Cherry Blossom is a free mini strip quilt pattern that finishes at 56 by 60 inches. It is made from precut strips and precut squares, there is one cut in the whole quilt, and there is not a single point to match anywhere in it. The ten page PDF is free to download a little further down, and the whole pattern is written out on this page as well.
It was meant to have no cutting in it at all.
That was the whole idea. A pack of mini strips and a pack of 5 inch squares, straight out of the bag and onto the machine. We drew it, we did the math, and the math said no. Two strips sewn together come to 4 1/2 inches. A square is 5. Half an inch, every time, whichever way we turned it.
So there is one cut in Cherry Blossom, and only one. Every white square loses half an inch off one side before you begin. After that you put the ruler down and everything else is sewing.
Cherry Blossom at a glance
- Finished size. 56 by 60 inches. A throw, the size for a sofa or for the end of a bed.
- Skill level. Beginner. Every seam is straight, there is no triangle and no point anywhere, and the one cut is a straight line across a 5 inch square.
- Block. One block, two strips and a square, 14 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches unfinished and 14 by 4 finished.
- Blocks needed. 60, set 4 across and 15 down. Row B is the same block as row A, turned a half turn.
- Fabrics. Forty prints and one white. Each print appears three times in the top.
- Cutting. One cut. Every white square is trimmed from 5 inches square to 5 by 4 1/2 inches.
- Border. None. The binding is the only frame it gets, and it comes out of the same strips as the top.
Download the free Cherry Blossom mini strip quilt pattern
Ten pages: the fabric requirements, the one cut, diagrams for the block and for both rows, the quilt layout, the binding, and the same quilt worked out in five sizes from baby to king. Free to print, to use and to teach from.
Download the Cherry Blossom quilt pattern PDF. Everything in it is also written out below, so you can read it here or take the printed sheets to the machine.
Everything you need to make this quilt
Blossom Breeze + White Supreme Bundle 244pcs
160 Precut Fabric Strips 2.5" x 10" + 84 Squares 5"
What you need
- Mini strips. 4 packs of 40, cut 2 1/2 by 10 inches. 120 strips go into the top, 34 into the binding and 6 are spare. Ours is Blossom Breeze, and any pack of precut mini strips with enough prints in it will do the same job.
- White squares. 2 packs of 42, cut 5 inches. 60 go into the top and 24 are spare. Ours is White Supreme, from the charm squares.
- Backing. 1 7/8 yards of 108 inch wide backing, which gives 64 by 68 inches with no seam anywhere in it.
- Batting. 64 by 68 inches of batting, 4 inches larger than the top on every side.
The strips and the squares for the whole top and the binding are packed together as the Blossom Breeze and White Supreme bundle, which saves picking the six packs out one at a time. The backing and the batting are not in it.
We made it with Blossom Breeze because it has forty prints, and a quilt like this wants as many as you can give it. Each print appears three times, and the white squares are where the eye rests between them. If you have a different collection of strips waiting in a drawer, use those. The arithmetic does not change.
Before you begin
Seam allowances are an accurate quarter inch throughout. Two strips sewn together along their long edges have to measure 4 1/2 inches, the same as a trimmed white square. Sew one pair and measure it before you sew the other fifty nine.
Do not prewash the precuts. Open all four packs of strips and set one aside for the binding. The other three give you three strips of each of the forty prints, which is exactly what the top needs.
This is a scrappy quilt. Any two prints that are not identical make a pair, so there is no right combination to go looking for and nothing to plan on paper.
The one cut
Take 60 of your white squares and trim half an inch off one side of each, so a 5 inch square becomes 5 by 4 1/2 inches. Lay the ruler over the square with the 4 1/2 inch line on one edge and cut along the ruler.
Every square loses the same half inch, so stack two or three and cut them together if your blade is sharp. That is the whole of the cutting in this quilt.
The block
Take two different strips and sew them together along one long edge. Press the pair to one side. It measures 4 1/2 by 10 inches.
Sew a trimmed white square to one short end of the pair, with the 4 1/2 inch side of the square against the end of the pair, and press toward the strips. The block measures 14 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches unfinished, and 14 by 4 once it is in the quilt. Make 60.
Measure the first block before you make the other fifty nine. If the pair comes out narrower than the white square, the seam is too wide. Fix the quarter inch, not the square.
