Quilt Along 2021: Intro to Lighthouse Steps

Hi Friends!

Welcome to the Introduction to my next Quilt Along using Lighthouse Steps!

Quilt Along Quilt

Lighthouse Steps is a fun strip pack friendly modern quilt design. 

The quilt was originally made for Paintbrush Studios using a solid strip pack. And I loved how the quilt came out!

When I starting working on designs to use with a brand new line of batiks from Island Batik, I just knew it would look amazing in Lighthouse Steps. And I was right! The quilt even made the cover of the most recent Island Batik Catalog! How cool is that!

What’s in a name? 

Naming quilts can be tough. Sometimes the name just comes to you, other times you have to work at it. When I was making the original Lighthouse Steps quilt, with the cobalt blue contrast fabric and the crisp solids from a strip pack called Bayshore, it just brought to my mind the shoreline of New England; sandy beaches, oceans waves and lighthouses. I could see the structure of a lighthouse in the rows. (A slightly abstract lighthouse!)

The quilt uses a strip pack and 2 coordinating fabrics – one for the background in most of the rows and one for the contrast section at the top of the quilt.

Lighthouse Steps Quilt Along Supply List

You need 3 things for the quilt along:

1. To be able to make the quilt, you need a pattern! I am making this pattern available as both a paper pattern and as a PDF download. 

Click here to order the paper pattern (I will snail mail it to you!)

Click here to order the PDF version you can download

2. Fabric: the pattern lists 2 sizes in it- a lap 60″ x 80″ and a queen 90″ x 98″.

Strips- For the lap size (which I will be making during the quilt along) you will need a strip pack but will use 38 of the 40 strips. 

Click here to purchase the Painted Blossoms Strip pack that I used in my quilt! I have a limited supply available.

Background –  2 ¼ yards. The color depends on your strip pack but I used a light color called Almond from Island Batik.

Contrast – ⅝ yard. The color you pick depends on your strip pack but I used a dark purple batik from Island Batik.

Binding – ⅝ yard. I used the same dark purple as the contrast fabric.

Backing – 5 yards.

See below for bonus tips on picking your contrast and background fabrics! While there are only 2 additional colors, you may want to open up your strip pack before choosing!

If you want to make the queen size instead, you will need a 40 strip pack plus 2 strips- I recommend using either the background or the contrast fabric and getting an extra ¼ yard. See the pattern back for the rest.

3. A desire to make a quilt and have some fun!

Lighthouse Steps Quilt Along Schedule

The quilt along officially starts March 5th. I will be posting here on my blog.

Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be on the Quilt Along list to get notified of each blog post and other fun stuff!

Once we get going, if you want to share any images, use this hashtag on social media:

#lighthousestepsquiltalong

If you want to tag me on Instagram so you know I see your post, tag @seamslikeadreamquilts .

If you are on Facebook and want to post images on my page, go here. I don’t have a group page, just my Seams Like a Dream page!

March 5th – Week 1 

I will share tips on fabric/ color placement as you need to decide what strip goes in what order Before cutting!

March 12th – Week 2

Cutting- I will sharing tips on cutting and organizing the rows as you cut! With this quilt, organization is key!

March 19th – Week 3

This week I will give tips on sewing the rows. That ¼” seam is key!

Click here for my blog post on getting a good ¼” seam!

March 26th – Week 4

I will give tips on sewing the rows together. 

April 9th – Week 5

Tips on finishing the quilt! There will be a blog post and a Zoom party for those who want to share what they have done so far with their quilt. You don’t have to have your top all pieced to attend or to show off your quilt!  You can share where you are in the process.

There will be a few giveaways for attendees of the Zoom party- hmmmm, what could you win?

I can’t wait to sew along with you!

Note: If you sign up for the newsletter and want to opt out at any time, you can always do that!

Bonus: Tips on Picking Background and Contrast Fabric

Once you have decided on your strip pack, or have pulled fabric from your stash to use for the strips, now you need to decide on a background and a contrast fabric. 

The choice depends on personal preference and your strip pack! Does your strip pack have a lot of dark and medium value prints in it? Then you might want a light or bright background to provide value contrast.

If your strip pack has more light and medium fabrics, maybe a darker background will work better. 

My strip pack has a lot of mediums and darks so I went with a light background.

Picking the contrast has to do with providing value changed from the background. For both of my quilts, I pulled out the 5 lightest strips that had similar value for the contrast section.

Then I used those to determine the color of my contrast fabric, which was a dark.

We’ll talk more about color and the order of strips in the first Quilt Along post! See you then!

happy quilting!

Kate