Free Quilt Pattern: Prairie Quilt

I had the best time designing and making this quilt!  I really enjoy making dresden plates and this was a fun version!

This quilt measures 60" x 60" and it is a nice, small throw size.

If you have reservations about the triangle blocks, let me reassure you that they aren't hard at all.  Just cut the starting pieces as precisely as possible and it will go together very nicely.  It's actually  very rewarding to make!

I also had the pleasure of using very gorgeous fabric by Mable Tan.  The line is called 'In the Countryside' and you can find it at Hawthorne Supply Co.

The pattern only calls for 8 fat eighths to make the dresden blades but I used more because I wanted variety.  I cut from a fat quarter bundle of 'In the Countryside' and I also added in some Moda Fabrics Bellas Solids.  The one I used were: 9900-28 Butter, 9900-213 Mustard, 9900-166 Amelia Pink, 9900-169 Ruby Ice, 9900-116 Dusk, 9900-64 Blue, 9900-63 Light Blue, and 9900-295 Melon.

Then, I used more of 2 of the prints in the line to make the Ohio star blocks-

I love the results!  Light and airy with the focus on the dresdens and stars.

I also decided to free motion quilt this myself.  I've only done a few small samples of free motion quilting but I really want to improve my skills and I think that they way to do it is actually do it on real quilts.  So, as nervous as I was that I was going to ruin this quilt, I did it anyway.  I settled on echo lines around the dresdens and stars.  I did a double echo around the dresden plates and I'm adding hand quilting in between.  Then the rest of the quilt I did a small, tight, meander.  It is far from perfect but I love how it turned out and I'm glad I did it.  I'm also going to be adding hand quilting detail to the centers of the dresden plates. 

As always, I've worked really hard to give you an easy-to-follow pattern.  This, and all of my patterns, include with step-by-step photos for making the quilt.  I hope you love this pattern as much as I do!

This pattern is no longer free and will be available for purchase in my shop soon.

I'm working on a video tutorial for making the dresden plates in this quilt.  Ask any questions that you have about dresden plates here in the comments or on Instagram.  I'll try to answer them all in my video.

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Share what you made! Use the hashtags #prairiequilt #jessicadayonpatterns and tag me so I can see your version @jessicadayon

Talk to you soon,

Jessica