There is a moment in every quilt where the pile of cut squares stops looking like a project and starts looking like a mistake, and free quilt patterns are how you get past it, because somebody who already made this one is telling you what size to cut and which seam to press which way. So that is what this list is. A rag quilt with a 5/8 inch seam allowance and clips every third of an inch. A tube method that turns six jelly roll strips into six diagonal blocks at once. Hourglass blocks from 6 inch squares, puff squares stuffed with fiberfill, hexagons big enough to see from the doorway. My own sewing runs beginner to intermediate, learned from my mother, who sews and drafts her own patterns, so I picked these the way I shop for a pattern myself: the instructions have to be on the page, and the cut list has to be real.
1. Peaches & Cream Quilt
Fat bands of print, coral florals, black graphics, mint stripes, separated by clean cream sashing so nothing fights anything else. It runs 62 by 62 inches and starts with two ten inch stackers, which means the hardest cutting decision is already made for you. Sashing goes on in three widths, 10 by 1 inch, 10 by 2.5 inch and a 2.5 inch binding, all at a quarter inch seam. The finish is open on purpose: machine quilt it, tie it, send it to a longarm or do it by hand. Precut plus straight seams is about as forgiving as quilting gets.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Simon and Company.
2. Candy Bloom Quilt
Bunting, essentially. Rows of triangles in faded red, berry and chambray blue hang off narrow strips of pale print sashing, and because each row reads as its own string of flags the whole top stays cheerful instead of busy. The triangles are cut from a template you download with the pattern, pieced into rows, then joined through the sashing. Tilda’s Candy Bloom range is what gives it that washed, slightly vintage color, though any small scale florals in two or three values will do the same job. The PDF and the template both come straight off the page.
Get the full tutorial at Tilda's World.
3. Arrows Aweigh Boy Quilt
Chunky arrows in navy, chambray and gray scatter across white at just enough of a tilt to look like they are moving, and the back is a print covered in tiny tugboats and sailboats. It finishes at 36 by 36 inches, which is a good size for a crib, a car seat or a reading chair, and it is quilted in loose organic wavy lines rather than anything that has to line up. The reason this one lasts past the baby years is the palette. Navy and gray on white reads graphic instead of nursery, so a nine year old will still keep it on the bed.
Get the full tutorial at Fort Worth Fabric Studio, Lindsey Weight.
4. Rainbow Mini Quilt
Thirteen strips, each cut 1.5 by 13.5 inches, laid out dark blue through aqua, green, gold and violet, then bound in a red and white polka dot that has no business working and completely does. Finished it is 15 inches square over a 14 inch square of batting, so it is a placemat, a mug rug, a doll quilt or a wall piece. Chain piece the strips with a quarter inch seam so you are not stopping between every pair, then quilt straight lines a quarter inch off each seam with a walking foot. This is the one to make first if you have never bound a quilt.
Get the full tutorial at The Crafty Mummy.
5. Shoo-Fly Quilt
Nine blocks, one fat quarter each, which makes this the cheapest way into a traditional block I know of. The shoo-fly is a nine patch with half square triangles in the four corners, so the only skill it asks for is a consistent quarter inch seam. Kona white goes between the blocks as sashing and a light gray swiss dot frames the whole thing, and the quilting is an offset diamond that reads like a stretched grid. The palette here runs pink, aqua and mint on gray, but a shoo-fly will take absolutely anything, which is why it has survived a hundred years.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Simon and Company.
6. One Hour Triangle Quilt
Here is the trick, and it is a good one: the triangles are printed on the fabric, not pieced. You order a Spoonflower panel already printed with the triangle layout in citron, blush, mint and gray, spray baste it to batting and backing, then machine quilt along the printed lines and bind it with bias tape. That is the whole hour. It comes out crib sized, roughly 54 by 42 inches, with no points to match and no blocks to square up, which makes it the quilt to hand someone who insists they cannot sew. The tutorial is free; the printed panel is the thing you buy.
Get the full tutorial at See Kate Sew.
7. Large Hexagon Quilt
Nine inch half hexagons, which is the detail that makes this work. Because they are halves, the rows join in straight seams and you never sew a Y seam, and a Y seam is the single thing that sends beginners away from hexagons forever. About 53 pieces from a ten inch stacker or fat quarters gets you roughly 40 by 56 inches. The version photographed is all Halloween prints, ghosts, candy corn, black cats, orange and charcoal, so the big hexagons read like a giant honeycomb. Templates come as a printable PDF or a Cricut cut file.
Get the full tutorial at Polka Dot Chair.
