Moda Fabrics Paris Flea Market Stars Quilt - Downloadable PDF

Moda Fabrics Paris Flea Market Stars Quilt – Downloadable PDF Pattern Summary

This free downloadable PDF pattern from Moda Fabrics guides intermediate quilters through the construction of a stunning 84" x 84" star quilt featuring fabrics from the Paris Flea Market collection. The finished quilt is a full-square design built around a classic star block construction, making it an ideal project for quilters who are comfortable with precision piecing and want to explore paper-foundation methods for half square triangles.

About the Design

The Paris Flea Market Stars Quilt is a single large quilt measuring 84 inches by 84 inches, making it a generous throw or bed-sized piece. The design is centered on a repeating star block pattern created entirely from half square triangle units. The interplay of dark and light prints from the Paris Flea Market fabric collection gives the quilt its characteristic vintage, eclectic charm — evoking the layered textures and tones of a Parisian antique market.

The pattern is rated intermediate in difficulty, meaning it is best suited to quilters who already have a solid understanding of accurate cutting, pressing, and piecing, but who may not yet have extensive experience with specialty paper-piecing tools or complex block assembly.

Techniques Used

• Half Square Triangle (HST) construction using paper foundations – The pattern relies on the 2" Half Square Triangle Star Singles by Spinning Star Design (SS020), a specialty paper product that allows quilters to sew multiple identical HST units at once with high precision. Each sheet of Star Singles paper produces 8 identical half square triangle units, and a total of 32 sheets are used to make 256 HST units for the quilt blocks.
• Layering and sewing on dashed lines – Dark and Light 6½" squares are layered right sides together, the paper is placed on top and pinned, and stitching follows the dashed lines printed on the paper template.
• Cutting along solid lines – After sewing, the HST pairs are cut apart along the solid lines of the paper template without removing the paper first, ensuring accuracy and preventing distortion.
• Pressing toward the dark print – Units are flipped so the dark print is on top, then pressed open. This is a standard quilting technique to reduce bulk and keep seams flat.
• Trimming dog ears – After pressing, the small triangular extensions (dog ears) at the corners of each HST are trimmed away for clean, accurate seam allowances.
• Paper removal – The foundation paper is removed after pressing, a step specific to paper-foundation HST methods.
• Diagonal cutting of squares into triangles – Dark print squares cut at 6⅞" are cut once on the diagonal to yield 64 large dark triangles, which are incorporated into the block construction alongside the HST units.
• Bordered quilt construction – The quilt features a structured border system: a light inner border, a dark inner border, and a combined outer border and binding, each cut from specific coordinating fabrics.
• ¼" seam allowance throughout – All instructions are written with a consistent ¼" seam allowance, the standard for quilting precision.
• Directional pressing – The pattern instructs pressing in the direction of arrows provided in the instructions, a technique that helps seams nest properly when blocks are joined.

Stitches and Sewing Details

• Straight stitch sewn along the dashed lines of the Star Singles paper template
• A 50-weight thread is recommended for sewing through the paper foundation, as finer thread perforates the paper more cleanly and makes removal easier
• A shorter stitch length is specified when sewing on the paper, again to aid in clean paper removal and precise seam lines

Materials and Fabric Requirements

The pattern is designed specifically around the Paris Flea Market fabric collection by Moda Fabrics. The following materials are required:

• Blocks: 1 Paris Flea Market Fat Quarter Bundle (40 fat quarters, each 18" x 22") – product