One of the things that I’ve had on a Pinterest board for a long time is this.
It’s a fusion quilt, which basically means that you make quilt squares then crochet them together, so it fuses sewing with crochet.
Every time this quilt pops up again, or when I see it there on my Pinterest board, I’m reminded of how pretty it is and how much I like it!
I’m not one for making quilts. I’ve only ever made one pram sized quilt when my eldest was a baby, although I’ve started a few!
A fusion quilt is different. Because you make the squares, then crochet them together, I think there’s enough variety to prevent boredom from setting in. Also the crochet part is the sort of thing that can be worked on for a few minutes at a time.
So this week, still having a desire to make pretty things, I started making my own fusion quilt!
I should say that the original on Pinterest doesn’t have a tutorial with it, and I’m not trying to copy it but make my own version.
Another raid on the fabric pile behind the bedroom door turned up some pretty fabric in colours I wanted to use, and some fleece fabric for the back of the squares. I also found some yarn for crocheting the squares together.
Obviously I couldn’t crochet straight into the fabric squares, and sewing fabric with yarn was going to cause some problems, so I used embroidery thread to edge the squares in blanket stitch. I was then able to crochet into the embroidered stitches.
Making The Squares
You Will Need
Cotton fabric. This is a good project for using up bits left over from other things. If you don’t have enough to make a whole square, you could make quarter squares and sew them together.
Something to back the squares with. I used fleece fabric. Quilt batting would also work, but you would probably need to make extra cotton squares for the back too.
Embroidery thread. Something like cotton perle is better that the stranded sort.
Yarn and a crochet hook. A neutral colour is probably best, but you can use what you like! I used a beige colour in DK with a 4 mm hook. A lighter yarn would probably achieve a lacier look.
Cutting Out The Squares
One of the advantages of this kind of quilt is that you can make the squares quite large if you want to. It’s great if you tend to get bored with longer projects as you’ll be able to finish your fusion quilt more quickly!
I cut my squares 12 cm x 12 cm (4 3/4″ x 4 3/4″).
If you wanted to make some quarter squares to make larger squares of this size, you would need to cut them 7 cm x 7 cm (2 3/4″ x 2 3/4″).
The backing needs to be the same size.
How many squares is up to you, but bear in mind that they will need to make a rectangle. 24 is a good number to start with. You can always add more later.
Sewing The Squares
Take one cotton square and one backing square.
With the right sides together, sew round the edge leaving a gap for turning out.
Trim the seams and cut off the corners.
Turn out and pin the opening.
Using a long stitch on your sewing machine, top stitch around the edge of the square.
I forgot to take photos of this stage, but I made the squares in the same way as these reusable cloths. There are some step photos in this post if you need them.
Blanket Stitching The Edges
The blanket stitches allow you to have something to work the crochet stitches into.
To sew blanket stitch, sew a loop so that the loop is on the front of the square.
Then pass the needle through the loop from the back to the front. Pull it taut. The top of the stitch should sit on the edge of the square.
Now make another loop by passing the needle through from the front of the square to the back.
Take the needle through this loop, from back to front and pull it taut. Keep doing this until you get to a corner.
I used the top stitches as a guide to get them all about the same size. This also means that if you are finding it difficult to get the needle through the fabric, you can reuse the holes made already by your sewing machine.
Corners
This might not be the proper way of doing corners, but it’s the way I did them!
When you get near a corner, make the next loop directly underneath the corner.
Pass the needle through and pull it so that the end of the stitch is at the corner.
Now make the next loop by passing the needle front to back in the same place.
Pull the thread through again so that the end of this stitch is on the next side of the square and about the same length as the previous stitch.
Then continue until you get to the next corner.
Keep going until you’ve got all the way round. When you get to the last stitch, thread the needle through the loop of the first one and tie the ends.
If you are particular about things being very neat and accurate, you’ll want to make sure that you have the same number of stitches on each side of the square.
I haven’t done that. I’m not too worried about the joins at the corners looking messy because I have a plan for those!
Crocheting Round The Edges Of The Square
Please note that being English, I use English crochet terms!
Round 1
Into one of the blanket stitches, join the yarn and make 3 ch.
Tr into the next stitch, and subsequent stitches until you get to the corner.
Into the 1st of the 2 corner stitches, tr twice.
Then 1 ch, and 2 tr into the next stitch.
1 tr into each of the following stitches until you get the next corner. Crochet round each of the corners in the same way.
When you get back to where you started, join it with a ss.
Round 2
3 ch, then tr into each stitch until you get the the corner.
When you get to the first of the 2 trebles crocheted into one stitch, crochet 2 trebles into the space between them. Then 2 tr into the ch sp, then 2 tr into the next 2 tr.
Continue with 1 tr into each stitch until you get to the next corner. Work each of the corners in the same way as the first one.
When you get back to the start, join with a ss and tie off the ends.
So far I’ve completed 3 squares, with another 2 ready to crochet.
As I have the attention span of a gerbil, it is possible that I won’t finish my fusion quilt! But I feel good about this and I’m hoping to get it done over the next 2-3 weeks, and , so watch this space!
