Cathedral Quilt pattern on paper tutorial

I have had several requests for a tutorial on one of the layouts in my August gallery at Studio Calico this month.  In particular, for this layout:

I have LOVE loved this pattern ever since October Afternoon put it on a patterned paper at CHAW10.  It was my favorite print from the show.  But I didn't know what it was called.  I have googled "quilt pattern" many times, but the number of patterns that type of search comes up with will boggle your mind, so I figured that quilt was meant for another bed.

Enter Kendra McCracken.

I just happened to stumble upon a tutorial she did for the Fiskars blog using the Cathedral Quilt pattern to make a picnic blanket.  At first I was elated because I had finally located that pattern which meant new bedding for the master bedroom!  But after looking at the pattern I also realized.....

I can totally make that with paper.

And I sounded just like my mother.  ack!

When I received my August kit I immediately knew what patterns I wanted to play with, and quickly went to work.  This layout looks involved and difficult, but these quilt squares are really quite easy!  This is how it works:

1.  Trim circles from a patterned paper of your choice.  Something to note:  If you are using a two sided piece of paper, you will cut a lot of time and paper out of your project.  You just need to determine if you would like to see both sides, and which side you would like to be the window, and which side you would like to have as the frame.

If you are using a single sided pattern, as I did, that's fine.  Just choose prints that you like, and trim circles from the print that will frame the window (in reference to my layout, trim a circle from the pattern that will be the manilla print).

As for punches, I chose my 2 inch Marvy Circle punch so that I could have 6 across and have room on the outside edges, but odd numbers are usually more visually pleasing, so for this tutorial I chose to use my 3 inch circle punch.  I wish I had used this punch or the 2.5 inch initially so you could better see the pattern of the paper in the window, but at the time, I was winging it, and wasn't sure what to do, lol.

Edited:  I measured and I actually used a 2.5 punch on my Polliwog layout, not 2.  The squares inside are 1.5 inch squares.  I apologize for the oversite on that 1/2 inch and hope i didn't mess anyone up!  You can still use 2 inch squares!  :)

2.  After you have trimmed several circles, it is time to score them.  A 3 inch circle means a 2 inch square, and this is the long and drawn out way I did it.  I trimmed a square out of a piece of chipboard, and traced it on my circles, which for me seemed much faster than lining things up and measuring.  The outside corners of the square should meet an edge of the circle.  I traced it on the side of the paper that will be the window (ie, if that piece of paper in my Polliwog layout was double sided, I would be tracing on the side with the little creatures).  Keep in mind the orientation of the pattern on the paper, and make sure to trace the square so that the pattern has the correct orientation (the flowers are straight, stripes aren't crooked, etc).

If you have a ScorPal, yay!  If you have a scoring blade for your rotary cutter, yay!  If you have a ruler and a bone folder from Making Memories that you have had since 1997, you will do just fine!  I don't have a ScorPal, and couldn't find my scoring blade.  So it was a ruler and a bone folder for me.  And it worked just fine and dandy.

Score the line that you traced.  Folding the paper over takes away some of the width, and you want to try and match up corners on all four sides.  If they don't, don't worry about it!  I didn't!  I made more circles than I needed and sent the bad ones to the round file, or hid them under my photo.  Or I stitched on them.  Quilts are homespun, handmade, and imperfect, so I can't expect my scrapbook layouts to be any different.

3.  If you have a double sided patterned paper for this technique, skip this step.  But if you didn't, or you want to create different patterns in your windows, at this point you need to trim squares out of those prints.  Make them 2x2, if you used a 3 inch circle.

4.  Now we need to use that bone folder, if you didn't have it out already.  Simple fold over the little flaps to the front of the circle, and score them.  After scoring all four sides, it'll look like this:

Do this with all your circles.

5.  Once you are ready to put your layout together, line up your squares next to each other on your layout.  If you trimmed out squares, this would be the time to put them in their place on your layout.  You simply slip the square under the folds and push them down again.  After doing that you can add a glue dot, or a dab of glue under each flap, to adhere it. 

I stitched some of my squares down.  I didn't want the layout to look too complicated, so I only did it a wee bit, for effect. 

Voila!  The Cathedral Quilt pattern is now on a scrapbook layout, and it wasn't hard to make.  It's cushy though.  I like how the squares, all lined up, actually felt quilt-like.

And if you are interested in the quilt pattern, like I still am, here's Kendra's tutorial:

Kendra's picnic blanket tutorial

Have a great day!  Let me know if you have any questions about this technique and I'll try and answer them in the comment section.

P.S.  If you use this pattern on a scrapbook layout, please be sure to give proper credit.  Thanks!

Davinie