Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

[GuitarGramma]

I quite like today's daily deal, the all-blue Tesselations layer cake. I thought it would look so cute as a Pineapple quilt with white between the blues. It turns out that I mistakenly bought the MINI Creative Grids Pineapple Quilt tool, so I'm already working with 6" finished blocks, not the 10" blocks in Jenny's tutorial.

I spent two hours figuring out how to cut 1-1/4" strips from those layer cake 10" squares. First, I realized that I hadn't figured in the white strips ... started over. Then, when I was all done maximizing the number of 1-1/4" strips I could get, using some of the squares for the corners and the center squares, I realize that I could only make 30 6" finished blocks. That's basically a 30"x36" quilt top before borders.

This does not feel right. How can I go from a layer cake (that would give me a 60"x70" quilt top), add in the same amount of white strips, and end up with a 30"x36" quilt top?

I'd love to hear any insights you have.

[Rhonda K]

Re: Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

You are short on the fabric amounts if you want a larger quilt. Look at the supply list again. There is a jelly roll "plus" 2 honey buns "plus" the two charm packs.

https://quiltingtutorials.com/tutorial/make-a-pineapple-quilt-with-jenny

You would use 1/2 of the layer cake if you used it to cut down for the 5 inch squares. There wouldn't be enough left of the layer for all those strips. Hope that helps with the issue.

[GuitarGramma]

Re: Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

Thank you, Rhonda. You're spot on. Jenny's fabric list is for the full size Pineapple ruler, and I have the mini version, so I thought I might be able to do with just a layer cake plus a honey bun.

I'm still confused about how almost five yards of fabric (a layer cake plus a honey bun) can turn into a 30"x36" quilt. However, I may have figured it out. The mini Pineapple ruler uses 1-1/4" strips. Each of those strips is going to lose 1/2" when you sew a 1/4" seam on each side. That's more than a third of each strip! Couple that with the constant trimming to square up the corners, and there is a whole lot of waste going on.

In the end, I decided I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It's possible, but you have to shave off a lot of wood to make it fit. I emptied my cart and am sadly looking back wishing I could have made this work. I also wish that I'd bought the full-size Pineapple ruler way back when.

The silver lining is that I browsed all my my well-organized "it's for retirement" stash to make sure I still had white honey buns available. I was overwhelmed with the beauty of the fabrics I have stored up for that happy time. I'm shutting down my business at the end of June, and that is just around the corner. So it turned out to be a happy day after all!

[Rhonda K]

Re: Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

Yay Gramma!

I understand about building up the fabric stash for later. It's nice to just look at once in a while. Much happiness in your retirement!

[jjkaiser]

Re: Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

Sometimes it's just easier to choose a different pattern using fabric you love, instead of refiguring all the math and hoping it all works out in the end. You can spend so much time fussing and trying to make it work and lose sight of the fact you don't HAVE to do this and quilting is supposed to be fun! Happy Almost Retirement! I retired Jan 1st this year, I would be so bored without my quilting and an occasional good book to read. (Daytime TV is not for me.) I am a news junkie though, so NPR is on the radio in my sewing room all the time.

[KPH]

Re: Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

I loved that DD, but I'm not buying fabric while I can't sew. It was tempting though. Maybe the jelly rolls will be a daily deal soon.

[GuitarGramma]

Re: Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

I loved that DD, but I'm not buying fabric while I can't sew. It was tempting though. Maybe the jelly rolls will be a daily deal soon.

I'll snatch those up in a heart beat!

And thank you, Jocelyn and Rhonda, for your well wishes!

[KarenC]

Re: Pineapple Quilt from a Layer Cake?

Best wishes on your retirement Toni. I was amazed to see how much fabric went into seams using the pineapple block.