Welcome to The Ultimate Beginner Quilt Sew Along, a free quilt pattern series with video tutorials designed just for beginners! We are getting ready to make this quilt with fabric requirements and coloring sheets to plan your quilt. Even if you have zero sewing experience, this is the free quilt class for you!
Each week from August 1 through November 7, we will be putting this quilt together from start to finish, with Kimberly Jolly guiding you each step of the way. We will release a FREE Pattern for each part of the quilt that we cover in our video tutorials on our YouTube channel. We’ll link to the free patterns here on the blog and within the notes for each video.
Quilting Supplies
Using a Sewing Machine
Sew Quilt Blocks 1-9
A new pattern and video release each Thursday
Block 1 – Aug 8
Block 2 – Aug 15
Block 3 – Aug 22
Block 4 – Aug 29
Block 5 – Sep 05
Block 6 – Sep 12
Block 7 – Sep 19
Block 8 – Sep 26
Block 9 – Oct 03
Sew the Quilt Top Together: October 10
Quilting the Quilt: October 17
Quilt Binding and Wrap Up: October 24
This beautiful sampler quilt was designed to build your skills, block by block. For this sew-along, you have options – you can make the quilt that looks like ours with The Ultimate Beginner Quilt Kit, or you can choose your own fabrics and make it your own with the Fabric Requirements provided.
For this quilt you’ll need the following fabric amounts:
• 12 Fat Quarters*
• 7/8 Yard neutral color (we chose white) for sashing, which goes between the blocks
• 1 1/8 Yards for the border & binding
• 3 3/8 Yards for the back of the quilt
For the batting, we suggest Happy Cloud Batting in Throw Size
*A Fat Quarter is a quarter of a yard that’s cut wider, at 18″ x 21″ so that you have more room to work with. Read more about various types of fabric precuts.
Use this handy Cutting Guide to plan the layout of your cuts for each block.
The Ultimate Beginner Quilt Kit
If you would like to make your quilt to exactly match the colors in the version we are demonstrating, you can pick up this quilt kit. It contains all the fabrics you’ll need, plus all the patterns already printed out for you.
Sewing Notions
If you’re new to sewing and quilting, you will need some basic sewing supplies to get started.
We’ve included some of our favorite top-quality notions in The Ultimate Sewing Notions Kit to give you a good start on your quilting journey. The kit contains items that we can’t do without.
Besides standard sewing notions like a seam ripper, pins and thread, you will also need:
• A sewing machine – any sewing machine that sews a straight stitch will do
• A flat cutting mat for cutting and laying out your pieces
• An iron and an ironing board or ironing surface
We have some awesome quilty friends signed up to quilt along with us!
Check out their blogs and follow them on social media for inspiration and tips.
| Pat Sloan | Mister Domestic | Carrie Nelson |
| Gina of Thread Graffiti | Tracie of Riceford Streams | The Real Housewives of Cross Stitch Priscilla & Chelsea |
| Quilty staffer Gracie | Karin of Blue Pip Designs | Quilty staffer Sue |
| Linden of vinelines | Quilty staffer Angel | Quilty Staffer Lilly |
| Quilty staffer Taryn | Rebecca of OneWeeBird | Ange of A Little Patchwork |
Keep up with The Ultimate Beginner Quilt Sew Along!
If this is your first time participating in a sew along, it’s easy. You can follow along at home with us as we sew the quilt. With each new video and pattern release you can sew those elements, too. Share your progress on Instagram or Facebook with #ultimatebeginnerquilt and #myfirstquilt, or comment on our blog or video with your quilting questions.
Be sure to follow along with The Ultimate Beginner Quilt Sew Along on Facebook, and Instagram!
We will see you back here on Thursday, August 1 to get acquainted with our sewing machines and look at the basic sewing supplies needed.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.
Happy Quilting!
Stay connected to FQS!
30 comments
I am excited to learn this
Do I have to sign up for this Sew Along or do I just keep coming back on the specific dates? Sew exciting!
Hi Mary, No, you don’t have to sign up. You can just keep coming back to the blog each Thursday, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. We’ll have all the details there each week, as well. So excited you’re joining us!
