Six bands of print, six bands of white, forty prints that do not whisper.
This is the Patchwork Carnival version of Aspen, the quilt that keeps every column in phase so the strips line up in bands that cross the whole top. Finished at 58 1/2 by 75 inches, thirteen units across and six rows down, with one cut made after the sewing.
In Morning Mist those bands read as one soft block of color. In Patchwork Carnival they break into checks, stripes, stars and dots at full strength, and the white rows between them come forward. It is the most graphic of the three versions, and the one that reads from across a room.
Download the Aspen pattern in Patchwork Carnival
Eleven pages, free to print, use and teach from, with the fabric list, the rows, the layout, the binding and five sizes.
Download the free Aspen 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: 156 for the top, 38 for the binding, 6 left over. Two packs of 5 inch white squares, 78 in the top. Backing is 2 3/8 yards of 108 inch wide fabric at 66 1/2 by 83 inches, batting to match.
Every row lines up with the one above, so the four strip seams inside each unit run straight across the quilt without a break. That is the part that asks for an honest quarter inch, and our quarter inch seam guide has the test: sew one strip set, measure 8 1/2 inches across, then sew the other thirty-eight.
Building a band that works
A band of thirteen units is 52 strips long, so you will see repeats whatever you do. What you can control is where they fall. Lay the units on a wall, keep matching prints out of the same band, and break up any run of three darks with something pale. In this collection a stripe next to a check next to a dot reads as variety; two checks in the same color next to each other reads as a mistake.
The original article has the construction in full.
More in our free quilt patterns.
