Moda Fabrics Favorite Sweater Quilt - Downloadable PDF

Moda Fabrics Favorite Sweater Quilt – Free Downloadable PDF Pattern Summary

The Favorite Sweater Quilt is a charming and creative quilting project from Moda Fabrics, featuring fabric by designers Alexia Marcelle Abegg and Rashida Coleman-Hale. This intermediate-level pattern is available as a free downloadable PDF and guides quilters through constructing a quilt made up of pieced blocks that mimic the look of classic Fair Isle-style sweaters — complete with body, sleeves, yoke, collar, and cuffs. The result is a whimsical, textile-inspired quilt that celebrates the cozy aesthetic of handknit winter sweaters rendered entirely in fabric and patchwork.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is a patchwork quilt composed of individual sweater-shaped blocks. Each block is carefully pieced to represent a miniature sweater, with distinct fabric sections assigned to the sweater body, yoke, sleeves, cuffs, and collar. When assembled together, the blocks create a quilt surface that evokes a collection of cozy, patterned sweaters laid out side by side — a playful and visually engaging design concept.

Fabric and Materials Used

The pattern is specifically designed around Moda Fabrics fabric collections, with precise fabric references called out in the cutting instructions:

• Speckled Fat Eighths (F8s) – Used as the sweater colors, these speckled prints form the main body and cuff sections of each sweater block. Each fat eighth yields one 8" x 6¼" Sweater Body rectangle and two 3" x 1¾" Cuff rectangles, as well as one 4" x 1¾" Collar rectangle.
• RS5033-11M Paper Cuts – Wool – A patterned print used for yoke and sleeve sections, cut into 4¼" x WOF strips, subcut into 14" x 4¼" rectangles, yielding five rectangles per fabric pull.
• RS5033-12M Paper Cuts – Poinsettia – Another patterned print contributing yoke and sleeve pieces, subcut into four 14" x 4¼" rectangles.
• RS5033-13M Paper Cuts – Pine – A third coordinating print, also subcut into four 14" x 4¼" rectangles for yoke and sleeve components.

The Paper Cuts prints by Alexia Marcelle Abegg and Rashida Coleman-Hale are central to achieving the Fair Isle sweater effect, as their patterned motifs — Wool, Poinsettia, and Pine — replicate the look of colorwork knitting bands traditionally seen across the yoke and upper body of Fair Isle sweaters.

Cutting Techniques and Preparation

Precise and organized cutting is essential to this pattern. Quilters work with fat eighths for the speckled sweater colors and width-of-fabric (WOF) strips for the Paper Cuts prints. Key cutting steps include:

• From each 14" x 4¼" Paper Cuts rectangle, quilters designate one long edge as the bottom, print-wise, to maintain consistent orientation of the patterned fabric.
• Two 3" x 4¼" rectangles are subcut from one short end of each large rectangle to create the Sleeves.
• The remaining 8" x 4¼" rectangle becomes the Yoke.
• Keeping each group of three rectangles — two sleeves and one yoke — together throughout the process is strongly emphasized to maintain the Fair Isle aesthetic and ensure that the print direction reads consistently across the assembled sweater block.

Piecing Techniques and Block Construction

This is a precision piecing pattern that relies on careful fabric placement rather than complex curved or paper-pieced construction. The sweater blocks are built from straight-seam patchwork, assemb