Tea Cup Quilt
Hillary (Jenny Doan's daughter) demonstrates how to make a quilt that her sister Natalie came up with many years ago, which she calls the Tea Cup Quilt. It's a quick and easy quilt to make, and uses layer cakes (10" squares). Layer Cakes - the largest selection of 10" squares on the web!. Cream & Sugar Precuts and Fabrics from Windham (including the layer cake featured in this tutorial, while quantities last).
Instructor
Hillary Sperry
Hillary Sperry is an author of sweet romance novels and cozy Missouri Star mysteries.
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Common Questions
What is covered in Tea Cup Quilt?
Hillary (Jenny Doan's daughter) demonstrates how to make a quilt that her sister Natalie came up with many years ago, which she calls the Tea Cup Quilt. It's a quick and easy quilt to make, and uses layer cakes (10" squares). Layer Cakes - the largest selection of 10" squares...
How long is the tutorial video?
The tutorial video is 00:06:19.
Are supplies listed for this tutorial?
Yes. The tutorial page includes the supplies and materials connected to this project.
Is a transcript available?
Yes. A written transcript is available on the tutorial page.
Video Transcript
Hi. I’m Hillary with Missouri Star Quilt Company, and I have a great project for you today. This quilt behind me, is one that’s been around for a…quite awhile…The fabric is new, but the pattern was designed a long time ago by my sister. She actually made a quilt that’s maybe 3 feet by 3 feet, and it’s been hanging in my kitchen for many years. I love it!
The fabric that we chose was Cream and Sugar by Ampersand Design Studios for Windham Fabrics. We just used one layer cake for our whole project. That’s one of my favorite things about it…it really only takes one, and you have a brand new quilt. So you have your layer cake, and then for your borders, you’re going to need around a ½ hard for the inner STOP border, we used a white for that. And then for your outer border, you’re going to need around a yard and ¾.
To make this block, I’ve chosen two; one’s a bright green and one’s more of a white. So, those two will be paired up. And you can do that through your whole layer cake; just go through and find that ones that you think look really good together. And then you’ve got your sets already done, and there’s no work at the end.
So, I’ve got my pieces. I can… I’m going to cut them both at the same time. I probably wouldn’t cut more than two at a time though because your fabrics get a little shifty and you don’t want to end up with a miscut that we really can’t fix at that point, so…
So, we’re going to start by cutting two inches off the side, through both layers, so we end up with our two strips here. Let’s just set those aside. For our next strip, is going to be 3 ½ inches (counting, that’s 1, 2, 3 and ½) I’ll go ahead and trim that one.
There we go.
Now, this piece that we just cut is our..star piece. This is going to turn into our constrasting centers on all of these.
Okay, so we’re going to cut two inches off the end. There. I’ll just set that over.
And another two inches.Okay. Cut that.
And now we’re going to lay it out. These pieces right here are our special contrasting centers, so I’m going to set this one aside because I’m working with the green block. And this is our contrasting middle.
I’m going to set it right here. Get our greens and stack the other ones on either side.
And take our two inch strip that we cut very first, and set that here. And this is how your block is going to go together.
It’s really a super simple, easy block to put together. It highlights, some-when-a-really big prints well. So, you know we have some of those favorite lines and fabrics with really big designs on them, and sometimes you just don’t know what to do with them. This Is a great pattern for that.
So, first seams that we’re going to do, we’re going to add these ends onto our middle contrasting piece.
Let’s go over to the sewing machine.
You do want to watch that you make sure you’re quarter inch seams…are nice and tight. Because we are going to lose just a little bit of length on this pattern, and we want it to stay as nice and square as possible. So, keep your quarter inches really n..really good and tight.
Here we go. Let’s go ahead and press this open. So we can have a nice piece to work with. Okay
Now, here’s what we’ve done. Okay, isn’t that nice? It’s coming together really well.
We’ve ..but you’ll notice, after you line it up on one side that it’s going to be a little bit short here. That’s okay.We’re going to trim these pieces when we’re through, and that’s the way the block comes together. You don’t need to worry about stretching it, or trying, thinking that something’s gone wrong. That really is the way the pattern goes. So, let’s go ahead and add these sides here.
I really like this pattern..this whole line is a lot of fun with its greens and pinks. Even the brown really makes all of them pop nicely. It’s kind of….fun colors to do our tea and sugar with.
There we go. There’s that one. And..we’re going to add our last side on, and that’ll be our last seam for this block.
Here we go. Good. Watching that quarter inch. Make sure we’re keeping our distances all even.
Okay, we’re going to press that one out again. Well, this time. Here we go. That’s our cute little tea cup block.
Okay, here’s our little ends that are sticking out on there. Let’s go ahead and trim those. You’re just going to line up your ruler along the seams here and back here along the short edge of our center block. Let’s just trim those little pieces off. And that..is what your finished block looks like.
