Lantern-a-long Block 2: The Staircase Lantern

Welcome to Week 2 of the Lantern-a-long (also known as the LAL)! If you're just joining us, there's still plenty of time to make a quilt top! Feel free to join the Flickr group and post pictures of your lanterns as you finish them! We've had some beautiful blocks so far! There will be five lantern tutorials throughout July and August. See this post for more info on the quilt top sizes and fabric requirements, schedule (also below), sponsors, and this post for prizes.

Thanks again to the wonderful and generous sponsors of this QAL - 1 Choice 4 Quilting, I Don't Do Dishes, and Christa Quilts!

 

 LAL Schedule:

Tues. July 2 - Mon. July 8 - Gather supplies

Mon. July 8 - Lantern Block 1 - Fan Lantern

Mon. July 15 - Lantern Block 2

Mon. July 22 - Lantern Block 3

Mon. July 29 - Lantern Block 4

Mon. August 5 - Lantern Block 5, finish up quilt tops

Mon. August 12 - Linky goes up for finished quilt tops/quilts (open for one week)

Mon. August 19 - Winners chosen at random from the linky pool!

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Block 2 - The Staircase Lantern
(which, I realize, would be a difficult staircase to climb :) )

Finished size: 12" x 13.25"

Remember - all the blocks for the LAL are made of 2.5" strips, but they all measure a different size when finished. When you put your quilt top together, you will have to add in some extra 2.5" strips or blocks of solid fabric. Also, you don't HAVE to trim your blocks to the size I did above - that's the size mine ended up.

 Please excuse the slight wonkiness of the pic - the block is straight but I took a picture of it on the finished quilt top.

1. Choose your print fabrics for the lantern. You need 7. I made sure to stagger mine based on how much would be seen.

 2. Cut the following:

3. CUT each strip of background fabric in HALF.

4. Sew each of the rows together (background + lantern + background)

 5. Press your seams to the side, out towards the background fabric. It's up to you, really (feel free to press them open if that's your preference), but I mentioned last week that I like the visual effect of the lantern inset in the background.

 6. Sew the rows to each other. I find it easier to sew the strips together if I split the lantern in half, like this picture:

7. Trim to 12" x 13.25" (if you want). You're done! Congrats, now you have your second block! If you're making a larger lap size, make sure you are sewing AT LEAST 2 or 3 of these.



Here's the first version I made of the block - all green.

Don't forget to post your progress to the Flickr group!