Make a Patchwork Baby Quilt

This patchwork baby quilt is super simple to make and sooo cute. This is a great project if you are new to sewing and quilting. The result is a beautiful and luxurious baby blanket that is great nursery decor or to use as a nice warm baby cover-up.

To make this patchwork quilt simply pick out a few different fabrics that have coordinating or matching colors and patterns. You should also choose one heavier fabric such as fleece or faux minky fabric. It is not fully necessary to choose a heavier fabric, although it gives the quilt that luxurious soft feeling and adds a bit of texture as well.
One fabric you choose will be used as the backing of the quilt, so you will need one large piece of this. I used 1 full yard for the backing of the quilt. Simply purchase fat quarters or 1/2 yards of the other fabrics as these will be cut up into squares to form the patchwork quilt. I chose four separate fabrics for my quilt. They all happened to be on sale so I got them for about $2 per yard. Keep an eye out for these sales!

Make a block for a baby quilt pattern. It should be square shaped. Make this as big as you like. I made mine to be 7" by 7" and cut it out of cardboard to make a nice sturdy baby quilt pattern piece. You can print and use the pattern I made to make your quilt squares if it suits you best.

How big you want to make your quilt is entirely up to you. It really doesn't need to be all that big since it is for a baby. I made mine about the same size as a receiving blanket.

Start by cutting all of your corresponding fabrics into squares using your baby quilt pattern block. To sew the baby quilt together just sew the squares together end on end.

How many squares wide do you want the quilt to be? I made my quilt four squares wide and five squares long. So I sewed together four squares end on end to create a strip, making sure the fabrics alternated. I then sewed a second strip just like it, this time not only alternating the fabrics within the strip, but also making sure that when I held both strips together no two fabrics were lined up exactly.
Next I held both strips so the tops were facing, pinned it and sewed the strips together the long way. Keep sewing squares together end to end to create another strip, and add it on to the end of the quilt until you are satisfied with the size of the quilt. Make sure that all of the stitching has the same seam allowance. In other words, if the first squares are stitched about 1/4" in from the edge, you need to continue this for the entire quilt.

Once all of my quilt squares were sewn together I went back and added a bit of embellishment before finishing the quilt up. I picked two matching ruffled ribbon trims. I sewed them across the quilt to just cover the seams where the squares meet and are sewn together.

To finish it all up I added a minky fabric to the back of the quilt to give it some bulk. I laid out the minky fabric across a flat work surface and then laid my sew together baby quilt pieces over the minky fabric, using the quilt itself as a kind of pattern. I cut the minky fabric to the exact size of the quilt using the edges of the sewn squares as a guide. I then placed both fabrics together with their tops facing inward and pinned them in place. I sewed the blankets together stitching about a 1/4" in from the edge. I sewed all four edges of the baby quilt leaving just an inch or two open for turning. I turned the fabric inside out and hand stitched the opening shut.

from there I took the quilt to my ironing board and smoothed everything out paying close attention to the edges of the blanket. I took it to my sewing machine to give it a last step finished look. I zigzag stitched about 1/2" in from the edge creating a border around the entire baby quilt. I used a nice bright matching thread to give it a bit of decorative accent.

Have you made a Baby Quilt recently and you'd like to share?

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