Peranakan Tiles Inspired Applique Quilt No. 2
Another project that converts hard tiles into soft quilts. Includes free vector and printable cut files!
I've written about how I came to love the aesthetics of the Peranakan culture in an earlier blog post about my first Peranakan Tiles quilt, inspired by the original floor tiles of the heritage shop lot that is now the Peranakan Tiles Gallery of Singapore.
This time, the inspiration came from a much less historic venue - the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Twitter in Singapore - more specifically, the floors of its lunch area slash multi-functional space (Source: Asiaone.com).
The Pattern
As before, I used the Canvas Workspace application that came with my Brother ScanNCut to trace the tile design and simplified it so that it becomes more manageable to applique. The blocks are identical in pattern with four different colour schemes - blue, green, purple and pink, as shown below.
Click below to download the SVG and PNG (printable) cut files:
Sew, Jahit Peranakan Tiles 2 - Cut Files
.zip
Download ZIP • 129KB
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Note! The SVG and PNG cut files are prepared for raw edge applique, and include seam and overlap allowances. Read on for the stacking sequence.
The Dimensions
Without modifying the image sizes in the above cut files, the blocks will be 32 cm x 32 cm before piecing (i.e. including seam allowance). If you are piecing all the blocks together before sandwiching and quilting (i.e. quilting the regular way), then you have 1 cm seam allowance to piece your blocks in order to get 30 cm x 30 cm finished blocks.
However, I did this using the quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) method that had small amounts of the batting sewn into the seams. Therefore, some dimension of the fabric will be taken up in the fold around the slightly thicker seam due to the batting sewn into it. As such, I used only 0.7 cm (or a quarter-inch) seam allowance during piecing, in order to still get 30 cm x 30 cm finished blocks.
My finished quilt has an inner white border of 12 cm width and an outer batik border of 6 cm width, all around. The overall finished quilt measured 156 cm x 186cm.
The Materials
As this project uses a fair amount of fusible web, I recommend using 100% cotton fabrics to achieve good fuse. As for the batting, I recommend using thin batting because the batting will form part of the seams in the QAYG method that I will be using in this tutorial, so thin batting will reduce bulk. If you are piecing the blocks together per conventional method, then any batting type will do.
For the backing, I used two of the printed batik fabrics I purchased from Semarang, Indonesia.
Here are the required yardage to make the quilt top in the dimensions described above (assuming width of fabric is 110 cm or 45 inches):
(These yardage include moderate allowance as buffer for gaps between cut shapes and a mistake or two. The illustration of each shape can be found in the following section.)
Light Grey Background: 2½ meter or 2¾ yard
"Corner Brown" pieces: 1 meter or 1 yard
"Strip Black" pieces: 1¾ meter or 2 yards
"Emblem" pieces:¼ meter or ¼ yard or a fat quarter
"Emblem Petal" pieces: ½ meter or ½ yard
Light Blue "Corner Colour" pieces: ½ meter or ½ yard
Light Green "Corner Colour" pieces: ½ meter or ½ yard
Light Purple "Corner Colour" pieces: ½ meter or ½ yard
Light Pink "Corner Colour" pieces: ½ meter or ½ yard
Dark Blue "Strip Colour" pieces: ½ meter or ½ yard
Dark Green "Strip Colour" pieces: ½ meter or ½ yard
Dark Purple "Strip Colour" pieces: ¼ meter or ¼ yard or a fat quarter
Dark Pink "Strip Colour" pieces: ¼ meter or ¼ yard or a fat quarter
The Process
Note: In the tutorial below, I used a variation of the quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) method where small amounts of the batting is sewn into the seams. You may of course, do it the regular way i.e. piecing the top first and then quilt with full batting and backing layers.
The yardage requirements stated below assume width of fabric is 110 cm (45 inches) and include moderate allowance as buffer for gaps between cut shapes and a mistake or two.
STEP 1: CUT BACKGROUND PIECES
Cut 20 pieces of 32 cm x 32 cm squares from the Light Grey Background fabric.
STEP 2: PREPARE APPLIQUE PIECES
Apply fusible web to the wrong side of the applique fabrics (all except the Light Grey Background fabric) before cutting out the following shapes.
"Corner Brown" Pieces
Required Yardage: 1 meter or 1 yard
Cut Image Dimension: 85 mm (W) x 85 mm (H)
Cut 80 pieces. With fusible web.
"Strip Black" Pieces
Required Yardage: 1¾ meter or 2 yards
Cut Image Dimension: 215.7 mm (W) x 92.5 mm (H)
Cut 80 pieces. With fusible web.
"Emblem" Pieces
Required Yardage: ¼ meter or ¼ yard or a fat quarter
Cut Image Dimension: 53.6 mm (W) x 53.6 mm (H)
Cut 20 pieces. With fusible web.
"Emblem Petal" Pieces
Required Yardage: ½ meter or ½ yard
Cut Image Dimension: 37.6 mm (W) x 48.7 mm (H)
Cut 80 pieces. With fusible web.
Light Blue "Corner Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ½ meter or ½ yard
Cut Image Dimension: 126.8mm (W) x 126.8 mm (H)
Cut 24 pieces. With fusible web.
Light Green "Corner Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ½ meter or ½ yard
Cut Image Dimension: 126.8mm (W) x 126.8 mm (H)
Cut 24 pieces. With fusible web.
