A couple years ago when some good friends of ours had their first baby, I made them a simple patchwork quilt. The mama is a fabulous photographer, and she took beautiful photos of the babe on the quilt each month, to document her growth. Well, they just had a second daughter about a month ago, and I’m finally getting around to making a companion quilt for the new daughter.
I decided I wanted 6″ squares, so I started out with 56 7×7″ squares, enough to make a 42×48″ quilt, or 8 strips of 7 6″ squares, allowing for a 1/2″ seam.
Once I had the arrangement figured out, I sewed the squares together one strip at a time, from left to right.
Then I sewed each strip together, taking care to match the squares up at the corner, until the whole top was pieced.
I used the pillowcase method to join the layers, which is the easiest and most forgiving way I know to do it. To do this, you lay the batting on your work surface, lay the quilt backing face-up on top of the batting, and then lay the quilt top face-down on top of the backing. I then secure all three layers with safety pins, and sew around the edge, leaving a 12-18″ gap at the bottom for turning. Once the edges have been stitched, I trim off the excess down to 1/4″, and clip the corners.
After turning the quilt through the gap, I iron all edges and hand-stitch the opening closed. Then, for this quilt, I used embroidery floss to tie knots at each corner, rather than quilting.
And finally, it’s done! Now I just need to get it in the mail…
33 COMMENTS
Kristy
13 years agoVery sweet!!!! I love the knots too! My great aunt made me a quilt like this once and I literally used it 'til it was worn out!
Emma Thomsen
13 years agoWhat a great quilt, I love the colours! Which reminds me, I usually make 'lap quilts' for the children's teachers at the end of Summer Term – only 3 weeks left until Summer Holidays, where does the time fly?
Colleen MacDonald
13 years agoSo beautiful!
Luana
12 years agoI love the quilt! I would be interested in finidng out more about the modern random grid quilting. Is it just freestyle quilting (eye-guessing) your lines? I like the way yours looks. Thanks!
Tanaka
12 years agovintage quilt blocks came in a boot box full of traeeurss I bought from a custom quilt shop.I laid them out in my studio and stared at them for a0weeks. a0I think these fabrics must be from
Susanna Mendiola
13 years agoOMG Annabelle has grown so much!
Anonymous
12 years agoBeautiful!! Would be a great floor blanket for little ones. I'm planning to make this for my friend's little boy due in July! 🙂
Nuruelciie
12 years agoI love the Zig-Zag Pattern and have thought about maknig a quilt for our 1st baby. Alas, it’s probably too late to do that in the next 10 days. I’d love to know how creative moms continue after kids 🙂
Alexandr
12 years agooooo too cute! perfect for a baby girl! and what I love most is the vareid width of the straight line quilting in each direction. Perfect for this design…looks so soft and snuggly!Love from Texas! ~bonnie
Sandy Gray
11 years agoSo cute, I don’t know why I quit making them like that!
Linda
11 years agoI forgot about this method, thanks for reminding me. Nice tutorial!
Taryn
10 years agoHi, i was wondering what batting you used and where i can purchase it. Thanks!
Jennifer Moore
10 years ago AUTHORHi Taryn,
I use an organic cotton batting, and can usually find it at JoAnn Fabrics.
Ellie Kinne
10 years agoI am just making my first quilt following your technique. Last year our daughter was married and we “did” the entire wedding ourselves. After pouring over umpteen brides’ magazines, we decided the simpler the better. We had Gerber daisies as centerpieces and I made table runners over white table clothes to co-ordinate with the flowers…20 runners in all! It really looked lovely! Wedding over, what to do with all these runners!? I hated to not repurpose the fabric! Hence, Idecided to make them a queen size quilt! What an undertaking! I have the top all pieced…tomorrow I will assemble it. Wish me luck! Thanks for all your easy to follow directions.
Jennifer Moore
10 years ago AUTHORGood luck! We did our table runners too, and still have some in the linen closet. I love your idea!
Ann Waddle
10 years agoWe do family engagement for our school system, and plan to read books about quilts in February and then teach families how to make quilts using homemade charm packs. We will be reading The Quilt Walk, The Keeping Quilt, and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. I love this tutorial and think it will be a great intro-to-sewing-and-quilting for our families! Thanks so much for sharing this!
Jennifer Moore
10 years ago AUTHORHi Ann – I’m so glad to hear that! I love that there’s so much new interest in quilting these days. I hope you have a wonderful time with the project!
kare
10 years agoHi, I have just stumbled across this tutorial and LOVE the simplicity of this quilt! I am just finishing up on my first child’s quilt and was a bit daunted about the quilting part, though upon seeing how you do it, I am feeling a lot more confident! I just hope it turns out as beautiful as yours has! Thank you so much for this tutorial!
Jennifer Moore
10 years ago AUTHORHi Kare – I’m so happy you’re inspired to give it a try! Good luck, and happy sewing!
Julie
8 years agoI love this simple quilt. My only question is how much yardage of each print did you purchase?
I’m guessing either a quarter or a third of a yard of each print?
Jennifer Moore
8 years ago AUTHORHi Julie,
I’m sorry I missed this comment! It depends on how many different prints you use, but if you use 4 prints, you should need a little under 1/2 yard of each.
Dottie Bonner
8 years agoLoved how simple and quickly this went together. It’s been a year since I quilted so this is a good one to get me back to quilting. Thanks!!
Jennifer Moore
8 years ago AUTHORI’m so glad you tried it, Dottie!
Colleen
8 years agoThis is so lovely, will try this method as you make it sound pretty simple …. :0)
Jennifer Moore
8 years ago AUTHORIt’s quite easy, and a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it!
Granny Lewis
7 years agoHello–Luv this–I have two granddaughters that I w/probably not be around when they have their babies–so–I decided to make each of them two baby quilts each–each w/b getting your design–Thank you–and soo easy for me! lol
Jennifer Moore
7 years ago AUTHORHi Granny Lewis! I’m so glad you like the quilt, and I love that you quilted ahead. 🙂 I’m sure your granddaughters will love and cherish your work!
Michelle B
5 years agoOmg thank God I found this method!! I do not know how to do the bidding! That’s been weighing on my mind and as I am starting on my new great nieces quilt (she’s due I. October) I also didn’t want to do the “quilting” your technique is how I made a lap quilt for my grandmother to be buried with! I wasn’t sure it would work as well with a baby quilt!! I am also using a charm pack I bought a couple of years ago! It’s a Riley Blake collection! I love it! And I am going to put a border on it!! Thank you for this tutorial! I am feeling sooo much BETTER!
Jennifer Moore
5 years ago AUTHORI’m so glad it worked for you, Michelle!
Debbie
4 years agoI was just wondering if you tied the embroidery thread at each corner? I just love this baby quilt and am doing one for my great grandson who is due in January. Love your quilt.
Noemí
4 years agoI’m so glad that you showed the quilt the back side to appreciate how it was done, not many people show the reverse thanks.
Jennifer Moore
4 years ago AUTHORThanks, Noemi – I’m so glad it’s helpful to you! 🙂
Sharin
10 months agoHi, how many of each fabric do you make, and how to figure the layout of them? I’ve tried another quilt and never finished it because I got so frustrated with laying out a pattern.