Twenty-five blocks, and not one triangle measurement to work out. That is the trick the cover promises, and the pattern delivers it in three steps.
Each block starts as three rectangles, 5 by 10 inches, from three different fabrics. Two of them get sewn together along the length, cut in half and rejoined into a four patch. The third is folded to 5 inches square, the fold is trimmed off, one diagonal cut turns it into four triangles, and those triangles go onto the four patch, which is sitting on point, with their tips lined up on the seams. Then the whole thing is trued up to 10 inches. The triangles crop the corners of the four patch as they go on, which is what leaves the octagon floating inside the square, and it is also why no triangle has to be cut to a calculated size. The trimming resolves it.
It comes from Robert Kaufman Fabrics, designed for them by Anita Grossman Solomon, who has built a career on shortcuts of this kind, and it dates from 2015.
Pattern details
- Brand: Robert Kaufman
- Designer: Anita Grossman Solomon
- Finished size: 47 1/2" square
- Size category: Wall hanging, and a good lap size
- Difficulty: Confident beginner
- Block: Square in a square, built on a four patch
- Technique: Precut piecing, four patch, on point setting
- Colorway: Shown in Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis Textiles
- Fat quarter friendly: No
- Jelly roll friendly: No
- Layer cake friendly: Yes
- Charm pack friendly: No
That yes is the one that matters. Every cut in this quilt comes off a 10 inch square, so a single layer cake carries the whole top with a little to spare. The sample uses three packs, which is only so that no fabric shows up twice across twenty-five blocks.
Download the free pattern PDF. Three pages, no templates, nothing to print at actual size.
Fabrics and palette that suit this pattern
The block only works if the three fabrics in it disagree with each other. Two of them build the four patch and read as the octagon, the third becomes the four corner triangles, and if that third one sits close in value to the other two the octagon dissolves and you are left with a square of busy prints. Look at the quilt on the cover and you will see the same decision made twenty-five times: a dark corner against a light center, or the reverse, never two mediums together.
Beyond that it wants variety more than coordination. Every block is built on its own, so nothing has to agree with the block beside it, which is why a precut suits it and why scraps do too.
The sample uses Blueberry Park, designed by Karen Lewis, which came out in 2015 and is no longer around. Any 10 inch precut takes its place: our layer cakes are the direct swap, and solids give you the flat contrast the corners want. The backing takes 3 yards and the binding 3/8, which is what the backing fabric widths are for.
