Kicking Some Glass: Free Pattern

Earlier I wrote about my journey creating the Kicking Some Glass quilt. Friends and followers really liked this quilt, so I decided I’d share the process with you. It’s not that difficult, it just takes some thinking here and there.
It took several months to get this quilt done; and, unfortunately I didn’t take photos throughout the entire process. So this is all I got! If you have experience quilting, this will probably make more sense. 

The Inside Square:
First, the overview…you’ll need charm packs. I bought six but eight would have made it easier. Four packs allowed me to easily create twenty half-square triangles or twenty blocks. Each one of these blocks has a center made from the same fabric. The four outer corners are made from different fabric.

However, after I sewed the twenty blocks together, I decided to make it bigger. So I needed ten more blocks. I couldn’t make traditional half-square triangles with the remaining charm packs because the outer corners would have been the same. I ended up cutting the remaining charm squares in half, on the diagonal, and putting the blocks together. This was the only way I could get it to work. Yikes…sewing on the bias - I had to starch them to death so they wouldn’t stretch!

OK, so whatever method....when you’ve made your half-square triangles, press the seams and square them up so they are 5” square.

Once you are done pressing, start putting the blocks together like the block in picture shown above. I used a design wall to eyeball it. You’ll be cutting this block up, so don’t spend too much time thinking about mixing up the fabric.



Outer Border:
I cut 3” x WOF from two different blue fabrics. I did some chain piecing and salvaged some fabric from that process to complete 28 blocks (14 of each color). I think I had about two yards of each, but I don’t remember and I can’t find my receipt. Yeah, it’s a free pattern.

I stopped at 28 because I ran out of blue fabric! But I found some green fabric for the last two.

Next, I cut them wonky. I cut half of each (border) color with the ruler tilted with the right side down and and half tilted with the left side down.
This will make sense in the next step.

Cut each on the diagonal. I didn’t think about this. I just cut.


Then I started putting them back together.












I put a light blue with a dark blue. To get the look that I wanted, I mixed up the “tilts” from the previous step. So I paired a dark blue (tilted to the right) with a light blue (tilted to the left). This is what gives it the broken glass look. If I would have paired the same “tilt”, the inner square would have been a basic square.


You can kind of see it here. They look like kites.

Once I got these all sewn together (they stretch so be careful!), I pressed and squared them up (12”), making sure that the diagonal seam was at 45 degrees.

The only problem was that I ran out of blue fabric, so I found some green in my stash and made two additional blocks. I then had my 30 blocks.









I hung them on my design wall without much thought. The blocks are really busy, so I didn’t worry too much about placement. I just tried to scatter the solid-looking fabric.

And here it is all sewn together!

I went online to see if I could find yardage for the backing. I did. Then I waited. That was a good decision because...when I went back to find it, the fabric was 1/2 off! YAY! Thank you eQuilter!

Let's hope that it doesn't take me another four months to get it quilted!