How to DIY a Quilt Pattern for Cricut Maker

DIY a quilt pattern for Cricut Maker: These tips, tricks, and easy to follow steps will guide you through finding a pattern, creating it in Design Space, and cutting your fabric with the Maker.

Late last year, I shared a post with 25 quilt patterns that would be easy to create on the Cricut Maker. I promised a follow up post which walked you through choosing the pattern, creating the layout in Design Space, and actually cutting the fabric with your Maker, and here it is – finally!

DIY Quilt Pattern for Cricut Maker – First Steps

When choosing a quilt pattern for Cricut Maker, look at the shapes that need to be cut. Squares, rectangles, even some triangles are going to be easy to work with and design.  Irregular shapes aren’t impossible, but they will require more knowledge of Design Space and quilting. For this post, let’s focus on quilts with basic geometric designs, like those shared in the original Cricut Maker Quilts post.

Let’s look at the quilt design my daughter finally decided upon for her own room. It didn’t come with a pattern designed, and it isn’t challenging but not the easiest either:

This quilt didn’t come with a tutorial or instructions, but I knew it was made up of squares and triangles (which were made up of a square cut in half diagonally), so I knew it would be easy to recreate in Design Space. 

Note: This post walks you through creating your own quilt pattern for Cricut Maker, and what steps you need to consider.  It is not a quilt pattern in itself, but shares how to create your own quilt pattern. I strongly recommend the Cricut Sewing Kit and the 12×24 fabric mat before starting a quilting project.  You can also find some great designer fabric options at Cricut’s website as well.

DIY Quilt Pattern for Cricut Maker – Making a Plan

Now comes the fun part – planning out your quilt. If you don’t have instructions for your chosen design, or if you want to change the size of a quilt you love, this part is important! (If you are using a pattern with instructions, and you want to follow their guide, you can skip this part.)

1) Decide how big the quilt will be.  We wanted a twin sized quilt, so I sketched out the measurements.

2) Decide how big your “blocks” will be.  Most quilts are composed of repeating blocks.  For our quilt, the part that repeated looked like this:

We decided to make each block 10″ wide, with each block made up of 4 pieces (one solid white, one pattern, and two half pattern and half white). 

3) Color code each fabric on the sketch.

4) Total the cuts needed from each fabric.  Keep in mind that each cut needs a 1/4″ seam allowance.  For our quilt, that was (2) 5.5″ squares of white, and (2) 5.5″ squares of pattern for each block, for a total of:

• White: 54 blocks x (2) 5.5″ squares = 108 5.5″ squares
• Patterned Fabrics 1-5: 8 blocks x (2) 5.5″ squares = 16 5.5″ squares
• Patterned Fabrics 6-7: 7 blocks x (2) 5.5″ squares = 14 5.5″ squares

DIY Quilt Pattern for Cricut Maker –
Creating the Pattern in Design Space

5) Head to Design Space to create the cut file. On the right hand side, you will see the “Shapes” option.  This is where we will be doing most of our work.

6) Choose a square, and size it. (See video below for details!) To create a half square triangle, click “Shapes” again, but this time choose a score line.  Using the rotate field in the top panel, enter 45.  This will rotate the line to 45 degrees.  Next, using the W and H fields, size the line to equal your square.

7) Use the position fields, also in the top panel.  It doesn’t matter what you set this at, as long as it’s set the same for the line and the square. This aligns the two layers. Select both the line and the square, and choose attach. Lastly, change the score line to a cut line in the layers panel. 

Ta-da!  Those are the two basic cuts required for this quilt. 

DIY Quilt Pattern for Cricut Maker –
Laying Out the Cuts

8) Arrange the shapes for cutting. Most importantly, how will we do so to maximize the fabric?  If you have made quilts before, you likely do this in your head anyway.  The only thing extra to remember is that the Cricut can only cut up to 11.5″ wide. You may have to trim fabric down before placing it on your mat.

Now it’s Your Turn!

This may seem like a lot of information, and if this is your first quilt, it probably was.  But here’s the thing – making a quilt is a pretty time intensive task.  It’s not something you do in one night.  So this process isn’t neccessairly going to take one night either. 

You need to pick the fabric, determine your measurements, and lay out your cuts regardless if you are using the Cricut Maker or not.  However, using the Cricut Maker saves you from all of those cuts.  It may take about 15 minutes to set up your design from scratch, but how long would measuring and cutting all of those pieces take?

Every one of these 25 quilts is simple to create using just the “Shapes” tool in Design Space. I have complete faith in your ability to do it.  And if you run into questions, my facebook group (Create with Cricut) can help you out.

But if I haven’t convinced you, but you still want to make a quilt and just need a little extra handholding, you can get one of Cricut’s new quilt kits – they come in various sizes and include all the fabrics, instructions, and pre-designed Maker patterns that you need.

So let me know what you think – will you give DIY’ing a quilt pattern for Cricut Maker a go? If so, what will your quilt look like?  Tag me on instagram, because as always, I love seeing your creations. You’ll also grab sneak peaks of this quilt as I work on it!