Sixty pairs and sixty blocks go much faster fed through the machine one behind the other than sewn one at a time, so chain piece them. Sew every pair without cutting the thread between them, then cut them apart, press, and chain the squares on the same way.
Setting the quilt top
Four blocks across and fifteen rows down. The rows alternate: in a row A the white squares sit on the right, and a row B is the same block turned a half turn, so its white squares sit on the left. The first row is always a row A, which gives this size eight A rows and seven B rows.
That half turn is the whole design. It staggers the white squares from row to row instead of stacking them into columns, and it is the reason the quilt reads as a pattern rather than as stripes.
Sew four blocks end to end to make a row. In a row A press the seams between the blocks to the right, and in a row B press them to the left. Those seams fall in the same place in every row, 14 inches apart, so pressed in opposite directions they lock together when the rows meet.
Lay all fifteen rows out on a design wall before you sew a single row seam, and take a photograph of them. A block turned the wrong way costs a second to fix on the wall and an evening to unpick afterward. While they are up there, move blocks around until no two strips of the same print touch, side by side or across the seam between two rows. With forty prints and three of each there is always a way to do it.
Nest the seams where two rows meet and pin at each one. Join the rows in pairs, then join the pairs, then add the last row A. The top measures 56 1/2 by 60 1/2 inches raw and finishes at 56 by 60.
Quilting and binding
Layer the top with the batting and the backing, baste, and quilt as you like. Straight lines with a walking foot suit this quilt, because the blocks are long and low and the lines have something to follow. If you have not basted a quilt before, that is the step where the three layers are smoothed and pinned together.
The binding is made as four separate lengths, one for each side, instead of one long strip taken around the corners. It takes 34 of the mini strips, which is why the fourth pack was set aside: 8 strips for the top, 8 for the bottom and 9 for each of the two sides. The sides take one more each because they are longer and because they run past the corners.
Join the strips in each pile on the diagonal and press every join open, which is what keeps the binding flat. Press each length in half along its length, wrong sides together. Sew the top and the bottom on first, cut flush with the quilt, then the two sides, letting them run half an inch past the quilt at each end and folding those ends in before you roll the binding over. A walking foot and a 3/8 inch seam put it on evenly.
The binding carries the same prints as the top, because it comes out of the same packs. There is no border on this quilt, so that binding is the only frame it gets.
Questions about this mini strip quilt pattern
Is this a good first quilt?
Yes, and it is one of the gentlest first quilts there is. Every seam is straight, there is not a single point to match, and the only seams that meet are the ones between the blocks, where they nest if the rows are pressed in opposite directions. With a hundred and twenty strips in the top, nobody will ever find the one that is a thread off.
Does it come in other sizes?
Five, and the PDF has the counts for all of them. Baby at 42 by 48 inches, throw at 56 by 60, twin at 70 by 88, queen at 84 by 96 and king at 98 by 104. The block never changes and neither does the one cut. Only the number of blocks moves, from 36 at the smallest to 182 at the largest.
Why is there a cut at all if the fabric is precut?
Because of a quarter inch, twice. Two 2 1/2 inch strips sewn together lose half an inch to the two seam allowances and come to 4 1/2 inches. A 5 inch charm square is 5 inches. The half inch has to go somewhere, and taking it off the square once, before anything is sewn, is easier than trimming blocks afterward.
How much fabric does the binding take?
Thirty four mini strips, counted into the four packs above. This quilt has 232 inches of edge. Each 10 inch strip gives about 7 1/2 inches of usable length once the strips are joined on the diagonal, so eight strips cover a 56 inch side with enough over to trim, and nine cover a 60 inch side with enough over to run past both corners.
Before you start
Sew one pair of strips and measure it. Everything else in this quilt follows from that measurement being 4 1/2 inches, and it is a great deal easier to find out now than after sixty of them are pressed.
More free patterns are collected in our free quilt patterns library, and the free patterns hub sorts them by the kind of quilt you feel like making.
Marbelia Fernandes
The Fabric Hut Co-Founder
P.S. If you get stuck anywhere in it, write to customercare@thefabrichut.com and we will be happy to help you out. And when your quilt is finished, send a photo straight to marbelia@thefabrichut.com. I would love to see it.
