How to Make the Cathedral Window Quilt: Two Methods

In this tutorial, I’ll show two ways to make the Cathedral Window Quilt. One is the traditional method, and the other is an ‘easy’ method. There are features I like about both methods that I’ll share along the way.

Note: this is not a typical quilt with blocks cut and sewn together. The basics of the Cathedral Window quilt pattern is that a block (or window) is formed with a ‘window frame’ on a bias edge. Under the bias edge window frame is a ‘window’ that will peek through when you turn back the window frame to form the Cathedral Window quilt block. The window frame must have a bias edge so that you can manipulate the frame to curve and make the lovely shape of the Cathedral Window. With both methods, the windows are stitched open from the front of the quilt.

If you are a beginner quilter, this isn’t one of the first quilts I’d try unless you have someone to help you along the way. It’s not hard, but some of the concepts can be confusing. I’ve tried to explain the details that I had to figure out, since I had difficulty finding a good tutorial.

Anatomy of the Cathedral Window Quilt

Here are a few terms I use in this tutorial. I refer to the solid color as the ‘window frame’ and the prints as the “windows”. In the above example, I used pink as the frame. The frames always have a bias edge to easily make the curved window frames highlighting the window fabrics.

The inside windows form an almond shape when you manipulate the curved bias edges of the window frames. The outside windows form diamond shapes as you turn back the window frames to expose the inside windows.

Let me start with the traditional way to make the Cathedral Window Quilt.

Yield: One (1) nine-patch Cathedral window quilt

How to Make a Cathedral Window Quilt - the traditional way

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Active Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Difficulty: Experienced

Traditional Cathedral Window quilts were generally made by hand stitching, using scraps of fabric. In today's world, we can make it faster by using our sewing machine.

To learn more about making the traditional Cathedral Window quilt by hand, check out our tutorial on how to make a Cathedral Window Christmas ornament.

The directions below make a 15-inch square sampler that could easily be made into a pillow cover.

Print

Materials

• Nine (9) 10-1/2 inch squares of fabric for the window frames. I used white.
• Nineteen (19) 5-inch squares of fabric for the windows
• Thread to coordinate with your window fabric

Tools

• Sewing machine
• Iron
• Pressing surface or ironing board
• Quilter ruler
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting mat
• Corner turner, knitting needle, or something else to gently poke out your corners

Instructions

Three phases to making the traditional Cathedral Window Quilt

We will be breaking down the process for making the Cathedral Window quilt into three phases, each with multiple steps.

1. Start by cutting your window frame fabrics. I used white fabric for the background / window frames. Here are my nine (9) 10-1/2 inch square blocks for my window frames.
2. Take one of your blocks to start your window frames.
3. Fold it in half with wrong sides together.
4. Sew along both short sides with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. If you have a special quilter's 1/4-inch foot for your machine, this will make it easier to have accurate seam allowances.
5. Now is one of the tricky parts. Put the piece on your table and open the bottom a bit. The square will stand up.
6. Take the two seams that you just sewed and bring them together in the middle and pin. It may look a little wonky right now, but trust me. This gives your square bias edges on all four sides, making it easy to curve around your windows forming a frame.
7. Go to your sewing machine. Sew this seam with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Leave an opening for turning the square. I like to leave the opening off-center so it is easy to press. Start sewing about 2 inches and stop.
8. Leave a gap and then sew the remainder of the seam. You should be sewing over the center seams. In this image, I show where I stopped, the opening, and where I started sewing again.
   
   And, when you stand it up, you can see the opening for turning the square right side out. I know, it doesn't look like a square right now - trust me! 🙂
9. Next, trim the corners to reduce the bulk when you turn it.
10. Now you turn the square right side out through the opening.
11. Use your corner turner to gently poke out the corners making them nice and square.
12. Give the square a gentle press with your iron. Remember the sides are all on the bias now. You want a square, not a shape that has been pressed that isn't a square.
13. When it is nice and square. Take one of the corners and bring it to the center and press. Make sure that your seam lines are on the inside. This way the opening is in the inside and we'll be covering it shortly with a window. We don't need to close the opening.
14. Bring the other corners to the center so that all four points match and that there are no gaps in the diagonal folds that bring the points together.
    
    Here is one of my squares all pressed with the center points matching in the middle.
15. Take your squares with the pressed fold to your work table. Here is one of the squares opened up to show the fold lines.
16. What we'll be doing next is sewing all of our pressed squares together along their fold lines. Here are two squares aligned on my work table ready for stitching.
17. Take them to your sewing machine and stitch a straight line along one side fold, sewing two of the squares together.
    
    Here are three of the squares sewn together.
    
    Keep adding squares and sewing together the adjacent flaps until you have them all sewn together. I try to sew them in rows and then sew the rows together. When you are sewing the rows together, go back and make sure that the stitches between the blocks on the columns are stitched so there are no gaps between columns or rows.
18. Here is what you have! It looks like a mess, but it is a lovely mess! Ready for you to dress up these window frames!

