Easy Quilt Patterns That Are Perfect For Beginners – all free
Quilt making isn’t hard – it’s fun! These quilt patterns are a great place for beginners to start. Plus all of these patterns are free.
Will you be inspired to sew a new quilt because you found some beautiful fabric, or will you rush to buy fabric when you see the right quilt pattern? I must admit that I have done both.
When I was a beginning quilter, my first project was a queen sized quilt for my 8 year old daughter. Boy, was I ambitious! But after that I was hooked and I’ve been making quilts of all sizes ever since. If a huge quilt sounds too much to start with, try one of the baby quilt patterns.
If you are getting ready to sew your first quilt or you are looking for a fast and easy quilt pattern that an experienced quilter could sew in a day (yes, it’s possible!), let me share my favorite easy patterns for making beautiful quilts with you. Most of all, have fun and watch your quilting skills grow!
Also don’t miss:
- 7 best sewing machines to buy on Amazon (if you need a new sewing machine)
- Classic Quilt Block Patterns (these are easy and free quilt block patterns!)
- My best tips for choosing thread
- Learn how to pin baste a quilt or use fusible quilt batting
- How to bind a quilt entirely with a sewing machine
Easy Fat Quarter Friendly Quilts
Fat Quarter Fancy is one of my most popular quilt patterns. A fat quarter is an 18” x 22” piece of fabric. Fat Quarters often come in coordinating bundles so they are a great beginner project because you don’t have to worry if your fabrics will look good together. Sew up this 52” square throw quilt using 9 fat quarters plus a little more than a yard of background fabric.
Learn how to sew the Big Star Quilt using half square triangles! This fast and easy (and free) throw quilt pattern uses my shortcut method for sewing two half square triangles (HST’s) at one time. It’s also fat quarter friendly.
Are you noticing that I love fat quarter quilts? The Bow Tie Baby Quilt uses just 4 fat quarters and 1 1/4 yards of background fabric. The bow tie quilt block is a great block to learn first. Arrange your easy quilt blocks in this simple pattern and get ready to shower some love on a new baby!
Sew a fast and easy (and fat quarter friendly) quilt with my free Fat Quarter Whirlwind Quilt Pattern. This simple patchwork quilt is perfect for beginners or anyone who needs to sew a quilt quickly because the blocks are simple and repetitive. I’m providing a free template for the whirlwind blades too.
The Half Square Triangle Baby Quilt pattern is just a smaller version of the Big Star Quilt above. This simple quilt pattern will introduce you to the world of quilting with a successful first quilt for sure!
Fat Quarter Fancy II is my sequel pattern to the first Fat Quarter Fancy Quilt. They are both simple projects, but each block in Fat Quarter Fancy II uses three fabrics instead of two. I also designed this one a bit larger.
Easy Strip Quilts for Beginners
A jelly roll is a fabric bundle with 42 strips that are 42” wide and approximately 2 1/2” wide. If you don’t have a jelly roll bundle available, you can cut your own 2 1/2” strips using a ruler and rotary cutter. Invest in a quality cutting mat and you won’t regret it!
My Quilt-as-You-Go Strip Quilt is great for sewing with a small sewing machine because you use 2 1/2” fabric and batting strips insead of a one large piece of batting for the entire quilt. I recommend using a walking foot to help with the layers.
Quilting beginners also love my free Kisses quilt pattern. It’s all sewn from 2 1/2” jelly roll strips too.
Sew up the beautiful Blueberry Pie quilt faster than you think! You will learn a super-quick log cabin piecing technique plus use 2 1/2’’ strips so its jelly roll friendly too.
I love babies! I love log cabin quilts! Put them together and you get the Baby Heart Log Cabin Quilt. This strip quilt uses 3” strips, so it’s not jelly roll friendly, but the detailed instructions make it super easy to sew.
More Easy Quilt Designs
Sew a patchwork quilt with simple 2 1/2” fabric squares. This beginner quilt tutorial is perfect for using up your scraps. Whenever I sew a quilt entirely from scraps, it’s like free fabric!
Or you can sew a patch quilt even faster if you buy patchwork fabric! This is seriously the easist quilt pattern ever if you don’t mind cheating a little.
Learn how to sew the classic pinwheel block pattern and sew it into the beautiful Pinwheel Daydreams Baby Quilt. Everyone loves this simple design. The large easy pinwheel quilt blocks make this a quick sew and perfect beginner quilting pattern.
A charm pack of fabric is a bundle of 42 squares, each 5” x 5”. Grab a charm pack and some background fabric and you can sew up the Charm Square Blossoms quilt top in a day. Or make it a scrappy quilt by cutting your own 5 1/2” squares.
Another easy quilt project that beginners love is rag quilts! With a rag quilt, you don’t have to have perfect seam allowances or cut small pieces. I do recommend getting Spring-loaded rag quilt scissors so your hands won’t cramp up.
As always, I love to see the projects that you sew up using my free patterns and tutorials. Please post a picture to Instagram and tag me @sewcanshe so I can take a look!
Disclosure: some of my posts contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, so thank you for supporting SewCanShe when you shop! All of the opinions are my own and I only suggest products that I actually use. 🙂