Most quilts ask you to make points meet. Corners that have to land on corners, seams that have to cross in the right place, and a whole row to unpick when one of them drifts. That is the part that stops people from starting, and it is the part this quilt leaves out.
Alder is a free beginner quilt pattern, 62 1/2 by 67 1/2 inches, built from one unit laid on its side and repeated seventy-five times. Sewing it takes 263 seams. Only 56 of them have anything to match, and all 56 are in the same place: the fourteen long seams where one row meets the next. Inside a row there is nothing to line up at all, because a white square always meets a bar of prints.
It was designed by Marbelia Fernandes, co-founder of The Fabric Hut, and it is free to print, use and teach. The PDF below has the cutting list, the diagrams, the five sizes and the finished measurements already worked out.
Pattern details
- Pattern name: Alder
- Designer: Marbelia Fernandes, The Fabric Hut
- Finished size: 62 1/2" x 67 1/2"
- Size category: Throw, with baby, lap, twin and queen in the same PDF
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Block: Strip and charm unit, 12 1/2" x 4 1/2" finished, laid on its side
- Technique: Strip piecing, chain piecing
- Precuts: 2 1/2" x 10" mini strips and 5" charm squares
- Borders: None
- Price: Free to print and use
Download the free Alder quilt pattern PDF
Everything you need to make this quilt
Morning Mist + White Supreme Bundle 284pcs
200 Precut Fabric Strips 2.5" x 10" + 84 Squares 5"
Why the Alder quilt pattern is the one to start with
The word beginner gets used loosely, so here is what it means on this one, counted rather than claimed.
Sewing the whole top takes 263 seams: 114 inside the strip sets, 75 to add the white squares, 60 to join units into rows, and 14 to join the rows. Of those 263, exactly 56 are places where two pieces have to meet in a particular spot. That is four points on each of the fourteen row seams, and nothing else.
The reason is the way the unit sits. It is laid on its side, 12 1/2 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches tall, and every other row is turned a half turn. So when two units meet inside a row, a white square always lands against a bar of prints. There is no seam on either side of that join to line up with anything, which means there is nothing to get wrong.
Compare that with the quilts built from the same unit standing upright, where the bars line up with each other in every direction. Those have 288 points to match. This one has 56.
One cut, and it happens after the sewing
The order here is backward from what most patterns do, and it is worth understanding before you start.
You take four mini strips, 2 1/2 by 10 inches, straight from the pack with no cutting at all, and sew them together along their long edges. That makes a strip set, 8 1/2 by 10 inches. Then you cut it in half, 5 inches from either end and square across the strips, which gives two identical halves. A white 5 inch square joins one end of each half, and that is the unit.
Thirty-eight strip sets, cut once each, make seventy-six halves. Seventy-five of them go into the quilt. Nothing is trimmed before the cut and nothing is trimmed after it, which is unusual and is the main reason this goes together quickly.
It also means 152 strips and 75 squares become 375 patches on the finished quilt, because every strip is cut in half and serves two units. That ratio is what strip piecing is for, and The Quilter's Bible puts the trade-off clearly: strip piecing is fast and accurate with rotary equipment, but it "needs to be machine sewn as hand stitches would unravel where seams are cut across." That is also why the pattern asks for a shorter stitch length than usual. The seams you sew in the strip set are going to be cut straight through.
The one measurement that decides the quilt
Four strips sewn together have to come to 8 1/2 inches across. That single number carries everything else, because the unit, the row and the finished size all follow from it.
So sew one strip set, measure it, and only then sew the other thirty-seven. If it comes up short, the seam allowance is too wide. Our guide to setting up an accurate quarter inch seam covers how to test and correct it before it costs you anything.
Two more things about the strip sets. Press the seams open, which keeps the set flat where it is about to be cut. And sew each seam in the opposite direction to the one before it, because sewing all three the same way makes the set bow. The Bible names the problem: "when sewing fabric strips together bowing or rippling can occur." Alternating the direction is the fix, and it costs nothing.
The seventy-five units are the place to chain piece. Feed them through one behind the other without cutting the thread, then cut the chain apart at the end. Our guide to chain piecing shows the rhythm of it.
Five sizes of the Alder quilt pattern from the same unit
The PDF carries a table that takes the same unit and the same single cut all the way from a baby quilt to a queen. The block never changes and neither does the method. Only the counts move.
- Baby, 37 1/2 x 54 in, 36 units, 18 strip sets
- Lap, 50 x 58 1/2 in, 52 units, 26 strip sets
- Throw, 62 1/2 x 67 1/2 in, 75 units, 38 strip sets
- Twin, 75 x 85 1/2 in, 114 units, 57 strip sets
- Queen, 87 1/2 x 94 1/2 in, 147 units, 74 strip sets
Each size comes with its own strip count, pack count, backing size and backing yardage, so you are not working any of it out yourself. If you are unsure which one fits the bed you have in mind, our quilt size chart has the standard dimensions side by side.
The fabric
The quilt shown uses Morning Mist mini strips, twenty prints in greens and creams, with white squares between them. The top takes 152 strips and 75 squares, and the binding comes out of the same packs rather than a separate one, which is what makes it scrappy with all twenty prints running around the edge.
Everything for this quilt is in one place: the Morning Mist and White Supreme bundle holds 284 pieces, the mini strips and the white squares together, with enough for the top and the binding.
If you would rather use what you have, the only requirements are that the strips are 2 1/2 by 10 inches, the squares are 5 inches, and any four prints that are not identical can make a strip set. There is no sorting order and no right combination to go looking for. Do not prewash the precuts.
For the back, the pattern calls for 108 inch wide backing, which covers a quilt this size in one piece with no seam at all. Our guide to quilt backing covers the yardage and the alternative if you want to piece it instead.
Before you start
Lay the fifteen rows out before you sew them together. The pattern asks you to move the units around until the two halves of a strip set are far apart and no two matching prints touch, either along a row or between rows, and to photograph the layout before you commit to it. Since the two halves of every strip set are identical, that step is what keeps the quilt from looking repetitive.
The prints also run up and down inside the bars, so anything with a clear direction will show it. Turn the units around on the design wall until you like what you see. There is no wrong way up.
The pattern takes you to a finished quilt top. For the three steps after that, our step by step guide to quilt binding covers the last one, and the backing guide above covers the basting.
Alder is one of ours, free to print, use and teach. There is plenty more in our collection of free quilt patterns, and if this is your first quilt, this is the one we would hand you.
