Nautical Stripes Quilt: Free Half-Square Triangle Quilt Pattern!

This half-square triangle quilt pattern is now available as a FREE DOWNLOAD for joining the Murder Mystery Quilt mailing list. No spam, just updates on when the next Murder Mystery Quilt is available, sneak previews of new MMQ treats coming along for you, and occasional freebies in your inbox.

Quilts Make Great Gifts–and Heirlooms

When this quilt began, it was a present for my sister. I made a half-square triangle quilt entirely from striped fabrics for her, and because I was planning to take it with me to a family vacation on Cape Cod, something about all the stripes-and-white felt like sails and sailboats, had this overwhelming nautical vibe.

I took her quilt, with a solid backing and some fabric paint, to Cape Cod and we had the children–my four and her two–add their handprints as a cousins Summer Memory. It was sweet and wholesome and wonderful. It was the first quilt I made for someone else from start to finish. We pulled out a discarded old pillow case and did a second set of handprints for me to take home.

Second Quilt: Ten Years Later

I made a second set of squares to stitch into HSTs for myself, so we could have twinnies quilts. Once I got home, and the pressure to complete the gift quilt before the trip was off, I put my own quilt away in a bag, inside a box, for “later,” because that’s what so many of us do, we leave the things FOR OURSELVES until later (clearly we all need to encourage the Selfish Seamstress to come back and re-educate us with her wisdom, man, I miss her blog, I really do).

Cue: montage of ten years whooshing past. The youngest baby who made hand prints that day has started middle school. The oldest now lives eight(ish) states away and manages a pet store while finishing her college degree. A LOT has happened–and the quilt still wasn’t complete.

Lockdown Sewing

While designing a block for the 2020 Murder Mystery Quilt, which featured half-square triangles pretty heavily, I remembered this project and dug it back out. It was during the early stages of lockdown, and I think all of us were finding new motivation to clear out old, languishing ideas and move forward toward completed items–if only for the sense of control and certainty in the most uncertain times any of us had ever experienced.

And now: huzzah!! It’s complete and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I played with lots of ideas for how to set these HST blocks, and settled on a God’s-eye design that seems to accentuate the stripes while also allowing each fabric to merge into the one next to it?

The striped fabrics are all from my stash, every random stripe I could lay my hands on at the time I was cutting squares. The background is Kona white.

Binding is another fabric from my stash, by dear friend Violet Craft. All the piecing was by machine, as was the quilting; this is the first time I’ve used white thread on a quilt back that was a solid, dark color, and I’m still not sure I love the effect–but I DO like the secondary design of the quilting lines without the God’s-eye shapes as a reference. Binding was sewn by machine stitching in the ditch, and the spots I missed were fixed by hand. Ooops.

While I was at it, I made a pattern! For you!

It’s a free download as a thank you just for signing up for the Murder Mystery Quilt email list, where we promise never to send you anything spammy, just to update you when registration for the next MMQ goes live, and how to get some special goodies set aside just for quilters who love to read/readers who love to quilt/adventurous sewing folk who enjoy a good mystery.

You can get your copy of the pattern right here.

I hope you love it, and that your Nautical Stripes Quilt accompanies you on many treasured visits to the ocean and beyond!

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  • Samina
    August 20, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    That’s gorgeous, but I cannot, for the life of me, find an email sign up link for the MMQ email list! Sorry if I’m totally overlooking it.

    • Deborah
      August 20, 2021 at 4:19 pm

      No worries! You can also find it here:
      http://eepurl.com/gLd5NH
      Have fun! ๐Ÿ™‚

      • Samina
        August 24, 2021 at 1:57 pm

        I seem to be stuck in a loop too! Could you email me directly, as well? I got the email, but it just redirects me here!

  • Kathy Berger
    August 23, 2021 at 4:54 pm

    It’s disappointing to be offered this free quilt pattern and not be allowed to download it because I am already “subscribed”. I’ve been doing the MMQ for several years now; I just thought this was something extra for us members. I guess not…………………

    • Deborah
      August 23, 2021 at 10:40 pm

      Hi, Kathy! Iโ€™ve emailed you directly, no worries! โ˜บ๏ธ

  • Louise Haley
    August 23, 2021 at 8:04 pm

    Yes, I can’t find out how to download it either, as i too am already a subscriber.

    • Deborah
      August 23, 2021 at 10:41 pm

      Hi, Louise! We’re working to correct the “loop” that has prevented some folks from getting the pattern–I’ve emailed you directly to make sure you receive it! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Carla Payne
    August 23, 2021 at 8:42 pm

    Hi there,
    Are we able to access this pattern if we are already subscribed?
    Thanks in advance, Carla

    • Deborah
      August 23, 2021 at 10:42 pm

      Absolutely! I’m emailing you directly, should be in your inbox in 5 min! ๐Ÿ™‚

      • Carla
        August 25, 2021 at 5:55 am

        Hi there, nothing has come through yet other than the original email about the patternโ€ฆ

  • Tamara
    August 23, 2021 at 10:05 pm

    Already subscribed to the list but cannot get the quilt pattern – just looping around in subscribing – disappointed!

    • Deborah
      August 23, 2021 at 10:42 pm

      No worries, Tamara! I’m sending you an email now. ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Jill Roberts
    August 23, 2021 at 10:48 pm

    I too am a subscriber as I have down the 2019 and 2020 MMQ. I cannot download the pattern. If I fill in the subscriber site, it comes back and tells me I am already a subscriber. Deborah, how can we download the pattern please?

  • Patricia Eagleton
    August 24, 2021 at 9:44 am

    I have signed up for the email but still cannot download the free pattern.

    • Deborah
      August 24, 2021 at 12:21 pm

      I’ve emailed you directly, Patricia! ๐Ÿ™‚

      • Deborah
        August 24, 2021 at 12:22 pm

        Hi, Jill! I’ve sent it along to the email you included in your comment. Please let me know if you have any other trouble! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • DONNA L RIGAUX
    August 24, 2021 at 3:30 pm

    I also am a subscriber and would like the pattern Thanks

  • Tammy Frydenlund
    August 24, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    Having the same issue as the other people, already subscribed but won’t let me download

  • Holly Peterson
    August 24, 2021 at 8:29 pm

    I would love to get a copy of the quilt pattern, but when I tried, it said I was already subscribed, is there another thing I should be doing to get the pattern?

  • Martha Calahane
    August 25, 2021 at 2:28 am

    Round and round she goes, never quite finding a pattern! I know, youโ€™ve heard it already. I even signed up a second time, I did not get directed to the pattern.

  • Kathy Fudala
    August 25, 2021 at 7:46 am

    I am unable to access the free pattern as well.

  • Trish Hilkmann
    September 4, 2021 at 10:19 pm

    i cant access the pattern either…it just keeps asking me to resubscibe again…and again!

  • Peggy S Vasco
    September 25, 2021 at 10:33 am

    Hi! I’m already a subscriber. Can you email me the pattern? Thank you!