Optical Illusion Mini Quilt Tutorial

Size 23 ½” x 25 ½”

Optical Illusion quilts have so much visual appeal and using light and dark shades of a colour can really give impact. Use this tutorial to create your very own optical illusion mini quilt.

Requirements

Instructions

Using a 1/4" seam allowance on your sewing machine, sew dark fabric strips together lengthwise in the following order: purple + blue + pink.  Press well.

Now sew light fabric strips together lengthwise in the following order: purple + blue + pink.  Press well.

Take your dark fabric strip set and place lengthways on your cutting mat with the dark purple strip at the very top. Place your rulers 60 degree marked angle line on the lengthwise edge of the strip set and cut 10 strips at 3" wide.  Set aside for now.

Now place your light fabric strip set lengthways on your cutting mat with the light purple strip at the top. Place your rulers 30 degree marked line on the lengthwise edge of the strip set and again cut 10 strips at 3” wide.

Join two dark strip sets together to create a purple, blue, pink, purple, blue, pink sequence.  Keep joining two dark strips together until you have 5 strip sets.  Repeat this step for the light strip sets.

Lay out your sewn strip sets alternating between dark and light like the image above.  Sew together these strips to create your quilt top.

Place your quilt top over the Parlan and mark the perimeter of the quilt onto the Parlan using the fabric marker.  Remove the quilt top and then cut a ¼” inside the marked line as this will reduce the bulk in your seams.

Iron the trimmed Parlan to the wrong side of your quilt top. There should be an overhang of the quilt top of 1/4" around the outer edge. 

Place your backing fabric over your quilt top, right sides together, and sew a ¼” seam around the outside leaving a 4" gap on one long edge.  Trim your backing fabric to reduce bulk.

Turn your mini quilt right side out through the opening and ensure all points are pushed out using That Purple Thang tool.

Hand sew the opening closed and enjoy your Optical Illusion mini quilt.

Happy Stitching! Kimz Team x

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