Old Muscat Souq and the Bundle of Fun

April 11, 2024

Let's talk about one of my favorite patterns and one of my favorite bundles of fabric. The Old Muscat Souq Pattern is a modern quilt pattern which is fat quarter friendly. It's also beginner friendly with no trimming! I hadn't made it in a while when I decided to make this version. I had forgotten how fast and easy it is.

This quilt is extra special. You see I had just brought a whole bunch of fabric with me to make fat quarter bundles to share with you in the US. So I decided one day to use one of them to make my own quilt, I mean why not?

I named the bundle the Bundle of Fun because the fat quarters are just that... they have all the colors and patterns a quilter could want. They are bright and colorful. They might go together, they might not... you decide. :) Just generally, the fabrics make me smile.

I decided to use a bundle which had exactly the correct number of fat quarters for the pattern, with two left over to make a scrappy binding.

After pressing and cutting my fat quarters, I mixed and matched until I had the pieces organized for the blocks. I love the picture below and seeing how all the fabrics interact together.

About the Pattern

Let me tell you a little bit about the Old Muscat Souq Quilt Pattern.

I said earlier the pattern uses fat quarters and a background fabric to create a block based quilt with sashing. Each block contains three different fabrics from the fat quarters. This is why you can see in the image above each pile has three different fabrics in it.

The Old Muscat Souq Pattern is written for the advanced beginner. There isn't any hard piecing taking place. However, sewing a consistent 1/4 inch is important, especially when sewing the tips of the stars.

The Old Muscat Souq Quilt Pattern includes 4 sizes:

Baby 36 in. x 36 in.

Throw 52 in. x 69 in.

Twin 69 in. x 85 in.

Queen 102 in. x 118 in.

When I wrote the pattern I also included a second option for making the blocks all the same. You can find the fabric requirements for this variation on the back cover of the pattern.

All right, you are probably asking why in the world is this pattern called such a strange name. Well, it's inspired and named after a trip our family took to Oman several years ago. A souq is a market and this was inspired by a particular one in the oldest part of Muscat.

Back to this quilt...

Pressing is very important with this quilt pattern. Quilters know that pressing doesn't mean ironing. It means literally lifting the iron up and down, not back and forth.

The star tips especially can easily become stretched out in this pattern if you iron instead of press. If this happens the the stars almost bubble when the blocks are finished. So make sure when sewing and pressing to not tug and keep the consistent 1/4 inch seam. It will make construction much easier.

The construction of the blocks is really pretty quick because there is no trimming. Yay! That's my favorite kind of quilt pattern.

I just love how all these blocks looked when they came together. There is enough white in them that the busy fabrics work but don't overpower the blocks.

This quilt has sashing. I feel like quilters either love or hate sashing. I got so excited my blocks were done then was a bit disappointed I still had the sashing to sew on. LOL! You would think I would remember since it's my pattern.

But then I realize sashing is just built up in my head because it goes fast. In no time I had the whole quilt top done and on my ironing board ready to baste.

Make sure when you attach your rows together to align the blocks so each row is right on top of the other. It usually naturally aligns, but it's good to check.

As you will notice this quilt has a lot of white in it. I used a Bella Solids white. Because of this it's important when choosing your batting to get an absolute white batting. Even getting a natural colored batting can slightly show through your quilt and make it look slightly dingy.

I could not decide how to quilt this one. I went back and forth for a while. I wanted to hand quilt, but did I really want to spend the time on this quilt? Or should I just throw it on my sewing machine and get it done much faster.

Patience won out and I decided to hand quilt it.

I hadn't hand quilted a large project in a couple years so it was a good refresher course. I ended up rebasting this quilt 2 more times after the original time. After I had quilted about half of it the fabrics seemed to be bubbling on the back and not laying flat. So I rebasted, not what a quilter wants to spend time doing. Then, I did it again when I was about 2/3 of the way through the quilt.

I like the end result. It didn't take too long, maybe 2 weeks. I just quilted straight lines 1 inch apart. My main focus was working on a consistent stitch length first on the front of the quilt and then on the back. I was happy with how I did.

The backing of this quilt is some yardage I brought from India. I love the pink and the flowers. I thought it was such a fun accent to the front of the quilt, plus it's very soft. However, it is a bit dark for all the white in the quilt top. I should have gone a little lighter with the backing fabric. You can see in the image below the backing shows through a bit.

I used the two remaining fat quarters from the Bundle of Fun to make the binding. I alternated between the two fabrics when I sewed it together. It ties together a fun, eclectic quilt.