The Steep Rock Quilt – quick tips for success!

The Summer 2023 We Quilt This City large project is the Steep Rock Quilt from The Blanket Statement. We recently discovered this Canadian pattern company (owned by Erin Kroeker), and we love their modern aesthetic and philosophy. Here’s what Erin has to say about quilting, and we couldn’t agree more:

“Quilts are made to be passed down and cherished, a textile embodiment of home, of memories, of tradition and sentiment. They are a combination of function, art, history, and culture. For me quilts are full of the good feelings that come from things you know are made to endure.”

We selected this pattern for our Summer 2023 Large Project because we wanted something fast, easy, and fun! Winter is for long, cozy days of complex quilting, but summer? That’s for sunbathing and picnicking  – preferably atop a handmade Steep Rock quilt! And piecing this quilt top takes hours instead of days, so you’ll be out on the grass before you know it.

Our throw size Steep Rock Quilt Kit includes the paper pattern, and the 16 fabrics featured in our Summer 2023 WQTC collection. You can also opt to add on backing and binding fabric. For these we chose the Flirty and Floaty QC in Aqua and the Boundless Binding QC in Partly Cloudy respectively.

Erin’s paper-pattern instructions are great and can stand alone, but, in this post, we’re going to cover a few extra tips and tricks we picked up while making the quilt.

First-off, for fabric Erin recommends an assortment of Kona Solids, each of which corresponds to a letter that is referred to throughout the instructions. Because our kit uses different fabrics, we created a key that corresponds to her letter system, and that you can reference as you sew. (This key will also be included in the kit.)

Additionally, in our kit we used the same fabric for both ‘A’ and ‘B’, and we’ve included a little extra of fabrics K – O (1/3 yard rather than 1/4 yard) so that you’ll have some more wiggle-room.

Letter	Fabric	Quantity
A, B	Kona Solid in Honeysuckle	Fat ⅛
C	Spark in Orange	Fat ⅛
D	Banana Leaves in Warm	Fat ⅛
E	Spectrastatic in Rosalia	Fat ⅛
F	Shoal in Tomato	¼ Yard
G	Century Solid in Orchid	¼ Yard
H	Flamenco Texture in Purple	¼ Yard
I	Brushstrokes in Light Lavender	¼ Yard
J	Tiny Dots in Bluebell	¼ Yard
K	Persian Vase in Duck Egg	⅓ Yard
L	Chalk & Charcoal in Riviera	⅓ Yard
M	Shot Cotton in Glacier	⅓ Yard
N	Grunge Basics in Pool	⅓ Yard
O	Brassica in Green	⅓ Yard
P	Tiles in Jade	¼ Yard
Q	Supreme Solid in Sunnyside of the Street	2 ½ Yards

The throw size version of this quilt is 48″ by 64″, so – to back the quilt – the pattern calls for 3.25 yards off 44″ fabric. You could also use 1.5 yards of an 108″ wideback OR you can do what we did, and get a little creative with your piecing!

48″ is painfully close to 44″, so rather than cut and piece 3.25 yards (which will leave you with a fair amount of leftover fabric), we decided to cut just 2 yards of the Flirty and Floating QC, and make up the difference with some leftover Tiny Dots and Grunge Basics (both used on the quilt front).

For the binding, we gave the Partly Cloudy colorway from our Boundless Binding collection a try! Designed especially with quilt binding in mind, each strip (marked with a line on the fabric itself) measures 2.25” wide.

If you wanted to make the binding process even easier, we also have a few pre-made bindings from The Satin Bee that look fabulous with the colors in this quilt! I particularly like the Aqua & White 1/8″ Stripes Binding and the Fairy Dust Quilt Binding in Orange Sherbet!

 

Erin actually has very thorough cutting instructions included in her Steep Rock pattern. You’ll find a table detailing the size and number of units that need to be cut from each color, plus the diagram for cutting out the quilt’s background fabric is particularly good. However, Elizabeth (our superb sample-maker) pointed out that knowing how many strips to cut before sub-cutting can be helpful. So we put a little table together!

Letter	Fabric	# Strips
A, B	Kona Solid in Honeysuckle	(1) 4 ½” x 18”
C	Spark in Orange	(1) 4 ½” x 18”
D	Banana Leaves in Warm	(2) 4 ½” x 18”
E	Spectrastatic in Rosalia	(2) 4 ½” x 18”
F	Shoal in Tomato	(1) 4 ½” x Width of Fabric (WOF)
G	Century Solid in Orchid	(1) 4 ½” x WOF
H	Flamenco Texture in Purple	(1) 4 ½” x WOF
I	Brushstrokes in Light Lavender	(1) 4 ½” x WOF
J	Tiny Dots in Bluebell	(1) 4 ½” x WOF
K	Persian Vase in Duck Egg	(2) 4 ½” x WOF
L	Chalk & Charcoal in Riviera	(2) 4 ½” x WOF
M	Shot Cotton in Glacier	(2) 4 ½” x WOF
N	Grunge Basics in Pool	(2) 4 ½” x WOF
O	Brassica in Green	(2) 4 ½” x WOF
P	Tiles in Jade	(1) 4 ½” x WOF
Q	Supreme Solid in Sunnyside of the Street	(9) 4 ½” x WOF

Lastly, the only point-matching in this quilt occurs where the triangles meet in each stacked row.

Less points to match? Awesome! The only downside is that if they don’t match, it can be really noticeable (especially on this bright yellow background)!

So, when it came time to piece each row together, rather than starting at one end and sewing all the way to the other (which can pull the fabric and cause the points to shift), Elizabeth pinned at the junction where the points meet, sewed from one end of the strip to this junction, and then sewed from the other end to the junction.

As you can see, this worked like a charm! All her points look great.

 

Our throw-sized Summer Steep Rock Quilt Kit is available for purchase here. It features the 16 fabrics included in the Summer 2023 WQTC collection & the Steep Rock paper pattern! (You can also purchase the pattern separately by clicking here.) As always subscribers, you can apply your special coupon code (included in your swatch set) to get 10% off the kit!

Are you not yet a We Quilt This City subscriber? You can learn more by clicking here.

Happy Quilting!