Build skills for quilt piecing AND machine quilting block by block!
The Building Blocks Quilt Pattern is a beginner sampler quilt pattern designed to help you build skills for both piecing and free motion quilting on your home sewing machine. This is a Quilt-As-You-Go project which means you will piece the blocks, then layer with batting and backing and quilt each block separately.
This pattern creates a sampler quilt with a finished size of 48" x 56"
Material and Supply list for the Building Blocks Quilt
2 ¾ yards feature fabric – Fabric A
3 ½ yards background fabric – Fabric B
3 ¼ yard backing fabric - or - 42 precut (10”) squares
1 ¾ yard binding (for connecting the blocks and binding the edges)
Batting - 62” x 72” minimum
Piecing Thread that matches Fabric A
Quilting Thread that contrasts with fabric like Isacord
Marking Pen / Pencil
1/6 yard of lightweight fusible interfacing
Freezer Paper
Spray starch
*You must have the ability to print this PDF full size on US Letter size paper
Why is it so important to learn piecing and quilting at the same time?
The fact is that most quilters get started only focusing on piecing, and this creates a lot of pretty quilt tops, but unfortunately not many finished quilts! To finish a quilt, you have to quilt it, and it's time to learn how to build these skills at the same time.
Within this pattern you will learn how to piece 12 unique quilt blocks. You'll get plenty of practice piecing each block three to four times to create a total of 42 blocks for your quilt.
After piecing a block, you'll then mark the surface with a corresponding free motion quilting design, and quilt on the marked lines. Quilting on marked lines this way is perfect for beginning quilters because you can focus your attention on moving the block and matching that movement with the speed of your machine.
The best part about this pattern is it includes both piecing AND quilting designs!
The quilting for this sampler quilt been carefully designed using simple shapes like straight lines, spirals, and circles. While these quilting designs might be simple in nature, we will learn many ways to use them and watch as they transform your pieced blocks completely.
One thing is for sure, you’re definitely not going to read “Quilt as desired” in this quilt pattern!
All 42 quilting designs are provided in full size 8 inch quilting guides, which you can use to mark your blocks and make the free motion quilting process easier. If you'd prefer not to mark your blocks, use the guides for tracing on paper so you can get even more practice!
You will already have all the piecing and quilting information within the pattern and you can work at your own pace, but if you're needing to see a visual guide, make sure to check out each videos so you see how Leah and Josh Day quilted each block in this quilt.
All your Font Needs
All your Design Needs
