My First 3 Yard Quilt Pattern: Free!

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ByCaroline Fairbanks Updated on

Are you ready to sew your first 3 yard quilt? Maybe this is your first quilt ever – yay! Or maybe you are looking for a free throw quilt pattern that you can use to fussy cut and frame up some favorite fabric. This is it!

This free 3 yard quilt pattern is perfect for beginners or for teaching someone to make a quilt. You will learn how to make two different square-in-a-square blocks that I’ve named Framed Square #1 and Framed Square #2.

This blog post has been converted to an optional PDF that’s optimized for printing. Find it here. The free My First 3 Yard Quilt Pattern is included in the blog post below and is 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.

Don’t miss these other 3 Yard Quilt Patterns:

How Big is a 3-yard Quilt?

This particular quilt finishes at 47” x 55”, which is an excellent throw-size quilt. You’ll have enough fabric to finish the quilt top, including 30 blocks and 1 border. More fabric is required for the binding and quilt back.

Most 3-yard quilts are throw quilts or lap quilts because they don’t require a lot of fabric. Most of them would also make a darling baby quilt with 3 yards of fabric. Since this type of quilt isn’t very big, you can finish it quickly and give it as a gift or use it in your home. Because of the size, throw quilts like this one are easy to quilt on a domestic sewing machine.

Do you like to fussy cut cute pictures from your fabric? This quilt is perfect for that! As you can see, I fussy cut adorable dinosaurs from my focus fabric. If you fussy cut, you may require more than one yard of focus fabric, or you may need to piece together the borders using scraps leftover over fussy cutting – that’s what I did.

If you love to use your AccuQuilt fabric cutter like I do, I’ll share the optional cutting die numbers to make this pattern Accuquilt-friendly. Using an Accuquilt is optional, but I love it! See all my Accuquilt-friendly quilts. Look under the cutting dimensions below for a list of fabric-cutting dies you may use instead.

How to Choose the Right 3 Yards of Fabric

All my 3 Yard Quilt Patterns make it really easy to pick your fabric. First, find a beautiful ‘focus fabric’ in your stash or at your local quilt shop. This should be a fabric that really sings to you – or that makes you think of the intended recipient of the quilt.

In the example above, my focus fabric is a gorgeous print from Tula Pink’s Roar Collection. There may still be some available if you hurry – check here.

After you have chosen your focus fabric, choose one coordinating fabric that is lighter and one coordinating fabric that is darker. My lighter coordiate is also from Tula’s Roar Collection. My darker coordinate is dark blue quilting chambray from Tilda.

Wouldn’t this quilt pattern make a beautiful quilt in Kaffe Fassett fabrics too?

I used my EQ8 Quilt Design Software to see what this quilt would look like using fabrics from Kaffe Fasset Collective. It makes me want to make another one!

If you follow these instructions for choosing your fabrics, you can’t go wrong, and you might already have 3 fabrics in your stash that will make a beautiful quilt.

My First Three Yard Quilt Pattern

This free quilt pattern includes instructions for two blocks. There are 30 easy blocks in this quilt, and each block finishes at 8”.

Including the borders, this finished throw quilt is 47” x 55”. It’s perfect for snuggling on the couch, gifting to a friend, or hanging on the wall because you are so proud!

Let’s get creative and sew a beautiful quilt today!

You will need:

  • 3 one-yard cuts of fabric (a main focus fabric, one darker fabric, and one lighter fabric)
  • a rotary cutter acrylic ruler, and mat
  • sewing machine
  • thread
  • ironing board and iron

To sew the quilt top into a finished quilt, you will also need:

  • 3 yards of backing fabric (or enough to piece together a 52” x 60” or larger quilt back)
  • a piece of quilt batting at least 52” x 60”
  • 1/2 yard of fabric for the binding

Cutting:

Fabric layout for 1 yard of focus fabric.

Fabric A is your focus fabric. From this fabric, cut:

  • 15 squares 5 1/2” x 5 1/2”
  • 4 strips 4” x 42” for the outer border
  • 1 strip 4” x 35” for the outer border

Optional Accuquilt cutting instructions:

Fabric layout for 1 yard of darker fabric.

Fabric B is the darker fabric. From this fabric, cut:

  • 30 strips 2” x 8 1/2”
  • 30 strips 2” x 5 1/2”
  • 15 squares 4 1/2” x 4 1/2”

Optional Accuquilt cutting instructions:

Fabric layout for 1 yard of lighter fabric.

Fabric C is the lighter fabric. From this fabric, cut:

  • 30 strips 2 1/2” x 4 1/2”
  • 30 strips 2 1/2” x 8 1/2”

Optional Accuquilt cutting instructions:

Quilt Piecing

Use a 1/4’’ seam allowance and a regular stitch length such as 2 – 2.5.

Tip: It is important to use a 1/4” seam allowance when making a quilt. You may want to test sew on some scrap fabric and measure your seam allowance to make sure it is a quarter inch.

How to Sew the Framed Square #1 Block

1. Sew two 2” x 5 1/2” Fabric B strips to the side edges of a 5 1/2” x 5 1/2” Fabric A square.

2. Sew two 2” x 8 1/2” Fabric B strips to the top and bottom edges of your piece.

3. Repeat to make 15 blocks.

How to Sew the Framed Square #2 Block

1. Sew two 2 1/2” x 4 1/2” Fabric C strips to the side edges of a 4 1/2” x 4 1/2” Fabric B square.

2. Sew two 2 1/2” x 8 1/2” Fabric C strips to the top and bottom edges of a 4 1/2” x 4 1/2” Fabric B square.

3. Repeat to make 15 blocks.

Assemble My First 3 Yard Quilt Top

1. Sew 5 quilt blocks into a row that contains three Framed Square #1 blocks and two Framed Square #2 blocks. Make 3 rows like this.

2. Sew 5 quilt blocks into a row that contains two Framed Square #1 blocks and three Framed Square #2 blocks. Make 3 rows like this.

3. Sew the six quilt block rows together in an alternating pattern.

Measure and Sew the Border

1. Sew all the 4” strips of the focus fabric (Fabric A) together to make one long strip. You will cut pieces from this to make the inner border.

The expected length of the side border pieces is 48 1/2”. I highly recommend measuring the quilt top and cutting all border pieces to the correct size. See how to cut the correct size quilt borders.

2. Attach the side borders.

3. The expected length of the top and bottom border pieces is 47 1/2”.Cut and attach top and bottom border.

Finishing My First Three Yard Quilt Pattern

1. Cut or piece together a 52” x 60” or larger piece of quilt backing fabric and make a quilt sandwich with the backing, batting, and top.

2. Baste together with fusible batting, pins or basting spray.

3. Quilt as desired. Straight line quilting or cross hatch quilting with your walking foot would be fast and easy.

4. Cut 5-6 binding strips (you will probably need 6, depending on the width of your fabric) and bind using your favorite method. This is my favorite quilt binding method.

As always, I love seeing the quilts you make with my free sewing patterns. Please post a picture to Instagram and tag me @sewcanshe so I can take a look!

xoxo,

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. 🙂

Caroline Fairbanks is an author and publisher who is passionate about the world of sewing and quilting. You can find her work in books, sewing patterns, magazines, and articles all over the web. She founded and publishes her ideas on the popular sewing website SewCanShe.com.