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
