Coin Quilt Top Tutorial

I love the beautiful simplicity of a coin quilt.  You can combine all of your favorite fabrics and colors in this quilt and they will look amazing.  I also love these quilts because they are so quick and easy to whip up, so if you need a quilt fast, this is a great pattern.

I could never cut out a bizillion different coins then piece them all together.  So, we are doing things the easy, quick way in this tutorial!

First go to your stash and pull out the tons of your favorite fabrics you’d like to incorporate into this quilt.  Depending on how big and how diverse you want your quilt to be I would choose anywhere from 15 to 50 different fabrics, but you can use as little as two if you’d like.  If you have a certain size quilt you’d like to make, keep in mind the finished coins will be 2.5″ x 4.5″ and the sashing between the rows of coins will end up 3″ wide.  That should help you to determine just how many rows of coins and how many coins vertically it will take to create that particular size.

For this tutorial I will be making a stroller size quilt.  So I only choose 10 fabrics.  That means my coin stack will be  25″ tall and I will have only three rows of coins.  Finished it should be about 25.5″ x 31″.

Okay, now you’ve choosen your fabrics, lay them out in an order you like.  Just remember to take into consideration that the fabrics on either end of your line should go well next to each other as well, because they will end up next to each other too!  Sometimes through this process of laying the fabrics out I get rid of a fabric, or add one to make everything come together.

Now we can cut into that beautiful fabric you’ve laid out.  (Scary, I know.)  Depending on the yardage of the fabric you’ve laid out, you might find a better way to cut each one.  In order for me to have the most uniform strips, I like to cut selvege to selvege for quilts that will have lots of rows of coins.  For this tiny quilt I choose a lot of fat quarters from my stash, since I will be making 3 coin stacks (totalling 15″) I will cut strips 3″ x 18″.  I will have a little scrap left from each strip when I’m done.  (I’ll use those to piece the back!)  I suggest when you determine the length of your strips not to cut exactly that length cut about 2″ longer.  Since I don’t like to waste time pinning my fabric together if I don’t have to, I like to have a little leeway.

Cut from each fabric 3″ strips, the length you have already determined.  I like to lay 2 or 3 fabrics on top of each other, line them up, and cut them all at the same time.  Saves a little bit of time.

Next sew all of your strips together like this:

Making sure to keep them in the order you laid them out it. Press.  I like to press the seams open, everything lays much flatter and I think it’s easier to quilt.

Back to our cutting mats we go.  You are now going to cut your fabric into 5″ strips.

With your new strips, keep one the way it is, after all that’s exactly how you laid it out, so it must look great.  The remaining strips, sew the two ends together, making a circle.  Like this:

Now this is where we make it look like we pieced each coin seperately.  Choose a different seam on each circle to take out, these two fabrics will become the ends of your new coin stack.

Lay out all of your coin stacks, mix them up, until you get a layout you like.  Measure a coin stack, so you know how long to cut your sashing.  Then cut the sashing so it is the length of the coin stacks and 3.5″ wide.  The number of sashing strips is determined by how many coin stacks you are using. (It’s always one more sashing strip than you have coin stacks.)

Then sew your sashing and coin stacks together.

Measure your sashing for the top and bottom by folding your quilt in half so the two sides kiss.  Measure at the fold, so you are measuring the middle of the quilt.  This will keep your quilt top from getting wonky.  Pin these on (a must) & sew, easing the fabric when needed.  

Now you’re finished!  One coin quilt top ready to be sandwiched, quilted & bound.

Congratulations!