Riley Blake Crown Princess - Downloadable PDF

Riley Blake Crown Princess Quilt Pattern – Free Downloadable PDF by The RBD Designers

The Crown Princess is a charming and approachable quilt pattern designed by The RBD Designers for Riley Blake. Available as a free downloadable PDF, this pattern produces a finished quilt measuring 41 inches by 53 inches — a versatile size perfect for a lap quilt, a child's quilt, or a decorative wall hanging. Rated at an intermediate difficulty level, Crown Princess is well-suited for quilters who are comfortable with basic piecing and are ready to explore simple appliqué techniques.

What Is Being Made

Crown Princess is a pieced and appliquéd quilt featuring a bold striped body, a decorative crown centerpiece, and elegant scroll motifs. The design combines a lively strip-pieced section with a focal appliqué panel showcasing a regal crown flanked by mirrored scroll pieces. The composition is framed by two distinct borders — a narrow first border and a wider outside border — giving the finished quilt a polished, layered look. The overall aesthetic is playful yet sophisticated, making it an ideal project for a young child's room or as a gift with a royal theme.

Fabrics and Materials Required

The pattern calls for a thoughtfully curated selection of fabrics, each serving a specific design purpose:

• Stripes: ¼ yard each of 5 different stripe fabrics, used to create the vibrant strip-pieced sections of the quilt body
• Crown Background: ⅓ yard of fabric to serve as the backdrop for the appliquéd crown and scroll motifs
• Crown and Scrolls: ¼ yard of fabric for the appliqué shapes themselves
• First Border: ⅓ yard for the narrow inner border framing the central design
• Outside Border: ½ yard for the wider outer border that completes the quilt top
• Binding: ⅜ yard to finish the quilt edges
• Fusible Web: ⅜ yard, used to adhere the appliqué shapes to the background fabric before stitching

No specific yarn, knitting needles, or crochet hooks are required — this is a quilting project worked entirely with fabric, thread, and standard quilting tools including a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and sewing machine.

Techniques Used

Strip Piecing

A significant portion of the quilt body is constructed using strip piecing, a classic quilting technique in which multiple fabric strips are sewn together lengthwise to form a strip set, which is then cut into segments. In Crown Princess, nine strips cut from the five stripe fabrics are stitched together in a specific order — F, I, B, E, A, G, D, C, H — to create a single unified strip set. This set is then cut into two segments: one measuring 26½ inches and one measuring 9½ inches. Strip piecing is efficient and produces consistent results, making it a favorite among intermediate quilters.

Fusible Appliqué

The crown and scroll motifs are applied using fusible web appliqué, a technique that uses heat-activated adhesive web to bond fabric shapes to a background before they are stitched in place. The pattern instructs quilters to trace the crown, two scroll pieces, and their mirror images onto the smooth side of the fusible web, rough-cut the shapes, iron them to the chosen fabric, and then cut precisely on the marked lines. Once the paper backing is removed, the shapes are arranged on the 9-inch by 34-inch background piece and pressed into place with an iron. This method ensures clean, accurate appliqué placement and prevents shifting during stitching.

An important note included in the pattern is that shapes will be reversed when finished — a standard consideration when working with fusible web, since designs are traced in mirror image on the web's smooth side.

Template Making

Before beginning the appliqué, quilters are instructed to make templates of the crown and two scroll pieces from the pattern. This step is essential for accurately transferring the shapes to the fusible web and ensuring symmetry across the mirrored scroll elements (scroll piece #1 and its reverse