Whilst little Isaac is only 2 months old at the moment I knew that his mum had made him several crocheted baby blankets so I decided to make a quilt that he could play on now and maybe use as an actual quilt when he's a bit older. With this in mind I added a pillow case to the back (making Quillow!) so that the quilt can easily be folded up out of the way when it's not being used
To make the back a little more interesting I added a row of blocks across the top. These align with the blocks on the front (more or less) so that the quilting looks (about) right on these - I started at the centre block but the quilt shifted slightly as I worked outwards and the left hand alligators are a little out of line with the front.
The quilting is quite simple, I outlined the centre animal block and echoed the outer seams of the blocks to create a sort of picture frame effect.
Details of Assembly (for future reference!)
The quilt uses 5 different animal prints each framed with a different colour of solid fabric:Solids:
Kona Chocolate (2m, also used for the backing & quillow - this is used in its entirelty, 2 1/2m would give some wiggle room!)
Kona Deep Blue 1/2 m
Kona Dusty Blue 1/2 m
Kona Denim 1/2 m
Kona Cactus 3/4 m (also used for the binding)
Prints:
Alexander Henry 2-D Zoo Blue 1/2m (needed to get the fussy cuts and the pillow front)
Ed Emberly Happy Drawing - Alligators 1 fat quarter
Robert Kaufman Urban Zoologie Turtle Grass 1 fat quarter
Robert Kaufman Urban Zoologie Monkey Blue 1 fat quarter
Robert Kaufman Urban Zoologie Owls Blue 1 fat quarter
The wadding is Hobbs Heirloom 100% Natural Cotton without scrim
Quilt Top
All seams are 1/4"The quilt is made out of 8 framed squares of each animal print/solid combination which finish at 8" square. For each pair of fabrics:
- Cut 8 squares of print fabric at 4 1/2"
- Cut 5 2 1/2" WOF strips from the solid fabric, fold the strips in half.
- From 2 folded strips start at the raw ends and cut one 8 1/2 set and two 4 1/2" sets. Iron the left over pieces flat and cut to 4 1/2" to make a third set
- From the 3 remaining folded strips start at the raw ends and cut two 8 1/2" sets and one 4 1/2" set (depending on the generosity of your fabric you may need to use the selvedge to make this fit, if you prefer you can cut one more WOF strip and cut any remaining 4 1/2" strips from this)
- Assemble the blocks by joining two 4 1/2" strips to opposite side of each square and then joining two 8 1/2" strips to the other sides to make a square block.
Take the squares and lay them out in a 5x7 grid so that no two fabrics of the same colour are touching (see the picture - there is a specific layout that accomplishes this). There will be 5 squares left over, keep these for the back of the quilt.
Assemble the blocks into 7 rows, assemble the rows into two halves (one of 3 rows, one of 4) and join the halves together to make the quilt top (finished size will be 40 x 56)
Quillow Preparation
To prepare the quillow make two squares of 2-D Zoo framed in chocolate. The squares are 10 1/2" cut and are framed with strips of chocolate ( two 2 1/2 x 10 1/2 strips and 2 1/2 x 14 1/2 strips per square) to give a 14" finished cushion (or 14 1/2" before they are sewn into the quilt)Backing
The backing is made out of the chocolate fabric, provided the fabric is the standard 42" wide there is no need for any width-ways joins and the following pieces are needed:- Cut a WOF strip 4 1/2" wide (the top piece)
- Cut a WOF block 38 1/2" wide (the middle piece)
- Cut a WOF strip 14 1/2" wide (the bottom piece).
The backing is assembled as follows:
- Take the remaining 5 print squares, arrange in an order to suit and assemble into a row.
- Take the bottom piece of backing and remove a 14 1/2" square from the centre of the strip (fold in half and measure 7 1/4" from the fold)
- Replace the missing piece with one of the framed quillow squares and join into a strip
- Join the top piece of backing to the top of the print squares.
- Join the middle piece of backing to the bottom of the print squares.
- Join the bottom piece of backing (with the quillow square in it) to the bottom of the middle piece.
Assembly & Quilting
Sandwich the quilt together as normal with the wadding being very careful to align the backing to the front of the quilt, there is a little excess backing fabric to the sides but the top and bottom need to match exactly. Try to line up the print squares on the back to the front.
Baste the quilt thoroughly with pins or thread (I wouldn't recommend using spray on a baby quilt).
Quilt as desired! In the ditch along the main seams would be the quickest way to finish the quilt (as long as your wadding is okay with 8" quilting spacing). I chose to quilt frames on each square with each line being "one-walking-foot's-width" from the seams.
Binding the Quilt & Adding the Quillow
Take the remaining quillow square and sandwich with the chocolate square removed from the backing piece. Quilt as desired then bind three of the edges (left,top,right) with the remaining chocolate fabric (I managed to squeeze 2" strips out of the last of the fabric)
Turn the main quilt over to the back and align the quillow square with the bottom edge and centre it horizontally. Pin securely in place.
Cut 5 x 2" WOF strips from the Cactus fabric (on the straight of the grain , not bias), join together into one long strip and iron in half to make binding.
Start on one of the long sides of the quilt and machine the binding onto the front of the quilt, as you pass along the bottom edge of the quilt make sure you are sewing through the quillow square as well as the main quilt.
Wrap the binding around onto the back of the quilt and hand sew in place.
Go back to the Quillow which is now attached at the bottom. Hand sew the two sides of the pillow to the back of the quilt (through the backing and preferably the wadding but not through to the front of the quilt). To reinforce these seams I sewed them 3 times!
To fold the quilt lay it flat on the floor with the front side facing you. Fold the two long sides inwards so that the quilt is folded into thirds with the middle third (and pillow) touching the floor. Fold the quilt towards you from the top folding into quarters and then turn over to the back. Put hands inside the quillow and grab the inside corners and as much folded quilt as you can and use them to turn the quilt through into the pillow.
