"Kissy Fish" Baby Quilt - My First Tutorial!

I finished my "Kissy Fish" quilt! I started it waaaaay back before I had a blog, but when I posted the completed top on Flickr, a few people asked about a pattern. I've never done a pattern or a tutorial before, and hopefully it's not presumptuous of me to try, since I'm still kind of a quilting newbie. And since I basically made up this quilt as I went along, creating the tutorial was like working backwards, which was strange, to say the least. But with those disclaimers out of the way, here it is, my first tutorial!

Please please let me know if anything here is confusing, unclear, or just plain wrong. And if you use this tutorial , let me know! I would be so thrilled if somebody else actually made something I came up with in my own little head, and I would love to see it.

Finally, thank you to emmac350 on Flickr, who suggested that this pattern looked like kissing fish, thus giving it a name. I hadn't even noticed that until she said it!

You will need:
• 2 layer cakes (you will use a total of 55 10" squares - choose the prints with the least amount of white for maximum contrast)
OR
1 3/8 yards total of various brightly-colored prints (you must have at least 6"-8.5" square of each print)

• 1 5/8 yards of solid white (or other high-contrast solid)

• 1 1/2 yards for backing

• 1/2 yard for binding

Each layer cake square will yield two "kissing fish" blocks that finish at 4.5" square. You will use 110 blocks, plus 30 finishing triangles, to complete the quilt. The finished quilt measures 37" by 48".

Cutting instructions:
1. From the white, cut:
• 165 3" squares
• 48 2.5" squares
• 15 4.5" squares (cut diagonally into 30 setting triangles)

2. From each of your 55 layer cake squares, cut three 3" squares and one 2.5" square.

3. From your remaining layer cake scraps, cut seven more 2.5" squares.

Creating the blocks:

1. Mark the diagonal on the back of each printed 3" square. Pair each printed 3" square with a white 3" square.

2. Sew a 1/4" seam on each side of the marked diagonal line.

3. Cut on the marked diagonal line and press open. Press the seam allowance open as well. Yay, half-square triangles!

4. Square up. Trim your HSTs to 2.5" square. I match up the diagonal seam to the 45-degree line on my cutting mat, then use the grid to trim.


6. Piece your blocks. Take the six half-square triangles you made from each layer cake square, plus a 2.5" square in the same print and a 2.5" square in white. Those 8 2.5" squares will make two fish blocks—one with a printed fish and white background, and one with a white fish and printed background (see photo below).

Sew together with a quarter-inch seam. Seam allowances should be pressed toward the print whenever possible. Repeat until you have 110 fish blocks. You will need 62 blocks with printed fish and white backgrounds, and 48 blocks with white fish and printed backgrounds. (So in some cases, you'll need to make two print fish blocks instead of one print and one white.)

7. Arrange blocks on point. It's probably easiest to just use my photos to recreate the pattern. (Please kindly look past my less-than-perfect quilting—I'm still learning!) Just make sure your fish are always kissing. Noses should always be pointed at other noses, tails should always be pointed at other tails. Printed fish should only kiss printed fish, and vice versa. Stick to that, and you should get the star pattern shown in the photos. I kept the design contained by using the white setting triangles along the edges, instead of half of a fish block.

8. The back. I pieced mine, using leftover white and print scraps to make an off-center stripe down the back.

9. Quilt and bind. I quilted it with straight lines, mostly in the ditch, but with triple lines around the blocks. That resulted in sort of a plaid pattern that I really like.

Good luck! I hope this tutorial is useful and that you'll give it a try!