8. Rustic Rag Quilt
The seams are on the outside on this one, clipped and washed until they bloom into soft chenille ridges. Squares in pastel florals, aqua medallion and lime green layer over muslin and Warm and Natural batting, and it finishes at 34 by 44 inches, right for tummy time or a toddler’s lap. Two numbers matter: a 5/8 inch seam allowance, much wider than the quarter inch you use everywhere else, and clips every quarter to three quarters of an inch along every seam, stopping short of the stitching so you do not open a hole. Spring loaded scissors save your hand.
Get the full tutorial at Modernly Morgan.
9. Large Chrysalis Lattice Quilt
Big print squares set on point inside a warm gray lattice, with a thin turquoise inner border and an orange binding that snaps the whole thing awake. The squares are where the fabric you love gets to stay big, black florals, turquoise leaves, a green botanical, an orange solid, and the gray sashing frames each one like a picture. Setting blocks on point is mostly an optical trick, since you piece in diagonal rows and cut setting triangles for the edges, and the payoff is a quilt that looks considerably harder than it is.
Get the full tutorial at Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter, for Moda Bake Shop.
10. DIY Cat Quilt
Cats cut whole from a single riotous floral, all teal roses, magenta blooms and black centers, appliqued onto red with a little patterned heart on the chest. Cutting the cat shape out of one big busy print is what makes it work, because the print does the shading for you and every cat comes out different. It is a fussy cut plus applique project rather than a pieced one, so if you can trace a shape and stitch around it you can make this. Bright is the point here. Nobody has ever wanted a beige cat quilt.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
11. Over-The-Weekend Flannel Quilt
Plaid flannel in mustard, rust, brown, navy and gray, laid out as alternating 8 inch solid blocks and 8 inch four patches built from four 4.25 inch squares, eight rows of it. Everything joins at a quarter inch. What makes it a weekend quilt is the finish: short red yarn ties at the block corners instead of rows of machine quilting, which takes an evening rather than a day and gives that heavy old-quilt drape. Flannel shrinks, so prewash it or accept a cozier, smaller quilt after the first wash. Quilting cotton works the same way if flannel is not your thing.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Simon and Company.
12. Happy Cactus Quilt
Five mint hexagons printed with tiny white flowers stack into a cactus, a stitched smiley face sits on the center one, a coral hexagon blooms on top and a coral trapezoid pot holds it all up. It is English paper piecing, so you baste fabric around cardstock shapes, whipstitch the edges together, then pop the papers out. Honest labeling matters here: this is a template for one appliqued block, not a full quilt pattern, and the maker suggests it for a mini quilt, a placemat or a tote. The face is French knots and a scallop stitch. Free PDF template.
Get the full tutorial at Wild Olive.
13. Diagonal Strip Quilt
Those diagonal stripes come from the tube method, which is the closest quilting gets to a magic trick. Six 2.5 inch strips, jelly roll strips work, get sewn into two sets of three, the sets are layered right sides together and stitched along both long edges to make a tube, and cutting that tube on the diagonal gives you six blocks at once, each finishing 8.25 inches. Every one of those edges is bias, so it will stretch if you look at it wrong; press gently, do not tug, and starch if you have it. Sizes run baby through twin.
Get the full tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.
14. Giant Hexie Flower Lap Quilt
Seven blocks and that is the entire quilt. Six 8 inch hexagons in red hearts, gray graph check, cream strawberries, a brown floral and a red bug print ring a yellow center, English paper pieced by basting fabric around poster board templates with the stitches going straight through the board. It finishes around 41.5 inches square with a scalloped edge instead of a straight one, which means no binding corners to miter. The maker hand quilted the hexagon centers and machine quilted the borders, which is a very reasonable compromise if hand quilting an entire quilt sounds like a year of your life.
Get the full tutorial at Haley Pierson-Cox, Red-Handled Scissors.
15. Minky Rag Quilt
A rag quilt with minky on the back, which changes it from soft to the kind of soft a child will not give back. Six inch squares in hot pink peonies, gray damask, orange dots and lime swirls sit on point, the backing is solid gray minky with raised dots, and flannel stands in for batting in the middle, which keeps the bulk down. Sew an X through all three layers of every square to lock them together, use a 5/8 inch seam, then clip the exposed seams every third of an inch, stopping short of the stitch line.
Get the full tutorial at The Crafty Blog Stalker.
16. 3D Hexagon Quilt Block
It is flat. It looks like a stack of cubes, and it is completely flat, which is all down to value placement: medium against dark, medium against light, dark against light, in blue dot, green plaid and teal chevron. Three pairs of 2.5 by 42 inch strips give you seven blocks, cut as 60 degree triangles with a specialty ruler or the printable template. Seven blocks tessellate into a honeycomb of cubes. There is a two minute video, which is the right length for this, because watching the triangles go together explains it faster than any paragraph can.