Okay, so now that we’ve got our finished block, this is how we laid it out. I have several pieces here that we’re going to work with. You start with one block, and your center block is what we use to guide our positioning. It’s going to start face..up and down, and then we’re going to move it so that it kind of rotates around the block. And it’ll come down to the bottom. And then it’ll go on the side again. And then, let’s pull this one so there’s a little variety, and it’ll come up to the top.going to
See here, it’s on the side, the bottom, the opposite side, and the top. When you start your next row, you’re going to lay it out exactly the same way, except you’re going to start from this second spot. And we’re just going to take…since their contrasting block is at the bottom, we’re going to move it down here, so it starts with the bottom position. And then we just start moving around so, you take it to the side-let’s not do that one cause it matches completely. There we go. To the side. And then to the top. And it looks like I’ve got a lot of teacups today. And that one’s going to come over here to the other side.
And that way, your pattern has a little bit of organization to it as it goes. It helps you know where they need to be.
It’s a really fun little pattern, and I hope you enjoy it in your house as much as I have in mine.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
The fabric that we chose was Cream and Sugar by Ampersand Design Studios for Windham Fabrics. We just used one layer cake for our whole project. That’s one of my favorite things about it…it really only takes one, and you have a brand new quilt. So you have your layer cake, and then for your borders, you’re going to need around a ½ hard for the inner STOP border, we used a white for that. And then for your outer border, you’re going to need around a yard and ¾.
To make this block, I’ve chosen two; one’s a bright green and one’s more of a white. So, those two will be paired up. And you can do that through your whole layer cake; just go through and find that ones that you think look really good together. And then you’ve got your sets already done, and there’s no work at the end.
So, I’ve got my pieces. I can… I’m going to cut them both at the same time. I probably wouldn’t cut more than two at a time though because your fabrics get a little shifty and you don’t want to end up with a miscut that we really can’t fix at that point, so…
So, we’re going to start by cutting two inches off the side, through both layers, so we end up with our two strips here. Let’s just set those aside. For our next strip, is going to be 3 ½ inches (counting, that’s 1, 2, 3 and ½) I’ll go ahead and trim that one.
There we go.
Now, this piece that we just cut is our..star piece. This is going to turn into our constrasting centers on all of these.
Okay, so we’re going to cut two inches off the end. There. I’ll just set that over.
And another two inches.Okay. Cut that.
And now we’re going to lay it out. These pieces right here are our special contrasting centers, so I’m going to set this one aside because I’m working with the green block. And this is our contrasting middle.
I’m going to set it right here. Get our greens and stack the other ones on either side.
And take our two inch strip that we cut very first, and set that here. And this is how your block is going to go together.
It’s really a super simple, easy block to put together. It highlights, some-when-a-really big prints well. So, you know we have some of those favorite lines and fabrics with really big designs on them, and sometimes you just don’t know what to do with them. This Is a great pattern for that.
So, first seams that we’re going to do, we’re going to add these ends onto our middle contrasting piece.
Let’s go over to the sewing machine.
You do want to watch that you make sure you’re quarter inch seams…are nice and tight. Because we are going to lose just a little bit of length on this pattern, and we want it to stay as nice and square as possible. So, keep your quarter inches really n..really good and tight.
Here we go. Let’s go ahead and press this open. So we can have a nice piece to work with. Okay
Now, here’s what we’ve done. Okay, isn’t that nice? It’s coming together really well.
We’ve ..but you’ll notice, after you line it up on one side that it’s going to be a little bit short here. That’s okay.We’re going to trim these pieces when we’re through, and that’s the way the block comes together. You don’t need to worry about stretching it, or trying, thinking that something’s gone wrong. That really is the way the pattern goes. So, let’s go ahead and add these sides here.
I really like this pattern..this whole line is a lot of fun with its greens and pinks. Even the brown really makes all of them pop nicely. It’s kind of….fun colors to do our tea and sugar with.
There we go. There’s that one. And..we’re going to add our last side on, and that’ll be our last seam for this block.
Here we go. Good. Watching that quarter inch. Make sure we’re keeping our distances all even.
Okay, we’re going to press that one out again. Well, this time. Here we go. That’s our cute little tea cup block.
Okay, here’s our little ends that are sticking out on there. Let’s go ahead and trim those. You’re just going to line up your ruler along the seams here and back here along the short edge of our center block. Let’s just trim those little pieces off. And that..is what your finished block looks like.
Okay, so now that we’ve got our finished block, this is how we laid it out. I have several pieces here that we’re going to work with. You start with one block, and your center block is what we use to guide our positioning. It’s going to start face..up and down, and then we’re going to move it so that it kind of rotates around the block. And it’ll come down to the bottom. And then it’ll go on the side again. And then, let’s pull this one so there’s a little variety, and it’ll come up to the top.going to
See here, it’s on the side, the bottom, the opposite side, and the top. When you start your next row, you’re going to lay it out exactly the same way, except you’re going to start from this second spot. And we’re just going to take…since their contrasting block is at the bottom, we’re going to move it down here, so it starts with the bottom position. And then we just start moving around so, you take it to the side-let’s not do that one cause it matches completely. There we go. To the side. And then to the top. And it looks like I’ve got a lot of teacups today. And that one’s going to come over here to the other side.
And that way, your pattern has a little bit of organization to it as it goes. It helps you know where they need to be.
It’s a really fun little pattern, and I hope you enjoy it in your house as much as I have in mine.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
