Free Quilt Pattern: Shieldmaiden

During my recent stint working at a local quilt shop, I got to see lots of cool customer quilts. One of my favorites by far was a scrappy flowering snowball quilt. A flowering snowball quilt had been on my project wishlist for over a year, but seeing one in person put it at the forefront in my mind. I started pondering what fabrics to use, and the answer was obvious: the Spring 2015 Cotton + Steel collections. 

The Spring 2015 Cotton + Steel Collections

A couple weeks ago at Sample Spree, I scooped up a fat quarter bundle of each of the new collections. I had done the same thing back in fall, and I used those bundles to make my Cotton + Steel Patchwork City Quilt (which I have yet to properly photograph and blog about). Having a huge stack of prints with a common color palette is just too valuable of an opportunity to waste, so finding a way to combine all the collections in one quilt feels very gratifying. Doing it again seems to be the start of a tradition. 

I set about trying to find a free flowering snowball pattern, but couldn't find one that I felt confident in. Instead, I drafted my own pattern and templates in Adobe Illustrator. One quick test block later, I was good to go! Isn't it awesome when everything works perfectly on the first try?

I'm not yet done with my own quilt (I've got 3/6 rows totally finished and I'm piecing row #4), but since it's a one block quilt, I feel confident enough with the pattern I've written up to pass it on to all of you.

Because I need to give everything a cute name, I dubbed my flowering snowball pattern "Shieldmaiden." The interlocking circles reminded me of all the times Lagertha shouts "Shield wall!" on one of my favorite shows, Vikings. 

Click *HERE* to download the pattern for free!

The Shieldmaiden quilt pattern is fat quarter friendly, using 4 FQs for each of 6 colors, 8 low volume FQs, and a fat eighth for the tiny diamonds. I'm using more FQs for a even scrappier look, but you can still achieve a scrappy feel with the materials in the pattern.

Each block measures 12" square and the finished quilt is 60" x 72".