Alright, let's talk about one of my most basic quilt patterns, but also one of the best!It's the Sunflower Moonbeam modern quilt pattern and it's for the beginner quilter.
It's versatile because you can use fat quarters, 2 1/2 inch precuts (Jelly Rolls) or yardage.
I wrote the pattern for the beginner quilter, but to be honest, as an experienced quilter I love this quick and easy pattern.
So far I have made the pattern in only solids. I've made it with with lots of different fabrics (like the one I'm going to tell you about today). I've also made it with a combination of yardage and fat quarters. Each time I make it the quilt comes out beautiful and with a totally different look than the previous one.
You can find the Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt Pattern here.
This quilt happens to be the first Sunflower Moonbeam I ever made. I had some 2 1/2 inch precut strips (Jelly Rolls) laying around and decided to give this quilt a try.
I love Jelly Rolls because much less effort is required from my end. I guess you could say I am a lazy quilter, but I prefer to say I am efficient. If I can save time on one of the steps or skip some steps altogether then I'm all for it.
The Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt Pattern uses strip piecing to speed up the sewing process. This is when long strips of fabric are sewn together then cut into small units. Those units are then sewn into blocks. It means less time consuming sewing of small pieces of fabric. 
One of the first steps in this pattern, after cutting your fabrics, is matching up said fabric strips into pairs. I like my fabrics to have contrast with each other. I think that it allows the pattern of the quilt to stand out more and adds to the scrappy look of the quilt.
I tried my best to match up strips with different patterns and colors which would pop next to each other.
Some people don't like contrast which makes for a different quilt. Whichever is your style, sew the quilt you want with the look you want to achieve.
Before I forget I should mention what fabric line I used because it truly is magical. This line is called Honey by Alexia Abegg for Ruby Star Society.
I think the bold colors and mostly smaller prints really worked well for this quilt pattern.
As I said earlier I used 2 Jelly Rolls and made the large throw size which comes out at 64 inches x 72 inches. This is a great size throw because it's nice and large for taller people.
With this size quilt and 2 Jelly Rolls you should have just enough strips left over to make the binding for your quilt. This would give you a scrappy binding which would look so cute! I didn't do this because I just sewed through all my strips (so I still have some spare blocks).
However, each Jelly Roll has 40 strips in it. For this size quilt you would have 8 strips left over which would be enough to make a scrappy binding. Now I kinda wish I had done that. :)
About the Pattern
The Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt Pattern includes 6 sizes! I really went all out for this pattern. I just figured why not add every size.
- Baby (32 in. x 40 in.)
- Small Throw (56 in. x 64 in.)
- Large Throw 64 in. x 72 in.)
- Twin (72 in. x 88 in.)
- Queen (88 in. x 104 in.)
- King (104 in. x 104 in.)
This is a good pattern to master the 1/4 inch seam with. There is lots of long sewing together long pieces of fabric at the beginning. If you are a new quilter I suggest slowing down and making sure the seam is straight.
I am also a big proponent of the magnetic seam guide. I use a 1/4 inch foot on my machine to help guide my sewing. A seam guide is an excellent way for beginner quilters to keep a consistent seam and not spend lots of money on a new foot for their machine.
The Sunflower Moonbeam Quilt Pattern includes directions for making the quilt with yardage and fat quarters as well.
You can read about the quilt above made with fat quarters here.
I try to write my patterns so that if possible you can go right into your stash and get sewing. With three different fabric options for this pattern it's likely us hoarders of fabric wouldn't need to go to the fabric shop to make it.
The hardest part of this quilt was probably laying out the blocks. I wanted to make sure the colors were evenly dispersed throughout the quilt. With so many blocks and busy patterns it was a lot to look at.
If you are a new quilter this pattern would be a good one to practice straight line quilting on. Because there are so many easy lines to follow through the quilt you could easily follow the seams and nicely quilt it.
I decided to send this one out to be quilted by Kait from Knot and Thread Design. She helped me choose a pantograph for this which I wasn't sure about at first. I was thinking swirls. She suggested one called Daisy Daze #1 which we ended up using.
I was afraid because the quilt was already very busy looking that a dense quilting design would be too much. But this one added so much texture to the quilt. 
This quilt has quickly become one of my new all time favorites. It's partly the pattern and partly the fabric.
Tips for Making Your Own
If you want to make your own version (and can't find the Honey fabric line) here are a few quick tips:
- Use mostly fabrics with a variety of smaller patterns.
- Add a few fabrics with a larger scale modern print.
- Choose bold colors and some contrasting lighter prints (think prints with a white background)
- Pair contrasting fabrics for each block.
- The more fabrics the merrier!
Grab your copy in the shop and get sewing!