Art Philosophy for Quilting Motifs and a Free Quilt Pattern

77 x 93 Quilt Designed in EQ7

Hello!  I finally finished the quilt that my (now) 9 year old daughter wanted for her bed.  She and I designed it last year, using EQ7 to lay it out.  She loves the textural aspect of quilts and therefore wanted to have some large blocks for quilted butterflies and flowers to touch.

Finished size 77 x 88 after quilting and washing

This is a very easy quilt to piece; though there are some triangles where the bias edge is exposed until a border is added - so stretching can be an issue. I like to cut my borders from the length of the fabric, to minimize seams, so I end up purchasing a wee bit more fabric than is probably necessary.

Setting Triangle with Art Philosophy Stenciled Butterfly

For this quilt, EQ7 recommends purchasing the following amounts of fabric:

Outside border and sashing: 2 7/8 yard - Amy Butler Soul Peacock Feathers Rose (I bought 3 yards)
Inside border and 4-patches: 1 yard - Solid Orange (I bought 2 yards)
Sashing: 1 1/8 yard - Solid Bright Pink ( I bought 2 yards - used this for binding fabric, also)
4-patches: 3/8 yard - Solid Marigold (I bought 1 yard)
Setting triangles and 18 solid blocks: 1 3/4 yard - Solid Maize (I bought 2 yards)
14 solid blocks: 1 yard - Solid Light Pink

Butterfly cut with Cricut from cardstock  makes a great stencil

Backing fabric is 6 yards Riley Blake Willow Organic Large Medallion Yellow (not pictured)

The scrunchy look of a washed quilt

I wanted to use organic fabrics and found them online at Fabric.com.  It seemed like a good idea to buy a little extra of some of the colors in case we changed our minds about their placement.  Also, when practicing quilting motifs, I like to use the same fabric as the real quilt, so I knew it wouldn't go to waste. (That is kind of a funny statement. I don't know any quilter who thinks having extra fabric is ever a "waste"!)

Art Philosophy Heart Stencil

I almost always cut or tear my border fabrics first.  The outer (print)  border is made of 6 1/2" strips. Two are 96" long and two are 80" long.  The inner (orange)  border is made of 2" strips cut at 63" and 78" - two of each. (The longer orange ones had to be pieced.)  These are for mitered borders and there will be excess because it is easier to cut away, than to add. :-)


There are 31 four patch blocks made with 2" strips of orange and marigold fabrics.  These finish at 3" blocks.

In addition, the outer 4-patch halves are made with 8 - 2" marigold squares and 8 - 2 3/8" orange squares cut in half, on the diagonal, to place on the end of the sashing strips that abut the inside border.
The other 4-patch halves are made with 10 - 2" orange squares and 10 2 3/8" marigold squares cut in half, diagonally.

The bright pink and print fabric sashing pieces are cut 2" x the width of the fabric. Then sewn together with 1/4" seams and then cut down to 8 1/2".  There are 80 sashing units.

The solid blocks are 8 1/2" squares. There are 14 light pink and 18 light yellow (Maize).  For the setting triangles, there are 4 - 12 1/2" Maize squares cut diagonally across both ways so that there will be 16 small triangles.  Only 14 are used, though. The corner triangles are made from 2 - 6 1/2" squares cut in half diagonally (one cut).  This nets 4 small triangles.

Anita Goodesign Quilting Design

I used Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton Select Queen-sized batting.  For the setting triangles, I used some leftover negative space cuts from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. This made perfect stencils for marking the quilt.  After quilting on the traced designs, I did a mini-stipple around the hearts and small butterflies.  The larger blocks were quilted using the machine embroidery attachment for my sewing machine with Anita Goodesign patterns.  The rest of the quilt was filled in with an easy meander.  If I were to do this type of quilt again, I think I would skip the machine embroidered part and use larger Art Philosophy-made stencils.

My next Art Philosophy Quilting Project will be cutting shapes for applique.  If you have done any applique or other types of quilting with your Cricut, I would love to hear about your projects!

Thank you for visiting today!
Beverly