Cricut and Quilting
When you hear the word Cricut, what comes to mind? And, no, I'm not talking about the insect here. Are you thinking cards or vinyl? That's fine, but this time, I want you to think fabric and quilting.
Cricut can cut lots of things for sure. As a quilter, one of my favorite things it does is cut fabric! Sure, I can cut quilt strips with my rotary cutter, but did you know so can Cricut? It has a rotary blade too.
Cricut can help you make lots of quilt blocks easier, faster, and more accurately.
Getting Started with Easy Quilt Blocks
Today I'm going to start introducing you to easy quilt blocks that you can make using Cricut. Quilt smarter, not harder.
I'm going to show you how easy it is to cut fabric strips with the Cricut Maker even if you've got a Cricut Maker that you're not quite sure how to use.
If you've got Cricut Design Space installed and know how to launch it, then I'm pretty sure I can show you how to use it today to make a 6" Rail Fence quilt block.
We're going to cut 4 strips from each of 3 colors since we'll need 12 strips for each block. Like I said, put that rotary cutter away because we're going to let Cricut do all the hard work for us.
Once Cricut cuts the strips, we'll use them to make a 6 1/2" (6" finished) Rail Fence Block.
Materials Needed
- (3) pieces of fabric approximately 12" wide x 8" long.
- Cricut pink fabric mat (I'm using 12"x12", but 12"x24" will work, too)
- Cricut rotary blade
- Cricut Maker
- Sewing machine (I'm using a machine, but feel free to hand piece them if you prefer)
- Thread
- Iron
Setting Up in Cricut Design Space
Once you've launched Cricut Design Space, click on the green "New Project" button in the upper right of the page. The Canvas will open.
Click on the "Shapes" option on the left of the page. On my screen, it is the 4th option from the top on the lefthand side of the page. Then, click on the square shape.
Once it opens, click on the padlock icon to unlock it so you can change the dimensions to 2.5" x 7", then click the return key on the keyboard to enter it.
We'll need 4 strips. With the rectangle selected, click on the duplicate icon 3 times.
You should now have 4 strips. I've also saved my project to "6 inch Rail Fence Block" so I can find it easily again next time I want to use it. At this point, we can click on the green "Make" button at the top right of the page.
When we do this, Cricut will open to the next screen where you'll notice that Cricut has automatically arranged the 4 strips for us on the mat.
Cutting Fabric with Cricut
Since I'm using a 12"x12" Cricut pink fabric grip mat, you can see that I've changed the Material Size" option to 12 in. x12 in, then click on the green "Continue" button. (If you're using a 12 in. x 24" in. mat, then you'll use that option.)
Set the Base Material option to "Cotton". This is Step 1 in the following image.
Now it's time to put the fabric on the pink mat and load it into the machine. Place the fabric you've chosen with the right side facing down onto the mat.
Put the fabric on the mat so that its width is 12" going across the mat, while its length is 8" going down the mat.
Make sure the fabric edges align with the top and left edges of the mat and smooth it down. A brayer is a nice thing to have for this, but of course, your hands work just fine, too, if you don't have a brayer.
Once you've got the fabric on the mat, press the "Load/Unload" button. (I didn't have a picture of this, so you'll notice this picture is of some beautiful Liberty of London Tana Lawn. I love me some Liberty Tana Lawn!!!)
Make sure your Cricut Maker has the rotary blade loaded. I've already loaded mine and Cricut can see that. (See Step 2 below.) If you're not sure how to do this, just look at the Cricut software. It tends to prompt you on what to do next.
When Cricut is ready, the "Go" button will start flashing. (You'll recognize it as the button with the Cricut symbol on it in Step 3 below.) When the "Go" button starts flashing, press it, then Cricut will cut your fabric.
Once it's finished cutting, press the "Load/Unload" button you pressed earlier to unload your mat.
Once you've carefully removed the cut strips from the mat and placed them aside, you'll continue to load the remaining 2 pieces in the machine to be cut.
When you're finished cutting the other 2 pieces, you should have 12 strips. Arrange them in the color scheme you wish so that you have 4 groups of 3 strips each.
Assembling the Rail Fence Block
Now the fun begins!
With right sides together sew 2 of the strips together lengthwise using a 1/4" seam. When adding the 3rd strip to the other 2, flip the strip around and start sewing at the opposite end from the one you started with. The unit should be 6 1/2" wide and slightly longer than that since we started with 7" strips. Trim the unit to 6 1/2" in length. In this case, I pressed my seams to toward the middle strip which you'll see in a later image.
After constructing the 4 units, we need to join them to make our Rail Fence block.
It's easiest to join 2 blocks together first.
Now that you have 2 units, sew them together to make the finished block. I'll make sure to nest my seams so that the center seam matches. Press. (I pressed my center seam open. I often don't press seams open, but I did here.)
Beautiful!
Now it's your turn!