Sunflower Moonbeam with a Background and Fat Quarters

Sunflower Moonbeam is my modern quilt pattern written for the beginner quilter. It's a basic pattern but has several fabric options. You can use fat quarters, 2 1/2 in. precut strips (Jelly Rolls), or yardage to make it. 

So it maybe simple in design but, you can easily make it your own.

The Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt Pattern includes 6 sizes! 

It's written for the beginner quilter because it doesn't have any trimming or difficult piecing. It's also a fast and easy quilt. 

I think experienced quilters will like the pattern too. I've made 3 versions of this pattern and am debating on fabrics for my 4th. 

You can see the quilt I'm talking about today below. I'm kinda in love with how it turned out. 

Find a copy of the Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt Pattern here. 

For this quilt I decided to make a small throw size (56 in. x 64 in.) which usually requires 16 fat quarters or 2 Jelly Rolls.

However, I wanted to show how to make the quilt with a background fabric and accent fabrics, instead of all accent fabrics. 

To do this I replaced 1/2 of the fat quarters with one fabric, which means I only needed 8 fat quarters to make this quilt. 



I already had an 8 piece fat quarter bundle of woven fabrics which I thought would be great for this pattern. So I added a natural colored solid fabric to compliment them. 

To make the Sunflower Moonbeam Pattern with a background fabric follow the cutting directions for the fat quarters (realizing there will be half as many as if you were using only fat quarters).

Then, when ready to cut the background fabric follow the directions for cutting yardage fabrics. You will only be cutting for fabrics B and D. 

Follow the sewing directions for fat quarters, replacing the bottom two strips in each unit set with a background strip. 

Below is the diagram for when sewing with fat quarters or 2 1/2 in. precut strips. 

Below I changed the diagram to show you the bottom fabrics are replaced by the background fabric. 

This means the bottom fabric of every unit should be the same color. 

You can see a block progression below. Half of the squares are all the natural color. 

Half of the squares or rectangles from all my blocks will be the natural solid fabric. 

It's important when piecing the blocks to consistently piece them the same. Meaning each block has an accent fabric in the upper left corner and alternates with a background fabric throughout. 

Below I wrote how much fabric you will need to make a Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt with background fabric in each size: 

Baby - (3) Fat Quarters and 1 yard of fabric

Small Throw - (8) Fat Quarters and 2 1/4 yards of background fabric

Large Throw - (11) Fat Quarters and 2 2/3 yards of background fabric 

Twin - (15) Fat Quarters and 3 3/4 yards of background fabric 

Queen - (21) Fat Quarters and 5 1/4 yards of background fabric 

King - (25) Fat Quarters and 6 1/4 yards of background fabric

You can buy fabric to make this version of the Sunflower Moonbeam here. 

This quilt really turned out beautiful. Because half the fabrics are all one color I wasn't sure if I would love it as much as the other versions. But I do! 

I think the quilt has a very peaceful vibe to it. It's relaxing to look at. 

When I was piecing the blocks I accidentally had laid then all out in an alternating formation. You can see this when you look at the quilt. It gives the quilt a more organized look. 

If you want to read more about the pattern, you can find my blog post about the Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt Pattern here. 

Kait from Knot and Thread Designs quilted this for me. She quilts all my quilts and always does a great job. She also helps me choose the designs because I don't usually know what I want or what color thread would look best. 

For this one we chose a pantograph called Grape Soda. 

I love how it turned out with the variation in the pattern. It added a bit of excitement to the quilt, aside from the stripes in the fabric.