The Savannah Quilt Pattern

Written By Lisa Donnelly

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Today I’m sharing my Savannah quilt pattern cover quilt. Savannah was the very first Wild Plum Lane pattern added to the pattern library! It’s a pre-cut, yardage, or scrap-friendly modern quilt pattern. The Savannah quilt shown here in this post is the throw size. It’s the perfect size quilt to snuggle up with, and is a great way to decorate your home for the seasons (or just use year-round)! 

This beginner-friendly quilt pattern was released in the fall of 2021. It can be made with all pieces in a block using the same fabric, using a fussy-cut center piece, or going completely scrappy. It would also make a super-striking two-color quilt. Background fabric makes up the lattice of “streets” (see what I mean by using the word streets later in the post!) resulting in a cohesive connection between blocks. 

Get your copy of the Savannah Quilt Pattern in the Wild Plum Lane Pattern Shop!

PATTERN COVER SAVANNAH QUILT

This fun and modern easy beginner-friendly quilt pattern is sewn up using the Garden Variety fabric line by Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique.

I purchased my fat eighth bundle of Garden Variety quite some time ago and have been waiting ever since for the perfect quilt to make with it. Lella Boutique fabrics were some of my first quilting favorites. They are always cohesive and have the happiest colors, florals, and prints. I love sewing with them.

FAT QUARTER FRIENDLY OR SCRAP FRIENDLY QUILT PATTERN

I was able to squeeze out two blocks from each fat eighth in my bundle, but…a few times there was a bit of extra piecing to do to make the block pieces the correct size! It is much easier to make this throw size quilt using a fat quarter bundle or fabric scraps (like the ones below)! 

QUILT PATTERN WRITING - BEHIND THE SCENES

And now for a bit of the story behind the pattern. I started quilting when my second child was a baby and I was spending a significant amount of time in the nursery feeding and taking care of him. During that time, I discovered the world of quilting on Pinterest and Instagram. As for many quilters, immersion in the quilty world led to seeing quilt patterns EVERYWHERE! The idea for this one was inspired by the sheets on my baby’s bed. Aaaaand then it took me 6 years to figure out how to make it, put up a website, make a sample, and write a legitimate pattern…ha!

Sometime toward the end of 2020 (and all the adventure that year brought us…whew!), I started getting some thoughts together on how to assemble the quilt blocks. After experimenting with scrap fabric in my stash, I made a not-very-pretty prototype to get all the measurements right. Then it was a matter of finding the perfect fabric for my sample quilt. I landed on that fat eighth bundle of Garden Variety by Lella Boutique for Moda that was sitting in my fabric stash just asking to be made into a beautiful quilt!

 
 

USING YOUR FABRIC STASH

The great thing about this pattern is that you can use anything you have on hand…fabric yardage, fat quarters, 10” squares, charm packs and jelly rolls, and of course your scraps! I also used a roll of 1.5” skinny strips which made cutting go very quickly. Once I decided on a throw size quilt, I started cutting into the fabric right away.

Find all of the material requirements in the Savannah quilt pattern listing in the Wild Plum Lane shop.

ALL THE QUILT SIZES INCLUDED

Savannah includes instructions for all of the quilt sizes…at least all of them that I know of! The quilt pattern includes directions and yardage requirements for the following:

  • Baby or Crib size quilt

  • Throw size quilt (pictured here)

  • Twin size bed quilt

  • Full size bed quilt

  • Queen size bed quilt

  • King size bed quilt

CONFIDENT BEGINNER QUILT PATTERN

The blocks for this quilt pattern come together so quickly and easily. The best part is that the pattern looks complicated, but it really isn’t.

Savannah is a pretty simple quilt to sew up using basic shapes like squares and rectangles. I would call this one a confident beginner quilt pattern.

This quick and easy quilt whipped up in no time at all!

LONGARM QUILTING

I had this Savannah quilt longarm quilted by my favorite local quilt shop, Quilting is My Therapy in Liberty, Missouri. They have quilted quite a few of my quilts now and I highly recommend them.

We chose this fun and modern rectangles on point pantograph.

WHY SAVANNAH? SOME HISTORY

And now…a little bit of the history of writing the Savannah quilt pattern. This quilt pattern initially had a different name, which I won’t tell you because it’s definitely not as good! My brother-in-law, upon seeing the quilt for the first time, said, “That looks like a map of Savannah!” and when I looked back at it, my jaw nearly hit the floor. He and my sister made a trip there a few years ago and I’m so grateful he was intuitive enough to see that (and…I have to admit that as a landscape architect who studied Savannah’s parks and city layout, I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I didn’t see it earlier!). The background fabric makes up the “streets” of Savannah’s layout.

The City of Savannah holds a special place in my heart. I spent time there when I was in graduate school at the University of Georgia - for a field trip during a Historic Preservation class, as a road trip destination, and as an intern studying urban forestry. There is simply nothing as magnificent as all those live oaks with Spanish moss on them!

There is something about quilting and quilt pattern writing that appeals to both sides of the brain in a very similar way to landscape architecture. Color, texture, design, and layout for the right side of the brain, and measurements and math for the left side. It’s the best of both (brain!) worlds! 

BACKING FABRIC

This Savannah quilt is backed in a Lella Boutique print from her Bloomington fabric line. You could also use a wide back fabric to cut down on time spent piecing the backing. 

BINDING

I finished off this quilt with a binding from Lella Boutique’s Bloomington fabric line too.

The nice thing about sticking with one fabric designer on a quilt is that often their fabric color palettes overlap and can be used together strategically in one quilt…especially if one fabric is out of print, which was the case here.

MATERIALS USED ON THIS SAVANNAH QUILT

LET’S START QUILTING!

I hope you enjoyed this post about the making of the Savannah quilt pattern and the cover quilt. You can head on over to the shop to grab your copy and get started on your own quilt today! 

While you’re there, be sure to sign up for the Wild Plum Lane newsletter for all the latest happenings AND get a free pattern delivered straight to your inbox.

Until next time!

 
Lisa Donnelly
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