Pixel Plaid Quilt Pattern
The Pixel Plaid Quilt pattern is now available for instant PDF download! Click here to get it.
This pattern comes in four different sizes: Baby, Lap, Throw and Mini.
It’s been so long since I originally developed this design, I can hardly remember how it came about! I do recall playing in Adobe Illustrator with squares, layering them over each other to try and achieve the look of some design I had in mind, and instead what came out was this quilt! All those overlapping squares on my tiny computer screen felt very pixelated before they were colored in, and so the Pixel Plaid Quilt pattern was born!
Pixel Plaid is a 7-color quilt, and while I often prefer working in solids, the pattern has also been written to allow for using directional prints too (those that run perpendicular to the selvedge). It goes together super fast, with pressing, cutting and sewing achieved in just a few hours. This pattern comes in 3 generous sizes, and also includes a BONUS mini pattern! With instructions for a smaller 18” size, you can test out color palettes, make a wall hanging in an afternoon, or sew up a pillow to match your quilt. Best of all, this pattern is beginner friendly! Little to no quilt knowledge required before picking up this pattern.
More quilting links for beginners:
Quilting Basics: Tools & Notions
Weekend Baby Quilt - a FREE beginner pattern
How to Bind a Quilt
Pixel Plaid was the first quilt I ever submitted to a quilt magazine for consideration to be published. I was so nervous, but the lovely folks at Love Patchwork & Quilting made the process easy and fun for this first-timer back in 2018. The tricky part was keeping the quilt a secret until it went to print! Publishing can sometimes take several months, so even though I worked on my pattern and sewing the quilt in early 2018, it wasn’t actually published until Issue 68 in December of that year. (So if you have back-issues of LP&Q, you’ll already have the Throw size pattern!)
If you’ve been following me for a while, then you’ll probably recognize that I love to sew with shades and values of blues and greens, and the O.G. version of Pixel Plaid is no different. Using Kona Cotton solids in Aqua, Pond, Jade and Candy Green, I added some blue-greys with Silver and Fog to highlight the fun way that these overlapping squares build a plaid pattern easily. I finished off the quilt with some simple straight-line quilting, about 0.75” apart, and I love the crinkle this quilt now has without losing the pattern behind a complicated quilting motif. We keep this quilt on our couch and it still gets used daily, years later.
To make your own OG-LPQ version:
Color 1: Kona Silver
Color 2: Kona Fog
Color 3: Kona Aqua
Color 4: Kona Jade Green
Color 5: Kona Candy Green
Color 6: Kona White
Color 7: Kona Pond
Backing: Widescreen Fog
Binding: Kona Silver
Thread: Aurifil
Photo Credit: Love Patchwork & Quilting Magazine, Issue 68
This next version was my first attempt at making the Pixel Plaid quilt a bit smaller - a lap size instead of a throw - and I’m always excited when the math works out, LOL. I was contacted by Alexandra Bordallo in the fall of 2019 to play with her Dew & Moss line of Art Gallery Fabrics for the DWM Sewing Party and loved sewing up this quilt pattern into a fun and very summery print version! I just love how the larger pieces are great for highlighting beautiful print fabrics, even those with a larger pattern or repeat.
To make your own Dew & Moss version:
AGF Dew & Moss Fabrics by Alexandra Bordallo
Featured prints: Dews Cloth-line, Playful Mini Bunting, Moss Snail Mail, Jars o Bugs, Glowy Bosque, A Fly Night Sky, & Gnomes Mushroom Homes
Fat Quarter Bundle (to make a mini-size!)
Thread: Aurifil
For more awesome quiltspiration, check out these awesome versions by my wonderful pattern testers!
