Lightning Zigzags {tutorial}

Okay so here it is--my very first tutorial. Try not to judge me too harshly.

Ever since I made my round 11 quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap I've had quite a few people as me for a tutorial or pattern for it. Well I didn't have one--I just figured it out on the fly. But I thought this might be a good way for me to cut my teeth as far as tutorials go, so here you have it.

First of all some notes. All seams are 1/4". This tutorial is for a doll-sized quilt since most inquiries were about that size, but it could easily be translated into bigger blocks for a real quilt. Okay, here we go!

Okay, now you need to cut your fabric. You will need to cut your background fabric into 42 3.5" squares. Next, cut the zig-zag fabric into 2" strips. I used Kona Ash for the background and some Good Folks scraps I've been hoarding for awhile now. The strips were various lengths but I found I didn't need much--a fat quarter of each fabric will leave you with LOTS of extra fabric.

All cut out? Good. You're ready to sew. Lay a strip of patterned fabric across the background fabric at a diagonal. The exact angle isn't important, especially if you're going for a wonky look.

Set your machine for a quarter inch stitch, and line your presser foot up with the edge of the patterned fabric. Sew, sew, sew.

Flip the fabric over and press. Note--you will need to press the seams so that the strip is folded over, not the backing. You will need the square to stay square for a little while longer.

See what I mean about the square? Okay good. Now keep it flipped over. 

Now it's time to trim the excess strip fabric away. Using the square as the template, cut along the edges. 

Flip it over and check it out!!

Sorry. I feel like such a tease now. But you're really almost done! Flip the strip back over so it's like it was when you first sewed it on...

...and do what the picture tells you to.

Now, repeat the process 41 more times. This doesn't take as long as you'd think, especially if you chain piece.

All done? Good. You should have some nice little stacks that you can proceed to play with until you find a good layout. Here's mine:

Now, about that layout. I'm sure you can figure it out by trial and error, but here's the pattern I used to get that lightning effect:

Got it? Now you're ready to sew it all together, and you end up with this:

Tada! You're done! Now you're ready to quilt and bind, baby. 

Hope you like this, let me know if you all have any suggestions!