This quilt is a mirror. Sew three rows, then sew them again the other way up, and the top is done.
Rowan is a free quilt pattern that finishes at 58 1/2 by 75 inches. The top half and the bottom half hold the same three rows, one set of them turned over, and where the two halves meet they open into a band of white nine inches deep.
It was designed by Marbelia Fernandes, The Fabric Hut Co-Founder, and this version is made in Blossom Breeze, forty prints in pinks, aquas, teals and navy, with White Supreme squares.
Pattern details
- Pattern name: Rowan
- Designer: Marbelia Fernandes, The Fabric Hut Co-Founder
- Finished size: 58 1/2" x 75"
- Size category: Throw
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Block: Strip and charm unit, 12 1/2" x 4 1/2" finished, 78 of them in six rows of thirteen
- Technique: Strip piecing, chain piecing, one cut
- Fabric: Blossom Breeze mini strips and White Supreme 5" squares
- Price: Free to print, use and teach from
Download the Rowan quilt pattern
Eleven pages, free to print, use and teach from, with the fabric list, the unit, the rows, the layout, the binding and five sizes.
Download the free Rowan quilt pattern PDF
Everything you need to make this quilt
Blossom Breeze + White Supreme Bundle 284pcs
200 Precut Fabric Strips 2.5" x 10" + 84 Squares 5"
Why the middle opens up
The unit is four mini strips sewn together, cut in half, with a white 5 inch square on the short end of each half. Upright, it is 4 1/2 inches wide and 12 1/2 inches tall, and thirteen of them side by side make a row.
Rows one to three carry their white squares at the bottom. Rows four to six are the same row turned a half turn, so their squares sit at the top. Rows three and four therefore meet square to square, and those two bands of white read as one band nine inches deep across the middle of the quilt.
Everything above that line is repeated below it, upside down. It is the kind of design that gives you a landmark: halfway through, you have three rows on the floor and you know exactly what the other three look like.
What you need
Five packs of mini strips, 2 1/2 by 10 inches, forty to a pack, of which the top takes 156. Two packs of 5 inch white charm squares, 42 to a pack, of which the top takes 78.
Binding comes from the same five packs, 38 strips once the top is counted, leaving 6 over. Backing is 2 3/8 yards of 108 inch wide fabric, 66 1/2 by 83 inches with no seam, and the batting matches it. There is more on wide backing in our backing guide.
Choosing your own? Sort the strips into two piles by value before you start. In this quilt the darkest prints sit along the top and bottom edges and the palest ones frame the white in the middle, which is why it reads calm rather than busy. Our mini strips and white charm squares will do the job.
The one cut
One cut in the whole quilt, across each strip set, five inches from either end, and it happens after the sewing. Nothing is trimmed before it and nothing afterward.
Every row lines up with the one above, so the four strip seams in each unit run straight across the quilt without a break. That is the one place accuracy shows, and it comes down to the quarter inch: four strips have to measure 8 1/2 inches across. Sew one set and measure it before you sew the other thirty-eight. Our guide to the quarter inch seam covers testing yours.
Press the strip set seams open, alternate your sewing direction so the set stays straight, and shorten the stitch, because the set is cut across.
Sewing the rows
Chain piece the lot: 156 strip set seams, then 78 white squares. Our walkthrough of chain piecing has the setup.
Press the seams between units to the right in rows one to three and to the left in rows four to six, so they nest when the rows meet. Lay all six rows out before you join any of them, move the units until the two halves of a strip set are far apart and no two matching prints touch, and photograph the wall.
The quilts it is related to
Rowan is one of seven from the same unit. Aspen keeps all six rows in phase, which gives bands rather than a mirror. Alder lays the unit down and alternates every row. Blackthorn alternates inside the row for a brickwork field.
The rest are in our free quilt patterns.
P.S. Sew one strip set and measure it. Everything else in this quilt follows from that 8 1/2 inches being right.
