Patchwork Plaid Christmas Quilt Tutorial

I'm so excited for this guest post. I love this fun Patchwork Plaid Christmas Quilt by Holly of Maker Valley and I'm so excited that she would share the tutorial with us! I especially love Holly's scrappy style. She's got a great eye for fabric and colors. I pretty much want to recreate all of her quilts.

Hello everyone! My name is Holly Lesué. I’m a quilter, fabric collector (hoarder?), and mom of four girls. Together with my graphic designer husband, Dave (a.k.a. Stately Type), I own and operate Maker Valley, where we design and sell sewing-themed graphic tees, quilt patterns, and gifts. 

I am so excited to share this fun patchwork plaid quilt with you! If you follow me on Instagram (@makervalley), you might be familiar with my style, but for those that aren’t, there are two things I absolutely love in quilts: 1. I love a simple, classic patchwork quilt. 2. I love scrappy quilts! So when you combine those two to create a scrappy patchwork quilt, I’m ALL in!

Something else you may or may not know about is that I’ve caught the quilt kit bug. It all started last year when I kit and sold about 40 pixelated heart quilts (Remember Amy shared how she made her Pixelated Heart Patchwork here?) using my own stash. 

I sold quilt kits again this year for my Yankee Doodle Dandy quilt, from my own stash until I ran out of red fabric. At that point, I decided to open up a few wholesale fabric accounts so that I could go bigger with my kits. I have to say, it is A TON of work, but A LOT of fun! Pulling fabric for a project is one of my favorite parts of the quilting process, and this might sound silly but curating these quilt kits has been exciting!

Plus as I mentioned before, I love scrappy quilts, so I try to make these kits as scrappy as I possibly can!

I also recently released a new pattern to make a reusable countdown chain called Pre-cuts Countdown Chain. I have had this idea for a few years and am so happy to have it out of my head and in the world to share with everyone! I have made a few for my family that we have used over and over again for counting down to birthdays as well as Christmas, and my girls love them!

As the title implies, you can use pre-cuts to make these chains (specifically jelly rolls or layer cakes) or you can cut into yardage to make them.  It is a fun and fast project!

I have been on a scrappy Christmas fabric tear these past few months! So, I decided I wanted to make a scrappy patchwork quilt from the fabrics I have been using. ...which is how this Patchwork Plaid Christmas Quilt idea was born! It’s pretty simple as most patchwork quilts are, but the arrangement of color that I outline here gives it a festive plaid pattern.

I'll walk you through the assembly of this fun Patchwork Plaid quilt below. If you'd like a printable version you can find Patchwork Plaid Christmas Quilt downloadable PDF for free here!

Ok, now that you’ve got the PDF and can refer to it as you read along, let’s get started!

This quilt finishes at 63" x 76.5".

There are 238 squares in this quilt! You will need: 120 low volume, 28 red, 30 pink, 36 green, and 24 aqua. You can get 12 5” squares from one fat quarter, but this quilt is meant to be scrappy, so I would encourage you to not use fat quarters because using fewer fabrics won’t give you that scrappy look. For example, if you used fat quarters to cut your 5” squares, you would only use 2 different prints of aqua for the whole quilt. So grab fat eighths, large scraps or cut into that yardage you have been saving!

 

In putting this quilt together, you are more than welcome to sew it row by row. But it will go a little but faster if you use the following method. Please note, if you are using directional prints and you want to keep them going the “right” way, then pay attention how you sew your sets together.

 

Before you begin you should have the following 5” squares:

120 low volume

36 green

30 pink

28 red

24 aqua

To make the quilt:

1. Sew 30 sets of low volume four patches to make unit 1

 

2. Take (24) 5” red squares and make 12 sets of two 5” squares stacked on top of one another to make unit 2

 

3. Take (24) 5” pink squares and make 12 sets in pink of two 5” squares stacked on top of one another to make unit 3

 

4. Sew unit 2 to the right of unit 1. Repeat to make 12 sets. This makes unit 4.

 

5. Sew unit 3 to the right of unit 1. Repeat to make 12 sets. This makes unit 5. Note: You will have six of unit 1 leftover.

 

6. Sew 6 rows of the following sets: unit 4 + unit 5 + unit 4 + unit 5 + unit 1. This makes unit 6.

 

7. Sew 3 rows of the following 5” squares: 5 green + 1 pink + 5 green + 1 pink + 2 green. This makes unit 7.

 

8. Sew 2 rows of the following 5” squares: 2 aqua + 1 red + 5 aqua + 1 red + 5 aqua. This makes unit 8.

Layout your quilt in the following order:

Unit 6

Unit 7

Unit 6

Unit 8

Unit 6

Unit 7

Unit 6

Unit 8

Unit 6

Unit 7

Unit 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it! I hope you love making it as much as I did!  I used minky on the back to make mine extra cozy and I have a feeling it will be a well-used and well-loved quilt! Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Thanks, Holly! Now I'm dying to start hacking up my Christmas fabrics and make one of these patchwork quilts!

 

Be sure to check out all of the fun sewing and quilting t-shirts, stickers and other gift ideas at makervalleybrand.com!