How to Make a Braid Quilt

Feb 4, 2011
Christine Mann

Braid Quilt, also Called Prairie Braid, Pioneer Braid, French Braid - Photo by Christine Mann

Whether it's called a Prairie Braid Quilt, Pioneer Braid Quilt, or French Braid Quilt, this easy, elegant quilt is a quick way to use up quilt fabric strips

A quilted braid is a long rectangle with strips of fabric arranged in a pleasing V shape. Braid quilts are easy to sew, since they are made entirely of rectangles (no tiny pieces) and stitched with straight seams (no curves.)

Flexible, Simple Braid Quilts

Quilted braids can make an entire quilt, dramatic sections in a larger quilt, or elegant quilt borders. A quilted braid needs at least three different fabrics to work well. Adding more fabrics and mixing them randomly is often better. If you have leftover strips from other projects or fat quarters that have been sitting in your stash for a long time, a braid quilt can help you make good use of them.

Supply List for Making a Braid Quilt

Here’s what you will need to create a quilted braid:

Quilt fabric strips in coordinating colors. The strips in the quilt shown at the bottom of the page were 2½” wide, but you can use narrower strips, as long as all the strips are the same width, and can all be cut to the same length.
cutting mat, rotary cutter, and cutting ruler
iron
sewing machine with ¼” quilting foot (if available)
100% cotton or all-purpose thread in a neutral color such as beige or grey

Step-by-Step Instructions for Making a Braid Quilt

The photos at the bottom of the page serve as a visual guide to these instructions. Scroll down to see the photos. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Cut one square of fabric the same width as the fabric strips you will use for the braid. For example, if your fabric strips are 2½” wide, cut the square 2½” x 2½”.
Cross-cut the rest of the fabric strips into rectangles that are at least twice as long as they are wide. Rectangles cut 1½” x 3½” produce a 3½”-wide braid. The rectangles in the quilt shown at the bottom of the page were 2½” x 10”, and they produced a braid that is 11½” wide.
Lay a rectangle on the work surface with right side up. Lay the square face down on the rectangle, as shown in Photo 1 at the bottom of the page.
Sew the two fabrics together together with a scant ¼” seam, then press the block open.
Sew a new strip on the short edge of the strip set “L,” as shown in Photo 2 below.
Continue adding strips until the strip set is several inches longer than the desired length of the finished strip. (You will need several extra strips to square the strip set into a rectangle.)
Trim off the extra corners along both outside edges of the strip set, as shown in Photo 4.
Square off the top and bottom of the strip set to make a rectangle, as shown in Photo 5 below. The strip set is now ready to use in a quilt pattern.

One of the beauties of a braided quilt is that you can make the braids as short or as long as you want. Braids work equally well in baby quilts and bed-sized quilts.

Creating Braid Quilt Patterns

There are any number of ways to arrange braided sections into a quilt. One way is to separate the braids with sashing, as shown in the quilt at the top of this page. The sashing can unify the colors of a scrappy quilted braid.

Another way is to sew the sections together without sashing. This makes a dramatic quilt. You can also create interesting effects by making one side of each braid with lighter fabrics and the other side with darker fabrics. Learn more about working with light and dark fabrics.