Scrumptious Brick Layer Cake Quilt Pattern

At the beginning of the month when I was being much better at starting projects than finishing them, my Scrumptious layer cake was calling to be whipped up into a quick quilt top. Honest, it was!

Initially, my plan was just to lay out the 42 squares into a 6 x 7 arrangement, stitch them up and be done. However, I did have a wee pang that maybe these lovely fabrics deserved a bit more consideration, though I really didn't want to cut the layer cake squares up too much, thus losing size in lots of seams.  So with a wee bit of simple cutting I present to you my "Brick Layer Cake" quilt top.

measures 54" x 67.5"

Updated 2019:  Folks, there has been a little resurgence of interest in this quilt.  Please note that I am still very happy to send you the free pdf instructions for this quilt, but I cannot send them to you if you are a no-reply blogger because I will have no way of contacting you.  If you are a no reply blogger, please leave an email address in your comment.  If you have previously requested this pdf and I didn't send it, this is likely the reason.  I haven't been ignoring you!

I love this wee quilt top and so,  pre-emtping some festive generosity, I thought I'd share the pattern with you.  It is a fantastic way to use up a layer cake with minimal waste.  Look, this is all you will have left over from making up your top -

- two layer cake squares and a few end pieces, along with some 0.5" trimmings.  Now, isn't that an economical use of your layer cake?

Please note that because I didn't have the foresight of sharing this pattern, I didn't manage to capture "in progress" photos, so this isn't a picture tutorial for the quilt, just pattern instructions.  I have assumed the basics of quilt making knowledge - which you all have anyway.  If you do have any questions, I will try to answer them for you.

So, here goes ...

The Brick Layer Cake Pattern

quilt finishes - 54" x 67.5" approx

You will need:
1 layer cake (you will use 40 of these 10" squares)
0.5m fabric for inner borders (you will actually use 13.75" x FWOF)
0.5m fabric for binding
backing and wadding to fit quilt

All stitching assumes 0.25" seam allowance.

1.  Remove two squares from your layer cake and lay aside.  You will not be using these squares.

2.  Cut the remaining 40 layer cake squares in half, ie cut them 5" wide. You will now have 80 pieces of half layer cake squares (5" x 10").

3.  From these 80 pieces choose 4 pieces which will become the medium bricks required for your outer border.  Cut these 4 pieces to measure 7.25" x 5" and leave them aside for now.  (You will not need the excesses that you cut off from these.)  You now have 4 medium bricks.

4.  Choose another 4 of your half layer cake pieces.  These will become the small bricks which fill in the gaps at the top and bottom of the columns in the centre panel of the quilt top.  Cut these 4 pieces into 5" squares and leave them aside.  You will now have 8 small bricks.

5.  Trim all of the remaining 72 half layer cake pieces to 9.5" x 5".  You now have 72 large bricks.

6.  From the 0.5m piece of fabric you have for your inner border (mine is the solid fabric), cut 5 strips measuring 2.75" x FWOF.  Leave two of these strips aside as the top and bottom pieces and stitch the remaining three together.  Now cut this triple length strip to half its length - the resulting two pieces will be your two inner side borders.

Now you are ready to lay out your quilt top.  Hopefully this little diagram will be helpful in showing you where the different sized bricks should be placed.

7.  The centre panel of the quilt top is made up of 9 columns laid out as you would offset bricks.  So, the odd numbered columns have 6 large bricks each, while the even numbered columns are made from 5 large bricks plus two small bricks each.  Lay out as desired.

8.  Lay out your top and bottom inner border pieces and the side inner border pieces too.

9.  For each side brick border you will need to layout 5 large brick pieces plus a medium brick piece at the top and bottom of the border strip.

10.  For the top and bottom brick borders you will need to layout 6 large brick pieces for each border.

I didn't lay out the inner borders but just left space for them.

11.  Now it's time to label and gather up the sections of your quilt top for stitching.  Start by labelling your top and bottom borders and your side borders (label them right and left) and gather them carefully to retain your fabric placement.  Then, leave your inner border strips aside and finally label each column of the central panel 1 - 9 and gather them carefully into column piles.

Time to get stitching!

12.  Begin by piecing the bricks as gathered for columns 1 - 9 into column strips.  Press the seams of each strip in the same direction (towards the bottom of the strip).

13. Now pin and piece the columns together to form your central panel of columns 1 - 9.  Press all seams in one direction.

14.  Pin and stitch the top and bottom inner border strips to your central panel, trimming away any excess length of the border fabric.

15.  In the same way, add the inner side border pieces to the left and right of your central panel, again trimming away the excess of the border fabric.

16.  The next step is to piece together the brick borders for your quilt top.  Take the border pieces that you labelled and gathered earlier for the top and bottom and each side border and piece them into the required strips, pressing the seams of each strip in one direction.

17.  The left and right borders should be stitched to the quilt first.  Carefully pin these lengths in place and stitch to secure.  Press the seam away from the centre of the quilt.

18.  Pin and stitch the top and bottom brick borders into position, again pressing the seam away from the centre of the quilt.

Now you should have a quilt top that looks like mine in the photograph.  Pretty, isn't it?

To finish your quilt:

19.  Cut or piece fabric large enough for your backing (the quilt should measure 54" x 67.5" approx).

20.  Cut wadding to size.

21.  Baste your layers together in your normal way.

22.  Quilt as desired.

23.  Bind your quilt (you will need to join 6 strips cut at 2.5" x FWOF).

Eh voila!  You have whipped up a Brick Layer Cake Quilt and can now feel deservedly pleased!

I really hope you enjoy this pattern if you try it and would love to hear about it if you do.  Any resemblance to any other layer cake quilt patterns out there is purely accidental - I truly did just sit down one evening and figure out the calculations myself.

If you would like a pdf version of these instructions, please just ask in the comments and make sure you are not a no-reply blogger. If you are a no-reply blogger I cannot contact you unless you leave me an email address to forward the pdf pattern to.

As you can see from my pics I've been held up at the end of step 18, but I will show you pics when I eventually finish it.  Like I said, I was better at starting than finishing!!