Meet Inline!
Inline is a colorful, fat-quarter friendly rollerblade quilt pattern featuring 15 pairs of mix-and-match skates. It’s full of fun little details and lots of small piecing, but it’s constructed using familiar quilting techniques and is a chain piecing dream!
Finished Size: 72 1/2" × 75 1/2"
Skill Level: Advanced Beginner
Fabric: 15 Fat Quarters + Background
Techniques: Half-square triangles, Half-QSTs, snowballed corners, traditional piecing
Fabric Requirements
[GET THE INLINE QUILT PATTERN]
The Story Behind Inline
Last year, I made an Instagram reel revealing one of my quilts while rollerblading and showing off some of my very impressive “fancy” tricks [SEE IT HERE]. 😂 It was silly and fun, and the reel ended up on the right side of the algorithm and did pretty well.
After I posted it, a friend messaged me and said, “You HAVE to design a rollerblade quilt now!”
It turns out, she was right!
I started playing around with how I could turn a rollerblade into a quilt block. Once I had the block designed, I hoped and prayed that I could get all of the pieces out of a fat quarter. Luckily, they fit!
That’s when I knew I wanted to make the quilt really colorful and mix and match all of the fabrics. Inline uses 15 fat quarters, and each fabric is used in different parts of the skates throughout the quilt. One fabric might be the main color of one skate, then show up as the laces, wheels, or frame on another.
I love how it makes every pair of skates different, but they all still feel like they belong together. And it makes choosing fabrics for Inline really fun. Instead of trying to pick the perfect fabric for each skate, you get to choose 15 fabrics that look great together and let them all mix and match throughout the quilt.
Fabrics for My Inline Quilt
For my cover quilt, I used Riley Blake Designs Confetti Cottons. I knew from the beginning that I wanted this quilt to have a fun, retro sunset vibe, so I pulled lots of pinks, corals, oranges, yellows, and purples.
For the skates, I used Bubblegum, Passion, Piglet Pink, Fruit Punch, Lipstick, Riley Coral, Amber, Marigold, Marmalade, Riley Mustard, Dandelions, Sunshine, Orchid, Unicorn, and Princess.
For the background, I used Cloud.
I love using solids for a quilt like this because you can really see all the little details in the rollerblades. And since the colors get mixed and matched throughout the quilt, the finished quilt feels really colorful without any one skate looking exactly like another.
For the backing, I used Riley Blake Micro Gingham in Marmalade. The gingham felt like the perfect finishing touch for the retro feel I was going for.
One of my favorite things about Inline is how different it can look depending on the fabrics you choose. You could go bright and colorful like mine, use a more limited color palette, or grab 15 fat quarters from a collection you love and let the mix-and-match layout do the work for you.
Making the Inline Block
There are a lot of little details packed into each rollerblade, but don’t let that scare you! The block is made using pretty standard quilting techniques.
You’ll make half-square triangles, Half-QSTs, and lots of snowballed corners to create the different angles in the skate. Then all of those smaller units come together to make the finished block.
I designed the pattern so you make the same part for all 30 skates at once before moving on to the next section. It makes the whole process feel a lot more manageable, and it makes Inline a chain piecing dream! You can get into a rhythm and work your way through a whole stack of the same unit before moving on to the next step.
The pattern also walks you through making mirrored left and right skates, so when everything comes together you end up with 15 pairs of rollerblades facing each other.
Quilting Details
For my Inline quilt, I knew I wanted to choose a pantograph with retro vibes that looked like something you could actually do on rollerblades! Jaree from Girl Gone Quilting is a master of her craft and always takes such good care of my quilts. She suggested Infinity 3, designed by Sew Shabby Quilting, and it was the perfect fit. I love a densely quilted quilt, and Jaree knows this about me and always delivers! I chose white thread that blended into the background so the texture of the quilting could really shine.
If you’re looking for a longarm quilter, I can’t recommend Jaree enough! She takes both local and mail-in clients, so you don’t have to be in Utah to have her work her magic on your quilt.
Extra Resources for Making Inline
With 15 different fabrics and lots of little pieces, I knew staying organized was going to be important!
The pattern includes a Fabric Combination Chart that tells you exactly which fabric to use for each part of every pair of rollerblades. I used this chart constantly while I was making my quilt. With 15 fabrics getting mixed and matched between the skate bodies, laces, frames, and wheels, I could just check the chart to see which fabric I needed and keep sewing.
I also created printable labels for all of the pieces. I like to cut everything at the beginning, stack all of my matching pieces together, and label each stack. Then I use the Fabric Combination Chart to know which fabric to grab as I sew.
And because I know you'll want to make Inline your own, I've also created a blank Fabric Combination Chart and coloring page so you can play around with your fabric choices before you start cutting.
You’ll also find a single-block cutting guide if you want to make just one rollerblade instead of a whole quilt.
All of these extra resources are available on the Inline Resource Page [LINK HERE].
Ready to Make Inline?
I can't wait to see what you make with Inline! Whether you choose a retro sunset palette like mine, use your favorite fat quarter bundle, or come up with something completely different, I think you're going to have so much fun watching your rollerblades come together.
If you make an Inline quilt, be sure to tag me @stuff.sydney.sews on Instagram so I can see it!
[GET THE INLINE QUILT PATTERN]