Laura's 4-Patch Quilt Pattern

I designed Laura's 4-Patch years ago while playing around with 4-patches. I came up with this pattern that uses 4-patches and a 9-patch variation to create this complex looking design! But despite it looking complex, this quilt is easy and quick to piece. This pattern is fun because changing the colour placement can change the overall look of the quilt dramatically. This gives you quite a bit of creative control over how your final quilt will look. As you'll see in this blog post, colour plays a big part in the design of this quilt!

As mentioned previously, Laura's 4-Patch uses very basic quilting techniques, so we are recommending this for a confident beginner or up. It's a great project if you are looking for something easy that packs a punch. Hey beginners, there's a Baby size in this quilt! A baby quilt is the perfect beginner project because of the small size. 

One of the reasons this quilt is so easy and quick to piece is because it utilizes strip-piecing. This saves a lot of time. The pattern also includes instructions for nesting your seems which creates a smooth and bulk-free finish.

The Laura's 4-Patch Quilt Pattern includes instructions for two different versions. A Yardage Version and a Scrappy Version. The scrappy version utilizes fat quarters to achieve the random 'scrappy' look. For the scrappy version, it's recommended that for each colour you choose, that each fabric of that colour be of the same colour value. For example, in our scrappy version, we used a variety of different yellow prints, but they were all the medium golden yellow. If you were to use light and medium yellow, you'd lessen the effect of the layout.  

Additionally, you can't use all solids for the scrappy. It just wouldn't work. In a scrappy version of something like an Irish Chain, you could use dark fabrics for the chain and have a bunch of different solid darks and you'd still get the chain effect, but this quilt needs each piece to be a specific colour. We'll be doing a full blog post on the scrappy version and how to choose fabrics for it. Stay tuned for that!

Btw, can you see how different these two mockups look just because of the colours used in them?! In the Yardage Version, the colours are softer and the value between them is more subtle. But in the Scrappy Version, the contrast between the colours is more dramatic and the navy stands out making it look like a field of flowers!

Colour choice and placement are an integral part of the design of Laura's 4-Patch! I mean, I know that's usually true to some degree with most quilts, but with Laura's 4-Patch, it really matters! We highly recommend testing out your colour selection with these colouring sheets.