Wonky Ladder Tutorial for my Lovely Wonky Friends

I began making these little abstract ladders a while ago and decided it might make a good block for Sew Bee Wonky.

I am sending you all solid fabric. The light grey Kona is for the "ladder". The darker grey Kona is for the border. And the largest colored piece is for the background although you can do whatever you want as far as piecing it goes. Feel free to add in any other solid colors if they make sense to you!

 There are also several smaller pieces for between the rungs.

Begin by cutting two ladder sides and however many rungs you want. Cut them straight or wonky, cut them thick or thin, whatever.

My biggest advice is to always cut bigger than you think you will need... cut your ladders longer than you want them when they are finished.  Ours are going to be 12.5" tall, so cut them at least 14" or so.

  The first thing you will piece is the center part, the rungs and their background. 

You may want to piece the pieces between the rungs as well for added wonkiness.

When you have stitched the center part together

you need to trim straight  (but angled for wonkiness) edges.

Now add the uprights of the ladder.

Notice I put a little piece of the large background fabric at the top of the rungs. Just a possibility.

Your ladder is finished, it just needs a background. If your ladder ended up longer than 12.5", just add sides. If it is not 12.5", you will have to add top and/or bottom pieces at this point. then add the background.

In order for the background to be on the straight grain of the fabric, just lay the ladder on the background at whatever angle you want it to sit. Cut the right side of your background first by moving the ladder to the left, leaving seam allowance and cut the background fabric along the same line as the ladder sits.

I also sliced a bit more off the top of my ladder in this cut so it was even wonky-er.

Stitch that side in place. Now cut the left side and stitch.

My finished ladder just needs trimming, but you can see I have lots of room to do that and can make choices about how I crop my ladder at this point.

Notice how skinny the upright on the left got when I trimmed it. It's all good, even if it disappears completely.

Trim your ladder piece to 6.5" x 12.5".

Add the dark grey borders, FIRST the top and bottom, then the sides.

Your ladder block is complete!