Stack n Slash Quilt

Made in 2009

This Stack n Slash quilt technique I first saw at a show and tell session in my quilting group. The concept was so foreign to me that I needed it explained several times. One of my group mentioned that you can also create a star when using this technique - way too much information for me at the time but if you would like to know how to do this then Victoriana Quilters offer a great tutorial.

I have subsequently seen several variations of this quilt. One I saw had added narrow strips of black fabric to each slash. This made the completed blocks significantly larger and it also made the quilt look like a stained glass window - just lovely!

A great way to describe this technique is stack your fabric, make some cuts, move the fabric around and sew them back together. It's fun and easy. It gives a great improvisational look without cutting lots of individual strips or wasting fabric. In hindsight it's a great quilt to make when introducing someone to making their first quilt as accuracy is not important.

As well as there being many versions of this quilting technique there are probably many variations of its name as well. Following are a few that I have come across:

Stack and Whack Quilt, Stack n Slash Quilt, Slash n Stack Quilt and Anything Goes Quilt.

My stack and slash lap quilt above is a very simple version of this technique. I chose 12 different fabrics and placed them into a pile, then I cut them all into a square. This requires a very sharp rotary cutter! As can be seen in the photo I made a total of six cuts. After each cut I removed the top of one fabric piece and placed it at the bottom of the pile (in the same pile as it had come from). Next I sewed the fabrics together in the order now showing. This process was repeated till my blocks had 6 different fabrics in them.

As tempting as it is don’t try to match the seams – the beauty of this quilt is that the seams don’t match. The more cuts you do the more off the seams will be and the more busy your quilt blocks will become. There is no number of correct cuts to do - just do what feels right for you. I was slightly tempted to do more cuts but then realised that with each additional cut my blocks would become smaller and they wouldn't be big enough for a lap quilt.

I have made my cuts both horizontally and vertically but there are no rules saying this is the only way to do it. You can make a stunning quilt with all the cuts going in the same direction.

I have included a free tutorial from Leah Day showing how to create your own stack n slash quilt and this also includes a video - enjoy! Leah Day. To see a good range of these types of quilts use Google images. You'll love what you see!

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