Moda Fabrics Let’s Dance Quilt - Downloadable PDF

Moda Fabrics Let's Dance Quilt Pattern – Free Downloadable PDF Summary

About This Pattern

The Let's Dance Quilt is a free downloadable PDF pattern from Moda Fabrics, designed to celebrate National Sew a Jelly Roll Day (September 21, 2019). The finished quilt measures a generous 60" x 60", making it a versatile lap or throw quilt. Rated as an intermediate difficulty project, this pattern is an excellent choice for quilters who are comfortable with basic piecing and want to explore the satisfying efficiency of Jelly Roll strip construction combined with Half Square Triangle (HST) techniques.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a single, striking 60" x 60" square quilt built entirely from a dynamic arrangement of Half Square Triangles. The design creates a lively, movement-filled visual effect — perfectly suited to the "Let's Dance" name — through the careful layout of 144 HST units set against a clean background fabric. The overall composition is bold yet structured, with the interplay of Jelly Roll prints and background squares giving the quilt its energetic rhythm.

Materials Required

• Prints: 1 Jelly Roll (a pre-cut bundle of 40 strips, each measuring 2½" x width of fabric)
• Background fabric: 2¼ yards of a solid or low-volume fabric
• Binding fabric: ½ yard
• Backing fabric: 4 yards

A Jelly Roll is a popular pre-cut quilting fabric format, typically containing 40 coordinated strips each measuring 2½" wide by the full width of fabric (approximately 44"). Using a Jelly Roll streamlines fabric selection and cutting, making this pattern an ideal way to showcase a coordinated fabric collection from Moda Fabrics.

Cutting Instructions

• Background: Cut 72 squares, each measuring 6½" x 6½"
• Binding: Cut 7 strips, each measuring 2½" x width of fabric; sew end to end to create continuous binding

Techniques Used

The Let's Dance pattern relies on a clever and efficient construction method that combines strip piecing with Half Square Triangle (HST) assembly. These are two of the most fundamental and widely used techniques in quilting, and together they allow for fast, accurate results with minimal fabric waste.

• Strip Piecing: Three Jelly Roll strips are joined together to create strip-sets. A total of 12 strip-sets are made in this manner. Strip piecing is a time-saving technique where multiple strips of fabric are sewn together before cutting into segments, ensuring consistent alignment and reducing the number of individual seams to press.
• Segment Cutting: Each strip-set is then cut into 6 segments of 6½" each, yielding a total of 72 segments.
• Half Square Triangle (HST) Construction: Each 6½" strip-set segment is paired with a 6½" background square. A diagonal line is drawn on the back of the background square, and the two pieces are sewn and then cut along the diagonal to produce 2 Half Square Triangles per pair. This method generates a total of 144 HST units.
• Squaring Up HSTs: All Half Square Triangles are trimmed and squared up to a precise 5½" x 5½" finished size, ensuring accurate alignment when assembling the quilt top.
• Quilt Top Assembly: The 144 HST units are arranged into 12 rows of 12 HSTs each and sewn together to complete the quilt top.
• Standard Seam Allowance: All construction uses a consistent ¼" seam allowance, the quilting industry standard for precise piecing.

Stitches and Sewing Details

• Straight stitch throughout, using a