You can make a mini quilt to hang on your wall or make a bunch of them and put them together for a bookshelf quilt. You can add selvages for the book titles as I did in this one, hand or machine embroider titles, or leave blank. You can add a shelf underneath like the one above, string a few blocks together and then add your shelf, or leave it off. This is also a great project to use up some of those scraps!

If you want to add selvages as the book titles, you can cut your strips in half, add a piece of the block fabric to the top and bottom of the selvage like shown above so you just have a small piece showing your title. Add it to the center of the two strip halves and then trim the strip. This takes the quick out of this project but it is still easy! This tutorial is going to show you how to quickly make this block on the fly without really measuring anything. So, let’s get started.

First you’ll need some long trimmed strips in various widths and a large piece of background fabric with a straight edge. I cut about a 10″ or so by width of fabric of white Kona. Line the background fabric up on your machine and place a strip short edge down as shown. Stitch and add another.

And another…. and sew on until you’ve added all your strips.

Next, finger press strips open.

Now, turn and line up your ruler and beginning cutting out each strip.

Once you’ve cut out each strip, you can play with the layout making some books taller than others. I’ve kept out 4 strips, 3 to set sideways and 1 to lean.

Once you’ve arranged them to your liking, we need to trim. So line your ruler up along the bottom and trim.

And now the top.

Now, you’ll sew your strips together and press.

Now that we have our upright books done, we can add our sideways books. Focusing on the outside edge of the books, align as desired.

Now, line your ruler up and then add 1/4 inch for your seam allowance.

Carefully move the upright books leaving your ruler in place and trim. Now, sew these books together.

Now, we need to add background here. Place your ruler and add 1/4 inch seam at the bottom where it will meet the sideways books. Note your measurements. Mine were 9.75″ tall x 10.25″ wide.

Cut a piece of background fabric to that measurement.

And sew the background piece to your sideways books and then add this section to the first as shown.

Now, we are going to add our leaning book. Arrange your book as desired being sure the top is even and extends past the top of the others as shown so when you trim, it won’t be too small.

Trim the bottom even with the other books as shown.

Add some of the background fabric you cut away earlier to your leaning book on the side that will attach to your upright books. Don’t worry if it looks like this! We will be trimming again soon.

Now, lay your book block on top and adjust it as desired lining up the bottom edges of all the books.

Lay your ruler on top and add 1/4 inch seam allowance. Move your original block and trim the leaning block.

Here it is trimmed. Now you can sew this to the first piece.

Next, we need to add a little more background fabric to the outside edge to finish it off. Sitch a wide piece of background to the slanted book as show. The top edge needs to be wider than the bottom so we can square it off.

Now, trim and square it up. Your block is done!

You can embroider book names on the spines if you desire or leave them as is. I decided to make a mini quilt with this block. So, I made my quilt sandwich with my top, batting, and backing fabric. (If you’re new to this, make sure your backing fabric is right side DOWN. Make sure your batting is a little bigger than your block and your backing is a little bit bigger than your batting.

Baste as desired. I typically use pins.

Quilt as desired. This is a fun spot to practice different free motion quilting designs since you’re working with a little area and it makes the books all look different.

When that’s done, add your binding. I like to stitch to the front and had stitch to the back.

And here it is!

This really is such a fun project! I hope you enjoyed and I’d love to see yours! If you’re on Instagram use #bookshelfblock and tag me @fourrobbins so I can find you!If you have any questions, let me know! I’d be happy to help.

There is really so much going on in it and I could probably come up with so many more things and, in fact, I have a couple in mind. What I really focused on, though, were all the bright colors and the uneven gray tiles on the ground.

It was no surprise to me that my first drawing was symmetrical and a little rigid but I really wanted to step out of my comfort zone so I tried something else and I’m so happy with how it turned out!

If you’d like to make your own, the fabric requirements, cutting instructions, and layout follows. This quilt measures 60″ x 60″.  If you’d like to print the cutting instructions and chart, you can find a printable pdf here.  You can print out a sheet of pattern piece markers here.

Fabric Requirements & Cutting Instructions

Backing: 3-5/8 yards

Batting: Twin Size 72″ x 90″ or 2 yard cut off 90″ wide roll

Binding: 1/2 yard for 2.5″ strips

Quilt Layout

1) Set aside W1, W2, and W14 pieces.

2) Following layout, construct the 5 inner columns as shown.

3) Add W14 sashing pieces in between columns.

4) Add W2 borders and then W1.

5) Quilt as desired.

I’d love to see yours if you make one. Use the hashtag #offthegridquilt so I can find you!

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I love how the colors and how they turned out!  

For each placemat, you will need:

• (25) assorted 4 inch squares 
• (1) 15.5 inch x 20.5 inch batting
• (1) 16 inch x 21 inch backing fabric
• 1/8 yard binding fabric

Arrange squares in desired layout, cutting 7 of the squares in half as shown below. Begin stitching into diagonal rows.

Sew the rows together. Press seams and then trim to measure 15 inches by 20 inches.

Make your quilt sandwich by placing your backing fabric right side down. Place batting on top of that and then finally the front fabric face up.  Baste and then quilt as desired.  Trim to 9″ square and bind to finish off.

These are quick to make. I really enjoyed making them and hope you do, too! If you do, I’d love to see them. Tag me at #fourrobbinsdesigns on social media.

You’ll also want to check out the Mediterraneo Lookbook at Art Gallery Fabrics at the end of this week to see so many more beautiful projects!

Printable PDF

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