Free Christmas Quilt Patterns: Trees, Stars & Holiday Quilts

By Jan Bay

Christmas quilt patterns are some of my favorite holiday sewing projects.  Seeing those shapes puff as I quilt around them takes me back to some very happy times and I especially love it when they combine traditional patchwork with a cheerful Christmas design. My free quilt patterns are gathered here, including a gingerbread house surrounded by festive patchwork, a Christmas teddy bear, a tree-themed Irish chain quilt and a beautiful star quilt. Each finished design has its own instructions and printable pattern materials, so you can choose a smaller keepsake quilt or tackle a larger Christmas project.

See Supplies for These Projects Here.

Free Christmas Quilt Patterns to Sew

From a gingerbread house surrounded by traditional patchwork to a Christmas teddy bear and a collection of festive stars, these free Christmas quilt patterns offer several ways to bring holiday colors into your sewing room. Choose a favorite design below for the pattern instructions, fabric requirements and available printable PDFs.

Choosing Among These Free Christmas Quilt Patterns

Before you start pulling out Christmas fabric, think about the kind of sewing you enjoy. Some of these quilts have lots of little patchwork squares, while others depend more on appliqué, star points or carefully matched corners. They may all look festive, but they aren't quite the same kind of project.

For a Baby Quilt or Smaller Christmas Keepsake

Two of the patterns finish at 40 × 50 inches, making them nice choices when you don't want to commit to a large quilt.

The Christmas Teddy Bear Quilt is the one I'd consider if you enjoy appliqué. You'll work with a large teddy bear, a scarf and presents before completing the surrounding patchwork star and checkerboard border. The bear is the main attraction, so take your time positioning those appliqué pieces before attaching them.

The Christmas Tree Irish Chain Quilt has a different feel. Most of the work involves squares, rectangles and half-square triangles, with one small template-pieced star that needs a little more care. It comes in both a 40 × 50-inch crib size and a 60 × 70-inch throw size.

If you're fairly comfortable with basic patchwork but haven't done much appliqué, I'd lean toward the Christmas tree quilt. Just remember that the little five-point star uses inset seams, so it's worth making that section carefully before moving on.

For a Christmas Quilt with Traditional Patchwork

The Hearthlight Star Quilt is a good choice if you love the look of traditional quilt blocks arranged in rows. Its split-color eight-pointed stars, checkerboard centers and decorative corners give you plenty of detail without needing a large picture appliqué in the middle.

It also offers the widest range of sizes: 42 × 54 inches for the baby quilt, 54 × 70 inches for the throw and 86 × 102 inches for the full-size version. The baby and throw layouts use 12 star blocks, while the full-size quilt uses 30.

There is some foundation paper piecing involved, along with machine satin stitching for the narrow green corner accents. I'd sew one complete star block before cutting fabric for the whole quilt. It's much easier to adjust your technique on one block than on twelve.

For a More Detailed Christmas Showpiece

The Gingerbread House Quilt finishes at approximately 68 × 68 inches. Its center house combines appliqué with an Irish-chain-inspired setting, interrupted diamond framing and four corner stars.

This is the one I'd choose if you want a Christmas quilt with a more elaborate overall arrangement. You'll be working with several construction methods, including foundation paper piecing, fusible appliqué and traditional patchwork.

It's not the project I'd suggest for someone's very first quilt. There are too many separate components to keep lined up. But if you already have some piecing experience and enjoy working through a quilt one section at a time, it's certainly worth considering.

A Quick Word About the Finished Photos

The finished pictures are helpful for choosing a design, but use the measurements and diagrams in each pattern when you're ready to sew. The Christmas Tree Irish Chain quilt photograph shows an optional decorative border that isn't included in its stated quilt sizes. The Teddy Bear quilt's illustrative photograph also differs slightly from the exact border layout in its downloadable pattern.

Those differences matter when you're calculating fabric and cutting pieces. Follow the written pattern for the size you're making rather than estimating dimensions from the photograph.

If foundation paper piecing is new to you, BERNINA's beginner-friendly foundation paper piecing tutorial explains the basic process of sewing fabric onto printed foundations, trimming the finished sections and joining them together.

And don't feel that you have to begin with the most complicated quilt in the collection. A smaller project with careful seams and neatly finished binding can be every bit as pretty as a larger one.