Light Purple "Corner Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ½ meter or ½ yard
Cut Image Dimension: 126.8mm (W) x 126.8 mm (H)
Cut 16 pieces. With fusible web.
Light Pink "Corner Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ½ meter or ½ yard
Cut Image Dimension: 126.8mm (W) x 126.8 mm (H)
Cut 16 pieces. With fusible web.
Dark Blue "Strip Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ½ meter or ½ yard
Cut Image Dimension: 204.5 mm (W) x 53.5 mm (H)
Cut 24 pieces. With fusible web.
Dark Green "Strip Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ½ meter or ½ yard
Cut Image Dimension: 204.5 mm (W) x 53.5 mm (H)
Cut 24 pieces. With fusible web.
Dark Purple "Strip Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ¼ meter or ¼ yard or a fat quarter
Cut Image Dimension: 204.5 mm (W) x 53.5 mm (H)
Cut 16 pieces. With fusible web.
Dark Pink "Strip Colour" Pieces
Required Yardage: ¼ meter or ¼ yard or a fat quarter
Cut Dimension: 204.5 mm (W) x 53.5 mm (H)
Cut 16 pieces. With fusible web.
STEP 3: IRON-FUSE SHAPES ONTO BACKGROUND FABRIC
The illustrations below show the stacking sequence for a pink block. Similar stacking sequence applies for blocks of the other colour schemes.
STEP 3.1: Align and fuse Light Pink "Corner Colour" Pieces to each corner of the Light Grey Background square.
STEP 3.2: Align and fuse "Corner Brown" Pieces to each corner of the Light Grey Background square, overlapping the Light Pink "Corner Colour" Pieces.
STEP 3.3: Align and fuse Dark Pink "Strip Colour" Pieces to each corner of the Light Grey Background square, overlapping the Light Pink "Corner Colour" Pieces along the inside edges.
STEP 3.4: Align and fuse "Strip Black" Pieces to each corner of the Light Grey Background square, overlapping the Dark Pink "Corner Colour" Pieces along the inside edges.
STEP 3.5: Align and fuse the "Emblem" Piece at the center.
STEP 3.6: Align and fuse "Emblem Petal" Pieces at their positions as shown.
STEP 4: MACHINE APPLIQUE
Using blanket stitch with 2.5mm width and 1.8mm length (or any other preferred stitch/setting) and matching threads, machine-applique along all edges of the applique pieces EXCEPT WHERE MARKED RED below.
Close up of Blanket Stitch. This photo was taken after the quilt is finished, so you will see that the "Red Lines" from previous image has been sewn with blanket stitch as well.
TIPS! Square up the blocks after appliqueing all 20 blocks. If you have to trim the blocks smaller than 32 cm x 32 cm, trim as little as possible (so you don't loose too much seam allowance) while maintaining consistent measurement for all the 20 blocks.
STEP 5: QUILT WITH BATTING ONLY
Cut approximately 31cm x 31cm square of batting and baste it onto the wrong side of the block. Quilt along the red lines in Step 4 above with the same machine-applique stitch as before, using matching black threads.
STEP 6: REPEAT UNTIL YOU HAVE 20 BLOCKS
Repeat Steps 3 to 5 until you have a total of 20 blocks (6 blue, 6 green, 4 purple, 4 pink), each quilted to its own batting along the red lines in Step 4 above.
STEP 7: PIECE BLOCKS TOGETHER
With 0.7 cm (quarter inch) seam allowance, piece the blocks together as you would with any regular quilt blocks to form a panel of 5 rows by 4 columns (as shown below). In this step, each block's batting is sewn into the seams. Trim excess batting along the seam and press seam allowance to once side (this is important!).
STEP 8: STITCH BY THE DITCH
To reinforce the seams, stitch-by-the-ditch on the side towards which seam allowance is folded, along the brown and black fabrics only, using matching threads. I did this because the brown and black colours of the fabrics will conceal the stitches very well. I used back-stitching to prevent the stitches from unravelling.
Stitch-by-the-ditch blends really well in black backgrounds.
Stitch-by-the-Ditch on Brown Fabric
STEP 9: ADD BORDER
Add 18 cm wide white quilted borders all around also using the similar QAYG method as before. I used a white-on-white floral fabric and kept the border's quilting to a simple diagonal diamond quilting.
Diamond quilting on white border.
STEP 10: ADD BACKING FABRIC, MACHINE TACK & BIND
Baste the quilt top to your backing fabric using your preferred basting method (I hand-sewed basting stitches with waxed threads). If you are going to use the backing fabrics to self-bind the quilt like I did, make sure you have 12 cm extra clearance of the backing fabric all around for the self-binding later.
Machine-tack on the center of each black emblems (all 20 of them). I used satin stitch of 3.5mm width and 0.8mm length, in matching black thread, and went back and forth about three to four times which automatically secures the stitches from unravelling.
Machine Tack Using Satin Stitch
Then, trim the backing fabrics so that it is consistently 12 cm wider all around the quilt. Fold the backing fabric towards the front of the quilt twice to create a 6 cm wide border, mitering each corner as you go. Then, top stitch all around the quilt about 1 cm away from the edge, to keep the batting in place.
Mitered Corner (Hand-Stitched Close)
Top Stitching 1 cm Away from Edge of Quilt
THE QUILT IS COMPLETE!
