rainbow 36 patch quilt

Is buying a 60mm rotary cutter worth it?

Yes!

I originally estimated it would take me a week to cut my thousands of 2.5 inch squares for this quilt top. Reality is it took me just a day short of a month.

What did I learn?

If you're ironing in your galley style kitchen so that the iron can be behind the baby gate, you've got to iron in bulk because you can't use the dishwasher while the ironing board is set up.

The first quarter or so of my fabric I ironed and cut one piece at a time.

The second quarter I ironed and cut three pieces at a time. While Luke was awake. So between each piece of ironing I would peek around the corner and check on him. Sometimes he'd be sitting on a chair looking at a book. Sometimes he'd be climbing on the dining room table trying to eat dog treats. You win some, you lose some.

And then that week I estimated I'd be done in was up and I had to make this more efficient.

I got a 60mm rotary cutter so I could cut more pieces of fabric at a time.

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My Google research indicates that a 45mm is good for 6 layers and a 60mm is good for 8 layers, my experience indicates this is correct but your blade better be fresh and sharp.

The latter half of my fabric I ironed all at once and then cut 4 pieces, each folded in half for 8 layers, all at once. And I got it all done in one day, mostly while Luke was taking his afternoon nap.

Squaring up directional prints and a couple cutting errors meant I lost more fabric that I hoped for and got a mere 96 squares out of some prints. My original aim was 100+ squares of each print. This means my finished quilt is going to be about 108 inches by 120 inches versus my originally planned 120 by 120. For comparison sake, a King size quilt from Pottery Barn is 108 x 92. Even losing a 12 inch row, my quilt is still going to have the oversized effect I'm going for.

Next up sewing all those little squares into blocks.

Approximately 3000 2.5" squares of Anna Maria Horner fabric ready to be pieced into a giant postage stamp quilt.

Approximately 3000 2.5" squares of Anna Maria Horner fabric ready to be pieced into a giant postage stamp quilt.

finally done cutting, or why i bought a 60mm rotary cutter

What do you do when you don't love the fabric you picked for your quilt?

What do you do when you don't love the fabric you picked for your quilt?

I rearrange and rearrange but I'm just not loving my fabric picks for my rainbow quilt.

Too many brown and maroon tones for my taste so I'm seeing if I can exchange (I purchased precut bundles).

If I can't I'll try pulling out the fabrics I don't like, seeing what I'm left with, and filling in from my local quilting shop as needed.

At this point I'm updating my plan from 3 inch squares to 2 inch squares so each 12 inch block will have 36 fabrics. I love rich detail like that.

I'm also debating between using large 12 inch squares of the same fabrics on the back or using something totally different like a white on white print.

What do you do when you don't love the fabric you picked for your quilt?