Free Christmas Quilt Patterns and Printable PDFs

If you prefer working from printed instructions, three of these Christmas quilts have complete downloadable pattern materials. The fourth has its full instructions on the webpage, along with a printable template for the little Christmas star.

Here's what you'll get with each one, so you won't have to download a pile of files you don't need.

Gingerbread House Quilt: The free gingerbread house pattern has a 20-page instruction PDF, 41 pages of actual-size templates and a separate four-page measurement review. The templates include the house decorations, corner stars and appliqué placement guides.

Christmas Teddy Bear Quilt: The teddy bear pattern includes a complete 93-page PDF package with cutting charts, instructions, appliqué templates and a full-size placement map. There's also a separate 81-page template file and a large-format teddy bear placement master. You don't need to print all three versions.

Hearthlight Star Quilt: The Hearthlight Star pattern provides printable instructions, actual-size foundations for both 12-inch and 16-inch blocks, and placement guides for the narrow machine-stitched green corner accents. Choose your quilt size before printing the foundations.

Christmas Tree Irish Chain Quilt: The Christmas tree quilt has its complete cutting charts and sewing instructions on the webpage. The small five-point star has a separate printable PDF template. It doesn't currently offer a complete downloadable quilt-instructions PDF.

Print the Quilt Templates at the Correct Size

For the actual-size templates, select 100% or Actual Size in your printer settings. Don't use Fit to Page or Shrink to Fit. Measure the printed one-inch calibration square before cutting fabric, and check any additional printing directions on the individual pattern page.

Large appliqué pieces may need several US Letter sheets taped together. Match the printed alignment marks carefully before cutting. A template that's slightly too small can throw off an entire quilt section, and that's not something you want to discover after cutting all your Christmas fabric.

Choosing Christmas Quilt Fabrics That Work Together

Christmas fabric can be hard to resist. There are beautiful poinsettias, little holly prints, plaids, candy canes and more reds and greens than you can imagine. But I wouldn't put all those prints into one quilt just because they're Christmas fabrics.

Start with the design you're making. A quilt with lots of small patchwork squares needs a different fabric combination than one with a large appliqué picture in the center.

Keep Small Patchwork Prints Simple

The Christmas Tree Irish Chain and Gingerbread House quilts have many little red, green and light-colored squares. If you choose large, busy prints for every square, the individual pieces can blend together and the diagonal chains become harder to see.

I'd use mostly small-scale prints, tone-on-tone fabrics and a few solids for those sections. Save your larger Christmas florals for a border or another area where there's room to appreciate the design.

In the Gingerbread House quilt, for instance, the cranberry floral border adds plenty of Christmas detail without interfering with the checkerboard chains around the center house.

Choose Contrast Before Choosing More Colors

Red and green are traditional Christmas colors, but they still need enough contrast against the background. A very dark red and a very dark green can almost disappear into each other when they're surrounded by busy prints.

Lay a few fabric samples beside your background fabric and take a black-and-white photograph. If the colors all look like the same shade of gray, try changing one to a lighter or darker value.

This is particularly helpful with the Hearthlight Star Quilt. You want to see the long star points, checkerboard centers and framed corners rather than one large patch of Christmas colors.

Let the Appliqué Be the Main Attraction

For the Teddy Bear quilt, I'd keep the large background fairly quiet. The bear's face, red scarf and wrapped presents already give you plenty to look at.

The same idea applies to the Gingerbread House quilt. Small details such as candy-cane windows, scalloped roof icing and the wreath are easier to see against a simple background.

And if you're choosing plaid for the Hearthlight Star quilt, pay attention to the direction of the lines. Matching a prominent plaid takes extra fabric, especially when several pieces meet at an angle. Check the individual pattern's fabric requirements before buying.

Check Fabric Quantities Before Shopping

Every quilt in this collection has its own cutting requirements. I'd choose the finished size first, read the complete materials list and then check what I already have in my fabric stash.

Don't assume that a fat quarter will provide every piece just because the quilt contains small squares. Long border strips, large appliqué shapes and directional prints can require more fabric than a collection of little patches.

For red fabrics next to white or ivory backgrounds, I'd also check for color bleeding before cutting. It's a small job compared with trying to deal with red dye transferring onto a finished Christmas quilt.

