Part I: Kris Kross Quilt Sew Along – Picking Fabric

Make this modern lattice quilt pattern using these helpful tips! suzyquilts.com

Hey, Suzy Quilts friends! It's me, Sarah, again and I am thrilled to give some tips and tricks for making the super stylish Kris Kross quilt. I have been a long time admirer of this pattern and was so excited to dive in and make my own.

In Part I of this two-part sew along, I'm going to share with you a little pattern hack, turning the required yardage into fat quarters or smaller cuts of yardage. Using mock-ups, I'll guide you through figuring out how much fabric you need to achieve the look you want. We'll do a little quilty math, but I promise that it'll prove to be easy and worth it!

If you're unfamiliar with the Kris Kross pattern, here is a photo of Suzy and her son Desi showing off a classic Christmas version. As you can see the more you scroll through this post — we love using striped fabric in this pattern. The way the blocks are made, the stripe comes together making it look mitered, when in fact, the technique is much much simpler.

Make this modern lattice quilt pattern using these helpful tips! suzyquilts.com

The above quilt was made and quilted by Lisa Yates. Her fabric includes: 

  • Color 1: 1 1/2 yard Art Gallery PURE Solids in Eucalyptus
  • Color 2: 3/4 yard Art Gallery PURE Solids in Aurora Red
  • Color 3: 1 1/2 yard Rifle Paper Co Festive Stripe in Multi
  • Color 4: 1 yard Art Gallery PURE Solids in Creme de la Creme

Kris Kross Sew Along Part I: Picking Fabric

Below are fabric requirements to make this quilt pattern. As you can see it is made from one 6" block that is repeated many times. If you would like to adjust the size, simply add or subtract blocks. For example, if you would like to make your throw quilt wider than 48" add a vertical row or two to the side of the quilt giving you 54" x 60" ( 90 blocks) or even 60" x 60" (100 blocks).

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Kris Kross Quilt Fabric Requirements
Kris Kross Quilt Fabric Requirements

Make it Ombré!

You may remember Suzy's Triangle Jitters quilt and Nordic Triangles quilt where she used fat quarters in place of yardage. She did a similar thing with this baby Kris Kross quilt from this quilt tying tutorial. We'll be doing something similar here.

Make this modern lattice quilt pattern using these helpful tips! suzyquilts.com

For each of my two throw Kris Kross quilts, I used fat quarters in place of yardage for Color 1. To keep it simple, I divided the required fabric of 1.5 yards into 6 fat quarters, because 6 fat quarters = 1.5 yards, easy peasy. (While this doesn't always convert because it is dependent on the cuts being made, it is a good place to start.)

Next, I needed to know how many blocks of each color I would need. The throw size has a total of 80 blocks, but 80 divided by my 6 colors came to 13.33, which is not an even number. So after a little math, I figured out that I would need 13 total blocks in 4 of the colors and 14 total blocks in 2 of the colors.

Let's list my Color 1 choices for one of the quilts to help keep us on track. (Remember, I am only deviating from the pattern for Color 1, not Colors 2, 3, or 4.) These fabrics are all AGF PURE solids:

  • Turmeric - 14 blocks
  • Raw Gold - 13 blocks
  • Dried Carrot - 13 blocks
  • Tiger Lily - 13 blocks
  • Aurora Red - 13 blocks
  • Ruby - 14 blocks

14 + 13 + 13 + 13 + 13 + 14 = 80 blocks

Since each block uses two Color 1 pieces, I knew I needed two pieces of each color per block. That meant I needed to cut the following number of pieces of each color to meet my block requirement. (See the pattern for additional information on cutting requirements.)

  • Turmeric - 28 pieces to make 14 blocks
  • Raw Gold - 26 pieces to make 13 blocks
  • Dried Carrot - 26 pieces to make 13 blocks
  • Tiger Lily - 26 pieces to make 13 blocks
  • Aurora Red - 26 pieces to make 13 blocks
  • Ruby - 28 pieces to make 14 blocks

Grab the warm Kris Kross quilt kit!
Sample quilted by Trace Creek Quilting.

Grab the cool Kris Kross quilt kit!
Sample quilted by Trace Creek Quilting.

Corner to Corner Ombré

 I love the way the colors moved your eye across the quilt. Check out these mock ups for more ideas for hacking this pattern, along with the suggested yardage to achieve each look.

Horizontal Mirrored Ombré

Replace Color 1 with 1/3 yard each of 5 colors. Cut 32 Color 1 pieces  of each color (see cutting chart in pattern) to make 16 blocks of each color.

Vertical Mirrored Ombré

Replace Color 1 with 3/8 yard each of 4 colors. Cut 40 color 1 pieces  of each color (see cutting chart in pattern) to make 20 blocks of each color.

In Part II, we'll go over tips for cutting and sewing a Kris Kross quilt top!

Make this modern lattice quilt pattern using these helpful tips! suzyquilts.com
Make this modern lattice quilt pattern using these helpful tips! suzyquilts.com

3 thoughts on “Part I: Kris Kross Quilt Sew Along – Picking Fabric

  1. Devonna says:

    I especially love the red, white, and blue version, but wondering what fabrics you used to make it, specifically the little squares that are mostly white with blue and peach? sprigs and tiny flowers. The little quilt is adorable. I’d like to make it. Thanks!

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