The handout under the “Fabric Requirements” section is returning a 404 error. I’m excited to make this quilt! As a beginner, I could definitely use the skills.
Sorry about that! It’s fixed now https://www.fatquartershop.com/media/wysiwyg/pdf/FQS-UBQ-FabReqAndColorSheets4.pdf
Are there any extra boxes that we could buy even when we do not belong to the club?
This looks like so much fun and the pattern is adorable! Looking forward to the tutorials.
For the Sew Sampler club, we don’t have any extra boxes outside of the subscription. Sorry about that!
I am planning to follow along. I am a semi- beginner. I was enrolled in a machine quilting class for beginners several years ago, but didn’t really learn a lot. The pace was just too fast and since I didn’t have a fancy machine, I was left to do many things on my own. I have fat quarters I plan to use.
We’re going to do 1 block a week, and the videos will stay up forever, so I think that’s a good pace.
Will we get the pattern every week? The coloring sheets don’t give the cutting information and directions. I am looking forward to this I want to improve my skills and Kimberly is such a good teacher.
Hi Barb, Yes. We will release the first part of the pattern with block 1 on August 8. Each week we’ll release a new pattern.
I’m so excited to work on this. It’s always good to refresh your skills and it looks like a sweet little quilt to make.
Do you have a list of matching Aurifil thread for the kit fabrics? I’d like to place one order for everything.
Hi Tammy! No, we don’t have any matching threads picked out. This is one that we planned to piece with white thread, and then quilt it with an off-white thread.
How much time on average does each week’s block take to complete?
For the first 3 blocks, I would say an hour or so. As the blocks get more complex later in the quilt, you might need more time for those.
My 10 year old daughter and I are doing this together! We finished our first squares this morning
That’s great! Teaching the next generation and sewing together – how wonderful is that.
Here’s a tip for newbies and not-so newbies. I made my block yesterday. After I was done, and putting everything away, and doing about three things at once, I took one last measure of my finished block. Horrors! It was not 12 1/2″ wide – but more like 12 1/4″. I was really aggravated. I fretted over it all night and in my dreams, and decided I was going to make a new one all over again. I measured again this morning, and found that there was no problem at all. ?? Turns out I took my previous measurement from the wrong end of the cutting ruler, which made the block appear to be short by 1/4″. Pay attention to which end of your ruler you’re measuring from – both for cutting and checking later. Phew!
My son wants to make this with the 1800s Bella Solids palette. Do you have recommendations for the sashing and border and backing fabrics? I’m worried about trying to coordinate colors without fabric samples.
He likes blue for the border.
And thank you for the tutorials!
Nancy, I’m going to have Laurie in customer service email you to give you the right fabric color information.
Hi, I started the Snapshots quilt along recently as a block-of-the-month through a local quilt guild. Now she can’t seem to find the blocks to continue. The last one I made was the teapot. Are these patterns still available?
Hi Linda, Sure! We have all of the blocks on our blog available for free. You can find them by scrolling through these links on our blog https://blog.fatquartershop.com/?s=snapshots
I would like to follow along, but I want to use fabric that I already have. Most are prints. I do need to buy more because I don’t have 12 different fabrics. I can buy some solids. How do you think it would look with patterned fabrics?
Lots of people are making theirs in prints. You can see some examples on Pat Sloan’s blog https://blog.patsloan.com/2019/08/block-3-of-the-free-ultimate-beginner-quilt-along.html
I have found that $596.51 has been deducted from my checking account that I did not authorize, or spend that amount on fabric. And that amount of fabric has not been received.
Hi Roberta, I checked, and it shows that your order has been delivered. Please contact customer service for more information. Toll Free: 1.866.826.2069 or email service@fatquartershop.com. Thank you!
Hello,
I am finally getting started on my quilt after watching the videos every week. I have a question about selecting colors. I am using the Ombre New Color option.
Do you have this collection sorted out to match your original color key? Or do you have someone I could call or email for suggestions?
The Ombre colors seems so much darker than what is being used in the video and I want to be assured I am getting the correct color set for each block, noting that the Ombre colors will be changing due to how I cut the fabric. It is so exciting to get started and see how the variation will appear. Thank you,