Before You Cut Your Christmas Quilt Pieces

Once you've chosen a pattern and gathered your fabric, it's tempting to start cutting everything at once. I'd resist that temptation until you've looked over the construction steps and checked the measurements.

These quilts use different techniques, and a little preparation now can save quite a bit of seam ripping later.

Make One Practice Block First

If you're making the Hearthlight Star quilt, complete one star block before cutting enough fabric for the entire quilt. That gives you a chance to check the foundation-pieced points, checkerboard center and decorative corner stitching.

For the Christmas Tree Irish Chain quilt, practice the small five-point star if you're unfamiliar with inset seams. The star is only one part of the design, but you'll want it to fit correctly when you join the center medallion.

The Gingerbread House quilt also benefits from a sample corner-star section, while the Teddy Bear quilt gives you an opportunity to check a patchwork star and checkerboard block before making the complete border.

Keep Your Cut Pieces Organized

I would separate each quilt section into its own labeled group. Keep the center pieces together, the borders together and the corner blocks in their own little stack.

This matters with the Gingerbread House quilt because the diagonal chains have specific color arrangements. It matters just as much with Hearthlight Star, where the left and right star-point sections aren't interchangeable.

Don't rely on remembering which piece belongs where. A few labels are much easier than taking a partially sewn block apart.

Check Each Section Before Joining the Quilt

Use the unfinished measurements in your chosen pattern to check the blocks as you sew. Press the seams carefully, measure the completed units and compare them with the assembly diagram before joining the larger sections.

A consistent quarter-inch seam is especially important in patchwork with lots of small pieces. Even a small seam difference can add up across a row of squares.

These patterns have been reviewed mathematically, but that isn't the same as having a complete quilt physically sewn from every set of instructions. The individual pages explain their review status and any differences between the finished illustrations and the construction diagrams.

Take the time to check your sample pieces and follow the actual cutting measurements. Pretty fabric deserves that much attention.

Christmas Quilts for Babies, Gifts and Holiday Decorating

A handmade Christmas quilt doesn't have to be large enough for a bed. A smaller quilt can make a lovely seasonal keepsake, a wall hanging or something to bring out each December.

For a baby's first Christmas, I like the idea of a quilt that can be saved and enjoyed as the child gets older. You could choose the Teddy Bear design for its storybook appearance or the Christmas Tree Irish Chain if you prefer traditional patchwork.

Just remember that a baby-size quilt isn't appropriate as loose bedding in an infant's crib or other sleep space. Keep the sleep area free of quilts, blankets and other soft items. A baby quilt can be used for supervised awake floor time, displayed safely out of reach or saved as a keepsake.

For a living room, I'd consider the larger Christmas Tree Irish Chain throw, the Hearthlight Star throw or the square Gingerbread House quilt. You can drape one over the back of an armchair, fold it across a sofa or display it on a quilt rack.

If you're making a quilt as a Christmas gift, consider adding a small fabric label on the back with the recipient's name, your name and the year. Keep it simple. The quilt itself is the gift.

And there's nothing wrong with making one Christmas quilt that comes out every holiday season instead of sewing an entirely new one each December.

Use Leftover Christmas Quilt Fabric for a Matching Stocking

If you've finished a Christmas quilt and still have some of those pretty cranberry, evergreen and ivory fabrics left, don't put them away just yet.

My free quilted Christmas stocking pattern uses diagonal patchwork strips, a quilted cuff and matching heel and toe pieces. It's a much smaller sewing project than a full quilt, and the free pattern includes a printable stocking template.

You can use coordinating fabrics from your quilt to make the stocking look like it belongs with the larger project. Check the stocking's cutting chart first, though. Some pieces need longer fabric strips, so not every small patchwork scrap will work.

A matching Christmas quilt and stocking would also make a thoughtful handmade gift, especially if you're using the same favorite holiday prints in both projects.

Whether you're drawn to the gingerbread house, traditional Christmas trees, a teddy bear or those beautiful patchwork stars, I hope you'll choose a Christmas quilt pattern that suits the kind of sewing you enjoy. You don't have to finish the biggest or most complicated quilt to make something special. Pick the design you like, read through its instructions and enjoy putting those Christmas fabrics together.