Big Tractors, Little Quilts: Sewing with the New Caterpillar Licensed Fabrics -

Hi everyone! Mary Burroughs-Mayer from Ember Craft Company sharing my latest makes for Riley Blake Designs!

There’s something always so special about making a quilt for one of my children – it’s not just fabric and thread; it’s a little bit of my love for them woven into every stitch and a piece of their childhood I hope they will hang on to.

When I saw the new Caterpillar 100 Years licensed fabric collection (you can find it HERE), I knew they would be absolutely perfect for a hardworking and playful quilt for my tractor-obsessed son. I adore the bright pops of classic Caterpillar yellow, camouflage, and fun machinery prints in the collection. I particularly love the Brochures print, a collage of Caterpillar advertisements over the years. These mix and match so well, I had to design a quilt pattern around them!

I’m so excited to introduce my “X Marks the Spot” quilt designed exclusively for the Caterpillar collection and my son Connor. This is a large baby-sized or lap-sized quilt pattern, perfect for a 5-year old to drag around the house and snuggle up in. Read on for the pattern link and an exclusive discount code!

For this quilt, I’m using a classic star block, with half square triangles in the corners to finish off the “X”. The center of the star is perfect for fussy-cutting your favorite machinery in the prints and the instructions include tips on how to create the blocks using directional fabrics! It’s fat quarter-friendly but you can use fat eighths for more variety like I did in this version.

We took the finished quilt top out to our family’s ranch to pose with one of the old Caterpillar loaders out there, the perfect setting next to the real machinery that inspired the prints. The kids had the best time holding it up and imagining all the big jobs those tractors can do.

My son requested minky for the back of this one, so we are currently impatiently waiting for that to arrive to finish this off. Give me a follow over on Instagram HERE to see the finished quilt soon!

If you’d like to make your own lap-size X Marks the Spot quilt, head over to my Etsy shop HERE and snap it up. Use code “CATERPILLAR” for 15% off this pattern through the end of September (9/30/25)!

Now, I’ve always got some new sewing shenanigans on deck, be sure to give me a follow on all the socials and see what I’m up to next!

Happy Sewing!

Mary Burroughs-Mayer – Ember Craft Company