics.  

I sewed a 1 x 9 inch strip between the 7 x 9 inch rectangles.  Then sewed a 1 x 14 inch strip between those sets and the 5 x 14 inch rectangles.  

I put all of the blocks up on my design wall.  Row 1 has four full blocks.  Row 2 has three full blocks and the two partial block D pieces on each side.  Row 3 has four full blocks.  Row 4 has three full blocks and the two partial block C pieces on each side.  Row 5 has four full blocks.  

Because each pieced block is still 14 inches (unfinished size) you can place any block any where and rotate however desired.  I moved the blocks around a lot.   

It was a little hard to visualize the end product, so I pinned up some one inch strips to see if I liked the layout.  

I decided that I liked it, so I sewed each row with a skinny strip between each block.  I sewed a long 1 inch strip between each of the rows.  (That took six one inch by WOF strips.  One and a half between each row of blocks.)

I wanted a slightly wider border, so I cut it out at 2 inches.  

I love how the quilt top turned out.  My art teacher sister said that she could definitely see the Mondrian influence.  (She knew who he was.  I had to look him up on the internet.)  

This quilt is already finished, but I will share that in my next post.  This one is already pretty long.

XX,

Jasmine