Phase 2: Insert the windows. The inside fabrics look like almonds in the finished piece. The outside fabrics are the ones that look like diamonds.

1. Cut your windows that will go inside the frames. You need nineteen (19) 5-inch squares.
2. Here are the fabrics I've selected for my windows. This is a perfect time to go through your fabric scraps!
3. Now, open all of the window frames and begin placing your windows inside of their frames. Take a look at your placements of the fabrics. These are the inside windows. One window panel will show up in four of the curved frames.
4. When you are happy with your fabric placements, pin all four flaps down, making sure the center points are matching. You may need to trim down the center window a smidge. Don't over trim or you might have raw edges that show on your final piece.
5. Next, I like to tack down the center of each block to secure the center points of the window frames. I stitch about 1/2-inch in both directions. This doesn't take long and keeps everything secure while you create your Cathedral Windows. Don't worry, these will be covered when we curve our window frames in the next phase!
6. Here is my piece with the centers secured.
   
   Remove the pins now that the windows are secure behind the frames.
7. Place the outside windows on the Cathedral Window grid in the open diamond shapes

Phase 3: Sew your windows in place. You'll turn back the edge of the window frames which are on the bias to secure the outside windows and reveal the inside windows.

1. You are now ready to stitch your lovely curves for the Cathedral Window effect. Start at one edge of your piece. I like to pick the longest diagonals to start.
2. Carefully turn the window frame, which is on the bias, back to show the window underneath. Topstitch along the outside edge of the frame.
3. When you reach an intersection, needle down, lift your presser foot, and turn your fabric to begin sewing the next curve.
4. When you get to an outer window, you want to make sure that you curve the window frame over all of the raw edges of the window fabric.
   
   Curve back the window frame. You are opening the view to the inner window while at the same time covering the raw edge of the outer window.
5. Here I'm beginning to sew the next diagonal line.
6. Continue sewing up and down your piece until all of the window frames are sewn in place. Here is the final piece.

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  45mm Rotary Cutter
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  OLFA 24" x 36" Double-Sided, Self-Healing Rotary Mat

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Here is a video tutorial on YouTube that shows how to make the Cathedral Window quilt the traditional way.

Now let’s review how to make an ‘easy’ Cathedral Window quilt. It’s referred to as ‘easy’. I find they both have their benefits (and drawbacks) which I outline below.

How to make an ‘easy’ Cathedral Window quilt

With this method, you start with the window and add the window frame on top making a quilt top. Layer with batting and backing before stitching the windows to make a full quilt.

For this sample, I used 2-1/2 inch squares in a 4×4 format, making a finished 8-inch mini quilt.

Let’s begin by cutting our fabrics. For the 4×4 format, I cut sixteen (16) 2-1/2 inch squares of the window fabrics, some people refer to these as the background fabric or background squares. Here the fabric squares are laid out ready for their window frames.

Next, you want to prepare your window frame fabrics. I cut thirty-two (32) 2-1/2 inch squares from my window frame fabric.

Press each of the window frame fabrics in half diagonally, forming a triangle.

Place the triangles on top of the window fabrics, making a ‘square’ with the center points matching. See how the folded edge of the triangle is down the middle of each of the windows. I’ve marked arrows on the directions the triangles should be placed to form diagonal lines across the window fabrics. They need to be placed in these directions to make the Cathedral Window design. (See below what happens if you don’t). 🙂

Pin the triangle window frames to the window fabrics.

Now we are ready to sew the squares together, securing the frames in the seams. Start by sewing two of the windows with the frames together. Make sure to keep them in the same direction as above (or your windows will be wonky!).

Sew all seams for this project with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. I use the special quilter’s 1/4-inch foot that comes with my machine to make sure they are accurate. {And, I’m still off some (or most)of the time!}

I like to chain sew them – sewing all of the sets at once. This makes it faster. Caution: keep track of your sets so they go back in the same order! I took a picture of the first layout and refer back to it to lay out the sets. You can also use small sticky labels to number your sets to make it easier to put them back in the right spot.

When all of the squares are sewn into sets of two, take them to your pressing station and press the seams OPEN. If you are a quilter who likes to nest your seams, trust me, you want these seams to be pressed open. They are thick seams with six (6) layers of fabric.

Here are all of my sets of two sewn together and seams pressed open.

Next, I like to sew them into their squares. I took the top left set of two and the adjacent set of two right below. See how they make a square? Make sure to line up the center seam when sewing. Again, I sewed these in a chain method to make it quicker.

Again, press the seams open.

Now we have the four squares all pressed.

Sew the top two together and the bottom two together forming two rows. Press them open.

Here are the two rows ready to be sewn together to form the 16-patch piece.

When beginning to sew longer strips, I use Wonder Clips to hold the seams together so they don’t shift.

Press this last seam open and give the entire piece a good press.

