Polaroid Quilt

My Polaroid quilt top is done and it was such a fun finish!! 

I joined the Polaroid Greeting Swap 3 this summer, hosted by Johanna Weidner on Instagram, and received a lot of great blocks.  This was the third time that she’s hosted the Polaroid Greeting Swap but it was my first time participating. 

The swap divided everyone into teams of 12 and you were responsible for making two Polariod blocks for each of your team members, a lot of people were nice enough to send a few extras also.  I received some wonderful fussy cut blocks and was also lucky enough to join several side swaps with people on other teams!  I made a lot of extra blocks to keep for myself and when the swap was done I ended up with about 90 Polaroids total. 

In order to make the fussy cutting a little easier I made myself a template out of stock paper.  I cut a 2.5” square and then cut out the center leaving a quarter-inch frame.  I was able to place this on my fabric before I cut it to make sure that each print was centered.  Once I had the template where I wanted, I laid my ruler on top and cut the 2.5 inch square. 

I knew I wanted to make a quilt with all of my blocks and I loved the shadow effect I’ve seen on other projects.  Johanna has a blog post for how to make the Polaroid blocks and also how to add the shading effect.  http://polaroidgreetingswap.blogspot.com/. 

I decided that Grunge by Moda would make a good background fabric, I wanted something bright but simple that would also match all the different colors in the blocks.  I ended up choosing the Grunge Basics New Cabana as the color.

After playing with a few possible layouts I decided to make simple square blocks with the Polaroids angled in different directions, I wanted it to resemble a messy photo album.  For each block I cut 2 background strips measuring 2.5” x 3.5” for the sides and 2 strips measuring 2.5” x 7″ for the top and bottom.  I used a little over 4 yards in order to make the border on 110 blocks (I ended making even more blocks after the swap so I could get the quilt to have a layout of 10 x 11). 

Once I had the borders sewn on I divided the blocks into 3 even stacks.  I then cut down all of the finished blocks to 6.5” squares with one stack angled to the left, one angled to the right, and one stack centered.  I didn’t measure the “centered” blocks perfectly, some still had a slight angle one way or the other and some had thicker borders on one side, I didn’t want it be too symmetrical. 

When I had all of the blocks cut down to 6.5” squares I started sewing blocks together randomly, I only had a few duplicate or similar prints so it was pretty easy to sew without planning!  I ended up with 10 blocks per row, and 11 rows total. 

I found the perfect fabric for the backing – black and white vintage cameras!!  I love this backing so much since it fits the theme but helps neutralize all of the different colors on the front.

I can’t wait for the quilting to be completed, this has probably been the most fun quilt I’ve made yet!!  I really hope there is another swap next year, I’d love to participate again!