Get the full tutorial at Teresa Down Under, Sewn Up.
17. Pink Classic Quilt
Hourglass blocks, which are half square triangles taken one step further: sew squares together on a diagonal line, cut twice on the diagonal, then recombine the triangles. Thirty two print squares and thirty two white, all cut 6 by 6 inches, yield blocks that finish at 5 inches and a quilt of 32 by 41 inches, nine rows of seven. The part nobody enjoys is drawing a pencil line corner to corner on the back of thirty two white squares, and the maker says she hates it too. Chain piece so you are not stopping, and square every block to exactly 5.5 inches before assembly.
Get the full tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.
18. Fast Four-Patch Quilt
The answer to owning one print you cannot bear to cut small. Big feature squares cut 8.5 inches alternate with four patches made from 4.5 inch squares, so the fabric you love stays big and the little pieces play around it. Baby size finishes 40 by 56 inches and the same layout scales to throw, twin, queen and king. Chain piece pairs of contrasting small squares, join the pairs into four patches, then press your seams toward the larger squares so they nest at every intersection and your points meet without a fight. The maker calls it one of her most popular ever, and it shows.
Get the full tutorial at Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter.
19. Baby Quilt
A frame inside a frame inside a frame, tipped on its corner so the whole thing reads as a diamond. The center is a white print with blue, brown and olive dots, wrapped first in olive, then brown, then the dot print again, with a wide solid brown border and binding. Cut sizes are specific and worth writing down: an 11 by 16 inch center, 6 inch squares and 6 by 11 and 6 by 16 inch rectangles, 7 by 21 and 7 by 26 inch outers, 7 inch corners, finishing 33 by 38 inches. Note the half inch seam allowance, wider than standard. Glue baste the binding before topstitching.
Get the full tutorial at So Sew Easy.
20. Easy Half-Square Blocks Quilt
Navy, turquoise and lime squares laid in a brick style offset, with a soft green turtle appliqued into the lower left corner. The whole quilt is Shannon Fabrics cuddle minky, one twenty piece cuddle cake of ten inch squares, which is why it looks expensive and feels better than it looks. The method is the kind thing here: pair contrasting squares right sides together, draw a line down the middle, sew a quarter inch either side of that line, then cut on it, and every pair hands you two finished blocks. Nothing has to line up across the quilt, which is a gift to anyone whose points refuse to meet.
Get the full tutorial at Pieces by Polly, for Fairfield.
21. Easy Puff Quilt
Every square is its own little stuffed pillow, which is why the finished quilt stands up on the patio by itself like it has an appointment. Pink, yellow and blue florals set on point, and the construction is neat: a 5 inch front square paired with a 4.5 inch back square, always half an inch smaller, sewn on three sides with a tiny eighth inch seam while you pleat the extra fabric toward the corners. Stuff with polyester fiberfill, never cotton batting, because cotton compresses in the wash and you lose the puff entirely. Then join the stuffed squares.
Get the full tutorial at Buzzing and Bumbling.
22. Quilt As You Go
The name is the method, and it solves the real problem with quilting, which is wrestling a king sized sandwich through a domestic machine. You quilt each block on its own first, on low loft cotton needle punched batting, then join the finished blocks with a quarter inch seam pressed open so the join stays flat. Backing goes on afterward and gets secured with stitch in the ditch. The sample is primary colors on white, rows of yellow, blue, red and green pinwheel blocks with a yellow binding, and there is a video on the page as well as the written steps.
Get the full tutorial at The Seasoned Homemaker.
23. Penny Patch Quilt
Four penny patch blocks, meaning tiny four patches of aqua, mustard and coral, dropped in among larger white and cream squares so small piecing and big piecing share the same quilt. One of the cream prints is covered in handwriting and I would buy it by the bolt. It comes as a fourteen step quilt along with a separate post for each stage, from fabric choice through binding, and it offers three sizes, baby at 42 by 54, throw at 60 by 72, twin at 66 by 90 inches. A loose meander wanders over the top. Good structure for a first big quilt.
Get the full tutorial at Stitched in Color.
24. Moda Hunky Dory Charm Pack Quilt
Instead of sitting in a tidy grid, the color drifts across the white, and that drift is the disappearing nine patch doing its thing. You build a nine patch from five print squares and four cream, cut the finished block in half twice, rearrange the four pieces, and the grid vanishes into something that looks improvised. Sixty 5 inch charms plus 48 cream squares make 12 blocks and a 41 by 54 inch quilt. Two tips from the maker: put your darkest tone in the center square, and keep the small squares in every block facing the same direction.
Get the full tutorial at Teresa Down Under, Sewn Up.
