Moda Fabrics Merrily Quilt - Downloadable PDF

Moda Fabrics Merrily Quilt Pattern Summary

The Moda Fabrics Merrily Quilt is a downloadable PDF quilting pattern designed by Moda Fabrics, available as a free download for quilters who enjoy festive, holiday-inspired projects. Rated at an intermediate difficulty level, this pattern is best suited for quilters who are comfortable with precise cutting, piecing multiple fabric components, and assembling a quilt with several distinct design elements working together in a cohesive layout.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is a decorative quilt featuring a charming holiday scene. Based on the cutting instructions within the pattern, the design prominently incorporates houses, trees, and ground strips — classic motifs associated with a cozy winter or Christmas village aesthetic. The quilt is constructed from a combination of pieced blocks and horizontal spacing strips that work together to create a structured, scenic composition. The finished size is referenced within the pattern, and the overall layout suggests a wall quilt or lap quilt format suited to seasonal display.

Design Elements and Motifs

• Houses: House units are a central design element, cut and pieced according to dedicated cutting instructions within the pattern. These blocks form the focal point of the quilt's village scene.
• Trees: Pieced tree blocks are constructed using assorted green fat quarters, with each fat quarter yielding strips cut to specific dimensions for the tree shapes. Four fat quarters are used for the tree elements, giving the design variety and a scrappy, handcrafted character.
• Tree Trunks and Ground Strips: Brown fat quarters provide the fabric for both the tree trunk pieces and the ground strips that anchor the scene. Four brown fat quarters are used, each yielding a carefully specified set of rectangles in graduated sizes to create realistic-looking ground and trunk details.
• Background and Border: A background fabric provides the negative space and structural framing of the quilt. Horizontal spacing strips in multiple widths — including 9½", 9", and 8½" widths — are cut from width-of-fabric strips and trimmed to precise lengths to maintain consistent spacing between the design elements.

Techniques Used

The Merrily Quilt employs a range of quilting techniques that make it an engaging project for intermediate quilters looking to build their skills:

• Precise rotary cutting: The pattern relies heavily on accurate cutting of rectangles and strips in a wide variety of dimensions. Quilters are advised to mark and label pieces as they cut, a tip included directly in the pattern to help manage the many similarly sized components.
• Strip cutting from width-of-fabric (WOF) strips: Background and spacing pieces are cut from full-width strips, which are then sub-cut into the required lengths. This is an efficient method for producing multiple consistent pieces from a single pass of the rotary cutter.
• Fat quarter cutting: Both the green tree fabrics and the brown ground and trunk fabrics are cut from fat quarters, a standard quilting fabric cut measuring approximately 18" x 22". The pattern specifies exactly how to cut each fat quarter to maximize fabric use.
• Pieced block construction: Individual motifs — houses, trees, and ground sections — are assembled from multiple smaller cut pieces before being joined into the larger quilt top. This block-based construction approach is fundamental to the overall design.
• Horizontal strip assembly: The quilt top is assembled using horizontal spacing strips that separate and frame the design elements, a technique that creates a clean, organized scenic layout reminiscent of a storybook or village panorama.
• Quilt sandwich and finishing: As with all quilts, the completed top will be layered with batting and backing fabric, then quilted and bound to finish. While specific quilting designs are not detailed in the extracted content, the finished size reference in the pattern title confirms a complete, finished quilt is the intended outcome.

Materials and Fabric Requirements

The Merrily Quilt is a fabric-based project requiring quilting cotton and standard quilting supplies. Key materials referenced in the pattern include:

• Assorted green fat quarters (4): Used for the pieced tree blocks. Choosing a variety of green prints — from deep forest greens to lighter, brighter holiday greens — will add visual interest and a scrappy charm to the trees.
• Brown fat quarters (4): Used for tree trun