2 min read

Songket Weave Quilt

A quilt inspired by the songket weave featuring the Willow Hollow fabric collection by Kim Diehl.

Digital FPP Pattern available for sale here.

songket weave quilt by sewjahit willow hollow kim diehl fabrics in grey green teal

Songket is hand-woven brocade fabric traditional to many countries in the Southeast Asia.

The term songket refers to the decorative weaving technique used to make the fabric, which entails inserting gold or silver thread in between the base threads. As a result, the extra threads seem to float over a colourful woven background to create an ornamental effect.

(Source and read more at: UNESCO).

In Malaysia, the songket is worn very commonly during festive seasons like the Hari Raya Aidilfitri, and other special occasions such as weddings and state functions, and is very much a traditional symbol of the Malay ethnicity.

songket weave quilt by sewjahit in living room interior willow hollow kim diehl fabrics in grey green teal

MATERIALS

This quilt uses the Willow Hollow fabrics by Kim Diehl as the main fabrics. I only used the teal fabrics of the collection (there are some white fabrics in the collection, which I kept for other projects). The background fabric is a generic quilting cotton in grey colour from Spotlight.

willow hollow kim diehl fabrics teal only

The batting is 100% cotton also bought from Spotlight.

The backing is pieced using heavier brocade-like polycotton fabrics that to me resemble the songket, which I purchased from a local textile store.

red gold and blue metallic print fabric traditional etnic

DESIGN & DIMENSIONS

The quilt finishes at 87" x 87". It consists of 9 blocks, each measuring 29" square, arranged in a 3 x 3 array.

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS

The Willow Hollow fabrics by Kim Diehl consist of several darker shades of teal and several lighter shades of teal. I paired these with grey background fabric. You can choose any other colour scheme so long as they consist of a set of darker shades, a set of lighter shades, and a contrasting background. For the purpose of this tutorial, I will be using "dark teal" and "light teal" to refer to the main fabrics and "grey" to refer to the background fabrics.

Dark teal fabric: 9 fat quarters

Light teal fabric: 7 fat quarters

Grey fabric: 8 yards (assuming 45" width of fabric)

PROCESS

WARNING! This is a slow make. The patterns are FPP (foundation paper piecing) with lots of small strips and pieces. After the quilt top is completed, you will have to tear away all the small strips and pieces of papers before the quilt top can be basted to a quilt sandwich for quilting.

STEP 1: DOWNLOAD & PRINT PATTERN

The pattern is available for sale in my Etsy shop.

After downloading, print:

5 sets of Block 1 Pattern, and

4 sets of Block 2 Pattern.

STEP 2: SEW BLOCKS

Using the illustrations below as guides, make:

5 units of Block 1, and

4 units of Block 2.

fpp pattern tutorial songket weave quilt by sewjahit willow hollow kim diehl fabrics in grey green teal

STEP 3: ASSEMBLE QUILT TOP

STEP 4: BASTE, BIND AND QUILT

I quilted the quilt using edge-to-edge straight lines half-inch apart.