I receive a lot of inquiries on my Etsy shop from quilters who are looking for beginner friendly patterns. The people who reach out to me have usually made a couple of quilt tops, often sewing together charm or layer cake squares, which is a great place to start! They are ready to move on to something more challenging, but they still want to have success and enjoy the process. I totally remember that feeling, and it’s been on my heart to write a beginner friendly pattern that would yield beautiful results. Today I’m happy to release a free, beginner friendly pattern: Floating Squares.
Floating Squares is an economy block quilt (or square-in-a-square quilt), but with my personal take on it. I’ve included techniques and tips to encourage success and confidence . . . and a beautiful finish! Actually, this is a great pattern for beginners and seasoned quilters alike!
- The squares are “floating.” This allows for a little wiggle room for beginning quilters. No more “sewing off” points and no point matching!
- My pattern is fat quarter friendly. You can pull 21 favorites from a factory cut bundle or gather them on your own. Many of us love gathering fat quarters, but sometimes they sit on the shelf too long as we ponder what to do with them.
- My pattern will have you cut the middle and outer squares twice on the diagonal, which will allow you to use directional fabric effectively. (Many economy block tutorials call for a different method, using a single diagonal cut, which can make it harder to orient directional fabrics.)
- Photos and sewing tips will help you stay organized and successful.
I made my Floating Squares quilt using the beautiful “Shoreline” collection (Camille Roskelley for Moda), which is scheduled to ship to stores this month. I love the calming blues and grays found in this collection.
Once again, I want to give a shout out to my longarm quilting friend, Katy of Woods Edge Quilting. I adore the Lotus Blossom panto we chose for this quilt. Katy always takes great care with my quilts and finishes them beautifully. She understands what I like, and she also gently encourages me to think outside my norm. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. She is a gem!
Floating Squares finishes at 68 1/2” x 77 1/2” and is so much fun to put together. Bust out some dusty fat quarters and grab the free pattern today on my Tutorials & Free Patterns page. If you are on Instagram, be sure to tag me ( @taunjalynn ) and hashtag your photo with #floatingsquarespattern so I can see what you’ve made!
Thank you for stopping by, quilting friends!
~Taunja
Thank you so much for the floating squares pattern. It is perfect for every skill level. I will be making this one very soon. It’s beautiful.
Thank you Deborah! I hope you enjoy the project! 🙂
Thank you so much for your kindness in providing this as a free pattern. I look forward to using this as my next project. I love not worrying about the points!
Thanks Susan! I hope you have fun with it! 🙂
Thank you so much for this beautiful pattern. I’m not good at figuring fabric needed when I don’t have fat quarters. Would a layer cake work for this quilt? Thank you so much.
Hi Tina. You are welcome! I’m afraid you would have a lot of waste with the layer cake, and you would need multiple layer cakes in order to cut enough squares. If you take a look at the free PDF, I think you’ll see what I mean. 🙂
Thank You – Love this pattern!
Thank you for this free pattern. When you choose your fabric for each block, do you pick 2 medium/ dark prints and one light? I like your combinations.
I am making this quilt now, using Shoreline, my leftovers from Nantucket Summer, and some Moda chambrays thrown in. (I love blues!). I have to say, this is one of the best written patterns I have used! The way you can quickly square these units up, if you have the Creative Grids 6.5 in and 9.5 in rulers…the white center guide lines fall exactly where you need them for squaring up. Also, the triangles are cut in fours rather than twos, making them less prone to stretch. I also feel the floating method is an improvement over the old economy block design…I like the look better! I will be doing all of them this way in the future…will have to do some math to convert….unless there is a formula out there somewhere? Thank you for this great pattern!
Thank you SO much for your kind words Karen! I really appreciate it, and I’m thrilled you both enjoyed and appreciated the thought I put into it. Have a wonderful week!!
Love this pattern. I like easy patterns that look hard! Will do it in yellows for a nice summery look.
I am excited to try the floating squares pattern! I am a fairly new beginner and have a question. What do I need to do to make this quilt large enough to fit a queen bed?
Hi Sarah! I’m excited for you on your new journey into quilting! Such fun. If you would like to upsize this, I would suggest buying additional fat quarters and making another column and another row of blocks. Once you have your inside portion of the quilt to the size you would like it, you will need to measure and re-figure your borders. Here is a handy calculator that can help you figure out how much border, binding and backing you need for any quilt: https://www.lilystreetquilts.com/lilystreet/calculators
Thank you for this lovely pattern. Your fabric choices make it lovely.
You are so welcome Margaret!
Thank you for this beautiful pattern and connection to the fabric.
You bless us with your creativity.
Thanks for your kind words LuAnn! Have a great week!
I’m a little late to this pattern but have been searching for a pattern to make use of my old denim (flannel back also). I think I’ve found it!!! My daughter has made request for lap/couch quilt. How would I adapt this large quilt to a smaller size? Just omit one horizontal and vertical row? Much thank, and look forward to making this…. Cary
Yes, I think just omitting one row and one column would be great. I also think it would be just as cute without the borders.
Thank you! Yes, without borders is the way to go.