Today I’m here to give a little show-and-tell about my Layer Cake Loop Quilt.
This project was a collaboration with the Fat Quarter Shop, to help spread the word about this quilt. FQS provided me with a layer cake (10″ pre-cut squares) of my choice and the pattern, and then let me go for it.
The Layer Cake Loop quilt pattern is part of the Fat Quarter Shop’s Shortcut Quilts series. As the name suggests, these patterns are not complicated and make good use of pre-cuts.
Why Make a Layer Cake Loop Quilt?
There are many good reasons to make a Layer Cake Loop Quilt:
- It’s a quick and relaxed project
- You don’t need to agonise over fabric choices (unless you want to) as a clever fabric designer has already pulled together the perfect collection for you. All you have to do is buy a layer cake of it.
- The square blocks give you handy seam lines to use as a guide for quick straight line quilting
But this pattern really shines when you need to make a handmade gift in a hurry. Sometimes people pop out babies when you least expect it, with no warning. None whatsoever, I tell you. And then you have to scramble to sew up a baby quilt in a weekend because you’ve only known a baby was coming for about, oh, 6 months. So if babies have a habit of sneaking up on you like this, then you’ll love this quilt pattern. :)
Where Can I Find the Layer Cake Loop Quilt Pattern?
The Layer Cake Loop quilt pattern is a free PDF quilt pattern by the Fat Quarter Shop. You can find it right here – it has instructions for throw, large lap, queen and king sizes. The version you see in this blog post is the throw (48″ square).
Let’s Check Out the Quilt
To make my Layer Cake Loop quilt I chose a layer cake of Jen Hewett’s fabric line Unruly Nature, for Ruby Star Society of Moda Fabrics.
Right now that layer cake has sold out (I choose to believe I did that with this quilt, ha!).
But the good news is that Fat Quarter Shop has a ton of layer cakes to choose from. Especially all these ones that are currently on sale.
This quilt top sewed up very quickly without any fuss. Once it was done I basted it and decided to continue the quick and easy theme with the quilting. You know I love my straight line quilting, and the large blocks in this quilt made good guides for crosshatching.
I did rule my central lines (a large X over the whole quilt) with a hera marker to get started. But after that I eyeballed the other lines, using the corners of the blocks as my guide. The blocks are large so there actually isn’t a great deal of quilting. This has created a very soft quilt with lots of drape, perfect for snuggling.
Backing and Binding
My quilt backing was pieced from several mauve and blue-heavy purple fabrics that I had in my stash. Some of these were quite old, so I was happy to see them put to good use.
For the binding I chose one of the darker, navy fabrics in the Unruly Nature line.
I referred to my zigzag stitch machine binding tutorial to remember how I like to bind baby quilts. I find this stitch is really solid and secure which is great for a quilt that will get a lot of use and washings.
For my zigzag stitch I used a navy thread for the top stitching and a purple thread in the bobbin (which is only seen on the back). The navy matched the binding really well and the purple blended in nicely with all the purple fabrics I used for the backing.
Six Other Versions of this Quilt!
Head over to the Fat Quarter Shop’s blog to see what 6 other quilters made with this pattern. It’s always fun to see the same pattern made in multiple fabrics.
And if you’d love a kit to sew up a version of this quilt then keep your eye on this page over at the Fat Quarter Shop. This kit will have the fabric to make the 48″ square quilt top AND binding using the recently released Maureen McCormick fabric line Flower Power.
Start Sewing!
That’s it from me.
Here’s the link for the free Layer Cake Loop quilt pattern again. You can find it here at the Fat Quarter Shop.
Kristy…love all of your quilts. Your precision and artistic design are astonishing! Thank you for all of your hard work and generosity in posting and writing for all of us to admire. I love your zig zag binding technique and I can’t wait to try it on my next quilts, which are ‘Mr. Rogers Neighborhood’ and Lori Holt’s ‘Scrappiness Is Happiness’.
Thank you Mary! And best of luck zigzag finishing your next quilts. It’s been a real time saver for me and I hope it is for you too.
It is said that cats sleep about 18 hours a day! About the same amout of time I spend quilting! The kitties are growing up so fast! and beautiful. Oh and thanks for the new pattern !
You’re most welcome Joan. Happy sewing!
Just printed my pattern!
Hi Kirsty – well I bought the Unruly Nature layer cake! Thought I’d like to try it on a different pattern.
Ha, you go, Lynn. At least you can come back to this one if you don’t like it for the different pattern!
I had already printed off my copy of the Layer cake Loop. I love simple big block patterns. I may try to adapt this to fat quarter bundles since I have a lot of them. But I also have a lot of layer cakes too. ???? I may have to try the throw size first. Thanks for a great pattern!
Hi Pam, glad to hear you like the pattern and your layer cakes can be put to good use. You could get a couple of 10″ squares from a FQ, leaving you with an 8″ strip for a future scrappy pattern. Or you could join all the 8″ strips and use them in your quilt backing so that you can use it all up in the same project.