A Schoolhouse Quilt To Create Before School Starts

Hi, all! It’s Bea from Beaquilter to show you how to combine a great Block on Board (BOB) die with some GO! Strip Cutter and GO! Square dies to make this fun rainbow schoolhouse quilt!

Follow Along With My Process!

First, I planned my design using Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) Quilt Design Software.

Based on my design, I needed:

• 1/8 yard to 1/4 yard of fabric per color
  • The 1/4 yard of fabric is for the house blocks
• 3/4 yards of gray fabric
• 1 yard of white fabric

This quilt finishes to 39” x 39” and I was able to use scrap yardage that I already had. Plus, I always keep solid white fabric on hand, and I had dark gray fabric from another project.

Materials Needed

To make this quilt, I used the:

• GO! Fabric Cutter
• GO! Schoolhouse-Pieced-9" Finished Die
• GO! Strip Cutter-11/2" (1” Finished) Die
• GO! Strip Cutter-31/2" (3” Finished) Die
• GO! Square-3 1/2” (3" Finished) Die
  • Shape 1 in the GO! Qube Mix & Match 6” Block OR Shape 2 from the GO! Qube Mix & Match 12” Block
• GO! Square-11/2" (1”) Finished Die
  • You can also use the GO! Strip Cutter-1 1/2" Finished Die or Shape 2 from the GO! Qube Mix & Match 4" Block

Instructions

1. From the four colors for the square blocks, I cut:

• Two 1 1/2” Width of Fabric (WOF) strips
  • Then, subcut into
    • Two - 1 1/2" x 3 1/2” pieces
    • Two - 1 1/2" x 5 1/2” pieces
    • Two - 1 1/2" x 7 1/2” pieces
    • Two - 1 1/2" x 9 1/2” pieces

2. For the schoolhouse blocks, I was able to cut everything out of a 9” WOF strip, although a 7” WOF strip works too. I only had that in the blue, but some of the cuts were a bit awkward. Luckily, I had plenty of fabric.

3. From each of the schoolhouse colors, I cut out:

• Two shape A's
• One shape B
• Seven shape C's
• One shape D
• One shape F
• One shape H

4. Since I had the gray fabric out already, I also cut out 16 of the 1 1/2" squares.

5. With the white fabric, I cut:

• One shape A
• 15 shape C's
• Five shape E's
• Five shape ER's
• Five shape G's
• Ten shape I's
• Five shape J's

6. Again, since I had this fabric color out already, I cut four white 3 1/2" squares.

7. With the GO! Strip Cutter-1 1/2" Die, I cut:

• 13 strips at 1 1/2” x WOF
  • Then, subcut into
    • 24 - 1 1/2” x 9 1/2” pieces
    • Eight - 1 1/2” x 7 1/2” pieces
    • Eight - 1 1/2" x 5 1/2” pieces

8. Once I finished cutting these, I had four WOF strips left to use for the inner borders.

9. Then, I started sewing things together. When I sit down to sew, I usually sew as much as possible before I get up to iron because my ironing board is about five feet away - five loooong feet away! Ha ha! I usually work one several projects at once too.

10. Here, I chain pieced all the schoolhouse blocks, following the basic block assembly directions:

• A white shape E to the left of all the shape F's
• A white shape ER to the right of all the shape H's (roof shapes)
• All the white Shape I's together with the shape C's
• Three sets of each color of white and colored shape C's
• A colored and white shape A

11. I kept sewing until:

• All the chimneys were together (shapes I, C, J, C, and I)
• All the roof sections were done (shapes E, F, G, H, and ER)
• Part of the front was completed (shapes C, C, and C with shape D above)
• The side with five shape C's was sewn
• The 3 1/2" white squares were with the 3 1/2” colored rectangles
  • Then, the 5 1/2" colored shapes were sewn onto this
• The 5 1/2” white rectangles were with the 7 1/2" white rectangles
• The 7 1/2” colored rectangles and 9 1/2” colored rectangles were sewn together

Finally, I had five schoolhouse blocks done, along with four “log” blocks (I don’t know what else to call them - square bullseye blocks maybe?)!

12. I then looked at the EQ design and sewed the schoolhouse and log/bullseye blocks together with a white 1 1/2" x 9 1/2” rectangle between.

13. I also made four sashing strips with white 1 1/2" x 9 1/2” rectangles and gray 1 1/2” squares to go between the rows. 

14. I then sewed everything together. This is what the top looks like without a border and then with the border.

Just like I did with the traditional red and white schoolhouse quilt I made for AccuQuilt for the GO! Schoolhouse-Pieced-9" Finished Die release, I quilted clouds all over it and cut out five 2 1/2” binding strips, so I had the perfect amount of green fabric leftover to do that!

As always, I try to use leftover yardage from the front to make the backing. I ended up using four colors and then added a yellow strip down the middle, even though the top was 39” and the backing was 42”. Since I long arm, I didn’t trust that it was enough to work with, so I added the little yellow strip, but you may not need to do that if you’re using a sewing machine to quilt it.

It’s a fun, cute and colorful quilt!

EQ8 Provides Even More Creative Possibilities

EQ8 is so great to work with that I couldn't stop myself from making other schoolhouse quilt designs! Here’s my schoolhouse quilt in a gray and red version. For this, you’d need about 1 yard of white fabric along with 3/4 yards each of gray and red fabric to make it.

What about a baby blue version? For this one, you'd need:

• 1 yard of white fabric
• 1/2 yard of dark blue fabric
• 1/4 yard of light blue fabric
• 1/2 yard of turquoise fabric

I’d love to see pictures if you make one of these, so be sure to use the hashtag #AccuQuiltBuilt and tag @bealeequilter and @AccuQuilt if you do!