Three paper "quilt" squares. The largest on the left is made of purple, blue, and yellow triangles, held together with yellow and white polka dotted tape. The square in the upper right is made of two purple triangles and two blue triangles, held together with an "x" of blue and white polka dotted tape. The bottom right rectangle is the asymmetrical rectangle with purple and blue triangles and a yellow square in the center.
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Saturday Studio: Quilting

Miranda Dyson, Children’s Education Associate

With a collection of quilts on display at FWMoA, our Saturday Studio turns to making quilt squares! To enjoy this collection up close, visit the exhibit, It Was a Time to Sew: A Sampler of Quilts from the Collection. You can also read this post by our Collection Information Specialist, Sue Slick, for the progression of styles and fabrics used.

The beginning of a quilt journey can start with scraps of fabric and a simple, repetitive pattern. Quilts can center around geometric shapes, patched together to make a square. After several squares are made, they are joined to make a large bed covering or decorative wall hanging. Modern quilting includes advanced patterning, experimenting with organic shapes, adding mixed media on top of the fabric, or creating clothing out of quilts!

If you don’t have fabric or a sewing machine, don’t worry! Today, we’ll practice making our quilt squares with paper.

You will need:

Blue and purple pieces of paper, with colorful, patterned rolls of tape and scissors sitting on top.
  • Colored paper
  • Scissors
  • Washi or fabric tape
A pile of blue and purple paper cut into triangles.

Decide on the shapes you want to begin your quilt square. These can be added to throughout the process as you experiment. I’ll be working with triangles.

Four triangles placed together to create a square. The alternating sides are the same colors, with blue facing blue and purple facing purple. The seams are covered with red and white polka dotted tape.
The reverse side of the square made with four triangles, showing the seams of the connected pieces of paper. The excess tape is being trimmed off.

Compose your shapes into a design you like, then use your colored tape to attach the seams together. Trim or fold the excess tape around the edges. The colorful tape will act in place of sewn seams or boardering.

A pattern made with four large triangles in the center, alternating blue and purple, and eight smaller triangles on the outside, alternating blue, yellow, purple, yellow.
This is the completed version of the square above. A pattern made with four large triangles in the center, alternating blue and purple, and eight smaller triangles on the outside, alternating blue, yellow, purple, yellow. The seams where the paper is touching each other are covered by yellow tape with white polka dots.

The more you vary your colors, shapes, and sizes, the more options you have for new patterns. My goal was to expand my original shape and maintain a final product of a square shape.

An asymmetrical collage of purple, blue, and yellow angular paper. The papers are overlapping each other to create triangles and squares.
The finished product of the image above. Papers have been overlapped to create triangles and a yellow square in the middle of the paper overlapping each other. The edges of shapes were then trimmed to make an outer shape of a rectangle.

Quilt patterns can be asymmetrical or made with less obvious stitching. This design was made by overlapping my triangles and applying tape to the back of the seams. There is still an emphasis on angles, but the outcome is very different from the previous two examples.

Some quilting artists use small pieces of fabric to create detailed images and patterns, much like a mosaic or stained glass piece. If your quilt pattern uses small shapes, consider taping the back of your seams to avoid blocking the color and angles of your paper.

After taping the back together, I trimmed the edges to make a clean rectangle.

Three paper "quilt" squares. The largest on the left is made of purple, blue, and yellow triangles, held together with yellow and white polka dotted tape. The square in the upper right is made of two purple triangles and two blue triangles, held together with an "x" of blue and white polka dotted tape. The bottom right rectangle is the asymmetrical rectangle with purple and blue triangles and a yellow square in the center.

Now you have your own quilt squares! What kind of shapes did you use? What would you make out of fabric?

If you are interested in learning more about quilt making, visit the FWMoA exhibit, It Was a Time to Sew: A Sampler of Quilts from the Collection, showing through January 10th.

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