I know you have been searching for a fast and fun quilt pattern to use up your fat quarter stash… here it is! Sew up this beautiful throw quilt using 9 fat quarters plus a little more than a yard of background fabric.

Don’t miss my free Fat Quarter Fancy Star Quilt Pattern either! 

This blog post has been converted to an optional PDF that’s optimized for printing. Find it here. The free Fat Quarter Fancy Quilt Pattern is included in the blog post below and is totally free to read, print, and sew! Just hit CTRL +P on your computer to print. The PDF download is inexpensive and optional. Did you know you can get ALL the Optimized for Printing PDF files organized in a library for you to access anytime you want? Check it out.

I used fat quarters of the new Confetti Blossoms from QT Fabrics. They are so bright and beautiful – I love how my quilt turned out!

The Fat Quarter Fancy throw quilt is approximately 52” square – made up of 36 blocks that are 8 1/2” (finished). That’s a smallish throw quilt or a large baby quilt. You could easily adapt the pattern to make it larger or smaller using more or fewer blocks.

I used my leftover fabric to make a scrappy binding. You will need an extra fat quarter if you want to use them for the binding too.

Are you ready to make a Fat Quarter Fancy Quilt? Let’s go!

Fat Quarter Fancy free quilt pattern

For the quilt top, you will need:

• 9 fat quarters of fabric
• 1 1/4 yards of background fabric

You will also need:

• 56” or larger square of batting
• 3 yards of backing fabric
• 1/2 yard fabric for the binding (or the fat quarter scraps + strips cut from one more fat quarter)

Optional:

• fabric marking pen

Cutting:

From each fat quarter, cut:

• 4 squares 9” x 9” (for a total of 36 squares)
• also 1 strip 2 1/2” x 18” (if you are making scrappy binding – see diagram to the right)

From the background fabric, cut:

• 72 squares 4 3/4” x 4 3/4”

Sewing:

1. Mark a diagonal line through the center of each 4 3/4” square. You may use the fabric marking pen. I find it easier to mark the squares by folding them in half diagonally and pressing the fold lightly with an iron (see the photo above the cutting instructions).

2. Place a 4 3/4” background fabric square in the corner of a 9” square as seen above. Sew along the marked line.

3. Continue sewing a 4 3/4” squares to each 9” square – it’s faster to chain piece them without cutting the thread as seen above.

4. Then turn the long string of squares around and sew a 4 3/4” square to the opposite corner as seen above. I still haven’t cut the threads in between each block yet.

Now it’s time to cut the threads in between each block. I found this Sunflower Quilts Thread Cutter at quilt market. It’s a fun way to separate chain pieced quilt blocks.

5. Trim the corners away 1/4” past each seam. Save those to make half square triangles for another quilt. 🙂

6. Fold the background corners back and press. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to make 36 blocks.

7. Arrange the blocks as seen in the diagram above. Note that the quilt top can be divided into quarters and the blocks in each quarter are all ‘pointed’ in the same direction.

8. Sandwich the quilt top and backing with the batting in between. This time I used SpraynBond basting spray to hold them together. You could also use fusible batting or pin basting. Quilt as desired. I quilted straight lines about 1/2” apart using my walking foot.

Trim the extra backing and batting away.

9. Sew the binding strips together at an angle to make at least 220” of binding. If you are making scrappy binding, you’ll need more than just the strips cut from the 9 fat quarters (those will only make about 160” of binding).

10. Bind and fall in love with your new quilt! I used the same machine binding method that I use on my mini quilts.

I’m adding this pattern to my list of 11 Modern Quilt Patterns… all easy and free!

Happy quiltmaking!

xoxo,