Down The Brick Road Quilt Pattern
I’m thrilled to introduce the first full quilt pattern of 2023, Down The Brick Road. This pattern is very different than what I have produced in the past because it is not a beginner quilter pattern. That being said if you have a firm grasp on the basics of quilting I believe that you will be able to make Down The Brick Road quilt. The Down The Brick Road pattern makes a 64″ square quilt that is perfect for both modern and traditional quilters alike.
I know a few of you are saying, “WOAH, this doesn’t look like a Mel quilt pattern.” and you are right. This has a lot more piecing than I normally do but it’s fairly mindless piecing for the most part. The color scheme for the quilt sample is also a lot more traditional than I normally use and that’s why I mocked up a couple of other colorways that are more modern.
I really wanted to use the Kansas Star quilt block in this pattern and as I played around with the quilt design I really liked the look that I settled on. I thought the patchwork looked like a brick road and I’m a Kansas girl, so my first thought was to call this pattern “Yellow Brick Road” but a friend pointed out that there is already a popular quilt pattern named that.
Now, I could have used it and I really wanted to pay homage to “The Wizzard of Oz” but the more I thought about it using the word yellow pigeon-holed my options for recolors and after seeing my sample I wanted to be able to do different color schemes. That’s how I settled on Down The Brick Road for the pattern name.
When I showed the quilt at my LQS sew and share the other day I heard someone say “Oh goodness look at all that piecing.” I didn’t think the quilt had that much piecing until I was writing the pattern. Like I said earlier it’s fairly mindless piecing for the most part and didn’t seem like that much at all.
Techniques Used In Down The Brick Road Quilt Pattern
Since there is a lot of piecing in the pattern I kept my directions as brief as possible. If you need detailed or video demos of any of the techniques used in the pattern you can use your phone’s camera to scan the QR code on the cover page to come back to this page.
Nesting seams – there are lots of nesting seams in the layout of the quilt
Economy or square in a square blocks – this post also shows you how to pin match the blocks which is important
Spinning Seams – there are a lot of bulky seams so if you spin the seams where you can it will help, this is optional though and not mentioned in the pattern
Half Square Triangles Two at a Time –
Adding Triangles to Squares – since the quilt is on point there are setting triangles and there are a few squares that have triangles added on, getting them aligned correctly can be a little tricky if you haven’t done it a lot
Color Schemes For Down The Brick Road Quilt Pattern
Since I typically don’t do traditional color schemes but I did for this pattern I wanted to show a couple of variations you can do.
This is the original color scheme it uses Moda Sunflower Garden Porcelain Chevrons for the background, QT Fall Splendor Sunflowers Cream for the triangles, and the brick road is done with Northcott Toscana Sunflower. The digital fabric swatches are a lot richer than the actual fabric which is why the digital picture is darker than the fabric sample.
I love this recolor! If I hadn’t been stuck on that Wizzard of Oz thing when I was doing my original design I might have made this as my sample. I subbed the cream chevron with QT Fabrics Color Blends Ash, the sunflower fabric was subbed with QT Fabrics Jewelscape color JK, and the yellow was subbed with QT Fabrics Jewelscape color G.
The other color scheme that I mocked up was Christmas inspired. I subbed the cream with QT Fabrics Quilting Illusions Dot in white, the sunflower fabric was subbed with QT Fabrics Jewelscape color JK, the yellow in the stars was subbed with QT Fabrics Jewelscape color M, and the yellow in the brick road uses QT Fabrics Jewelscape color G.
Supplies Needed For Down The Brick Road Quilt Pattern
The Pattern – It’s currently $12.95 Buy Now
Batting
Backing Fabric – the amount is dependent upon how much hangover you need for quilting, how you make your backing, and how wide your fabric is. This backing calculator will help you figure out how much you need
Binding – there is an extra half-yard in the cream yardage which is enough to do 2″ straight binding if you don’t have “oops” moments
Cream Fabric – 4 yards, based on 40-inch wide fabric
Yellow Fabric – 1 1/4 yards, based on 40-inch wide fabric
Sunflower Fabric – 1 yard, based on 40-inch wide fabric
To get the discount code you’ll need to use the newsletter form below. The one at the top of the page will send you a free pattern but not the discount code.
Tips For Making Down The Brick Road Quilt Pattern
The pattern has the cutting instructions separated by the individual units that the quilt uses. There is some crossover in sizes with units and I found it difficult to keep track of which pieces went with which units when I cut all the pieces at once and only separated them by size. Separating by unit and then by size made it so much easier to stay organized.
You will need to pin, there’s no way to get around it with this pattern. The economy squares that make up the Kansas Star block need to be pin matched so that your star points come out. Also as you put the quilt together pinning those long-row seams will keep the frustration level down.
Speaking of those long seams, the pattern shows what blocks to match up when putting the quilt together. They really help because things start looking the same pretty quickly.
Down The Brick Road quilt pattern is made up of four units. The pattern has the cutting instructions under each unit. I found it much easier to separate the cut pieces by the unit instead of just by size.
The directions for each unit are for completing one single unit. If you are someone who makes all the parts for a section at once simply multiply the number of parts by the number of units you need. For example, if you need 4 economy blocks for a unit and need 6 units you would need 24 economy blocks total. The exception to this is the corner unit, you only need 4 half-square triangles but since you make two at a time you only need to do that step twice.
