Make a Sassy, Classy Cell Phone Cover... Part 1

When I first started fooling around with quilting, about two years ago, I got on a Crazy Quilt phase. I practiced on 10" squares and then wondered what to do with the finished squares besides making quilts. Well... I came up with this classy little cell phone holder. Here's what they look like:

Mine is the one on the left with the phone and the cute orange cat fabric. My blog tomorrow is going to explain how to put the cell phone covers together. 

Today I'm going to explain how to make the crazy quilt piece 

you're going to need to make the cover.

So, here we go... First you need three 10" squares of fabric. When you're finished with all the steps you will actually have 3 crazy quilt pieces that will be enough to make three cell phone covers. 

Stack the three squares so that all edges are aligned perfectly, and then using a rotary cutter, cut a diagonal line through the stack. You do not need a plan or a chalk line. Just place your straight edge on a angle and let the rotary cutter go!

Next you take the top piece of the pile on the right hand side and put it at the bottom of that same pile. It will look something like this...

Pick up those top two pieces from the left and the right pile, and sew them together using a quarter inch seam allowance. You need to press the seams in one direction when finished. Then I will go back to the stack and get the next two top pieces and do the same thing until I have 3 new squares of fabric. Line the seam up the best you can. We will be re-squaring the pieces when we're finished. Your fabric should look similar to the picture below. You now have three squares made up of two fabrics each.

Re-stack and align your fabric squares. Rotate it so that the seam is going across as shown in the picture below.

Make another diagonal cut as shown below.

Take the piece that is on the top of the right pile and put it on the bottom of that same pile. It should look like the example below.

Pick up the top two pieces from each pile, and sew them together with a quarter inch seam allowance. Press the seam closed. Continue with the two remaining squares. When you are finished you will have three squares with 4 pieces of fabric in each square.

Again, you are going to re-align the squares and do another diagonal cut. After cutting take the top piece on the right and put it on the bottom of that stack. It should be similar to the example below. 

Pick up the top pieces from both stacks and sew them together with the quarter inch seam. Don't forget to press the seams.  This is the what it will look like when your are finished. You have now made 3 diagonal cuts and have 6 sections of fabric in each square. I think by now you are getting the hang of this process.

Re-stack and align your squares and make one more diagonal cut. Don't forget to take the top of the right stack and put that one on the bottom of the right stack. Sew and press the seams... You should have something similar to what's pictured below. That's it. You now know how to crazy quilt!

You're ready to move on to tomorrow's steps for making the Classy Cell Phone Cover!

As a side note... I've used this same technique to make place mats. Here's one that is part of a set of 8. I loved being able to use the fancy stitches on my machine. I used 4 coordinating fabrics. I cut two of each fabric into 16" squares giving me a total of 8 for eight place mats. I then stacked 4 of the different fabrics and began making the diagonal cuts, re-stacking, sewing and pressing as I explained above. Then I did the same thing with the next 4 fabrics. Doing all of this in stacks of 8 would have overloaded the rotary cutter and my arm. Once I had all the Crazy Quilt pieces done, I added the borders to make it place mat size. I then built the sandwich of backing, batting and the top. I used my decorative stitches and then bound each placemat. Done!