Riley Blake Apricot Compote - Downloadable PDF

Riley Blake Apricot Compote Quilt Pattern by Carina Gardner – Free Downloadable PDF

About This Quilt Pattern

The Apricot Compote quilt pattern, designed by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake Designs, is a cheerful and colorful intermediate-level quilting project available as a free downloadable PDF. The finished quilt measures a generous 60 inches by 80 inches, making it a comfortable lap or throw size suitable for everyday use. The design is built around large, striking 20-inch by 20-inch Compote Blocks, giving the quilt a bold, modern aesthetic with a warm, fruity color palette inspired by apricot, coral, mint, peach, and cream tones.

Design and Aesthetic

The Apricot Compote quilt draws its visual energy from a rich assortment of coordinating prints, all sourced from the Apricot & Persimmon Fat Quarter Stack (FQ-4900-18) by Riley Blake Designs. The palette blends warm and cool tones — including black, cream, mint, coral, peach, orange, and pink — across a variety of print styles such as florals, criss cross patterns, fern prints, petal prints, and stripes. A soft linen shade fabric (C200-01 Linen) provides a neutral grounding element throughout the quilt, balancing the vibrancy of the assorted prints. Each block is intentionally constructed with a different combination of fabrics, so no two blocks are identical, lending the quilt a dynamic, collected quality reminiscent of a classic charm-style design.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a single pieced throw quilt measuring 60" x 80". The quilt center is composed of 12 large Compote Blocks, each finishing at 20" x 20". These blocks are assembled from Large Half Square Triangles (HSTs) combined with an assortment of smaller 5-inch squares, creating a rich, textured layout with strong diagonal movement across the surface of the quilt.

Techniques Used

• Half Square Triangle (HST) construction: Each Compote Block begins with sewing a large assorted print triangle to a large linen shade triangle, right sides together, to form a Large Half Square Triangle. These are then squared up to 12½ inches, a standard quilting technique that ensures accuracy and clean points.
• Precise cutting from fat quarters: The pattern requires careful cutting from a fat quarter stack, including a specific technique of cutting 13-inch squares diagonally once to yield large triangles. Some 5-inch squares must be cut from the leftover triangle portions, requiring thoughtful fabric economy and planning before cutting begins.
• Strip cutting: The linen shade yardage is cut into 2½-inch and 13-inch strips across the width of fabric (WOF), which are then sub-cut into squares and triangles — a classic quilting efficiency technique.
• Block-by-block assembly with varied fabric placement: Each of the 12 blocks uses a unique combination of prints, requiring careful reference to the Quilt Center Diagram during assembly to achieve the intended layout.
• Pressing seams: The pattern specifies pressing after each HST is sewn, which is essential for maintaining flat, accurate blocks at this larger scale.
• Binding: A separate binding fabric is included in the requirements, indicating a traditional double-fold binding finish around the quilt edges.

Stitches and Piecing Methods

• Standard straight stitch piecing throughout, sewn with right sides together as noted in the pattern instructions.
• All seam allowances are a consistent ¼ inch, which is the quilting industry standard and is already included in all measurements given in the pattern.
• Squaring up HST units to 12½ inches is a critical finishing step that uses a rotary cutter and quilting ruler to trim blocks to a precise, consistent size before further assembly.

Materials Required

• Fabric: 1 Apricot & Persimmon Fat Quarter Stack (FQ-4900-18) by Riley Blake Designs