Beautiful Mid-Century Modern Quilt Pattern
I am so excited to share my new Mid-Century Modern quilt pattern — Elroy! I feel like I say this with each pattern release, but this might be my new favorite! It is the epitome of midcentury modern design.
Encompassing the 1950s and 1960s, the mid-century modern style is characterized by clean lines, geometric shapes, and bold colors. This quilt pattern is inspired by the art made popular during the mid-century. The design is built of identical blocks rotated to create an improvised, asymmetrical appearance.
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The name of this quilt pattern is inspired by the popular 1960s cartoon — The Jetsons. It is named after the youngest Jetson, Elroy.
Elroy is written for four different sizes (baby, small throw, large throw, and bed) and two colorways. It is now available for purchase as a digital quilt pattern download.
Mid-Century Modern Design
Design in the middle of the 20th century was characterized by clean lines, geometric shapes, and bold color schemes. Check, check, and check. What I love about mid-century modern design is that pieces are typically simple, well-designed, and timeless. Modern quilt patterns tend to have a lot of negative space, but Elroy is a modern quilt pattern packed with bold geometric designs. The larger squares are fast to piece and the quilt comes together quickly.
Mid-Century Modern Color Inspiration
For the cover quilt, I decided to create a large throw size. I wanted a fun color palette for this quilt. I started with the backing fabric, which is a super fun floral and citrus print in funky colors of peachy-pinks and yellow greens. From there, I pulled five solid fabrics. I opted for the peacock green and the retro yellow-green colors. The two tones of pink play up the greens and complement the backing, while the bold black adds the perfect amount of contrast to make the other colors pop. I think this combination of colors is iconic 1960s.
I used Art Gallery Fabrics® exclusively and pulled from their Pure Solids line. I used: Ethereal Pink, Blushing, Caviar, Olive Oil, and Peacock for the quilt top. For the binding, I used a stripe that coordinated with the Olive Oil fabric. The backing is called “Bold Floral”. It’s a print from the Peachy Meadows fabric collection by Mariah Danielle. I ordered my fabric from an online fabric shop, but most local quilt shops have an excellent selection of solids.
If you want to learn more about color theory for quilters, check out this ultimate guide where I dive deep into color theory and how different colors work together to create harmonious combinations.
Skill Level
This pattern is perfect for a confident beginner — maybe as a second quilt — or for modern quilters with a couple of projects under their belt. This quilt is essentially made up of asymmetrical blocks built similarly to courthouse steps. The blocks are then rotated quarter turns to create an improved and asymmetrical look.
An important skill in any quilt is maintaining a consistent seam allowance. I found that my blocks were most accurate when I used a scant 1/4″ seam allowance and pressed my seams open.
This pattern requires lots and lots of strips. I found that using my rotary cutter with the Stripology XL Ruler from Creative Grids was an absolute game changer. It saved me lots of time with cutting. If you haven’t invested in one of these yet, I would highly recommend it!
Planning
When designing a quilt, I prefer to use solid fabrics for my quilt tops and large-scale prints for the backing. A lot of times, I start by finding a backing that I love and then I pick the solids for the quilt top, to coordinate. Often I will order my backing first and then use my color card swatches to find the perfect colors!
I also like to do lots of digital mock-ups to make sure I love the color combinations before I start ordering fabric yardage. Check out a few of the variations I came up with!
If you want more color palette inspiration, then be sure to check out this post. Using the 1950s for inspiration, I put together some mid-century modern color palettes using both Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids and Kona Cotton Solids.
Quilt Top Construction
I learned a while ago that chain-piecing blocks are the way to go. It’s an easy way to speed up the construction of a quilt top that has a lot of the same elements.
Finished Mid-Century Modern Quilt Top
Mid-Century Modern Quilting
Lilo of Trace Creek Quilting quilted the cover quilt! For this quilt, I wanted a pantograph that was just as fun and retro as the quilt itself. I was torn between several designs including Onion Sprouts and 60’s Mod Butterfly. Ultimately, I opted for a design called “Pyrex Stems”. It is the perfect pantograph for this 1960s inspired quilt. Pyrex Stems is a digital pantograph quilting design by Julie Hirt.
Finishing this Mid-Century Modern Quilt
One of my favorite ways to finish a quilt is with big stitch binding. This is a relatively new way to bind quilts and is a great option if you are looking to add an extra special touch to your finished quilt. I always start by machine sewing the binding to the front of the quilt and then, depending on the size of the quilt, I typically finish by hand sewing onto the back. DMC Perle Cotton in size 8 is my favorite thread to use for big stitch binding. I opted for black thread, for a funky spin.
Learn How to Do Big Stitch Binding
Hand Embroidered Quilt Label
For all of my cover quilts, I have been hand embroidering custom quilt labels and this one was no exception. I used some scrap fabric from the quilt top and embroidered “Elroy No. 004” in a very retro font. I love how it turned out!
Want to learn how to make your own custom hand embroidered quilt labels? Check out my digital course Hand Embroidered Quilt Labels.
Get a Free Quilt Pattern
If you would like to try a free pattern that is a perfect beginner quilt, check out this awesome quilt with minimalist design. It is one of the easiest quilt patterns and it can be adapted for pre-cut fabric like fat quarter bundles or charm squares. This pattern downloads instantly!
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