Christmas Layer Cake Quilt – Free Pattern
Make a quick and easy Christmas Quilt using leftover layer cake squares from previous year’s projects!
This beginner-friendly Christmas Quilt is inspired by knitted Christmas blankets with various knitted squares. Obviously, this is a quilt – so no knitting required – but we will use that same idea of variety to use up leftover layer cake squares and/or fat quarters of Christmas fabric you might have lying around.
This free pattern uses Accuquilt Dies for the simple applique elements but if you don’t have an Accuquilt you can substitute these shapes with any other Christmas-themed shapes you have templates for already in your sewing room.
Table of Contents
Fabric Requirements
- (36) 10″ Squares – see below for how many of each colourway
- (12) 5″ Squares of contrasting fabrics for the applique motifs
- (12) 5″ Squares of double sided fusible interfacing
- Accuquilt Holiday Medley Die (#55043) & Accuquilt Star Die (#55028). (Or substitute with your own Christmas templates of roughly 5″ x 5″ in dimension).
Choose a Variety of Christmas Fabrics
This pattern is designed to have a good amount of variety in the fabrics used.
Here are some options and ideas for how to approach this variety:
- Option 1: Use 9 groupings of (4) matching 10″ squares with some solids or tone-on-tone fabrics and some busier Christmas prints.
- Option 2: Use 5-6 groupings of (4) matching 10″ squares in solids or simple patterns and for the rest use up any variety of Christmas-themed/colored fabrics. This option gives the most variety as you can pull in single leftover layer cake squares from projects past for example.
- Additional Alternative for maximum Scrap Busting: If you don’t have enough appropriate fabric to cut all 36 squares why not piece some 10″ squares from other sizes of fabric, i.e. make a 4 patch from smaller scraps or a rail fence block from jelly roll strips. I did this for my first version of this quilt. I strip pieced 5 jelly roll strips and cut (4) 10″ squares from each set.
Whichever option you choose, this pattern looks best when there are either some solid or tone-on-tone squares as well as busier prints.
Below is a mock up for the Option 2 layout of the 10″ squares showing 6 groupings of (4) 10″ squares (the squares with outlines and numbers in them denote fabrics 1,2,3,etc) and the rest of the squares are random scraps and leftover layer cake squares.
I made two color versions of this quilt. One in traditional Christmas colors, and one in brighter tones so you can see how you can really play with this pattern to get different looks.
It is the appliques that give the real hint that this is a Christmas Quilt if you aren’t using red, green and white.
I went even further with the variety in my quilts by cutting some of my 10″ squares from fleece and flannel to give a texture variety as well as pattern and print variety.
Preparing the Applique Shapes
Apply double-sided fusible to the back of your (12) pieces of contrasting applique fabric.
Cut (12) Christmas-themed shapes to be appliqued on 12 of your 10″ squares. The shapes I used were just under 5″ x 5″ at their widest points – so great for using up leftover Christmassy charm pack squares or go diving in your scrap bin.
It may help to decide ahead of time which of your 10″ squares you will put the applique on so you can be sure the applique fabric will contrast well with your background fabric.
I used two Accuquilt Dies and had a variety of snowflakes, Christmas Trees and stars on my quilts. You could cut 4 of each shape, or just choose your favorite and have 12 the same.
In the brighter quilt I also used some smaller fussy cut Christmas trees as applique on two of the squares. Have fun with your scraps and see what you can use for this!
Use an iron to fuse your applique shapes in the center of 12 of your 10″ squares.
You can use your favorite applique stitch to applique around the edge of these shapes now or wait and do this when you are quilting your quilt.
Piecing the Quilt Top
It helps to have a floor or design wall you can lay your squares on to decide on your layout. Ideally you don’t want to repeat the same fabric in each row or have two of the same fabric touching each other in the row next door. It may require some shuffling around to achieve this! See the example graphic below for one layout option.
You also want to ensure you have no more than 2 or 3 of the applique blocks per row. We want the applique blocks to look a little bit random but also fairly evenly spread out.
Once you have decided on your layout chain piece your blocks into rows using a 1/4 inch seam allowance and then join your rows to each other. Use your favourite method of pressing to nest your seams.
Finished Christmas Quilt
Below is the version of this quilt I made with more traditional Christmas colors. Because I had used the tartan fleece I decided to quilt it with straight lines in two directions to slightly mimic the plaid.
I stopped at each applique piece and very roughly quilted around the edge multiple times to secure the applique. If you prefer a cleaner look you might prefer to use a zigzag or blanket stitch on these blocks before piecing the quilt top.
The brighter color version is not yet quilted but the quilt top is pieced.
Layer Cake Leftovers Christmas Quilt Video Tutorial
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