The above picture shows the back of the piece with all of the seams. If we stitched the windows open now, the back will still need to be covered as a finished piece. So, we’ll add the batting and backing now so that when we sew open the windows, it will also be the quilting for the piece. This is a plus – quilting and making the windows all in one step!

Cut a piece of batting and backing fabric about 1-inch bigger than your finished piece. I decided I wanted one outside window, too. This piece could have fit five (5) outside windows. These are cut at the same 2-1/2 inch square.

Sandwich these three layers as you would a quilt. Learn more about how to sandwich a quilt. Below are the three layers – backing fabric with the right side DOWN, batting and then the top of the quilt we just made.

Next, we begin stitching the windows. The process is the same between this method and the Traditional Cathedral Window quilt.

Begin sewing on one of the diagonal openings. Gently curve the window frame over the window and topstitch. I like to use my topstitch or edgestitch foot and place my needle 2 positions to the right or left depending on where the edge of the foot lies on the curve of the window frame. You want the stitching to be along the edge of the curve.

Below you can see how I’ve stitched from the edge, curving the window frame and stitching along its edge.

When I get to a center point, I like to needle down and reposition the fabric and finger press the next curve in the window frame.

Next is a curve that will highlight the window under the frame and frame a window above (window above = the diamond shape formed between two quilt blocks). Needle down and lift your presser foot. Curve the window frame over the window above and make sure to cover all raw edges.

Adjust your fabric and topstitch along the curve. Continue doing this for the across the next blocks until you get to the opposite corner.

When you get to the edge, needle down again and now pivot 180-degrees and come back up the other side.

Continue to stitch around, pivoting and sewing all of the curves down. Below I’ve done one long diagonal on the piece.

You can see below that I’ve done one side of the other long diagonal, pivoted to do a corner and will stitch around the other sides and back up. Once you get going, you get on a roll and the stitching is quick.

And, now stitching back up the last side on this direction.

Switch to the other diagonal direction, and stitch all of the window frames.

Here it is all stitched in place. With this method, the piece is now all quilted, too!

Give your quilt a good press, trim, and finish to your preference with either a facing or a binding. See our articles on how to face a quilt and how to bind a quilt.

And, here is the finished easy Cathedral Window quilt.

As I said, I’m not sure I’d call this method easy, it’s not for beginners.

One advantage of the ‘Easy’ Cathedral Window method is you can make the blocks individually and then sew them together later. Here are two left from a project that I can use in a future project:

The traditional method vs. the ‘easy’ method of making the Cathedral Window quilt.

• They are different but end up with similar results. Both have window frames that highlight a fabric under the frame.
• The ‘easy’ method is sandwiched with batting and backing for finishing, the traditional method has a self-fabric back. This makes the traditional method perfect for a light weight quilt and the ‘easy’ method better for a warm quilt.
• With the ‘easy’ method, you start with your window fabric and lay triangles on top to form the window frames. This method results in very thick seams with six (6) layers in each seam join. The triangles like to shift around just a little bit, even when they are pinned, making it difficult to have perfect seam joins.
• When you sew your window frames on the ‘easy’ method, you do the quilting at the same time – a plus+!
• With the traditional method for making the Cathedral Window quilt, the back is finished when you are finished sewing the window frames. No need for sandwiching the quilt. This is perfect for a summer light-weight quilt or making a pillow cover.
• The drawback with the traditional method is you need to pay closer attention when sewing your window frame curves to make sure that you capture all of the edges of the fabric inside the window.
• Give both methods a try and see which you prefer!

Tips and ideas for making a Cathedral Window quilt

• If you decide to tackle a king size quilt, keep in mind all of the fabric that is used to make this design. The finished quilt will be a heavy quilt.
• For either method, you can make the squares any size you’d like, and make a quilt any size you’d like. To determine the size, check out our quilt size article. Once you’ve figured out what size of quilt you want to make, figure out what size block you’d like. Divide the size of the quilt by the size of the block and that is how many cathedral window blocks you’ll need for your quilt. You can do a quick diagram on a piece of graph paper, if you’d like.
• If you are new to this method of quilting, I’d suggest starting with a mini mini quilt like I did in the example for the ‘easy’ Cathedral Window quilt. This will give you some experience with the methods used for your first time, without a lot of investment in time (or money). You probably have scraps enough to make it. Or, buy or pull out some charm squares and get sewing!
• If you love the scrappy look, but don’t have enough different fabrics, purchase a few fat quarters, or pick up a charm pack to give you a variety of fabrics.
• This is a fun baby quilt. Make the blocks BIG – like a 10-inch finished block size. To make a finished 10-inch block the traditional way, start with a 20-1/2 inch square for each block.

Check out our how-to make a Cathedral Window Christmas ornament. With this project, we sewed the window frame by hand and used the traditional method which finished off the back of the ornament.

Browse through more free quilt patterns on Create Whimsy.