Twenty four Shoo Fly blocks, three across and eight down.
That's Butter and Eggs, a free shoo fly quilt pattern by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman. It finishes at 20 by 55 inches, long and narrow enough to run down the middle of a table, and the cover rates it for the confident beginner: someone who has basic block construction down and wants to learn a new trick. Each block is 6 inches, built from four half square triangles, one print square and four background squares, and the blocks are set with 1 inch sashing and little print cornerstones. It's a good first table runner if you've made a few blocks and want to try sashing. Below you'll find the download, how the block goes together, the ruler it asks for, and one change we'd make to the binding.
Free Shoo Fly Quilt Pattern PDF Download
Five pages, free, designed by Darlene Zimmerman and published by Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It features her Morningside Farm collection.
Pattern: Butter and Eggs
Brand: Robert Kaufman Fabrics
Designer: Darlene Zimmerman
Finished size: 20 x 55 inches
Size: table runner
Difficulty: confident beginner, printed on the cover
Block: Shoo Fly, 6 inches finished, 24 blocks in eight rows of three
Technique: half square triangles cut with the Easy Angle ruler, sashing with cornerstones
Colors: twelve prints in red, yellow, blue, green and pink on a white background
Precuts: half a roll-up of 2 1/2 inch strips, so jelly roll friendly. Not built for fat quarters, layer cakes or charm packs
You'll also need: the Easy Angle ruler from EZ Quilting, which the pattern lists for the triangles
Download the Butter and Eggs pattern PDF
The Shoo Fly Block
The Shoo Fly is a nine patch. Half square triangles go in the four corners, a dark square goes in the center, and background squares fill the four sides. Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler lists Shoo-Fly among the many names of this family of blocks, along with Monkey Wrench and Hole in the Barn Door. If you'd like to watch one made, Yvonne sews a classic Shoofly block on our channel.
In Butter and Eggs every piece is a 2 1/2 inch cut that finishes at 2 inches, so the block is 6 inches finished and should measure 6 1/2 inches when it's sewn. Each block takes four triangle squares and one center square in the same print, and four background squares.
Each of the twelve print strips makes two blocks. From each strip you cut two 2 1/2 inch squares, eight triangles and two 1 1/2 inch cornerstones. The eight print triangles pair with eight background triangles, which is the pattern's instruction to make eight pairs from each print. That's two blocks' worth of corners.
The pattern has a tip for the triangles that's worth taking: lay a print strip and a background strip right sides together and cut the triangles in pairs. They come off the ruler already matched, ready to chain piece. Press each triangle square toward the darker fabric.
The Ruler It Asks For
The triangles are cut with the Easy Angle ruler from EZ Quilting, laid on the 2 1/2 inch strips. The ruler cuts a triangle with the seam allowance built in, so the triangle square comes out at 2 1/2 inches with nothing to trim.
That matters more here than in most patterns, because the prints come from a roll-up and every strip is only 2 1/2 inches wide. The usual way to make half square triangles without a special ruler is to cut squares 7/8 inch bigger than the finished size, which The Quilter's Bible gives as the standard formula. For a 2 inch finished unit that's a 2 7/8 inch square, and you can't cut a 2 7/8 inch square from a 2 1/2 inch strip. So if you don't have the ruler, use yardage or fat quarters for the prints instead of a roll-up. Our guide to half square triangle methods and sizes has the cutting chart and three ways to sew them.
Sashing and Cornerstones
The blocks are set with 1 inch sashing, cut as 1 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch rectangles from the background fabric. Sew three blocks into a row with a sashing strip between each pair, and make eight rows. Then sew three sashing strips and two cornerstones into a sashing row, and make seven. Join the block rows and the sashing rows, matching and pinning at the seam intersections. Press toward the sashing every time.
The cornerstones are the little print squares that sit where the sashing meets. They're what gives the runner its scattered dots of color between the blocks.
We Checked the Arithmetic
We check the numbers of every pattern we publish, and this one adds up.
Three 6 inch blocks and two 1 inch sashing strips make 20 inches across. Eight blocks and seven sashing rows make 55 inches down. There's no border, so that's the finished size, with the binding as the only frame.
The pattern asks for 37 sashing rectangles: two in each of the eight block rows and three in each of the seven sashing rows, which is 16 and 21. Seven 1 1/2 inch strips give six rectangles each, 42 in all, so there are a few to spare.
The cornerstones come out generous. The twelve strips give two each, 24 in all, and the runner needs 14. That leaves ten spare, so you can choose which colors go where.
The background is close to the line. Ninety six 2 1/2 inch squares from six strips works out at exactly 16 squares a strip, which needs the full 40 inches of usable width the pattern assumes. If your fabric is narrower once the selvages are off, you'll be a few squares short. The 1 1/4 yards has about 9 inches left after the cutting list, room for three more 2 1/2 inch strips, so cut a seventh strip for squares if you need it.
The Binding Needs One More Strip
This is the one place we'd change the pattern. It asks for 3/8 yard and four 2 1/2 inch strips. The runner measures 150 inches around, and Yvonne adds an extra 20 inches to that measurement for turning the corners, as she shows in our straight binding tutorial. That's 170 inches.
Four 40 inch strips joined with diagonal seams give you about 152 inches. That's short. Cut five instead, which gives you about 190 inches. The 3/8 yard is 13 1/2 inches, so it has room for the fifth strip.
The pattern binds with a double binding and mitered corners. One step is worth noticing: before you bind, hand baste a scant 1/4 inch from the edge to hold the layers together and stop them shifting.
Fabrics and Palette That Suit This Pattern
The pattern uses half of a Morningside Farm roll-up, the collection it was written for, which may no longer be on sale. You need just twelve of the prints, one strip each, so any roll of 2 1/2 inch strips will work if you have the Easy Angle ruler.
What the design needs is contrast between each print and the background. The Shoo Fly reads as a block only because the print corners and center stand out against the background squares around them. Choose one light background for all of Fabric A, and twelve prints that read clearly darker than it. If you're not sure how light or dark a fabric is, our guide on fabric value, color and texture explains why value does more of the work than color.
For the backing, the pattern asks for 1 3/4 yards, one piece about 63 by 40 inches. That leaves about 10 inches spare on each side and 4 at each end, so there's no piecing to do.
If You Like This One
Darlene Zimmerman also designed Button Box, a rail fence quilt in the same Morningside Farm prints, and Weather Vane, a full size quilt that uses the same kind of triangle ruler. For another runner, Rocky Mountain High is 13 by 51 inches.
There are more in our free quilt patterns.
P.S. Sew one block and measure it before you cut the rest. If it isn't 6 1/2 inches square, fix your seam now, while it's one block and not twenty four.
