Make This: Zig Zag Chevron Quilt

When we’re not filling orders for our online quilt shop or working on our latest quilt and sewing patterns, we love to sew for ourselves.  I just finished this great zig zag quilt for our basement family room, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result. Best part, there were no triangles involved! I found the free pattern at the Bee Square Blog.

UPDATE: It appears that the Bee Square Blog no longer exists, so I have tried to recreate the pattern as well as I can remember, but I don’t have pictures of each step.  Instead of using nine prints, I only used four, because finding nine different fabrics within my specific color theme was going to take forever, and I wanted the whole quilt to have a more cohesive look.

If you want to use four fabrics, too, here are the adjusted fabric requirements:
-(3) 1/2 yard cuts of coordinating print fabric
-(1) 3/4 yard cut of another coordinating print fabric. This will be used for the stripes across the top, middle, and bottom.
-1 3/4 yards of solid or another coordinating print fabric to be every other stripe (This is the grey polka dot)
-1/2 yard for binding
-2 1/2 yards backing fabric

Cut 3″ wide strips of all of your piecing fabric.  To make the small square blocks, sew a strip of print to a strip of the solid fabric lengthwise, then cut the paired strips in 5.5″ lengths.  It takes 14 blocks to make one zig zag stripe.  Once all your small squares are done, lay out the whole quilt, then sew all the blocks in each diagonal strip together.

Here is what the quilt top looked like when I had all the small blocks pieced and sewn into diagonal strips. I would recommend having a large area where you can lay everything out while you are getting all the pieces sewn together, just to make sure that the pattern is going together how you want it to look.

 

Once all your diagonal strips are made, sew them together along the straight lines between each strip.  Trim all the points to make the sides straight, and the top is done.  For the back, I used two contrasting flannels to make ten inch horizontal strips.

 

I did every step of this quilt myself, from start to finish. It was my first chance to do machine quilting with a free motion foot, which was exciting, but a lot of muscle work. I also did my first binding and was very pleased with how that turned out. The final dimensions for the Zig Zag Quilt are about 42″ x 56″. And now, here’s the full size view:

 

This quilt is a great project for any quilter, even the beginner.  When you’re ready to step it up to the next level, our Modern Zig Zag Quilt is a bolder design for a twin size quilt, and our Modern Herringbone Quilt is another great advanced beginner quilt.  Leave any questions you might have in the comments or contact us through our contact form.  I loved sewing this, and you will, too!

Audrey