Laura's 4-Patch Scrappy Throw Quilt

What a great way to start the year! This Happy Scrappy was my first quilt top of 2025. I've loved making samples for this quilt pattern because it uses a lot of strip piecing and I am a huge fan of strip piecing, but the colours in this quilt are so happy and cheery that I especially enjoyed piecing this one. That's why we're calling it the Happy Scrappy Version! It sure does brighten a room in these grey, winter days!

When putting together the fabrics for this quilt, I started with a peachy/pink and an orange colour. From there, I tried several colours that just didn't work with the peach and orange. I ended up with navy and yellow as the next 2 colours. I really wanted to use a baby blue for the background fabric but I was told ahem by my sister and ahem mother that that would not look good. What can I say? They are boring. 😆 You can see it, right? It would have been super cute! In the end, I didn't have a blue that was light enough to pull it off, so I went with KONA Snow. And I'm very pleased with how the quilt turned out.

The whole time I was writing the instructions for Laura's 4-Patch, I was envisioning a Scrappy Version where the colours of each section had the same colour value.

For example, for Fabric C, I used 6 navy prints with the same colour value. If I had used a few navy prints and a few lighter blue prints, the design on the pattern would have been lost a little bit. But here you can still see distinctly the chain (the orange squares)  and flower effect (the navy).

I decided to make my Happy Scrappy in the Small Throw size, which is 58½" by 74½". The Small Throw Quilt is the perfect size for snuggling on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and a good movie! The difference between this (the Small Throw) and the Large throw is the width. The Large Throw is a square quilt, whereas the Small Throw is a rectangle.

I know, I know, the pattern says to avoid directional prints. But this is a scrappy quilt, and scrappy quilts tend to break all of the rules, so I went with it. And you know, I think it works. It's a design decision you are welcome to make also. Just know, this is what it will look like! If that would drive you insane, then avoid directional prints like the pattern says!

As mentioned above, the pattern will work best if you use colours with the same value for each fabric. For example, if you choose one medium yellow for Fabric C, you'll need a total of 6 fat quarters for the throw, make sure that your other 5 fabrics are also a medium yellow. 

Contrast is so important in this quilt! This applies to both the Scrappy Version and the Yardage Version, make sure there's enough contrast between each of your colours. In the Happy Scrappy we've done that by using dark (navy), medium (orange and peach), and light (yellow) fabrics. The orange and peach are both sorta medium, but they don't touch because they are separated by the dark (navy) fabric so that lack of contrast is not a problem.