Autumn Leaf Bed Quilt

This eye-catching bed quilt was made in attractive blue and brown tones, accented by bright yellow, red and gold leaf applique. It's great for the fall-time, and can make an excellent gift.

The quilt is made to cover a twin-size bed, and features the applique and redwork designs from the Leaves Applique Set, Leaves Applique Set II, Leaves Bluework Set and Leaves Redwork Set II.

Click to enlarge

The finished size of the quilt is about 71" x 83".

We used four 100% cotton fabrics with a "marble" pattern. We used 4 yards of dark blue marble, and 1 yard each of chocolate brown, light brown and tan. We also used scraps of red, orange, yellow and other fall colored fabrics for leaf applique.

You will also need batting and fabric for backing, of course.

All measuremensts are based on 40" wide fabric. 1/4"seam allowance is included.

Out of the dark blue marble:

For the blocks, cut 4 strips 8 1/2" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sub-cut the strips into 20 squares 8 1/2"x 8 1/2".

Also cut 6 strips 1" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sub-cut the strips into 63 strips 4 1/2" long.

For the 1st border, cut 6 strips 1" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sew all strips together into a long strip and sub-cut it into 2 strips 48 1/2" long and 2 strips 64 1/2" long.

For the second and fourth borders, cut 12 strips 4 1/2" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sew all strips together into a long strip and sub-cut it into 2 strips 52 1/2", 2 strips 72 1/2", 2 strips 63 1/2" and 2 strips 83 1/2".

For the binding, cut the remainder of the dark blue fabric into 9 strips 3" wide and as long as your fabric wide.

Out of the chocolate brown marble:

For the blocks, cut 4 strips 4 1/2" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sub-cut them into twenty 7 1/2" long strips.

For the border, cut 6 strips 2" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sew all strips together in a long strip and subcut it into 2 strips 48 1/2" long and 2 strips 64 1/2" long.

Out of light brown marble:

For the blocks, cut 3 strips 4 1/2" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sub-cut them into twenty 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" squares.

For the border, cut 6 strips 2" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sew all strips together in a long strip and subcut it into 2 strips 60 1/2" long and 2 strips 75 1/2" long.

Out of tan marble, cut 6 strips 4 1/2" wide and as long as your fabric is wide. Sub-cut them into twenty 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" squares and twenty 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles. These will be used for the blocks

For each block you will need:
1 dark blue square measuring 8 1/2"x 8 1/2";
3 dark blue strips measuring 1" x 4 1/2";
1 chocolate brown rectangle measuring 4" x 7 1/2";
1 tan square measuring 4 1/2" x 4 1/2";
1 tan rectangle measuring 3 1/2"x 4 1/2";
1 light brown square measuring 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".

Sew together the light brown square, the first dark blue strip, the tan rectangle and the second blue strip. Join this new strip to the dark blue square, as shown on the diagram below.

Sew together the chocolate brown rectangle, the third blue strip and the tan square. Join this new strip to the piece from the first step, as shown on the diagram below.

The finished block should look like this:

For this quilt you will need 20 such blocks.

To make the odd rows (1, 3 and 5) join four blocks as shown on the diagram below:

To make the even rows (2 and 4) join 4 blocks as shown on the diagram below:

Connect all five rows:

To make the first border, first join the dark blue and chocolate strips. You should get two strips 48 1/2" long and 2 strips 64 1/2" long.

Sew the first border to the quilt top. First add the top and bottom borders, then add the left and right borders.

Add the 52 1/2" dark blue strips to the upper and lower edges of the quilt. Add the 72 1/2" dark blue strips to the left and right edges.

Add the 60 1/2" light brown strips to the upper and lower edges of the quilt. Add the 75 1/2" light brown strips to the left and right edges.

Add 4 1/2" x 63 1/2" dark blue strips to the upper and lower edges of the quilt. Add the 4 1/2" x 83 1/2" dark blue strips to the left and right edges.

We made leaf applique from the Leaves Applique Set and Leaves Applique Set II in the dark blue squares. If you want your leaves to stand out, trapunto-style, use low-loft DreamPoly batting instead of stabilizer. Otherwise, any cut-away stabilizer will work well.

You can also add redwork embroidery to the brown squares and rectangles.

Place the backing on a flat surface (table) face down. Cover with batting. Spread the top over it.

Pin all three layers together with 1" pins and start quilting. We quilted along the lines of the applique and embroidery to fix it in place, echo-quilted around the embroidery and free-motioned the large open spaces.

After the quilting is finished, press the work with heavy steam and square the work -- all corners should be 90 degrees and opposite sides should be of the same length.

Finish the raw edges with binding, using your favourite method.

The wall quilt you can see in the picture below matches the bed quilt. You can read about the wall quilt in our project Fall Leaves Wall Quilt.