Riley Blake Penny's Garden - Downloadable PDF

Riley Blake Penny's Garden Quilt – Free Downloadable PDF Pattern Summary

Penny's Garden is a charming beginner-friendly quilt pattern from Riley Blake Designs, available as a free downloadable PDF. The finished quilt measures 50" x 57", making it an ideal size for a lap quilt, throw, or child's blanket. The design combines a playful plaid patchwork layout with sweet appliquéd garden details — including flowers, stems, and a name appliqué — giving it a whimsical, personalized feel that is perfect for gifting or nursery décor.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a patchwork quilt with appliqué embellishments, finished at 50" x 57". The quilt features a structured plaid-style layout built from rectangular fabric pieces in a variety of colors and prints, framed with a border and finished with decorative scalloped binding. Five fabric flowers with button centers are appliquéd onto the quilt top, along with fabric stems and a personalized name appliqué, creating the "garden" theme referenced in the pattern title.

Design Details and Layout

The quilt top is constructed using a cutting diagram and layout guide included in the PDF. The plaid pattern is achieved by cutting and arranging nine fat quarters in a structured grid of varying rectangle sizes. The layout uses a mix of large, medium, and small rectangular blocks — ranging from full 18" x 20" panels down to small accent pieces like 6" x 1½" strips — which are sewn together to create the characteristic plaid visual effect. A border fabric frames the completed quilt center, and the scalloped binding adds a decorative, finished edge.

Techniques Used

• Patchwork piecing – Rectangular blocks are cut and sewn together in a precise layout to form the plaid pattern across the quilt top.
• Fusible web appliqué – Heat N Bond Fusible Web is used to adhere fabric stems and the name appliqué to the quilt top, making this technique accessible for beginners who may not be confident with hand or machine appliqué alone.
• Circle appliqué – Five 5" fabric circles are prepared and applied as flower blossoms, a technique that typically involves either hand-basting or fusible methods to achieve smooth, rounded edges.
• Scalloped binding – The quilt is finished with a decorative scalloped edge, which adds a handcrafted, heirloom quality to the overall design.
• Button embellishment – Five ½" buttons are sewn at the center of each fabric flower, adding dimension and a tactile finishing detail.
• Standard quilt construction – All seams are sewn with a ¼" seam allowance with right sides together, following conventional quilting assembly methods.

Stitches and Sewing Methods

• ¼" seam allowance – The standard quilting seam used throughout all patchwork piecing steps.
• Right-sides-together construction – All fabric pieces are joined using this foundational quilting method as specified in the pattern instructions.
• Appliqué stitching – Used to secure the fused stems, name, and flower circles to the quilt surface, typically finished with a machine blanket stitch, zigzag, or hand stitch around the edges.
• Button attachment – Hand stitching is used to sew the five flower center buttons in place.

Materials Required

• 9 Fat Quarters in the following prints and colors: 2 Chevron, 2 White, 1 Aqua, 1 Lavender, 1 Green, 1 Yellow, and 1 Hot Pink — each cut to 6" x 20" or as specified in the cutting requirements.
• Border fabric – 5/8 yard of a coordinating fabric to frame the quilt center.
• Name appliqué and scalloped binding fabric – 1 yard, used for both the personalized name detail and the decorative binding.
• Leftover green fabric – Repurposed from the green fat quarter to create the appliquéd stems, making efficient use of materials.