Enchanted – Free Fat Quarter Friendly Quilt Pattern
Sew a beautiful Moroccan inspired quilt using everyone’s favorite pre-cut cotton fabrics… fat quarters! This fast and easy quilt pattern is free in the blog post below. I used 9 fat quarters plus 3 yards of background fabric to sew a generous 68’’ x 68’’ square throw quilt.
This blog post has been converted to an optional PDF that’s optimized for printing. Find it here. The blog post below contains everything you will need to make the fat quarter friendly Enchanted quilt and it is totally free to read, print, and sew! Just hit CTRL +P on your computer to print. The PDF download is inexpensive and optional.
When you go to make a quilt, do you start with the fabric, or the pattern? For this quilt, I definitely started with the fabric. FreeSpirit shared with me a bundle of Valorie Wells’ new Enchanted fabric collection that was inspired by her latest trip to Morocco. This fabric hasn’t reached quilt shops yet, but you can win a bundle directly from FreeSpirit in my current giveaway!
For my background fabric, I used beautiful Hand Crafted Cotton in Lapis – a new solid fabric from FreeSpirit that has slight variation in the depth of color (like hand dyed fabrics). It is luxuriously soft – so much that I decided to use it for the back of my quilt too.
The Enchanted free quit pattern looks intricate, but it’s actually very easy to sew!
Each quilt block can be broken down into simple squares with snowball corners! When the quilt blocks are sewn together and arranged on-point with wide sashing, the exotic looking Moroccan inspired design comes out.
You will notice that I cut my sashing in many pieces and use 5 1/2’’ ‘cornerstone’ pieces in between the 5 1/2’’ x 11 1/2’’ sashing strips. While this technique is not absolutely necessary, it makes lining up the rows and blocks a cinch. In my experience, if you cut long sashing strips instead of shorter strips with cornerstone blocks, it will take lots of time (and frustration) making sure that the blocks in each row are lined up properly.
So let’s get sewing!
Enchanted free Fat Quarter Quilt Pattern
Finished size: approximately 68’’ x 68’’.
You will need:
- 9 coordinating fat quarters (or regular cut quarter yard pieces)
- 3 yards of background fabric
- 3/4 yard of fabric for binding (20’’)
- a piece of batting at least 72’’ x 72’’
- 4 yards of 44’’ wide fabric for the backing (more if you are going to pre-wash it)
- Fabric marking pen or pencil
Tip: I LOVE using 108’’ wide quilt backing fabrics so I don’t have to piece together my quilt backings and I can get to quilting faster. For this quilt, you would only need 2 yards, or I would buy 2 1/4 yards if I intended to pre-wash it.
Cutting:
From each fat quarter, cut:
- 8 squares 6’’ x 6’’ (for a total of 72 squares)
From the background fabric, cut:
- 36 sashing strips 5 1/2’’ x 11 1/2’’
- 13 cornerstone blocks 5 1/2’’ x 5 1/2’’
- 2 squares 8 1/4’’ x 8 1/4 (to sub-cut into the setting triangles)
- 2 squares 4 1/4’’ x 4 1/4’’ (to sub-cut into the corner triangles)
- 144 squares 2 1/2’’ x 2 1/2’’ (for the snowball corners)
From the binding fabric, cut:
- 8 strips 2 1/2’’ x width of fabric
Sew 2 ‘Snowball Corners’ to each 6’’ Square
1. Use the fabric marking pen or pencil to draw a diagonal line across the back of each 2 1/2’’background fabric square.
Tip: Sometimes if I’m in a hurry, I fold each square in half diagonally and press the crease lightly with a hot iron.
2. Pin 2 small background fabric squares to each 6’’ square at opposite corners as seen in the first diagram above, right sides together.
3. Stitch along the diagonal lines. Trim the extra fabric away 1/4’’ past the seams.
4. Open out each snowball corner and press flat.
Repeat to sew 2 snowball corners on opposite corners of all 72 6’’ squares.
Make the Enchanted Quilt Blocks and Half Blocks
1. Sew 4 matching 6’’ squares with snowball corners together as seen above to make one Enchanted Quilt Block.
Repeat to make 18 blocks.
2. Choose 6 different blocks that will be cut in order to make the triangle half-blocks that are needed for the edges of the quilt.
Cut each of those 6 blocks in half diagonally.
Cut Squares into Setting Triangles
1. Sub-cut the two 8 1/4’’ squares diagonally twice to make 8 quarter-square triangles. These will be the setting triangles at the ends of the sashing.
3. Sub-cut the two 4 1/4’’ squares diagonally once to make 4 half-square triangles. These will be for the corners of the quilt.
Sew the Quilt Together
1. Arrange the 12 Enchanted Quilt Blocks and 12 half blocks on your quilt design wall or work area as shown above.
2. Sew the pieces together with 5 1/2’’ x 11 1/2’’ sashing strips in between the blocks and half blocks as shown above.
3. Sew together the following sashing rows:
- 2 rows that each contain:
- 2 sashing strips 5 1/2’’ x 11 1/2’’
- 1 cornerstone block 5 1/2’’ x 5 1/2’’ between the sashing strips
- 2 quarter square triangle pieces at the ends
- 2 rows that each contain:
- 4 sashing strips 5 1/2’’ x 11 1/2’’
- 3 cornerstone blocks 5 1/2’’ x 5 1/2’’ between the sashing strips
- 2 quarter square triangle pieces at the ends
- 1 long middle row that contains:
- 6 sashing strips 5 1/2’’ x 11 1/2’’
- 5 cornerstone blocks 5 1/2’’ x 5 1/2’’ between the sashing strips
- 2 half square triangle pieces at the ends
4. Finally, sew the rows of blocks and the sashing rows together. Sew the 2 remaining half square triangles to the corners of the quilt where they belong.
Tip: When sewing the rows together, pin the rows together at each intersection of sashing and cornerstone block. Do not worry about whether the pieces of the quilt match up exactly at the side raw edges. All of the sides are bias cut edges, and some stretching will occur no matter what you do.
5. To keep the stretching to a minimum, after the quilt top is sewn together sew all the way around it with a medium stitch length to ‘staystitch’ the raw edges and make them more stable.
Tip: I also recommend pressing the quilt top using starch or Best Press before quilting. I do that with all of my quilts.
Finishing the Enchanted Quilt
1. Cut the backing fabric in half and sew it together to make a piece big enough for the back of the quilt (at least 72’’ x 72’’).
2. Sandwich the quilt top, batting, and backing together and baste (I like pin basting with quilter’s safety pins).
3. Quilt the quilt top as desired.
4. Cut 8 strips of binding 2 1/2’’ x width-of-fabric (or as desired) and sew them together using diagonal seams. Bind the quilt using your preferred method. See how I bind my quilts by machine here.
Happy Quiltmaking!
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