The easiest quilt of the family, in the brightest box we sell.
This is the Patchwork Carnival version of Alder, the strip and charm quilt with 56 points to match in the whole top. The unit lies down, 12 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches, the rows alternate, and inside a row a white square always meets a bar of prints, so there is nothing to line up at all.
Alder has been made in Morning Mist greens and in Blossom Breeze florals. This one is Patchwork Carnival: forty prints of gingham checks, candy stripes, white stars and polka dots in red, pink, blue, green, purple and yellow. It is the version to make for a child, or for anybody who wants a quilt that looks like a fairground rather than a hedgerow.
Download the Alder pattern in Patchwork Carnival
Eleven pages, free to print, use and teach from, with the fabric list, the one cut, the unit, the rows, the layout, the binding and five sizes.
Download the free Alder quilt pattern PDF, Patchwork Carnival version
Everything you need to make this quilt
Patchwork Carnival + White Supreme Bundle 284pcs
200 Precut Fabric Strips 2.5" x 10" + 84 Squares 5"
What it takes
Five packs of mini strips, forty to a pack. The top takes 152 and the binding 38 from the same packs, leaving 10 in the bag. Two packs of 5 inch white charm squares, of which the top takes 75. Backing is 2 1/8 yards of 108 inch wide fabric at 70 1/2 by 75 1/2 inches with no seam, and the batting is cut to match.
Why this one first
Four strips sewn together, cut once down the middle, a white square on each half. That is the whole unit, made seventy-five times, and the turning happens on the design wall rather than at the machine. If you have never finished a quilt, this is where we send you.
The original article has the full walkthrough, and the Blossom Breeze version is the same quilt in soft florals if the carnival is too much.
More in our free quilt patterns.
